WHY THE VIRGIN BIRTH?

OCTOBER 1980

THIS IS A SHORT LITTLE MESSAGE, BUT I FEEL THAT IT CAN BE VERY MEANINGFUL TO SOME WHO HAVE NOT YET CAUGHT A REVELATED VISION OF THE VARIOUS POINTS WE WILL COVER.

MANY PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT JESUS WAS BORN OF A VIRGIN BECAUSE THEY READ IT IN THE BIBLE, BUT THEY DO NOT KNOW WHY IT WAS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY FOR IT TO BE SO. THAT CAUSES ME TO FEEL THE NEED TO SHOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SONS OF GOD, WAY BACK BEFORE THE FLOOD OF NOAH’S DAY, THAT MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR A BABY TO BE BORN OF THE SEED OF NATURAL MAN AND WOMAN, WITHOUT THE FALLEN NATURE, AND WITHOUT IMPUTED DEATH IN IT.

WE ALL KNOW THAT GOD IMPUTED DEATH TO ADAM AND EVE WHEN THEY DISOBEYED HIM WHILE THEY WERE STILL IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN, BUT, HOW DID MURDER, POLYGAMY, DRUNKENNESS AND PERVERSION OF EVERY SORT GET INTO THE NATURE OF MANKIND? GOD DID NOT IMPUTE THAT TO THEM. WE WILL ENDEAVOR TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS ALONG WITH SOME OTHERS, SO STUDY THE MESSAGE WITH A DESIRE TO FIND THE TRUTH OF THESE VARIOUS POINTS.

TEXT: ISAIAH 7:14

We greet you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom to know in the reality of the new birth is life eternal. There have been many little boys in this world who carried the name Jesus, but there has only been one that came into the world by a virgin birth, and declared to be the Son of God. He was different from all the other little boys that have been named Jesus, through the ages of time, for He had no inherited sin in His life. Why did He not have inherited sin? Because He was not born of the seed of fallen man. He was begotten of God when the Holy Ghost overshadowed the young virgin girl, Mary. That brings us to another question; WHY THE VIRGIN BIRTH? The answer to that question is of utmost importance; therefore we want to take a few scriptures from God’s word that will give us the answer to that question, and also allow us to see ourselves in His great work of redemption.

FOUR IMPORTANT POINTS

I have four specific points that I want to put in the message right here in the beginning, lest I forget them later. Point number ONE is this; To understand the virgin birth, and to know what took place in the womb of Mary, is also to know what took place in the garden of Eden. Point number TWO, Remember, there was no womb when God made Adam. He is a Creator. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7) The evolutionists claim that man got his start from a little cell of life from an old swamp pond someplace. I will agree with them up to a certain point. God did form man from the dust of the ground, and He used a lot of water, for we all know that our human bodies are 97 percent water. Therefore, to me it does not matter whether it was a swamp pond, or a mud hole; it was still God that did the work of creation. Furthermore, He did not need some smart scientist there to tell Him what process to use; it was a sovereign act of a sovereign God. All of these many theories of evolution are the result of natural man trying to understand spiritual thing from a scientific viewpoint. There great laboratories and test tubes cannot possibly produce revelated answers to the many questions that have plagued men’s minds down through the ages. It is sad to say, but we are living in a day when thousands upon thousands of people’s minds are so numbed by all the theories of modernism, they will absolutely reject anything that cannot be proved in a scientific laboratory. From this sort come those such as would make a movie titled, In Search of the Historical Christ. Brother! You do not have to go about it like that! I found Him, or He found me, and revealed Himself to me, a long time ago, without all these modern methods of seeking Him. How many of you can testify likewise? Sure you can. He is real, in my heart, today. HALLELUJAH! AMEN! He is a wonderful savior.

Point number THREE, There still was no womb when the Lord God made Eve. He took a rib from Adam, closed up the flesh, and made the woman from the rib. This shows the power of creation, and establishes His position of Fathership, in relation to His creation. This is what established God, the Highest, an object of worship, in his position as Father. All source of life was derived from Him. He was not even God until after He had created something to worship Him. Prior to His creating acts, He was a sovereign Spirit, but He could not be God (an object of worship) until there was something to worship Him. When He created life: He became Father, and God. Point number FOUR is this, The virgin birth was not just an act of God for the purpose of demonstrating His power, as some folks think it was. That is as far as a lot of people want to go on the subject of the virgin birth.

He could have done that just to show His power, but we all know the sinful condition of lost mankind justified the action of God, when He did something to change the course of events of the lives of some. The some whose lives were changed, were those whom He foreknew before the foundation of the world. You can read that in the 1^st chapter of Ephesians. You can also read it in Romans 8, verse 28 & 29. Did you realize that your name was recorded in the book of life before the world was ever even created? Not with pencil and paper, but in the great mind of God, who counseled with Himself and layed out the whole plan for the ages. I do not ask anyone just to take my word for what is in the scriptures, I invite each and every one of you to open your Bibles, and read with me, as we begin to lay out this message by what is written in the word of God.

PENALTY FOR DISOBEDIENCE

Our first scriptures, as we approach this subject, is found in Isaiah 7:14. We all know what the Lord spoke to Adam and Eve in the garden, and also to the serpent. After they sinned, God cursed the serpent, and said unto him, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, (meaning, the seed of the woman, Jesus, would bruise the serpent’s head) and thou shalt bruise his heel.” God cursed the woman who had been deceived by the serpent by adding pain and misery to her periods, and to her conception and child bearing. Then He cursed the ground, causing it to grow weeds and briars, and commanded Adam to earn his bread by the sweat of his own face. No longer would he have the serpent creature to do his manual labor for him. It was a sad day for them when God sent them forth from the garden with their heads hanging low, in shame and humiliation. They had disobeyed their Creator, and now they must suffer the bitter consequences. Now, listen to me, Saints. Please do not look upon this as though God sent them out of a certain geographical area that had a beautiful fence around it and a huge gate. That was not the picture at all. It may sound like that when you read it from the Bible, but the real truth of the matter is the fact that God just withdrew His presence from them. You hear people talk about how God placed cherubims at the gate to keep Adam and Eve from coming back in, but how many of you actually realize that there is no gate mentioned. It simply says that He (God) placed cherubims at the east of the garden, and a flaming sword that turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. It does not say that they were kept out of the garden. Do you know, if there was such a geographical area on earth then, that they were forbidden to enter, it would still be there, because the flaming sword is still there. Furthermore let me say this, There is hardly a foot of earth anywhere that men have not tromped through, all through the ages. It is true of course, that there was a geographical area designated as the garden, in its natural makeup, but there was something else that hung over it that made it more than just a natural garden. It was God’s divine glory and presence that made the difference. He withdrew that from them.

A VIRGIN SHALL CONCEIVE

Now, let us read Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Remember now, this sign was given for the nation Israel, for through this nation God would project a revelation of His oneness, and His deity, and His holiness. God had purposed that through that nation of people He would unfold and portray His plan of righteousness for the whole human race, both Jews and Gentiles. That is why He said to Abraham who was the natural father of that nation, “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen. 12:2-3) Abraham who was called Abram at the time God first spoke to him, was seventy-five years old when God promised to make of him a great nation. He did not even have a son at the time, but God made him a promise and he believed the word of God. That is why Paul could write in his letter to the Romans, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” (Rom. 4:3) That did not originate with Paul though; he read it from Gen. 15:6, “And he (Abraham) believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” In the 22^nd chapter of Genesis we find where God said to him, “That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall ALL THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH BE BLESSED: (why?) Because thou hast obeyed my voice.” Abraham demonstrated his faith in the Lord when he took his little son Isaac, whom he had waited 25 years for, and layed him on the altar for a sacrifice, all because God told him to do it, testing him. This took place more than 1100 years before Isaiah the prophet, spoke of that virgin birth more than 700 years before the actual event occurred, so this in itself ought to help people to see that God fulfills every promise that He has made, when the time for that promise to be fulfilled is at hand. Abraham did not know how God would bless all the families of the earth through his seed, but he believed God would do what He said He would do; therefore it was counted to him for righteousness, just because he believed the word of the Lord. You do not have to instantly understand everything in the Bible, in order to believe it. The apostle Paul told Timothy that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for corrections, for instruction in righteousness.” (1^st Timothy 3:16) A true son of God will always accept the word of God as his authority to order his life by, even before he understands much of the doctrinal points of it. Spiritually, we learn just like children in the natural things of life: a little at a time, usually.

