DEWITT TABERNACLE TEACHING SERIES

DEWITT TABERNACLE TEACHING SERIES

THE RESURRECTION

THE DEAD IN CHRIST

By C.W. WOOD December 2008/January 2009

A PERSONAL NOTE TO OUR REA DER S: Perhaps some of our readers do not know that on December 29 of 2008, the Lord Jesus had my sweetheart’s place ready for her in that other dimension and took her home. She had not been sick; she left suddenly as she was preparing to go to bed on a Sunday night after church. My heart-felt thanks go out to all who have sent cards and help of any kind. We have received them from all around our nation and from overseas. What a real blessing to know that God’s Saints are standing with me in prayer! It goes without saying that I greatly need your prayer support during this time. My life is being completely turned around and things of this world have become strangely dim since my sweetheart of 67 years has been temporarily separated from me. By God’s grace, the work here will continue until He is finished with me also. The great difference now is that I know for certain that it is not by power, nor by might, but only by His Spirit. Without Him, we can do nothing. I love all of you in the Lord and now my full attention is drawn toward the soon coming Resurrection. May God prepare all our minds for this stupendous earth-shaking event.

Please continue to pray for my nephew, Br. Charles Wood, who had a heart attack and stroke about 3 weeks ago. He needs your prayers. Thank you, Br. C.W. Wood

The Resurrection of the Dead, who left this earth believing the Word of God, this is the resurrection that the Plan of God is all about. If there is no Resurrection, then Creation was a failure because all men would die and mankind would be no more. The Resurrection that happened to the Old Testament Saints (the First Fruits of those who slept) is the proof that the rest of those who died in later years will also come up. If there is no Resurrection, we have no hope. The Resurrection is the winding up of God’s Glorious Plan for His Redeemed Children that returns us to our first creation and in a body like His own Glorious Body. We go back to our first creation!

Phil. 4:8, “Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

What better thing could we think about than the Resurrection of the Dead in Christ? It’s the thing that Christians have longed for over 2000 years. It’s the end of trouble and strife, sickness and pain, sorrow and separation, and all hatred and all war.

It’s the beginning of a perfect life in a perfect place. How many have loved ones on the other shore, those who died as Believers? No doubt all of us have children, parents, mates and other family. How many have a God-given deep desire and longing to see them alive and well again (in a changed body)? God has sworn by Himself that we are going to see them, and I believe soon. God’s Plan was never that His Children should die, return to dust and remain there! His great, powerful and loving plan was that we should live throughout eternity! No enemy, no power, no devil can stop our Father’s Plan.

We have read about the Resurrection of those who came up when our Lord did (2000 years ago). They walked through the streets and were recognized by many! Matthew 27:52:53 “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

Verse 53, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many”.

This is about to happen again around the world. Let’s read it in the Bible.

Thess. 4:13-18, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

Verse 14, For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

Verse 15, For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

Verse 16, For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Verse 17, Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Verse 18, Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

We do not grieve for our departed loved ones, as those do who have no hope of a Resurrection (the non-Christians). We miss them greatly, but the Scripture says, “Joy cometh in the morning.” (Psalms 30:5)

Eons of time ago, we were in the Heavenlies with our Creator in bodies like His own body. (Gen. 1:26-27) Then for reasons of His own, He subjected us to vanity (sin) (Rom. 8:20 ) but only so He could more perfectly show the overpowering love in His Heart for us. He allowed us to be born lost, only so He could redeem us. Many would live and die before the Rapture, but according to the Scripture, there is coming a Resurrection of those who died in Christ, and very soon. This will be the crowning of His Glory, to return us to our original Creation in perfect bodies again! The Resurrection will be the bursting forth of His mighty power around the earth. As He came out of the grave, so will the New Testament Saints, and prove the power of God over death and the grave.

And so verse 18 says to comfort one another with these words that we just read in I Thess. 4:13-18.

Is there anyone here who needs comforting? I am one of those. I want to study what our Lord wrote in His Word about the Resurrection that is about to happen in our day and how he gave it to our Prophet to explain to us. There are mysteries about this Resurrection that are now being revealed, that to me proves how close to the time we are.

