This is a transcript of the audio file sharing on the Tree of Life. Please refer to your Bibles for the full text in each as required.
In November 1965, William Branham preached on; “Trying to do God a service without it being his will.” And in that sermon, shared the Mark of the Beast was to be joined to the denominational church systems. And said in the coming year, he was going to preach on “the beast in the beginning to the beast at the end,” and was going to call this sermon; The Trail of the Serpent.” He said, the Holy Ghost had laid out all the Scriptures pertaining to it.
Sadly, less than a month after William Branham had spoken about this, he died tragically as the result of a car accident. Now I have shared many times on the mark of the beast from various perspectives, but I am moved to share on Branham’s subject of the trail of the serpent: ’the beast in the beginning, to the beast at the end,’ as it is a profound summary of all that happened in Eden, in the days of Israel, and in the seven times of Christs’ Church in the nations. It ties off loose ends, is a call to prayer, and an end to transgression.
Nor is it lost on me, that the same Holy Ghost who moved Branham to declare this mystery said this in the Book that bears His Name; the Revelation of Jesus Christ: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. (Revelation 1:8)
First: To the Beast at the End; the Beast in Revelation:
As a brief background of things shared previously, the Book of Revelation, chapters 12 and 13 reveal three beasts. They are the three parts of the antichrist that shadow Christ. Note that at the completion of the Seven Plagues, Babylon divides into three parts.
First; the Dragon cast down to the earth out of heaven: Satan, the accuser, the Old Serpent the Devil. Whose power and authority resides in the Law, its blessings and curses, and its ordinances of life and death. (Revelation 12: 4-13)
Second; the ‘beast that rises from the sea,’ combines the four beasts that Daniel foresaw would rise in the nations, peoples and tongues, in what we now know as the times allotted to the churches. This ‘beast,’ is the corruption of Jesus’ Gospel. Its head, wounded by a sword, is healed and lives, and we shall look at this ‘life’ shortly as it is not the life that abides in Christ. This beast of the sea, is Jesus’ Gospel in the churches that bows down to the Dragon, and not to Jesus; it stands in Satan’s power and authority – but not the authority of Jesus Christ. (Revelation 13:1-8)
Third; the beast, which rises from the earth, that is, from an earthly law. Also called the False Prophet, it has the two horns of a lamb, looks like a lamb, but speaks as a Dragon. The ‘two horns’ symbolise life and the death bound in the Covenant of the Law. Its power and authority is that of the beast of the sea, which in-turn derives its power and authority from the Dragon; in other words, the Law. In these three ‘denominational beasts’ in Revelation, we are able to track the Serpent as; the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
These beasts are portions of God’s Testimony in different stages of decay. And as the Spirit of Christ begins to reveal the error of the False Prophet, we are warned not to kill with the sword, to judge, or to lead into captivity. (Revelation 13:10)
Now in Revelation 13: verses 11-18 we see this beast of the earth has us make an image to the beast of the sea, which had been wounded by the sword, yet lived. And this wound is like that of king Jeroboam, whose hand withered when he took hold of the prophet sent to speak against the bulls of worship, set up in Bethel and Dan. Whose hand was later restored, while his sin and blasphemy were not; becoming an incurable sore that in time brought down both the houses of Israel and Judah. (1 Kings 13)
Returning to the beast of the earth; it has power to give life to the image of the beast, and for all who ‘do not’ worship the beast, that they should be killed. That is, to be judged and condemned. Further, that no man can buy or sell unless they have the ‘mark of the beast’ or the number of his name and the like.
Most Christians associate the buying and selling with being able to buy food, pay for petrol to get to work, to earn a living, and so on. So, to live in this world we need to buy and sell. They go hand and glove. Yet, Spiritually, to ‘buy is to redeem’ as in redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb. And to ‘sell is to set loose,’ to release, or forgive sins. Things that speak of the redemption of our souls and the remission of sin in Christ.
However, the buying, the selling, and the life promised by ‘false prophets’ while similar do not rest in Jesus Salvation but sit in their interpretation of the Law. The evidence of this is revealed in Revelation 18:11-13, where we read of those merchants of the earth, our religious churches, made rich by the things brought and sold in Babylon;
And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buys their merchandise any more: The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.
Now, let’s compare this with those things the LORD had Moses gather freely from the people to build the LORD’S Tabernacle of Witness in Ancient Israel’s time…
Exodus 25:2-8 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that gives it willingly with his heart you shall take my offering. And this is the offering which you shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, and rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood. Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense, Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate. And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
So, in Babylon we find those things used to build the LORD’S Sanctuary in Moses’ time. By this I mean, not the sanctuary of Jesus salvation, but the sanctuary of another gospel.
