<TITLE>08. Par 71-79</TITLE>L-71 Now, the one reason that I am a Calvinistic thinker, of security of the believer, is because that I believe that when a man or a woman is in their right mind, that is the time to accept the Lord Jesus and get it all settled then, once for ever. Because when we come to the end of the road, we don't know just where and how we're going to be sick. We may be sick in our mind; there might be a fever that would really cook our very brain; and we might say anything or do anything at the end of the road. We don't know. But, you see, if we have already anchored in Christ, no matter what sickness takes us, or what condition we are when we go, it's already settled. We are sealed until the day of our redemption. Ephesians 4:30, says, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed until the day (not of your death, but) of your redemption." See? After death's done over, you're still sealed.

L-74 Now, to give witness, there has been many things and many questions in people's mind, and there has been in mine. When I stood a few weeks ago when my mother was still alive and could hear, I was on one side of the bed and my sister standing by me. And mother looks up and said, "My first and my last." I am her firstborn; Delores is her last with nine boys between... Or, betwee--there's nine boys and the girl. And mother begin to say that, "Bill, you have fed me (and because I guess, being in the ministry, I was more able to do it), and have taken care of me. And, Delores, you loved me and--and helped me do my housework and washing." And said, "Then, Bill, you led me to Christ and have watched over me spiritually. And when I was wrong, you didn't hesitate to tell me that I was wrong, and--and that I must make it right."
And I said, "And, mama, we've..." Some of the boys drink. And I said, "We broke your heart."
And, as a mother's love, she said, "Billy, that all goes to make the big wheel."
I said, "Mama." She knew she wasn't going back home, or she said she wasn't, back to the 409 Maple, and she said to me. I said, "Mother, when I was just a little boy, I knew there was a God, because I had seen His Person in different forms." And I said, "I--First, I... Being in our family, and we lived by the side of Mr. Wathen up there on the Utica Pike, and we knowed nothing about church. They were Catholic."

L-78 And I said, "I begin to studying. Now, as the Catholic church says that God gave His great power to His church, and said to His church, so much being a body of believers, 'Whatever you do, it's all right.'" And I said, "Then if... I studied that. Then I begin to find out there's almost nine hundred different organized bodies of believers. Then if God gave His authority to His church, and told them, 'Just discard this Word; you don't need it; that's just a history. And--and then you can go ahead and do, and whatever you say will be all right; not the Bible, but the church, whatever the church says.' Mama, I could not base any faith. Because the Catholic church says one thing. The Lutheran church says 'It's this a way.' The Methodist church said, 'No, they're both wrong. It's this way.' The Baptist church says it's some other way. And nine hundred different beliefs, I could base no faith on that."

L-79 But I said, "What I did, mama, I went back and read the Bible. And I taught just exactly the way the--them apostles taught It. I never varied one bit. Where they said baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ, I said baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ. Where they said the baptism of the Holy Ghost, I said baptism of the Holy Ghost. And I taught it just the way they taught it. Mama, I got the same results that they got. And I seen the same God that come by their teaching, the same God that comes into our midst and does the same thing He did for them back there, He does for us today. Therefore, His promise is, 'He that eats My flesh and drinks My Blood has Everlasting Life, and I'll raise him up again at the last days.'" The Word is the testimony of God.


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