Generally speaking, the Lord does not send the faith we need for a thing until the time we need it! Our minds must be prepared to see the Resurrected Saints. I believe that is what our Lord is doing now; preparing our minds for this great thing that is even now on the horizon!

Let’s look at the story of the two disciples who were on the road to Emmaus. Luke 24:13-31 tells the story. While they walked, they were speaking of the things that had happened to their Master. In their mind’s eye, they saw Him as a bloody, beaten mass of human flesh, not even recognizable as a person any longer. And when He appeared to them in a live, living body, their minds could not grasp the fact that it was the same Jesus. Their minds had to be prepared for that great miracle! They were looking at a man with their physical eyes, but their minds still held the image of the dead mutilated body of that person. Jesus had to prepare their minds to accept the Resurrection of Himself.

And so, the Lord took the Scriptures and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He told them about Himself. He had to bring them from the natural into the supernatural! He rehearsed the Word to them from Moses all the way up to His death and Resurrection on the third day.

They listened to Him and their hearts began to burn in them. They began to understand by the Word that their Master had to die, but also that the grave couldn’t hold Him! He had to come up. So their minds had to be prepared (by the Word) to recognize the one who was now walking with them.

Then, as they invited Him to stay the night with them, He Broke Bread as they had seen Him do it in a certain way before and their spiritual eyes came open and they knew Him.

I don’t believe it was that His body wasn’t recognizable, but that their minds had to be prepared to believe in His Resurrection. Think about this! What if we woke up some morning and our departed loved one was in the room with us. We do not want to be caught in the same unspiritual condition that the two disciples were in. The Lord called them “Fools and slow to believe the prophets who had said Jesus would rise on the third day. So we say again, I believe the Lord is now preparing our minds to receive the glorious shock of meeting our departed love ones face to face.

QUOTE: JEHOVAH JIREH, GRASS VALLEY, CA. (1962), “And then, remember, if we go before He comes, we will be up and in His Presence, or raised before the others are changed. “the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which alive and remain shall be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, and be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air.” Look at the order of the Resurrection. See, God knows that we long to see our loved ones. And if we got there to meet Him first, we’d be looking around to see if mother or dad and the rest of them was there. But see how, the Holy Spirit in His wisdom? We meet one another first, and then when we get there and sing “Amazing Grace,” that’s—that’s when there’s going to be a time of worship. You think I act funny now, watch me up there. It’s going to be a wonderful time for me and all of us that—when we get there.” (End quote)

Notice! We meet one another first before we go up! They will be real people, we will know them, they will know us, and we will be changed to be like them.

Let’s study what he said in this quote. The Holy Ghost, in His great wisdom, said, “We meet one another first.” This is so we won’t be looking around and be distracted when we are going up to meet the Lord Himself. We will know God answered our prayers for our loved ones.

Listen to further explanation of the Prophet’s teaching of the soon coming Resurrection.

QUOTE: RECOGNIZING YOUR DAY AND ITS MESSAGE, JEFF. 1964, “Oh, won’t that be a time! Just walking along, someday, and here appears somebody. ‘Who is it? Mother!’ amen! ‘It ain’t going to be long now.’ Just in a few minutes, you’re changed. And we’ll be…meet them, then be caught up together with them, to meet the Lord in the air. Oh, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Say, ‘Here is Brother Seward, the old brother that used to be at church here! Why, here is Brother DeArk. Here is Brother So-…Why, looky here, they’re all around me! What’s the matter? Here just in a few minutes.. I know they’ve done appeared to me. It ain’t going to be long now. I’m going to be changed now, just in a moment, just a moment.’ Oh, yes! And the morning breaks Eternal, bright and fair. All the mystic clouds…” (End quote)

When we, as Believers, see those whose flesh bodies have been in the grave, our faith will be quickened to the point of receiving our own body change. The Lord Jesus, who had been down to Hell, came back up and stopped at paradise, to empty it out (bring them up in a Resurrection). Br. Branham explains it like this:

QUOTE; ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH, JEFF. 1953, “He knocked on the door of Paradise , Daniel said, ‘Who is that?’ A voice said, ‘I am the Stone that was cut out of the mountain.’ He opened the door. Abraham said, ‘Are we going out? It’s almost daylight on Earth. Let’s get ready to go!’ Abraham said, “Can we make a little whistle stop? I’d like to look the city over.’ Jesus said, ‘Well, yes, I’m going to visit with my disciples for forty days.’ And Matt. 27:52-53 says that many of the bodies of the Saints that slept in the dust of the earth, rose and appeared to many of them in the city……I can see Sarah and Abraham coming down the street….Who is that couple there (the people said) (Abraham and Sarah said) ‘We are recognized.’ And they vanished out of their sight, like they went through a wall. They had glorified bodies, and they had appeared back on Earth for a first fruits of the proof of God’s power and the Resurrection.” (It was a sign and proof that the New Testament Saints will come up and walk on the Earth again in our day, before we all go up.) (End quote)

QUOTE; ISRAEL AND THE C HURC H, JEFF. 1953, “Bury me in Christ for those that are in Christ will God bring with Him in the Resurrection. Say whatever you want to, and call it fanaticism and whatever you want to do, but just let me stay in Him, for those that are in Him are coming out of the graves on the Resurrection for God shall bring them up. He promised to do it. Amen.” (End quote)

Now let’s look at what else Brother Branham said about the risen Saints and us, being on Earth forty days after Resurrection. I believe this teaching is very important to us!

QUOTE: LETTING OFF THE PRESSURE, GREEN LAKE, WI, 62-0518, “Every church age and every star, every minister through the church age, every Angel to the church has done made its manifestation. And did you know that this church age was the only church age that Jesus was put out of His church and found knocking at the door trying to get back in the Laodicean Church Age? Don’t you see the hour we’re living?

Wished I could come here for about a—two or three weeks just on Bible teaching of prophecy and things. See where we’re living, friends? What’s the matter with people? Can’t you see we’re at the end-time? It’s all over. The next thing will be a sweep will….?....that little group together. In a month or so she’ll be gone, as soon as she’s gathered together. Well, we’re at the end. There’s no hopes left nowhere. Run to Christ, people.” (Our only hope is the Resurrection and Rapture.) (End quote)

Could this be the quick, short work of Rom. 9:27 -28, “Esaias also crieth concerning Israel , Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be save:

Verse 28, “For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.”

Could this be the short, quick work that would be the end of the Bride Revival that started when the Seven Seals were opened? Notice! The Prophet said, “In a month or so, she (Bride) will be gone.” Will the resurrected Bride and those who are alive and remain have a ministry to perform during those supernatural days before they are caught up? Could this be the time period during which the last Gentile will be saved just before God turns back to the Jews? Remember, the Time of the Gentiles is not over until the Bride actually goes up. Also remember, the Foolish Virgins must have an experience with the Lord before they enter the Tribulation. This will prepare them to give their lives for their testimony, so as to be saved! (Note! These are just some personal thoughts the writer is sharing.)

In the following quote, Brother Branham seems to be saying, or explaining, that the Bride will be on Earth forty days before going up.

QUOTE: DEMONOLOGY, OWENSBORO , KY 53-1112, “I can see Caiaphas standing, saying, ‘What was all that noise this morning, you priests?’

Priests say, ‘I don’t know. The only thing, there’s people appearing everywhere around this city here. Some of them claim they’re old saints that’s resurrected.’ ‘Well,’ Caiaphas says, ‘I don’t know.’ Said, ‘Say, who is that young couple there?’

I….It’s Sarah and Abraham walking along and say, ‘Looky there, honey. You remember that old place where we come down the hill, yonder?’ ‘Yeah, I remember that.’

‘What…Oh, Oh. We’re being watched.’ He’d just vanish just like the kind of body He had, went right into the building through the walls. They didn’t even know…His own glorious body. They were walking here on earth and appearing to people. Hallelujah. Yes, there’s your forty days. Hallelujah.” (End quote)

Will we do that again when the resurrected people come up? If so, what will we be doing? Will that be a last, quick, work of the Bride Revival still bringing in some to Salvation?

QUOTE: GREATEST NEWS FLASH IN HISTORY, CHICAGO IL, 61-0424, “So it was a great time, them glorious forty days (When the Old Testament Saints arose and walked on Earth.) How I would’ve loved to have been there. But then, thinking again, that I’d have had to been a believer, because He did not appear to no one but His Elected Church. He only appears to Believers. And as He was then, He cannot change. Today He still only appears to His elected church: believers (ones who are to be partakers of Salvation).