And those offerings of wheat, and sheep and wine offered daily under the Law, which speak of the ‘work’ of our hands. And the slaves and souls of men, which shows our lives in bondage to the continual keeping of carnal ordinances.
Here is Babylon’s captivity and confusion:
Does the salvation of our soul rest in Jesus Christ’s promise through faith, or in the work of our own hands? Or perhaps both? Does the salvation of our soul rest in not drinking alcohol, the keeping of our sabbath days, and the like. True, they are good for conscience’s sake. But there is no salvation in these things. To abstain from fornication and idolatry are works that follow those who believe. Even then, Jesus did not condemn the woman caught in adultery, and gave to Paul a thorn in his flesh, so he might esteem grace above works.
For, in Jesus’ sacrifice, offered once, being eternally acceptable, the salvation of our soul actually rests in His works not ours. And as we now rest in him, we cease from our works. He is our sabbath.
And so, the buying, the selling, and the life promised by the False Prophet abide in the works of the law. The law, then, is the image of the beast.
As examples; the Jehovah’s Witness, who live under a name wherein there is no salvation, say ‘the life’ is in their blood and so refuse transfusions. But the ‘ordinance of life’ they rely upon in the law, points to the Blood of the Lamb, even Christ, whose name they reject.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul. (Leviticus 17:11)
Now this atonement in Moses’ time had to be made continuously whereas the blood of Jesus offered once for all, not only remits our sin, but blots it out. By his grace are we saved.
Taking the Sabbath Command, the Seventh Day Adventists say that to worship on any other day but Saturday (the Jews sabbath) is to take the mark of the beast. Now if they just kept the sabbath on this day that would be fine, but because they use it to judge and condemn, they become as gods. And so, they kill with the sword and lead into captivity. And again; as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. (Revelation 13:10-15)
Now just before I turn to the Beast in the beginning, the beast in Eden I want to look briefly at Jesus Angels’ message to the 7th church age. Please note that the reference in this age to being increased with goods, fits with those merchants made rich in Babylon, whose increase winks at the blessings bound in the Law. However, the deceit in those blessings and ‘that life,’ is that curses and death follow, as night follows day.
Whereas, the counsel of Jesus’ Angel to the Church, to buy of him gold tried in the fire, speaks of Jesus Faith being cleansed in us. We read…
Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see. (Revelation 3:17-18)
Of the things above, Moses, in Deuteronomy 28, sang of the blessings and curses of a law that has no rest or assurance of life in it, and revealed too, the buying and selling of slaves. This song of Moses is also sung in Revelation 15, by those who overcome the Beast and his image just before the Seven Vials are poured out.
Deuteronomy 28:65-68 And among these nations shall you find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and you shall fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: … And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spoke to you; you shall see it no more again: and there you shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.
Now as we turn to the Beast in Eden, we see two trees. The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. Of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, (that is, the Law) Moses in Deuteronomy testifies of its true nature saying: See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; (Deuteronomy 30:15)
So, then; ‘the beast in the beginning, the beast in Eden:’
In Genesis 3, we witness the conversation, which has shaped every generation from Eden until now. Its consequences, unimaginable to Eve at the time, are still not comprehended by Eve’s seed today. (Note: the woman was named Eve after she fell.)
Genesis 3:1-4 Now the serpent was more subtill than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, Yea, has God said; You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent; We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman; You shall not surely die:
Now, before proceeding, what the Serpent actually said to the woman was; if you eat of this tree you shall live. He is the Old Serpent we see in the Book of Revelation. (The beast in the beginning, to the beast in the end)
Genesis 3:5-7 For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Now, this Tree of Knowledge is the Covenant of the Law. The life and good, and the death and evil, Moses set before Israel. And the Law of sin and death the Apostle Paul wrote of in his letters to; the nations, and kings, and the children of Israel (Acts 9:15)
This is the ‘life’ Satan, that Old Serpent, offered the woman in Eden. And it is the ‘life’ the False Prophet offers ‘the woman’s seed’ taken into the wilderness today, in the seven times of the nations. Its knowledge makes us as gods to know good and evil. It is the two-edged sword, and with it, men as gods judge; to either save or condemn.
