ONENESS # 16
One Mind must have one Opinion
Rev Brian Kocourek
ONENESS PP.
74 - 77
<read>
Last week we spoke
from PP. 74 - 77 where brother Branham said that "we've
got to believe with one heart, one mind, and one
accord. That's the way they was before the union was ever made on the day of
Pentecost, one heart one mind, and one accord."
We followed this
thought through and showed how that the early church was
in one accord in that upper room when Jesus Christ manifested
His divine presence to them and gave them the power from upon
high.
We examined this one
heart and one mind and found them to be the same thing. "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he."
Therefore the heart is the seat of all understanding.
In Ephesians 1:18 it says "that the eyes of your understanding may be
enlightened." Some translations put it this way, "That the eyes of your heart may be enlightened."
That is why the spirit of Elijah in Malachi was to come to turn the
hearts of the fathers to the children, <that was John> and the
hearts of the children, <that is the gentiles> to the
Fathers,< the apostolic Fathers> which is the
fulfillment of this scripture through brother Branham's ministry. Now what good would it do
to turn the hearts if that wasn't the thinking and thoughts of the
people. So we see that the ministry of Elijah in this hour is
one which is to change the hearts or thinking of
man and which will bring man into the very DOXA which is the
glory which is the very opinion and judgment of God.
Now there is something
here that I did not catch last week. This oneness of heart and mind which
brought them into one accord was Christ's thinking or His mind
coming into the believers. I did catch that. But notice what
resulted when the people were in one heart and one mind and in one
accord. Let's pick up the scripture In Luke to follow this up.
LUKE 24:49 <read>
Notice, the promise was
this: "gather together and wait until you have
received the power from on high". Notice further
that the promise is from the Father, and it is His power from on
high. The other thing that makes me to believe that there is something here
that we're missing is that the very reason they could
gather together and be in one
accord is that they had received the same promise and they
all believed that vindicated Word from that vindicated
ministry that had given them that promise.
So as a result, they
that were in the upper room were there, not for social reasons, but they
were there because they were all in obedience to the promise
waiting for the fulfillment of that promise. And what was it
they were waiting for. THE POWER from on High. Now, how many believe that Alpha
is Omega?
REVELATIONS 1:
7 - 8, 10 - 11, 21: 6,
171 THE MASTERPIECE
64-0705
All true Life that was in the stalk,
tassel, and husk is now gathering in the Seed, ready for the
resurrection, ready for the harvest. The Alpha has become Omega.
The first become last; and the last is the first. The Seed that
went in has come through a process and become the Seed again.
The seed that fell in the garden of Eden and died
there, come back (from that imperfect seed that died there)
come back to the perfect Seed--the Second Adam. 172 The first Eve that fell, and was used
in the second reformation--second coming, as bringing forth
a child, now has become true Bride again, the Seed,
right back with the original Word again. The Alpha and Omega is the
same. He said, "I am Alpha and Omega." He never say anything in
between, "I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last." That's
it! 173 The first ministry and the last ministry is
the same. The first Message and the second--last Message is the same
thing. "I'm--I was in Alpha; I'm in Omega."
"There'll be a day that won't be called day nor night, but in
the evening time it shall be Light." See? Alpha and Omega; it's become the
first and the last. Oh, my, brethren, we could stay a--hours on that.
" ALPHA has become OMEGA." That's thus saith the
Lord. So then where is the power from on High. We have witnessed
the power even as the apostles had in their own day in the ministry
of Jesus while in the body of flesh. But the promise was that they
were to tarry until that same power came back into them. Now,
I'm not looking for miracle working power because what would
it be for. The people rejected both Jesus and brother
Branham's ministry with it, so what god would it do for
you and I. But what I'm looking for is that same power to
come in and finish the job that believing the promise has started.
Now why did Jesus say
that they would receive power from on high. Why from on High. What does
"on high mean?"
EPHESIANS 4: 8
- 10
<read> He ascended up on high that He
might fill all things. Why would He go up if He was to
fill all things? It said He that ascended is also He that
descended. And the Power had to come from "on high."