Now, we find that there were many who taught of Messiah in those days. And there were many who looked for a coming Messiah. But He had a church that was elected. So has He tonight. And that is the—where I left off from last evening, the elected church. And then He appeared to His Elected Church only; the rest of them did not recognize Him. And if He was here today, He would just do the same as He did then: appear to the elected believer. He never appears to the unbeliever.” (End quote)

Those who are appointed to Salvation will see him and His resurrected Saints. What is the number one goal of the Bride Revival? Is it healing bodies? No! Its number one priority is saving souls!

In the quote we just read, the Prophet said. “The Resurrected Saints will only appear to Believers!” What is a Believer? There are many stages of believing! There are people with little faith, yet believe for their souls. The Bride is preaching now to prepare people to believe for Salvation. This includes Foolish Virgins. Remember, Salvation is not over for the Gentiles when the Resurrection happens. It is not over until the Rapture takes place! God is not looking for people to send to Hell, but for people to take to Heaven. Even giving a cup of cold water will have its reward.

Let’s open the door of Salvation wide during these last precious days, and even during the last forty days that it appears we will be here ministering!

Heb. 12:1, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

I believe this cloud of witnesses is the Theophany Bodied Angels of the saints of God. They are here now! They are ministering now.

In Heb. 1:13-14, God did not say to the angels (the theophany bodied people) sit here while I defeat your enemies, but you minister and defeat Satan!

Heb. 1:13-14, “But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?

Verse 14, Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?”

The Prophet said, “There are times here and now when we have heard from our theophany! They are ministering to us now. They are our guardian angels! Then when we, who are now in our flesh, are joined to them, and stay for thirty or forty days, is it possible that we will still be ministering to those (NOTICE) to those who shall be heirs of Salvation (Heb. 1:14) but who still need some ministering to in order to bring them in?

Remember, Salvation is not over for the Bride until they go up in the Rapture! And even then, Salvation, as far as Eternal Life, is not over! Foolish Virgins shall still come in, but just not be Bride. I believe Bride can still come in after the Resurrection is on! We’re not trying to shut the door…we are standing in the gap…praying, “Lord, bring our people in!”

The Lord has shown us to never shut the door of Salvation in any man’s face. “If any man come unto me, I will in no wise cast him out.” (John 6:37)

Our minds do need to be prepared for these supernatural things that are about to happen. We don’t want to be like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus! There is no doubt at all but what meeting our loved ones who have been in the grave will be the most astonishing and astounding thing that has ever happened to us. Seeing them, and believing it is really them, will be one of the keys to Rapturing Faith!! “Oh, we want to see Him (and them) and look upon their faces, there to sing forever of His saving grace!” Before the Lord took my help-mate and sweetheart of 67 years, I thought some, and preached some, about the Resurrection, but now I testify that my whole attention is centered around the soon coming Resurrection! For as we have said, it is the ending up of our life in flesh and the starting over of the life we once had with our God!

QUOTE: C.O.D. BOOK, PG. 344, “That’s the way we are here, we came from a higher being. (A Theophany) In the beginning we were in the Image of God. The veil of darkness keeps us from knowing it now. But Jesus told His Disciples He was with them before the foundation of the world, see! We were. “…..and if this earthly tabernacle be dissolved we have one already waiting. Then we move into this Theophany, what we once lived in.” (End quote)

The Resurrection then, takes us all, both those who had been dead, and those who are alive and remain, back into the bodies we once lived in, before we were subjected to vanity. (Rom. 8:29 )

QUOTE: GOD’S ONLY PROV IDED WAY OF WORSHIP, PAGE 14, “And we’ve got to have everything in three’s to make perfection. And there is one body here, then that body there, which is the Celestial (heavenly) then the Glorified Body in the Resurrection. That makes it complete. It’s not a myth, it’s not just an idea, it’s not just a spirit, it is a man or woman like you are, just exactly.” (End quote)

At Resurrection time, when “that body there” comes down and joins itself to “this body here,” we will have a “Glorified Body,” the one we spend eternity in! Amen!

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