A SIGN TO ISRAEL

Now before the seed of Abraham could be a blessing as promised, that seed would have to be multiplied into a great nation. Then that nation would have their ups and downs while many years passed by, even centuries, but regardless of whether any of those natural seed of Abraham remembered what God had promised him or not, God remembered, and He caused His servant Isaiah, to prophesy to them saying, “Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” I suppose those Israelites were just like a lot of people in our day; no doubt, after Isaiah spoke those words, many of them began to say, Where do you think it will take place? I wonder what virgin it will be. I sure hope it is some of my close relatives. I am sure you could have heard all those statements and many more, but the main point is, over 700 years expired, and many generations came on the scene and passed on to their reward before that prophecy was fulfilled. By the time the event occurred, the nation as a whole has already lost their spiritual outlook as to what was supposed to take place. Isaiah 7:14, as we know it, had become just another scripture to them. They no doubt played with that scripture in their synagogues every Sabbath day, just like the theologians of our day do some other scriptures, not even realizing how important that prophecy really was. God was not just speaking to Isaiah saying, I will give you a sign; He was speaking through Isaiah to the whole nation of Israel, Behold, I will give you (the nation) a sign. But by the time God began to set in motion the order of events that would forerun the virgin birth, the nation of Israel was as divided on their interpretations of the word of God as the Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Lutherans and so forth. They all had their ideas, and their many different versions made the Bible seem like such a divided book, so they thought. That is the conclusion people come to when they try to interpret it with their natural mind. This caused Paul to write to the Corinthians, “But the natural man (or mind) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1^st Cor. 2:14) Therefore when God visited a young virgin: who in Israel before that, knew for sure where such an event would take place? They could have known; the wise men from the east who came to worship Him, caused Herod to ask the chief priests and Scribes, where Christ should be born, and they told him right away, “In Bethlehem of Judaea.” But until they were confronted with the question, they were too taken up with their rituals to even consider the reality of such a prophecy. How do we know that? Simply because at that time Jesus was almost 2 years old, and they had not yet acknowledged that this young child could very well be their long awaited Messiah. They knew what was written in the prophets about Christ that should come, but they were too carnal in their interpretations of those prophecies to recognize the fulfillment of them. By the time this prophecy of Isaiah was actually fulfilled, most of those Jews were probably too suspicious of Mary to even connect it up with prophecy. If you had been where you could hear: you would probably have heard something like this, “We thought Mary was such a nice girl, and just look at her. In spite of what is so obvious, she still claims to be a virgin.” There are an awful lot of people in this old world that would much rather believe the worst about other people, but they always expect other people to believe the best about them. You all know the kind I am talking about.

GABRIEL VISITS MARY

Let us go to St. Luke 1:26, where we will pick up the account of Gabriel’s appearance to Mary. “And in the sixth month (That is the sixth month since Elizabeth’s conception. Elizabeth was Mary’s cousin) the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth.” We know, that in later years, when Jesus was choosing His disciples and called Phillip to follow Him: Phillip immediately went to find Nathaniel, and said unto him, “We have found Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathaniel said unto him, can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Let me just say that in my own words, the way I see it. I can just see old Nathaniel sitting there leaning back against the fig tree, just taking life easy, and when Phillip spoke to him of Jesus, Where did he come from? You know, some people are just like that; they judge you by where you were born, where you were raised, your family background, how much schooling you have had, your social status, and your financial image in the community, and if you do not measure up to their qualifications, it does not take them long to check you off the list. Therefore Nathaniel could have used much stronger language than just those words which are recorded in John’s gospel. We know that the average society in Nazareth under Roman rule, was just a small little village, and maybe the average family there was not very prone to live for God. A lot of the family structure could have been very low down and good for nothing in the eyes of people like Nathaniel, and that caused him to say, How could anything worthwhile come out of a blankety-blank place like that? Surely Jehovah would not let such a worthy person be brought up in a place like that. Phillip just merely said, Come and see. You all know the story, how Jesus spoke to Nathaniel, and how Nathaniel recognized that He truly was the one they had longed for. It all just goes to show that God does not look at people and places the same way natural man is prone to. He does not concern Himself with the filth of the city, nor the social status of its people; He looks at the heart and the mind of the individuals in that city; what is their attitude toward Him? That is what makes the difference. So here came the angel Gabriel, to a young virgin espoused (or engaged) to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. God did not have to send Gabriel down to the city court house, nor the town hall, to look up the records of this young woman’s character. He already knew all there was to know about her. In our day, if the FBI comes to investigate you, they will go to your Post Office, your grocery store, your neighbors, and so forth, asking questions about your character and your business, what you do, and where you go. They paint their picture according to the answers they get. But the angel Gabriel did not need to concern himself with all of that, for he already knew all about Nazareth and its people, and he knew which young lady of that little community had found favor with God, so he came directly to her, and said unto her, verse 28, “Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: Blessed art thou among women.” This was a strange situation for Mary. We do not know exactly how old Mary was, at that time, but she was probably somewhere between 15 and 19 years old, and to be suddenly confronted with such a greeting from a stranger, troubled her. 29 “And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.” Why would she not wonder what was about to happen? This was not an every day occurrence that she was experiencing here. The natural impulse would have been to turn and flee, but the angel immediately said unto her, 30 “Fear not, Mary: (That was his first mention of her name) for thou hast found favor with God. (Notice how he got right to the point. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name JESUS.” What kept that young girl standing there listening to this man? It was his appearance and salutation. He was not dressed like a Skidrow bum. His speech was clear and distinct in every way, and his very greeting caused her to know that this was something that God was doing. His very appearance spoke of a respectable, holy environment, and since he did not beat around the bush getting to what he had to say, there was not much elapsed time before he said, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. Therefore when he told her that she would conceive in her womb, and bring forth a son, and that His name would be called JESUS, she, no doubt, stood as if in a trance. The angel went on to say, “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” I do not see how any trinitarian can read verses like these, and like those in Matthew, chapter 1, and still remain a trinitarian. In other words, if the Holy Ghost is a person, and God the Father is another person, then that means Jesus (whom they call the third person of the trinity) had TWO FATHERS. You will notice as we read these next two verses that the Holy Ghost comes upon Mary to cause her to conceive, (check Matt. 1:18-20, also) yet the Son that is to come forth as a result of that conception is to be called, the Son of the Highest, and we all know that the Highest is that sovereign Spirit that was, even before there was anything else. He is called God the Father, by those who believe that God is three separate, distinct person. Can you imagine people being so blind that they can actually believe a thing like that? That God is three. Yet many of us came out of those denominational systems that teach such as that. Thank God that He opened our eyes to see and understand the truth.

THE HIGHEST GOD

Let us read verse 34 & 35 now, for I want to call your attention to something here in verse 34. “Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, (In other words, how could I possibly be with child?) Seeing I know not a man? That girl knew what it took for a woman to conceive and bear a child. Her question proved that. How many of you believe they had sex education in their schools in those days? She was still a virgin, so where did she learn what she knew about such things? From her parents, of course. That is where those things ought to come from; then they would be taught with the right motive, and all this perversion would not be injected into the picture. This girl, Mary, had been raised in a home that kept the commandments of God over the door, to remind all that passed in and out that this family honored God, and kept His commandments. Her parents had instructed her morally as well as spiritually. She has not been subjected to the junk that is taught in schools of our day. Ninety nine percent of the people who author these sex education books, could not care less, how God looks upon what they are doing. They just want to teach a generation of young people how to live free and enjoy a life without all the restraints that were placed upon them by a former generation that had a little more respect for God, and higher moral standards. All this sex education in our schools is nothing more than a trick of the Devil, and people have fallen for it hook, line, and sinker, so to speak. Now notice how the angel answers Mary when she says, How can this be? “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” What a conversation! Can you even imagine how that young virgin girl must have felt, as she stood there and heard those words? Surely, in her wildest dreams, she had never imagined anything like what she was hearing from this angel of the Lord. Like we said earlier, They had their prophecies pertaining to what was taking place here, but they had just about as many interpretations of those prophecies as we do in our day, of certain other prophecies. They had Pharisees, Saducees, Zealots, Herodians, and all such like, and we have Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Lutherans, Nazarenes, and so forth. In other words, spiritually, it was almost like the same picture as what we have today. All these denominations are supposed to be Christians, but they certainly do not all get the same revelation from what is written in the Bible. By the same token, all those people were supposed to be Jews. They were Jews in the sense that they were all seed of Abraham. They could all say, Abraham is our father, from the standpoint of their genealogy, but they sure did not have the same revelation that Abraham had. Most of what they believed was just traditional ideas of men, that had been given equal recognition with the scriptures of the Bible. It is just like that in the denominational churches of our day. They do not even want to hear about anything that they do not have included in their articles of faith. That is why the Spirit of God has gone out from them, and left them to be just like an old dried up corn stalk. Those who once carried a certain amount of gospel light when God was restoring the gospel back to the church, have failed to move on with God; therefore all they have left is just an old dried up, dead system of religion. Brothers and sisters, I know there are some who think we do nothing more than just find fault with churches, but truth is truth, regardless of what some may think about it. Furthermore, let it be understood that we are not picking on individual persons who may still be in those systems. God must deal with every individual before they can even come to truth; we all understand that. But religious systems themselves, are no better in our day than they were a thousand years ago. They are all religious harlots, according to the Bible. Now, there is no reason for anyone to get upset with me for saying that; I got it right from the Bible, and I had nothing to do with writing those scriptures.