He said, He went up to
fill all things. What are "all things?"
EPHESIANS
So you see we are what
the scripture refers to as, "all things in
Christ."
And He went up or
ascended that He might descend with the power of God and fill us with that very
power.
Now this
word POWER used here is the word "DUNAMIS" and it
is used in the scripture as strength, power, virtue and might.
Now remember,
"ALPHA is OMEGA". The first ministry and the last is the
same. So if the last must be a repeat of the first, then the events that
followed the first must also repeat in the last.
Remember, He said that
Christ is the first and the last, but not the in between. So what
happened in Jesus Christ's ministry to the Jews had to repeat
in the last time to the Gentiles. And we know that this has happened.
Then what about the last part of the ALPHA ministry. The part that took
place after Jesus was killed and raised up from the dead. That also must
repeat also. So they waited for the promise of the Father for the
power from on high to come in and fill them.
Now the question is, do
we have scriptural proof that this is to recur in this
hour. We have already had a repeat of
So what were they
doing in the upper room. They were assembled together in one heart,
one mind and one accord. That is the key. And then, being in
that state of mind, in that atmosphere of expectancy, they
simply waited for the fulfillment of the promise of that hour. The POWER from
on High to come into them and change them.
We too are looking
for our change and we have already had God's Power manifested to us that
it is here just as it was when Jesus was on earth. So as it
was then, so is it today. There is no excuse for people's
impatience. We know The same One is here that was back in ALPHA.
Now let's
examine this promise and see if He is
the same yesterday, today and forever. Let's see if the same
promise is in our midst as it was in the early church.
Now remember it said in EPHESIANS 4:8 that He ascended. Right? So how did
He ascend up?
ACTS 1: 1 - 11 <read>
We have a promise
that He is to come in like manner as He went up. So we ask
ourselves, How did He go up? As he went up a cloud received Him,
right? So then if He is to come in like manner as He went up, there must
be clouds associated with His coming down.
MATTHEW 24: 37 <read>
Notice Wednesday
night that brother Branham tied this scripture to this hour.
LUKE 21: 25 -
28
<read>
" Then shall
they see the Son of Man Coming in 'A' cloud," with power and
great Glory. In DUNAMIS and great DOXA. So the power and the
OPINION of God are inseparable. Can anybody tell me why?
ROMANS
Now, the promise is not
the fulfillment. It only takes you up to the fulfillment. It (the
promise) only gathers you, it gets you ready to receive, but it is not
the fulfillment. But notice then that the Word of God
is the power of God. So outside of His Revealed Word you have
no power. So had they not been gathered by the promise, they certainly would
not have received the power of God.
So how does the power
come? Through the Word of God. Right?
HEBREWS 11: 11 <read>
The strength she
received was DUNAMIS. And how did she receive it? By Faith.
By What? By Revelation! The Word was revealed to her. It was opened
up to her and she received the power that was in it.
Now what was the
effects of this power that was unleashed upon the church.
What did it do. Today the Pentecostal will let you know that this
power is to give you another tongue to praise Him with. Well,
that's about as far as it takes them. But if it
caused a 90 year old woman to receive a change in her body, won't it do
the same for you and I? That's what I'm looking for. What do I need
another tongue to praise Him with. I already have one. Now it's
not another tongue that we want anyway. It's another
language. One that speaks of a Message and TOKEN and a
third pull. One that speaks of a JUDGMENT and a squirrels being
spoken into existence. Who would ever believe such. God unveiling, and a
REVELATION, and a DOXA, and PARRHESIA and
PAROUSIA, and ELECTION and PREDESTINATION and all these words
which the world knows nothing about but we know them to be
the REVELATION of Jesus
Christ.
So we see
that this power is to accompany His descent with a shout
which is His command or His message. The scripture plainly lets us know
that as He sent down the power from on high He is to do the same in this hour.
The DOXA and the DUNAMIS must go hand in hand. POWER and GLORY. OPINION
and Fulfillment.
Now we can't have this
until the elect is in one heart, one mind and one accord. That is why
this promise of the DOXA and DUNAMIS is not for every one who
claims the message of this hour.