In summary, Eve’s transgression then, and those who bow to church doctrines today, is that she traded everlasting life, for a life siting under the law of sin and death. So, the LORD cursed the Serpent and the woman, and their seed, saying;
Genesis 3:15-16 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
So, as the ‘Serpent’s Seed’ lives in the covenant of the Law, so the woman’s seed is the seed of Christ ordained to live in his grace through faith. But as Eve fell in Eden, so we hear Jesus’ Angel speaking to the first church in Ephesus (in Revelation 2) that she has left her first love, which is the Faith of Jesus. But if she repents, the Lord will give her to eat of the Tree of Life. And this shows us that the church has eaten of the wrong tree; the Tree of Knowledge. Now, this first church age not only spoke of the Apostle Paul’s time, but the seven times of Christ in perpetual motion in every believer who comes to His Salvation.
Yet, the Apostle Paul gave us insight into this enmity and war, when he spoke of the sin that lives in our flesh and seeks to condemn Christs’ Faith in us. And asked those of Isaac’s seed of promise, that, if having begun in the Spirit, are we made perfect by the flesh? So, ‘Jesus Angel’ in Paul, looking to put all things of God in their order, spoke to Timothy of Eve’s transgression, and also to the churches, commanding women keep silent in the church, and to be subject to their husbands. (1 Corinthians 14: 33-38 and 1 Timothy 2: 11-15)
Now, God’s command in Eden was not only to the woman, but also her seed. Paul too, not only spoke to our sisters, but also to the church, saying this was a Commandment of God.
And with Eve’s transgression now laid bare, it warns those who trust in Jesus’ promise of salvation, not to trade Jesus’ Life, for an image of the true, and ‘a life,’ which lives in the law. And further, warns us not to usurp God, or to sit in his throne to judge.
And so, God’s Commandment to the Nations places the husband and wife in their order. And Jesus and His Church, in their order. And above all, sets Jesus’ Faith above the Law of Sin.
So, brothers and sisters, the things the Holy Ghost, laid out for William Branham in 1965 not only reveal the lie that ‘bruised the head’ of the beast in Eden; and marked Cain and Israel’s Seed with sevenfold vengeance, but also wounded the head of the beast of Revelation in the seven times of the nations.
And having revealed Eve’s transgression, shed great light on the ‘Mark of the Beast,’ in the churches today. For it is evident, the 1st Church having left its first love, fell as Eve did in Eden. And by the 7th church age, being increased with goods, and yet wretched, naked and blind, has fulfilled the curses written in the song of Moses that have sold many saints back into bondage. Again, the simplicity of this message from beginning to end, is profound.
And I believe, the LORD’S purpose in revealing these things to Branham, the 7th messenger to the Church was to pray for an end of Babylon’s transgression. To reveal the Churches sin, and to restore the Testimony of Jesus desecrated by ‘Holy people’ and their denominational systems. And though Daniel prayed for these things in his day, and though Jesus redeemed our souls on the cross, the transgression of the woman’s seed in the nations had yet to run its course; from the first church age to the last. Seven Times that have not only manifested from the Apostle Paul to William Branham, but in us all. For, JESUS is the first and the last.
In Ephesians, Paul, returned to a time before Eve’s fall in Eden, and spoke of the husband and wife becoming one flesh. As Adam foreknew, a man would leave his mother and father, and be joined to his wife that they would again become one flesh, as woman was taken out of man. Yet, Paul did not speak of Adam, but of Christ and his Church. (Genesis 2:24 and Ephesians 5:31)
Nor did he speak of a father and mother in an earthly sense, but of those who come to true obedience through love and faith unfeigned. And in so doing, go beyond the Covenants of the Law and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which have given birth to us all.
But lest we boast, consider Babylon the Great; the Covenants of Christ fallen. And that Jesus has called to her children born of sorrow, that is to us, saying; ‘Come out of her my people.’
But of these things there must be an end. So, in the time of the Angel of the 7th Vial, at the completion of Babylon’s plagues, Jesus shows us New Jerusalem, the Tabernacle of God (which is Christ) descend upon a new heaven and a new earth. Yet, this same Jerusalem is the Bride, the Lambs wife. (Revelation 21: 3 & 9) And, while the first Adam was both male and female, the second Adam, is neither. And as in Adam, all die; so, in Christ, all live.
So, LORD Jesus hear our prayer Father in those you have restored your beloved testimony, through the Blood of the Lamb. Even New Jerusalem. Amen. As Daniel did then, so we also make supplication before thee. Restore LORD God the Trees of thy Testimony. For LORD God Almighty, we have not loved our lives, but we have loved yours. And as Daniel saw an angel on this side of the river, and another on the other side, so in Revelation we see the Tree of Life on one side of the River of Life, and the Tree of Life also on the other. And the wise understand, it is the same everlasting life in both of them.
The Spirit and the Bride say come…
John a servant of Jesus Christ