DEITY ROBED IN FLESH

Now Gabriel had told Mary that she was going to be overshadowed by the Holy Ghost, and that she would bear a son as the result, and that His name should be called Jesus, and that He would be great, and would be called the Son of the Highest, and that the Lord God would give unto Him the throne of His father David. Anyone who will read those verses correctly can absolutely see the deity of Jesus. The life in that human vessel would be the life of God, but manifested in this manner in order to fulfill the office work of sonship, and would be called the Son of God, because He was begotten of God, without the physical union of human parents. Yet the physical flesh that would come forth from the womb of Mary the young virgin, would be identified with the lineage of King David; therefore He is properly referred to as the seed of David. We who believe the Bible record, know that He did not have an earthly genetic father, but because of this identity, He is going to pick up everything that was promised to David, and to his seed after him. Let us get these verses in our minds now, before we move on. Gabriel says, “And the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: AND HE SHALL REIGN OVER THE HOUSE OF JACOB FOR EVER: AND OF HIS KINGDOM THERE SHALL BE NO END.” (Luke 1:32-33) Go to Isaiah 9:6-7, now, and we will read what Isaiah prophesied about this very thing, more than 700 years before it happened. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and THE GOVERNMENT SHALL BE UPON HIS SHOULDER: and His name shall be called WONDERFUL, COUNSELOR, THE MIGHTY GOD, THE EVERLASTING FATHER, THE PRINCE OF PEACE. (What does a trinitarian actually see, when he reads that verse?) Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth EVEN FOR EVER. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” Just suppose Mary had known nothing about the facts of life. What do you suppose her reaction would have been? Her response proved that she did know about the facts of life though. But remember, she was a virgin. She knew what she knew from having been taught those things, and I do not believe she had to walk around with her eyes closed in order to keep herself pure, free from the filth that might have been all around her. Young people in our day give out all kinds of excuses for submitting themselves to the devil’s entrapments, but I happen to know that God will give a person sufficient grace to overcome temptations if that person will keep their mind upon Him. You can ask Him to close your spiritual eyes, and at the same time, you can keep your physical eyes wide open, see all of the devil’s filth, and still keep yourself clean. That is why Jesus prayed as He did, in the 17^th chapter of John. “I pray not that thou shouldest take them (believers) out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” May God help us to keep ourselves from the evil that is in the world, in this perverted and evil age. Just remember, Saints, Jesus has already prayed for you, (John 17:20) “Neither pray I for these alone, (His immediate disciples) but for THEM ALSO which shall believe on me through their word.” Brother! That included every person that would ever believe the gospel in any age! We are to live in the world, but not partake of the evil that is in the world. Oh! Brother Jackson: You just do not know what some of us are subjected to. Maybe not, but I know what the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers in his first letter to them, chapter 10, verse 13, “There hath NO TEMPTATION TAKEN YOU but such is as COMMON TO MAN: (In other words, you are not being tempted in a way that no other person ever has been tempted, your temptation is very common.) BUT GOD IS FAITHFUL, who will not suffer (or allow) you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” Yes, There is definitely a way to overcome, for every believer. You just need to look for God’s provision when the old adversary pounces upon you, trying to destroy you.

GOD IS ONE, NOT THREE

Brothers and sisters: Please bear with me. We are dealing with the virgin birth, but these scriptures open up a lot of different avenues that I feel we need to include in the message. I firmly believe that a person must have a true revelation of the Godhead, in order to understand properly, the virgin birth, and the virginity of this young woman opens up the door to deal with moral values and issues. Young people in our day are desperate for something worthwhile to hold on to; therefore we ought to give them every benefit of the word of God. I want to get these things said in a way that can be easily understood, and trust God to open up the understanding of those who have never quite understood just exactly how the virgin birth of Jesus was accomplished. I received a letter from a trinitarian person, the other day, that went something like this, We enjoy some of your articles, Bro. Jackson, but I am afraid you are not preaching the apostolic gospel. He goes on to remind me of a few instances where the apostle Paul speaks of the Father, and also, of the Son. Then he says, I have preached this gospel for years, and it is proven, there has to be three persons in the Godhead. THERE IS NOT THREE PERSONS IN THE GODHEAD! That is the words of a devil. No. I am not calling the man a devil; he is just deceived, but the spirit that projected that trinity teaching, certainly was not the Spirit of God, for we know that He does not contradict Himself, so it had to be a devil that started it. You say, But there is only one Devil. Yes. But he has many fallen angelic helpers that work with mortal humans, and they are all under his command. They were already at work in the first church age, trying to pervert the true revelation that Jesus and His apostles gave forth. That is why John wrote, (A.D. 90) “Even now are there many Antichrist.” (1^st John 2:18) He thought because there were so many Antichrists (men preaching contrary to true revelation) in that age, that it surely must be the last days. Yet about 1900 years have passed, the Antichrists are still perverting God’s word, and Jesus has not come for His church yet, but we believe the time is getting close at hand. According to the scriptures, He will come in our generation, but He will not be coming for those who still believe that God is three persons. Ephesians 5:27, tells us that Jesus is going to present the church to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. If you still believe that God is three; you have a blemish. Many certainly did not believe that God was three persons. No Jew ever did, until after the Gentiles had played with the gospel, perverted it, and fed it back to some of them. Brother Jackson: My grandmother was a godly woman, and she always believed that God was three persons. Saints; Listen to me. We are living in the age when God has restored to His true church the revelation of the Godhead, so please do not try to base your own standing with God on your grandmother’s experience; it will not be acceptable. You are responsible for the present truth that is being preached and taught in your age. The Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit which ever term you prefer to use, is none other than the Spirit of God that moved upon the face of the waters, in Genesis, chapter 1, verse 2. Then I would ask you to please take note of the fact that this same Spirit spoke, and said, Let there be light,” (Verse 3) and He kept on speaking until He had brought the earth out of its chaotic state of existence, and made it fit for His next order of life which He would place upon it. That same spirit that moved upon the face of the waters when the earth was without form, and void; and engulfed in total darkness, went ahead and created the animals, the fowl, and all the living creatures that are in the world today, and the Bible calls that Spirit God. Jesus said, in John 4:24, “God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” In other words, He who some refer to as God the Father, is also the self same Spirit that they turn right around and refer to as God the Holy Spirit, thinking that they are referring to two separate persons of a triune Godhead. The very Spirit that is properly referred to as Father because of creation, is also properly referred to as the Holy Spirit as He works in the lives of His human creation in redemption, and it is this very Spirit that was the life of Jesus, the Christ. From the standpoint of the flesh, God who is Spirit was the Father of Jesus, because Mary conceived by the word of God instead of by a physical union with Joseph. But the life that was in that human flesh, was the life of God; therefore Jesus was not the 2^nd person of a trinity; He was God, in the only human form that Elohim (God) had ever dwelt in. He was completely human from the standpoint of flesh, but He did not have imputed death in Him, because He was begotten by the Spirit which is God. Then we can say that He was completely God, from the standpoint of the life that was in Him. That is why the apostle Paul wrote, in Colossians 2:9-10, “For in Him (JESUS) dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power.” That is also why Jesus Himself, said to Phillip, when Phillip said, Lord, show us the Father, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Phillip? HE THAT HATH SEEN ME HATH SEEN THE FATHER: and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?” (John 14:8-9) Even that 10^th verse in the 14^th chapter of John should be enough to show people that the Father, and the Son are not two separate distinct persons. Listen. “Believest thou not that I am the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: (Notice now) but the FATHER THAT DWELLETH IN ME, He doeth the works.” Now tell me, Where did Jesus say the Father was? That is right; He said the Father was dwelling in Him. Did that mean that God was not omnipresent when Jesus was on earth? Absolutely not, but dwelling in Jesus was a full representation of the omnipresent God. He was man, but He was also God, and I do not mean to be repetitious, but I want to say this one more time; If the Holy Ghost is a person: then Jesus was not the Son of God, speaking from a genetic standpoint, for it was the Holy Ghost that came upon Mary. (Luke 1:35 & Matt. 1:20) Now read Matt. 1:23. “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, GOD WITH US.” That takes you right back to Isaiah 7:14. Isaiah prophesied it, and the angel of the Lord explained the prophecy to Joseph in a dream. Yes. It was the Holy Ghost that did something in the womb of Mary, that caused her to bear a Son that would be called, the Son of God.