If ALPHA is OMEGA, then
we must come to the place of ONE mind and one OPINION or judgment.
1 CORINTHIANS
1: 10
<read>
PP. 74 <read> "
Notice what he said, "when you throw a church into
an organization, you're
going to get all kinds of fractions in it!" Some believe
and others don't!
Now that is what I
want to drive home right now. That is why we don't have a revolving
door policy here. There are things being preached in this
message that are neither scriptural or even common sense, yet
they will try to gather together some quotes to make themselves a
name and all it does is cause strife and
confusion.
Paul said in the book of
ROMANS, "Not all
In the
church age book it said, it was not considered to be a
miracle that Martin Luther could protest the Catholic church and get
away with it, but to hold his head above all the fanaticism that
followed was the real miracle. And so is it
today. To illustrate
what I mean let's just read on.
PP. 78 - 80 <read>
Notice that
brother Branham said he used to believe that a bit but God
corrected Him. Now hold that in your mind here because he's letting
you know that there is a perfect word now, and that any wrong
understanding has been made right.
PP. 81 - 99 <read>
Now notice here,
confession he says, means to say the same thing Remember when Jesus said,
"if you confess me before men I will confess you
before my Father." The Greek word for confess
is actually two words. HOMO which
means the same, and LOGOS which is the thought expressed, or
HOMOLOGOS which is the same thought expressed.
Now it is
interesting that a doctrine is going around and is gaining
much ground in this Message which says that God is both MOTHER and
FATHER. They say that the role of the HOLY GHOST is a motherly role.
That the dove is always thought of as a female attribute and
therefore since the Holy Ghost descended upon Jesus that therefore it was the
female attributes of God.
They take
quotes that brother Branham made pertaining to the
Bride of Christ as a type of the wife of a man. He said as Eve
came forth out of Adam and was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh
and spirit of his spirit, that the Bride of Christ is also the Feminish
attributes of God made manifest.
Let me just read some of
the things being said. I will read from one of their published
letters. "In the new testament the first emblem under which we see
the Holy Spirit is the Dove descending upon the head of Jesus when
John the Baptist baptized Him." He ¨
quotes "(Matt
Then He says,
" When we go back to Genesis in the old testament we find also that
the first emblem under which the Holy Spirit is presented is also that of
a dove." He then reads "Genesis 1:2" Which
speaks of the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the
deep.
Then he speaks of the
great flood in Genesis chapter 8 about the dove that Noah
sent out and the bible calls it a she. Then he makes the following
statement.
"It is
obvious to see and to understand that the dove is also a figure of the
Holy Spirit in a feminine, motherly role. The first thought is that of
motherhood."
Now I would like
to ask the man this question. He used the dove as a type in Matt 3:16
coming down upon Jesus. Is he then saying that the one who
came down and abode in Christ is the female attributes
of God? That would make Jesus to have a
feminine spirit and we know what brother Branham said about that. He
said, if a man is feminine, you better what that bird! What
bird, a dove?
Then this same article
takes you to the New Testament where Jesus was speaking about sending another
comforter, which is the Greek Word PARACLETOS, and here he asserts that
although the word means one who comforts, instructor, patron, guide and even
advocate, he says it also means mother. Now where he got this from I have
no idea. I have some of the best Greek books money could
buy and nowhere does any of them make this assertion.
But anyway, he continues
with, This paracletos is a person, not a different person, but the same
person who is also a father and the same one who "gave himself
birth to this son."
Then he quotes some
"great theologians" about this. Now I didn't call them
great, he did. But catch what brother Branham thought of theologians.
PP. 112 WHY IT
HAD TO BE SHEPHERDS 64-1221
Now, [1]the Word of God
does not come to a theologian, there's no... he--he's
the one messes It up. That's right. There's no such a
thing as ever saying... You saying, "Well, this guy's a
theologian." That just puts him farther away from the Word
than anything I know of. See? The Word of the Lord God, the unchanging
God, never does change. Anywhere in the Bible, the Word of
God always did come to prophets. Not to theologians or
doctors, to prophets! And they always, every time, was refused and
rejected.
This man quotes this
theologian as saying, " The Holy Spirit is, indeed, as
has been said, "The mother - principle
in the Godhead," and "one whom his mother
comforteth."
They try to
say here that to comfort is a feminine attribute. Then what about
the 1 THES
He then uses some
of brother Branham's quotes about an earthly bride as a type of the
Bride of Christ.
" and if it does
something different from the groom, it isn't the bride, because
she's flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone, life of His
life, power of His power. She is Him."
He caps off
his statement with another quote from the
same message and refers to
when Jesus was hanging on the cross. "God had never separated the
bride from the Groom yet. God looked down upon the body of Christ and saw both
male and female."
Now I can
say this also of me at the age of 26. In me
was my children, But that didn't
make me feminine. Nor does it mean that I had feminine
attributes in me. I gave them my life. They got there
feminine nature from their mother, not me. I'm their Father, I gave
them their Life seed, Their mother gave them their body. Just
as God gives us Life and the earth their body.
He next quotes
Henry Drummond a Scottish biologist and tries to ascertain that the
man taught that the goal of nature is always that of motherhood. This is
the quote he uses.
" In
the vegetable creation everything moves toward seed and
fruit. The flower is but a cradle and the swaddling bands of the living
germ. The plant lives simply to develop the life of another plant, to
reproduce itself."
Now where he gets
motherhood out of this I don't know. A mother can't reproduce herself, it
takes the male seed to reproduce.
He then says,
"The great thought in the heart of God is motherhood, and God
possess in Himself that true nature which has been manifested in
all creation. Human fatherhood expresses a need which
is met in God in the role as Father. But motherhood has
it's origin in the Holy Spirit."
Now I thought that The
Father is the same one as the Holy Spirit. This man says brother Vayle is off
in understanding the Godhead, but I think this man is totally confused
and still a Trinitarian.
He then quotes
Jesus as saying to Nicodemus, "Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye
must be born again." He follows that quote of Jesus with this
thought. "[1]It
is the Holy Spirit in the role of a mother that gives us that New
birth!
"Even the
guidance and the nurture of the Holy Spirit is described
in the language taken from the nursery and the home. The comfort of the
Holy Spirit is described under the very image of a mother's caresses and a
mother's love."
He now quotes ISAIAH 66:13 which says, "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will
I comfort you, and ye shall be comforted, saith the Lord." But this just says as a mother, it doesn't
say he is a mother.
Jesus said,
"Oh Jerusalem,
Why didn't this
man use the scripture I read that calls God the Father of all
comfort. Why didn't he use ISAIAH 51:12
where God says, "I, even I am He that comforteth you:"
No because they set out
to prove a point and pay no attention to the will of God. It is a false
anointing upon these brethren. The spirit of idolatry.
He next says,
" Eve was a type of the bride church. That is why on the
day of Pentecost, the mother-attributes that were
in Christ in the form of the paraclete were
poured out on the believers "as one whom his mother comforteth". This
mother spirit through the seven church ages was bringing to birth the bride
of Jesus Christ. To be "born again' is the language of the pediatric
ward where children are being birthed by their mothers."
Now I would like
to ask this man, who put the mother in their. Herself? It took a
man.
Next he
quotes Jesus speaking to poor old Nicodemus
again. "Nicodemus, art thou a master in the church and knowest not
these things?" Now this is in caps as to emphasize to brother Vayle
as though He is a master or teacher in the church and doesn't
know these things. In fact to prove my assumption that this
is what this man is doing here by using caps, I know that he said
over in
But let's examine just
what went on here with Nicodemus. Did not Jesus tell Him that
he must be born again. What was his first thoughts. Didn't
he say, How does a man crawl back into his
mothers whom. Then Jesus rebuked him for being so
stupid by trying to tie the newbirth into the
role of a woman. That's exactly what He did.
He then makes a
statement as to God having feminine attributes, and he asks
this question, if God does not have
feminine attributes, why is He called El - Shaddai, the many breasted
one.