MARY VISITS ELIZABETH

When Gabriel finished speaking to Mary about her own conception, he went ahead to tell her about something similar that was taking place with her cousin Elizabeth. Hers was not a supernatural conception in the same way Mary’s was, but she had been barren, and now, in her old age, God had opened her womb and enabled her to conceive of her husband. The angel told Mary about it, more for verification to her concerning the word of the Lord. He knew what Mary would do: just as soon as they got through talking. She would pack a suitcase, jump on an old donkey, and head for the hill country of Judah where her cousin Elizabeth lived with her husband Zecharias, to see if what she had just heard was true. As soon as she walked into Elizabeth’s home, Elizabeth opened her mouth and began prophesying to her. If there ever was any doubt in Mary’s mind, that got rid of it real quick. Mary would not need to doubt her experience after that. She could just jump up and down and praise God, for now she knew for sure that she had heard from heaven.

WHERE ALL LIFE ORIGINATED

We want to take this now, and deal with it from the common, logical, human reasoning side of it. Was the virgin birth to be looked upon as something God did just to show that He is a miracle worker? No. Not at all. Some people look at it like that, but you can be sure, Mary had no premeditated part in this. She knew absolutely nothing about any of it until Gabriel spoke to her. The Catholic Church claims (I believe this is right) that Mary was also born from a holy conception, in order for her to be looked upon by God in this way. That is not so. Mary, like everyone else, was a sinner because of her natural birth, and needed a savior, just like every other human soul that walked upon the earth. What the Catholic church teaches about Mary is all just a lot of nonsense, strictly traditional, and without any scripture to base their teaching on. Gabriel declared that she was highly favored of the Lord, but that is as far as we can go. I am sure that she was not the only virgin girl in Israel in those days, so we just have to realize that God was working out His purpose here, just as what He did in the garden of Eden was for a purpose. I stated in the very beginning of this message that there was no womb in the garden, neither for Adam, nor Eve. That is where God proved that He is a creator. He just brought forth life from nothing. That makes Him the author of all life, and therefore makes Him Father, because of it. Right there, in the garden of Eden is where you and I got our start, for all other human life on this old planet can trace their genealogy right back to the garden. Even all of the animal kingdom got their start right there in the garden. The difference is, everything at first was righteous and holy, but then something happened to change all of that. I pray that we can all have a spiritual mind, as we look into what transpired to change all of that. People who fight against the serpent seed teaching are just missing the whole picture completely. On the other hand, I believe anyone who is able to see the virgin birth in its true revelation, cannot help but see the serpent seed also. Do you not realize, as you read the first three chapter of Genesis and discover that something happened there, that changed their (Adam and Eve) standing with God, that the only thing God ever told them not to do, was not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? The day that you eat of it, you will surely die, said He. Now, everyone knows that Eve was coaxed by the serpent, to disobey the word of God and partake of that tree. But the great controversy is about what the partaking of that tree consisted of. At the insistence of the serpent, Eve partook, and then gave to Adam her husband, and he became guilty of disobeying God’s word also. This brought an imputed death sentence upon the Adam family, and all their offspring, of which we are. Death was passed from generation to generation from Adam’s day, right on down to our day, but there was a certain span of time when spiritual death was the only fallen attribute that Adam’s seed had. Think about that for a minute.

CAIN KILLED ADAM’S ONLY SON

When you go into Genesis, chapter 4, you find that Eve bare two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain was a tiller of the ground, and Abel was a keeper of sheep as they grew into manhood. Then there came the day that Cain murdered Abel, leaving Adam without a seed. Oh! Bro. Jackson; You must be mistaken, Cain was still alive. Yes, Cain was still alive, and his genealogy shows that he begat many sons and daughters, and as they multiplied upon the earth, they became inventors and craftsmen of every kind, but there was murder in that line. Lamech slew a man, following right in the footsteps of his ancestor Cain. But as you go into chapter 5, you find the genealogy of Adam, and Cain is not even mentioned in Adam’s genealogy. Do you think that was a mistake? Or are you ready to consider the possibility that Cain was not the son of Adam, as far too many take him to be? I say, if Cain had been Adam’s son, he would have been included in Adam’s genealogy. When Adam knew his wife again, and she conceived and bare Seth, she said, God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. Then when Seth begat a son, Enos, that is when men began to call upon the name of the Lord. It was these sons of Adam that began to call upon the name of the Lord. You do not find where any of Cain’s line ever did. Notice how these first few verses of chapter 5 read. “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him; Male and female created He them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty five years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters.” Now Seth was born of these two parents outside of the garden relationship with God, but I want you to know, that boy did not have an attribute to curse, lie, cheat, steal, get drunk, nor have a half dozen wives. It is important that you take not of things like this. This was not the nature of Seth to do any of these things. However, he did have death in him. He carried that imputed spiritual death sentence, because his parents were outside of the garden relationship with God. When his sons were born, that death sentence was automatically passed on tho them, but they possessed none of those evil attributes; they were sons of God. They were sons of God, because Adam who was their genetic father, was a son of God. These men had spiritual death imputed to them, and at the same time physical death was at work in their mortal flesh, but they still called upon the name of the Lord. On the other hand, off over there in the land of Nod, there was another line of humanity, coming up. They are called Cain’s line. They were not sons of God. They were man, of the earth, just like much of what you see today, all brains and no spirit. That is the best way I know to describe them; they are smart men, but do not have in them a spirit to know God. Anything they cannot understand with the mind, they refuse to have anything to do with it. Brother! Let me tell you! There are some things you never will understand with the mind; you have spiritual understanding, by revelation. All who have the Holy Ghost are equipped to understand things that the great Doctors of Divinity will never understand. Most of them that supposedly believe in the virgin birth of Christ could never explain it to anyone, because they believe that God is three persons; therefore they could never get their explanation lined up with the scriptures.

SATAN’S NEXT SLAP AT GOD

Remember now, we are dealing with a subject, Why the virgin birth? So let us go on over to chapter 6, where we will see what happened to these sons of Seth, which are called sons of God. Satan had been keeping an eye on both lines of humanity, from the Garden of Eden, right down to that hour, and he finally decided that it was time to make his next move, and take another slap at God. He was not content to see these sons of Seth remain free, and continue to get revelation from God; therefore he engineered a plan to get them contaminated, and cause them to eventually loose contact with God. Notice what happened. (6:1) “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, (Cain’s line) That the sons of God (Seth’s line) saw the daughters of men that they were fair; (attractive to look upon) and they took them wives of all which they chose.” It was after these two lines began to mix, that the Lord said, (verse 3) “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” Verse 4, really gives us a clue as to what happened when those two lines began to mix. “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, WHEN THE SONS OF GOD CAME IN UNTO THE DAUGHTERS OF MEN, AND THEY BARE CHILDREN TO THEM, THE SAME BECAME MIGHTY MEN WHICH WERE OF OLD, MEN OF RENOWN.” Here is the picture. Old Lucifer began to inspire those Canaanite women to parade themselves before these sons of God, and before long, they began to intermarry. When that happened the sons of God began to downbreed themselves. That generation remained to be pure sons of God genetically, but their offspring were quite another story.