Moses gives us the
answer in NUMBERS 11:11 - 12 "And Moses said unto the Lord, wherefore
hast Thou afflicted thy servant? And wherefore have I not
found favor in Thy sight, that Thou layest the burden of all this people
upon me? Have I conceived all this people? Have I begotten them,
that Thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a
nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou
swarest unto thy fathers?
We also see in JOHN 1:18 that it says, 'No man has seen God at any time; the only
begotten Son, which is in the Bosom of the Father, He hath declared
Him.
So if God has a bosom is
that supposed to make Him a her?
Jesus said, "I am
the door." He said, "I am the lamb of God." Are we
supposed to think of Him as a sheep and a door? My word! Are People are
going insane? The prophet said they would!
he continues on with his
argument that if the bride was in Christ then Christ had female attributes in
Him. But as I said, before. I had 3 daughters in me, did that
make me feminine. Does that mean I had female attributes in
me? What hogwash. My life went forth into a bedding ground
and produced life. "When Christ who is our Life
shall appear, then shall we appear with Him in
Glory." In the same OPINION.
He then says, there are
male and female aspects in Christ. Well, my bible teaches that Paul said
in the book of GALATIANS that in Christ "there are neither male nor
female, bond nor free."
He says, "
The people of the Lord need the comforting touch of Mother
God as well as the authority and headship of Father God. He fill
both roles."
Now I want to stop
right here and tell you that I believe that these people
who believe this stuff are anointed with a lying spirit.
Paul said in 2 THES 2, because they believed not
the truth God would send them strong delusion that they would believe the
lie.
Did you know that this
doctrine is not only going around in this message but that it has swept
out into the denominations. I have an article from
Christianity Today pg. 56
" There was less enthusiasm among
conservatives for the action taken on the church's book of worship, the
first since the formation of the denomination...As brought to the general
conference, the book contained several references to God as Mother."
" Before
the document reached the entire body
of voting delegates, a committee had deleted most of
those references and added traditional language referring to the
trinity. But a few
references in prayers to God as both Mother and Father remained."
Now brother
Branham taught us that all false doctrine had it's seed in the book
of Genesis. He said, there is nothing
new under the heavens as Solomon had said.
32 ISRAEL IN EGYPT 53-0325
And all these cults and uprises, and all
these things and isms today, by God's grace it's, every one, written in
Genesis, where it had its beginning back there, and it's just got another
name. But [1]you
watch the working of the spirit in that day, and watch how it's
working today[1],
and you'll see it's the very same thing. And, friends, some of it is
striking! You'd be surprised to know that [1]some of it is in the
highest ecclesiastical realms
And I would like to add,
what higher ecclesiastical realm than in this Message. Or even what about the
Methodist.
E-27 FAITHFUL ABRAHAM 59-0415.2E
But the
children of Abraham has the promise. Now look, Abraham was just an
ordinary man, perhaps come out of a family of idolatry. Cause they came
down from
pp.26 IT WASN'T SO FROM THE BEGINNING 61-0411 "If you notice, every thing that we have today began in
Genesis. Genesis is the chapter of the beginning.
Genesis means "the beginning."
"It's the seed
chapter to the Bible. You can really take history, like Hislop's Two Babylons
and different ancient writers and can almost trace the true church and
the cults and everything, today, right down from Genesis how it
comes up; right from Cain and Abel, bring them right straight
up. One, the worshiper and antichrist, and the other one
representing the Christ and bring Him to
So let's go to Hislops
Two Babylons and see where this Mother God doctrine comes from. PAGE 303
“The bearing of all this upon the question
of the identification of Cybele and Astarte, or Venus, is
important. Fundamentally, there was but one
goddess--the Holy Spirit, represented as female, when
the distinction of sex was wickedly ascribed in the Godhead,
through a perversion of the great Scripture idea, that all
the children of God are at once begotten of the Father, and born
of the Spirit; and under this idea, the Spirit of God, as
Mother, was represented under the form of a dove, in memory
of the fact that that Spirit, at the creation, "fluttered"--for
so, as I have observed, is the exact meaning of the term in Gen.
i. 2--"on the face of the waters." This goddess, then,
was called Ops, "the flutterer," or
Juno, "The Dove," or Khubele, "The binder with
cords," which last title had reference to "the bands of love,
the cords of a man" (called in Hosea xi. 4...