I know what my critics say about me, but Bro! Sister! Please do not try to tell me that these daughters of men were Seth’s offspring. If you do; I want to show you what avenue you open up. You would be saying that every male child of Seth’s line was spiritual, but there was something wrong with all the females. Furthermore, What will you say about all those marriages in Seth’s line, before you reach the setting of chapter 6? Those marriages produced sons of God before that, and the time period was hundreds of years. But as soon as the sons of God began to marry the daughters of men, and children were born unto them; God began to speak of evil and wickedness among them. Anyone who cannot see that is a prime candidate for the apple story that natural minded people tell about Eve and the serpent. If the forbidden fruit that Eve partook of, and then gave also to her husband was nothing more than an apple from a natural plant life tree; then why did God cover their sex organs when He confronted them? Why did He not just cover their mouth? You who have a spiritual mind, know the answer to that. It was a sex for pleasure act, that God had forbidden them to partake of. They were commissioned to repopulate the earth, having sex relations only for the purpose of bearing offspring just like the animal kingdom, but the serpent, who was at that time a creature that walked upright, introduced Eve to the act for pleasure only. That is why God put a curse on the woman’s reproduction organs. He increased her periods, and added pain and sorrow to childbearing. He removed His presence from them, and they became earthbound. Their sin had the effect of separating them from God, which to be thus is spiritual death. Death became a hereditary thing. That is why every little baby that has ever been born into this world by a natural conception (or I should say, apart from the supernatural conception of Jesus) has had death in it. They did not become subject to it when they were born; it was effective from the very moment the seed waw planted in the woman. When you can see how separation from God came about; then you have no trouble understanding the necessity for the virgin birth of the one who was ordained to correct the situation, and open up the way for lost mankind to come back into the presence of God, which is to restore access to the tree of life that man was separated from. Before Adam and Eve sinned they were just as much a part of the spirit world as they were the natural. They were free to move in either realm until they disobeyed God. But when God drove them out of the garden, which was to send them forth out of His presence, they became earthbound. They no longer had access into the spirit world.

A PROPER SACRIFICE IS ACCEPTED

God killed an animal, and used the skin to cover their nakedness before He sent them out of the garden. From that very act, Adam no doubt received a revelation of animal sacrifice, and later, passed that revelation on to his son Abel. But old Cain, who was the son of Adam’s servant the serpent, never did get the revelation of animal sacrifice. That is why he tried to worship God with a basket of fruit and vegetables from his garden. He knew that there was a God, and he knew that God desired worship, but he had no spiritual revelation as to what God would accept. In other words, he is the father of all who try to worship God with their beautiful buildings, and their skyscraper steeples, and all the works of their hands. God would not accept that from Cain, and neither will He accept it from make believers of our day. On the other hand, you approach God with a humble attitude, and a spirit that will receive revelation, and He will have respect for your offering of praise, just like He did that animal of Abel’s. Those sons of Seth realized that, and they called upon the name of the Lord. They were direct descendants of Adam, who was a son of God. The only thing was, they had a death sentence hanging over them. But these daughters of men were women of the world. They lived strictly for the things of the earth, things of the flesh. They lived for style, and for the pleasures that a worldly life could give them, exactly like the vast majority of our day is doing. They were offspring of Cain’s line, a man who was a halfbreed. Eve was his mother; that gave him his identity with humanity, but Adam was not his father. The serpent that seduced Eve was his father; therefore he was not a son of God, and that accounts for him not being mentioned in Adam’s genealogy. Now attributes are passed from generation to generation through the genes; both from the father as well as the mother, but the family name is from the father’s side. Adam and Eve were both children of God; therefore they bore children that had no fallen attributes in them; they were sons of God, and that line of true sons of God continued for hundreds of years. But over on the other side, Cain’s father was the serpent, who had submitted his will to the devil, who Jesus said was a liar and a murderer, and the father of all such. That caused Cain to have all those fallen attributes; therefore he became angry when God would not respect his offering, and later manifested the attribute to murder, when he slew Abel. These women that began to marry the sons of God, carried all those attributes in their genealogical makeup; therefore all the children that were born from those marriages carried them likewise, even though their fathers were sons of God. From that time on every little baby that was born from those marriages had both the attributes of the sons of God, as well as all those evil attributes to murder, steal, cheat, lie and anything else that the devil himself would do. Those people had to choose whether they would do right, or do wrong. They had the attributes to do either one. That is why Noah, even though he found grace in the eyes of the Lord because of his life, was found drunk, after the flood. He believed God, and served God, but he had that attribute in him, and he allowed it to manifest. That is why the apostle Paul wrote as he did, in chapter 7, of his letter to the Romans. He was showing how those evil attributes were always present to cause a conflict in a person’s life, no matter how close to God they desired to live.

SERPENT SEED IN THE ARK

Let me prevail upon every person who would read this article, to read it with an open mind. A person with a closed mind will never get anywhere with God. Let me say this also; Please do not get provoked at me because I say that there is not a human being upon the face of this earth that has escaped the taint of what happened in chapter 6 of Genesis. For hundreds of years those two lines of humanity ran parallel without mixing, but when those mixed marriages began to produce children, it had a downbreeding affect on the whole human race. By the time God sent the flood, there were only eight souls that could be spared, and every one of them had those mixed attributes in them. We know that Noah did, first of all, because his father Lamech begat sons and daughters besides Noah, and all of them were destroyed in the flood. All of Noah’s sons had those mixed attributes, and so did all their wives, because all of their relatives were destroyed in the flood likewise. If you can see this; then you can see how the serpent seed came through the flood, and out on this side to produce great multitudes of humanity that have no time for God. Through those mixed marriages, the serpent seed got bred into the bloodstream of all humanity. No one has escaped it, except Jesus Christ himself. You hear these great Dr. So and So’s, as they stand so eloquently declaring that God is the father of every one of us, and that He is a God of love; therefore we ought to love on another, whether we believe the same or not. Technically they can say that God is the father of all humanity, because all life came from Him, including the animals. The serpent got his life from God, but he was not created in the image of God, and was not called a son of God. Neither was any of the other animals created in the image of God, but from the standpoint of creation God was their father. Now please understand me. I am not insinuating that educated people cannot be genuine Christians, but I will say this, Your education means very little to God, and it certainly does not automatically merit you anything that the Bible teaches must come by faith. I am sometimes accused of being against education. I am not against people receiving an education; I am only against the idea that education merits a person anything with God, or that it takes an educated person to understand and explain the scriptures. I dare say, Hell is filled with educated people who have taken it upon themselves to explain the scriptures. They may say, It does not matter whether we believe alike or not; we are all still children of God, but I am here to tell you that it definitely does matter whether we all believe the same thing or not. There are many scriptures one could read, but I believe 1^st Corinthians 1:10, will be sufficient to back up my statement. Paul says, “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of the our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all SPEAK THE SAME THING, and that there be NO DIVISIONS AMONG YOU: but that ye be perfectly jointed together in the SAME MIND, and in the same judgement.” God has never given two separate, contrary revelations on the same scriptures, and He never will. Intellectual minds come to various opinions, but true revelation brings every true believer to the same opinion, and it becomes more than just an opinion.

CROSS BREEDING

What happened in Genesis 6, can be better understood by some if you will just allow your thoughts to return to our present day, and think upon an example that I am going to give. Those of you who know anything about registered lines of cattle, for instance, you know that as long as you keep the Hereford and Angus breeds separated, the Herefords will be red with white faces, and the Angus will be coal black. But if you start cross breeding them, you will have calves born that will be all mixed up. That is exactly what happened in Genesis 6. From the sons of God there were born children that would do anything that the devil would have them do. These very sons of God produced children that had the nature to pervert life and live in moral degradation. Enoch the 7^th from Adam walked with God and God took him, but Enoch prophesied by the name that he gave his firstborn, that the end would come when Methuselah died. That is what the name Methuselah meant, When he is gone the end will come. You can figure it out yourself. When Methuselah died at age 969 years, the flood came that year. Enoch did not know how long Methuselah would live; he just knew that he wanted to walk with God, regardless of what others around him did; therefore he kept close to God, and God took him to be with Him, long before the destruction by the flood. We also have a prophesy concerning the coming of Jesus Christ to judge this wicked old world the next time. As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the coming of the son of man. Those were days when mankind was given over to sensual pleasures, caring little about the plan and purpose of God. Jesus said that it would be like it was in the days of Lot. In the days of Lot, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with fire and brimstone, and swallowed up completely, so that there is no trace of those cities left, all because of perversion and ungodliness, and our modern society is following right along in their very footsteps, not knowing that the judgment of God is soon to overtake them. Brothers and sisters: I am glad to know that those who walk with God, as Enoch did, will be taken up like Enoch was, before judgment strikes this old world. Now let me ask you something. Why is mankind living like that? Why did they live like that in Lot’s day? And in Noah’s day? They did not inherit those attributes from Adam, nor Seth, nor any of their direct descendants; it all started after those Canaanite women became included in the picture.