Hence the
identification of Cybele and Rheia, which in all the Pantheons are
declared to be only two different names of the same goddess (see LEMPRIERE'S
Classical Dictionary, sub voce), though, as we have seen, these goddesses
were in reality entirely distinct. This same principle was
applied to all the other deified mothers. They were deified only
through the supposed miraculous identification with them of Juno or
Cybele--in other words, of the Holy Spirit of God Each of these
mothers had her own legend, and had special worship suited thereto; but,
as in all cases, she was held to be an incarnation of the one spirit of
God, as the great Mother of all, the attributes
of that one Spirit were always pre-supposed as belonging to
her. This, then, was the case with the goddess recognised as Astarte or Venus,
as well as with Rhea
Semiramis, being deified as Astarte,
came to be raised to the highest honours; and her change into a dove, as
has been already shown (p. 79, ante), was evidently intended, when the
distinction of sex had been blasphemously attributed to
the Godhead, to identify her, under the name of the Mother of
the gods, with that Divine Spirit, without whose agency no one can be born a
child of God, and whose emblem, in the symbolical language of
Scripture, was the Dove, as that of the Messiah was the
Lamb.
Since the Spirit
of God is the source of all wisdom, natural as well as spiritual,
arts and inventions and skill of every kind being attributed
to Him (Exod. xxxi. 3, and xxxv. 31), so the Mother of the
gods, in whom that Spirit was feigned to be incarnate, was celebrated as
the originator of some of the useful arts and sciences (DIODORUS SICULUS,
lib. iii. p. 134). Hence, also, the character attributed
to the Grecian Minerva, whose name Athena, as we have
seen reason to conclude, is only a synonym for Beltis, the well-known as the
"goddess of wisdom," the inventress of arts and sciences.
page
78 Hislops Two Babylons In
PAGE 79
article,
"Juno,"--the name of the Roman "queen of heaven,"
which has the very same meaning; and [1]under the form of a dove
as well as her own, she was worshipped by the Babylonians. The dove,
the chosen symbol of this deified queen, is commonly represented with an
olive branch in her mouth (Fig. 25), as she herself in
her human form also is seen bearing the olive branch in her
hand;* and from this form of representing her, it is
highly probably that she has derived the name by which she is
commonly known, for "Z'emir-amit' means "The
branch-bearer." When the goddess was thus represented as the
Dove with the olive branch, there can be no doubt that the symbol had
partly reference to the story of the flood; but there was much more in the
symbol than a mere memorial of that great event[1]. "A branch,"
as had been already proved, was the symbol of the deified son, and [1]when
the deified mother was represented as a Dove, what could the
meaning of this representation be but just to identify her with the
Spirit of all grace, that brooded, dove-like, over the
deep at the creation;. The Assyrian "Juno,"
or "The Virgin Venus," as she was called, was
identified with the air. Thus Julius Firmicus
says:--"The Assyrians and part of the Africans
wish the air to have the supremacy of the elements, for
they have consecrated this same [element] under the name of
Juno, or the Virgin Venus." [1]Why
was air thus identified with Juno, whose symbol was that of the third
person of the Assyrian trinity? Why, but because in Chaldee the
same word which signifies the air signifies also
the "Holy Ghost." The knowledge of this entirely accounts
for the
PAGE 80
"Juno imports
the generation of soul."* Whence could
the soul--the spirit of man--be supposed to have its origin, but
from the Spirit of God[1].
In accordance with this character of Juno as the incarnation
of the Divine Spirit, the source of life, and also as the goddess of the
air, thus is she invoked in the "Orphic
Hymns":--
Thus, then, the deified queen, when in all
respects regarded as a veritable woman, was at the same time adored as the
incarnation of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of peace and love.