EQUAL CONTRIBUTIONS GENETICALLY

I have had people say, Bro. Jackson, the father is what determines the sex of the child, thinking that would change the picture, but it does not. The gene of the father is what determines the sex of the offspring, whether it will be male of female, but when it comes to the soulish makeup of that offspring, the mother contributes just as much as the father does. Biologically, you know the process, and God ordained it to be so. Now I can touch two points right here. Many people who follow Bro. Branham’s teaching like to take issue with me on the statement I just made. They will say, Bro. Branham said it was God’s divine law, to speak the child out of the ground. Of course we know He created Adam from the dust of the earth, by His spoken word. That was an act of creation to produce the first man, because there was no womb to bring him into existence. Likewise, there was still no womb to bring Eve into existence. That is what I said in the beginning of this message. But, my dear brothers and sisters of this message for these last days, please remember that when God took a rib from Adam’s side and made him an helpmate, He designed that female to be a mother. When God brought her to Adam, he said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Now I ask you, Was Adam mistaken? Or was Eve designed to be a mother? Adam was not a father at that time, and neither was Eve a mother, but he prophesied that someone would be a mother, and someone was going to be a father. Adam already knew, and understood the divine commission that God had given to them, that is, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” He knew also, the process by which they were to fulfill that commission, and he certainly had no thoughts about speaking them into existence. I wonder at times if some of these people who teach such things, actually believe that God gave the woman a womb only after the curse was placed upon her? And if they know that she had a womb; what in the world do they think it was for, if not to bear children? God designed Adam and Eve physically, to be reproduce and fill the earth with sons and daughters. He meant for it to be accomplished through a husband and wife relationship. The only thing they did wrong, was to use the relationship for pleasure, (after the serpent introduced Eve to the pleasure side of the act) instead of just for the purpose of reproduction. When they disobeyed God’s word: they received as a penalty the very thing God had told them they would receive if they partook of the forbidden tree, and that was imputed death, nothing more. If it had not been for the crossing of the two lines, in chapter 6, Noah never would have been found lying in his tent naked, drunker than a hoot owl, so to speak. God did not impute that sort of thing into the Adam, Seth line; you can be sure of that. But after they began to beget children by those Canaanite wives, those sons of God recognized that their children had some attributes in their makeup that they did not inherit from their fathers. Then as the centuries rolled on, the sea of humanity became more and more corrupt. It got to the point where the Lord himself said, that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually. When I read that, it makes me think of our day, for I believe moral conditions of our day are much the same as they were in the days of Noah, before the flood. When God looked down upon all that, He said, It repenteth me that I have made man, for He saw how perverted the whole human race had become. He saw polygamy, He saw drunkenness, He saw sodomy, He saw homosexuals, He saw robbing, stealing, killing, and every other thing that fallen mankind could imagine to do. As he looked upon all that ungodliness, He said, I will destroy both man and beast, and the fowls of the air. He was ready to wipe the slate clean, it seems. “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Old Noah was a far cry from being what Seth was, but God knew what his capabilities were, and compared to everything else in that day, Noah was a righteous man. God knew that Noah would do whatever He instructed him to do; therefore instead of destroying everything, He said to Noah, “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.” (Gen. 6:14) He went on to give him the exact dimensions of the ark, and to tell him who, and what was to be taken into the ark, and to establish a covenant with him. Noah did everything that the Lord instructed him to do, and we do not find where he questioned the Lord about anything. (God delights in that kind of obedience.) 

MARY WAS AN INCUBATOR FOR JESUS

Now you all know the story of the flood that destroyed everything that was not in that ark with Noah and his family, every living thing. This is where a lot f people who fight against the serpent seed teaching, rest their case. They will say, Even if there was such a thing as a seed of the serpent, the flood destroyed them; there are none on this side of the flood. This is where the study of the genes, comes fully into the picture. We will readily admit that all of Cain’s sons were destroyed in the flood, but we insist upon the fact that all of the evil attributes from that line had already been bred into Noah’s family; therefore every child that was born from that family carried the potential for every evil, rotten, low down act, that any of those pre flood people were guilty of. (You do not have to take my word for it; go to the library and study up on the law of heredity.) Time passed on for so many more hundreds of years while the earth was again repopulated from the seed of Noah, but every little baby that was born, had all those evil attributes in its hereditary makeup. That is why, when God was ready to fulfill His word and provide a redeemer for lost mankind, that Redeemer had to come into the world by the virgin birth. In the days of Joseph and Mary; there was not a man upon the face of the earth that could father a perfect child into the world. Likewise, neither was there a woman who, through natural conception, could bring forth a perfect child, one that would be completely free of any fallen attributes. Even if God supernaturally created a perfect sperm to fertilize the egg of a natural woman, that little offspring would still have those fallen attributes. That is why God had to go beyond just that, in order for Jesus to be completely free from all that. Even though Mary had never been defiled by the fallen seed of man, if God had allowed her egg to be fertilized when the Holy Ghost came upon her, genealogically, her offspring would have been no different than any other little baby born of woman, because Mary also had those fallen attributes. Saints: If you are following me; you should be beginning to understand why Bro. Branham made the statement that Mary was just an incubator. Do you understand what I am saying? In order for Jesus to be free of all fallen attributes, God the eternal Spirit had to not only create a perfect sperm; He also had to create a perfect egg also. Now you might just prefer to say that God created perfect life in the womb of Mary, and allowed her to carry it for nine months, and furnish it nutrients from her body. Then birth it into the world by the natural process. Whichever way it was, that little baby boy that came forth from her womb, genetically was no relation to her at all, no more so than He was to Joseph. The average person who believes that Jesus was born from the womb of a virgin, just looks at it from the standpoint that God bypassed the male role only, in His conception. If that had been the case, it would have been the same situation that took place in Genesis, chapter 6, when the sons of God took wives of the daughters of men. It would have had the same genealogical result. That does not say that Mary’s character was bad; it simply reemphasizes the fact that her egg would have fed (I believe this number is right) 23 chromosomes of her hereditary makeup into that little fetus. Whether a person is good or bad in their moral behavior, has nothing to do with the attributal makeup of their offspring. Esau and Jacob should be enough to prove that, for they both had the same parents. Yet the Bible says that God hated Esau, and it was because of His attributal makeup, because we know that God does not hate a person without a reason. He is not moved to hate, by emotions, as some humans are. He hated Esau before he was even born, because He foreknew what Esau would do, sell his birthright. Other than that, as far as we can see in the scriptures, Esau seemed like a pretty good kind of fellow.  

WHAT CHROMOSOMES DO

Every gene from the man, and every egg from the woman carry an equal amount of chromosomes that merge together to form the hereditary character of the child, or offspring that will come forth from that union. A chromosome is just like a gigantic filing cabinet, or a memory bank within a computer. Stored within those chromosomes which furnish the characteristics of the offspring are the attributes and characteristics of all its ancestors. It can have hair and a nose like its grandfather, teeth shaped like grandmother’s, eyes like great grandfather, and a smile just like dad. Saints, I am just using all of this to call your attention to what Satan was breeding into humanity, and to show you how he did it. You must face the facts squarely; God did not create His first son and daughter with these evil attributes; therefore the only way Eve could have birthed a son that would commit murder, was for her to have been defiled by some male that had those attributes in him. God did not impute those things into their makeup; He only imputed death. Some people read Romans 5:19 where Paul said, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous,” and they think that means Adam became a low down character after he was driven from the garden. He absolutely did not. He was still a son of God, and all his seed were sons of God, and none of them had any kind of evil attributes until after Genesis 6, when children were born to them from those Canaanite wives. If it had not been for what happened in chapter 6, we would all have death in us of course; that was imputed, but there would not be one saloon upon the face of this earth. There would be no need for jailhouses, nor policemen and sheriffs, because there would be no crime of any kind. If Noah’s family had not carried those evil attributes in their genes, every trace of evil in pre flood humanity would have been washed from the earth forever, but they did carry them, and now we have the same conditions upon the earth that were prevailing among mankind when God sent the flood.

GOD’S ONLY BEGOTTEN SON

Bro. Jackson: You said God had many sons, and the Bible says He gave His only begotten Son on the cross. That is true, but he key is in the word BEGOTTEN. He spoke Adam from the ground. That made Adam a created son, but he was still a son of God, and likewise, all his sons were sons of God, and so on. He created Adam like that, because there wan no womb to bring him forth from, and neither was there a womb to produce a wife for him, but every other human that has ever come into this world since then, has come by the process through the womb of the female. Humanity got off course through the womb of the woman; and therefore God ordained that the one that would pave the way to get us back on a true course should come by the way of the womb also. Pay attention to what I am saying now. God ordained that the Savior of mankind should come into the world just like all other little babes, but He would have to be free from all sin in order to be the Savior. We have already talked about the fact that no living man or woman could father nor mother the perfect child; therefore God Himself would have to do something different to produce that perfect child. That brings us to the point of His only begotten Son. Jesus was the only son that God Himself ever placed the cell of life in the womb of a woman to produce. He was born of, or from the womb of a woman, but He was BEGOTTEN (placed in that womb) by the Spirit of God. The Savior was to be of the seed of the woman, which according to all records of man, He was. According to the scriptures, He was also to be of the lineage of King David, which according to man’s history, He was, being as was supposed the son of Joseph, whose genealogy is traced all the way back through David, Seth and Adam to God Himself. (Luke 3:23-38) Now that brings us to the title of our message, WHY THE VIRGIN BIRTH? I believe you can see by now that God bypassed everything that had ever been defiled by fallen man when He begat His son Jesus, the Savior of lost mankind, even to the point of choosing a young virgin girl whose womb had never been defiled, to carry that little fetus and birth Him according to the normal process of childbirth. The angel Gabriel told her that she had found favor with God, and that she would conceive in her womb, and bring forth a son, and that His name should be called Jesus, and that is exactly what happened. She conceived (or received) life into her womb, but only for the purpose of being an incubator for a supernaturally formed fetus. We will not be dogmatic about the exact process of what God did, except to the point of insisting, that genetically, Jesus was not the son of Joseph of Mary either one. By the same token, He was neither Jew nor Gentile. But according to man’s records, He was the son of Joseph and Mary, which to be so, would make Him a Jew, and would place Him in the genealogy of David, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Seth, Adam and would fulfill all those prophecies concerning the one that was to come, even Genesis 3:15, where God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed (the SERPENT’S SEED) and her seed; (the WOMAN’S SEED) it (the WOMAN’S SEED) shall bruise thy head, (that was Jesus Christ) and thou shalt bruise His heel.” This 2^nd Adam, as Paul called Him, bruised the head of the serpent’s seed, at Calvary, and opened up the way for fallen man to return to God. God foreknew every one of us who would ever believe the gospel and be saved, even before the foundation of the world, but we were separated from Him because of a sin debt that none of us could pay. The price for our freedom was the life of a sinless man, and there was not a sinless man upon the face of the whole earth. Even then, that price had to be paid willingly, Jesus was not forced to lay down His life; He volunteered. But Bro. Jackson, those people arrested Him, and crucified Him. Yes. But what did Jesus say about it? When Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of one of those that arrested Him, Jesus said unto Peter, Put up thy sword. Those that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and He shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus must be? (Matt. 26:52-54) In the 10^th chapter of John, we read, “I lay down my life for the sheep.” (Verse 15) Then in verse 18, we read, “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” That ought to be enough to show that Jesus was not crucified against His own will. In the earlier verses of Matthew 26, you find Him praying, just before He was arrested, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. All of the characteristics that lay in Jesus, came from God; therefore He did not have that fallen nature driving Him, forcing Him to exercise His own will above what He knew to be the divine will of the Father.

ONE EXTRA CHROMOSOME

I read an article some time ago, where scientists have ran tests on professional, hardened criminals in prison. (This lets us know that the devil knew exactly what he was doing, back in Genesis, when he got those two lines of humanity to crossing) and they have found that many of these hardened criminals, people who have been dealt with by the law, and it simply had no affect whatsoever on them, have one extra chromosome more than a normal person. That one extra chromosome would be something that would affect their nature, their attitude toward society, so severely that nothing seemingly could change them. Therefore I say to you, If scientists can prove a thing like that in our day, it ought to be clear, what the devil was doing back there in Genesis 6. He is not without understand on these things; he knows what area to work in, in his efforts to try and defeat the plan of God. Why do you think he inspired the serpent to work on Eve in the first place?

TEST TUBE BABIES

Let me say just a word to those of you who may think I have overstepped the word of God in this message. So many people have been taught that the virgin birth of Jesus was just a bypassing of the normal male’s side of conception, that they find it hard to believe, when we say that Jesus was not the genetic son of Mary either, no more than of Joseph. I would simply ask you to read up on the process of what is referred to as test tube babies, how they actually get their start. You who are familiar with the process, know how they take the sperm of a certain male, and fertilize an egg from a certain woman, start that life in a test tube, and then place it in the womb of the woman that will do for it, what Mary did for Jesus, carry it through the normal period of pregnancy, and then give birth to it, and the offspring that comes forth is known as the son, or daughter of that woman and her husband, yet genetically there is no relationship with either one. Now Jesus was not started in a test tube, but the rest of the process was as the situation just explained. When we first read of that test tube baby that was born in England, it was causing quite a stir among society, but we do know that this sort of thing is being done for couples who are unable to have children through the normal process. Therefore, whether some want to believe it or not, Mary was to Jesus, exactly what those test tube babies’ mothers are to them. The only difference is, Mary’s conception involved a creative act in her womb, by the Holy Ghost that came upon her, and the baby that Mary birthed in the world was the very Messiah that was to be born to fulfill prophecy. This was the only human body that the great eternal Spirit ever dwelled in. He was God manifested in human flesh, yet he humbled Himself and took upon Himself the position of a servant. Though He was ordained to be King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, He never did parade Himself around as a king or magistrate; He was a servant to humanity. Who was he? God Himself, reaching out with His hands, with His eyes, and with His words, dealing with fallen mankind for the sole purpose of conveying God’s divine thoughts to humanity. He was our bridge that spanned the great chasm between God and His lost children, and allowed us to come back to that great fountain of eternal life. There have been other men who have claimed to be God, and every one of them had followers that believed in them, but Jesus Christ is the only one of them that has stood the test, and proved to be perfect God in essence of Spirit, and perfect man, completely sinless.

DID JESUS HAVE HUMAN NATURE?

Many have asked, Did Jesus have human nature about Him? Absolutely. Remember when He had fasted 40 days and nights after His baptism, how the scriptures say that He was hungry? And how the devil came to Him and said, If you really are the Son of God, command these stones be made bread? Why did the devil approach Him like that? Because he knew that He was hungry. His human body was feeling the pains of hunger. He had the same gnawing sensation in His stomach that any of us would have. Then I would ask you to think for a moment, about how He always made His way to the home of Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha. Their home was a place where He would stop over when He would go up to Jerusalem, to the temple, and He grew very fond of them, especially Lazarus. It seemed there was something about Lazarus that caused Jesus to enjoy being around him. You will remember also, how He wept when He was told that Lazarus was dead. That was His physical emotions expressing themselves. It just shows that He had the ability to cry, just like anyone else. Not because He was trying to put up a front, or trying to be sorrowful, and neither was He feeling the hopelessness that so many people feel at a time like that; He was simply expressing human emotions. He could see, hear, feel, taste and smell just like anyone else could; the difference was, He did not have any of the fallen attributes of man in Him. His whole purpose was to please the Father in all things. That is why He said, I do nothing of myself. What did He mean? He meant, as far as saying anything that pertained to the plan of God, the great eternal Spirit. He never mentioned anything without the anointing. But as far as His human side was concerned, He could eat fish, eat fruit, and speak of natural things, with the same mouth that would give out THUS SAITH THE LORD, when the anointing was speaking. He loved Lazarus, and liked being around him, but He only chose for His apostles, those whom the Father had appointed, human feelings were not considered.

THE CHILDREN’S BREAD

Now let us consider for just a moment, the woman of Canaan that came crying unto Him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. She was begging this man, Jesus, to have mercy on her, and heal her daughter, and He did not even answer her. His disciples wanted Him to send her away; they did not like to have her following them, and bothering Him. But He finally said to her, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then the woman came near and worshiped Him, saying, Lord, help me. But he said unto her, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. What a statement. At times like this a person might wonder, Why would He talk to that poor woman like that? But He wanted to see just how determined she was, to get what she desired from Him. (As you follow the ministry of Jesus, you find many things that show His human nature.) If she had been like a lot of people; she might have said, “Bless God, I did not come here to be insulted. If you are going to talk to me like that: I will just go home.” A lot of people take that kind of an attitude, but an attitude like that will never get anything from God. When He said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs, that seemed to awaken something within her. She was just as witty as He was, and she answered back, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master’s table. Her answer, thou witty, showed humility on her part, and that touched His heart. She knew this man could do something for her, and she humbled herself before Him in that way, and that caused Him to say, O Woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. (Matt. 15:21-28) That woman was talking to God, and did not even realize it. Oh, Bro. Jackson, He was the Son of God. “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words THAT I SPEAK unto you I speak not of myself; but the FATHER THAT DWELLETH IN ME, He doeth the works.” (John 14:10) What does that verse say to you? “For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in HIM, which is the head of all principality and power.” (Col. 2:9-10) Notice what the apostle Paul said to the Phillippians. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: (I do nothing except what the Father shows me.) Who, being in the form of God, (What form would that be? Spirit. God is a spirit) thought it not robbery to be equal with God: (Because He was the very thoughts of God, materialized in human flesh. When He walked on the water, He was walking on His own creation.) But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and made in the likeness of men.” (Phil. 2:5-7) When He spoke to the stormy winds that were tossing the little boat around, He was speaking to His own creation. Not that His body of flesh was back there before creation, but the life that was in that body, had been, before the world ever was. God is a Spirit, and that Spirit was in Jesus. That does not mean that He emptied the universe of Himself, just to dwell in that body of flesh; it simply means that the very life that God is, was being displayed and expressed in this human form. For an illustrative comparison, suppose someone would take a glass and fill it with water from the Pacific Ocean, and then walk up to you and say, This is the Pacific Ocean: That would not mean that the whole body of water of the Pacific Ocean had been poured into that glass, but there certainly would be a full representation of that body of water, in that glass. You would have the same thing in that glass that is still out there in the Oceanbed. If you can see the great eternal Spirit in Jesus, like that, you will understand how Jesus could say, The Father is in me, and know that even so, He was still omnipresent.

THE STRAIT GATE

Isn’t it strange that one Jew could see that Jesus was the Messiah they had longed for, and another Jew that had witnessed the same things, could only see Him as the son of Joseph and Mary? It just goes to show that people can see with their own eyes, and hear with their own ears, and still not have a revelation of what they have witnessed. Great multitudes followed Jesus, and partook of the miracles He performed, but only a few of them ever received a revelation of who He was. That is just how narrow the road really is. In His sermon on the mount Jesus said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matt. 7:13-14) Brothers and sisters, it is sad to say, but there is a thinning out process in effect in our day. Those who have just followed along because of fleshly attractions, and do not have a revelation of the word of God in their spirit, are being shaken loose from the trueseed who were foreknown of God before the foundation of the world. Those whom the father foreknew, are sanctified through the truth, the revealed word of God. It is just like Jesus told Nicodemus, “YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN.” You can learn to quote everything that you have ever heard about the word of God, but unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God, for that kingdom is a spiritual kingdom that can be entered into only by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. If you have it: you are sealed in, and if you do not: you are sealed out. It is just that simple. Now of course there had to be a time for every lot, but predestined soul to have that experience, and there may be some yet, who will. I do not know. But without it, you have nothing but the great tribulation ahead of you, and after that, the wrath of God. I am saying these things to those who have sat in the assemblies with the righteous, and have partook of heavenly things right along with them, and then allowed Satan to warp your mind, and cause you to fight against truth. I will not judge anyone myself, the Bible has already judged all who do such things.

To you who love truth , let me say this, Just hold steady while these spiritual winds are raging about you, for of all that the Father hath give to Him, Jesus will not lose any. “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His son, (JESUS) that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Romans 8:29) I am going to close this little message, now, and use whatever space we have left to print some excerpts from “The Seed of the Woman” message we printed back in January 1977. Meanwhile, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Amen.

 EXCERPTS FROM VOL. 9 NO. 1

THE SEED OF THE WOMAN

SATAN WAS THE FIRST MURDERER NOT CAIN

Listen beloved, Cain killing Abel was by no means the first murder! No, Satan himself was the first murderer. He had to commit a murder somewhere in order to be condemned out of the category of the Lord’s righteous angels, because notice, when Satan enters the Garden of Eden he is already a fallen angel! Therefore the serpent talking to Eve is by no means the devil. The serpent before his fall, as a physical creature was much in physical identity or likeness unto man. Yet standing somewhere in the background was that spirit (the devil) waiting to take a slap at God. Satan moves upon this serpent creature and by controlling his intellect, his impulses, and emotions, begins to inspire the serpent for this terrible thing which is about to take place. And it is all the devil’s way at getting back at God by ruining his picture.

After the serpent stated what he does, the woman answered, we may eat of all the trees of the garden...meaning peach trees, apples, pears, oranges, etc. But concerning verse 3, may I say to any human mind who desires to say the trees mentioned here are of the same nature and relationship to those natural trees shown in verse 2, YOU ARE WRONG!

Under the inspiration of God, Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. By inspiration he received the law and was instructed how to build the tabernacle...build it according to the pattern shown in the heavenlies. If Moses saw the heavenly pattern in order to know how to build the tabernacle, then I am persuaded in writing the first five books, much of it was history of their hour, recording the events that Israel had just passed through. Yet Genesis goes back and brings up to date the time of Israel’s departure from Egypt. Therefore God inspired him to write the record of history.

TRUTH PERVERTED

Verse 3...But of the fruit of the trees which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. Verse 3 shows the woman has already stated what would happen if they ate of the tree of knowledge, Verse 4...And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die: For God doth know in the day ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. In a sense he is telling her the truth, but he is telling her this to benefit a wrong motive! Now God (not gods) does know the difference between good and evil. Remember there is only one God, not a plurality of gods! Satan, inspiring the serpent creature, would certainly like to get this think into a trinity, wouldn’t he? Yes the serpent told the truth, but it is truth presented to deceive by, because we know for them to know the difference between good and evil, it certainly won’t be to their good, will it?

TO EAT IS TO PARTAKE

Verse 6...And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food...Critics will ask why is all this worded in this manner? The answer is simple, God allowed it to be worded that way to cloak the whole story until the end of time. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for good, 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.

The question can be asked, what did she eat or partake of? The serpent, this manlike creature, introduced to her the use of sex strictly on the pleasure relation basis. The serpent, since he could talk, was influenced to approach Eve and discuss this thing. And I want to say, this subject in its original plan of God, was one of the most virtuous, holy, and sacred things in the whole universe! It was God’s divine route and means to propagate and bring his family into existence. Adam was not born like that because there was no man. He was the son of God! Yes, within Eve’s body there was a perfect law of conception to set up and take motion. In Genesis, Moses said the serpent beguiled her! Did not the Apostle Paul, writing in Corinthians, tell also that Eve was beguiled? When writing to Timothy, Paul stated how the woman was not to teach nor usurp authority, but was to be under subjection, because Adam was not in the transgression, BUT IT WAS WOMAN! Transgression means to have gone beyond the limits or stepped across the line. It was God who drew a line and said, don’t step across it for the day you do, YE SHALL SURELY DIE!

Notice, the serpent never approached Adam, the headship of creation. No, he approached Adam’s helpmate because it would be through her a law would operate, as to when a sacred relationship between Adam and her would be performed, for the sole purpose of God bringing the two together for conception of producing children.

The devil comes along and through his serpent creature stands on the other side of the line, tempting her to cross over the line. The woman, having not crossed the line as yet said, this is what God said. But the serpent standing on the other side if the line says, now wait a minute. That is not so, for God knows that the day you eat thereof you shall become as gods. In other words, woman don’t you want to be wise? Finally this serpent caused her to cross the line as he introduced sex to her for pleasure. To her she knew the tree of life in its original makeup was only to be partaken of at certain times and that would only be when God said so, and then it was strictly for the production of children.

This serpent was a creature who looked like man, having an intellect much like that of man, yet was not man in the sense of being the son of God, as was Adam. Nevertheless, he had a capacity to talk and communicate with her, and he introduced this act strictly for pleasure. In actuality, the woman committed fornication with the serpent, becoming a transgressor to the perfect original law of God. She stepped across the line! Certain people like to hammer the woman down saying Adam did no wrong. Don’t fool yourself! Remember, the Bible never said Adam had to eat it! 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 the fruit thereof, and did eat. (Here carnal minds always say, see, she had to eat of plant life. Just hold your seat, and we will test your revelation to see whether it be of God or not. Just for the sake of argument we will say she did eat plant life. What then did she eat? Every tree of plant life that was in the garden is on earth today.) And did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. Now if you say sex is to be the order then where did she do wrong in going to her husband? It was all because the act had been introduced for pleasure. Remember, it was only for Go