How are you? I hope you are doing well?

There are many people who, when they fall into sin, in tears, they thoroughly repent and pray to God never to go back to that situation.

There are others who are not converted and do not really know the seriousness of sin and the danger of hell, so they hung around sin as though it is some common thing. They do not value their soul.
They think they can play church and still be in the world. It's a fearful thing because they can't inherit the Kingdom of God.

What is also strange is that they lust after worldly women who cut their hair, paint their faces, wear trousers and shorts, and do not respect the Lord. The truth is that such a brother does not believe the Message he claims to believe. Though Brother Branham screamed against ladies painting their faces and lips, cutting their hair, etc. a man who is not converted does not see anything wrong with such things. So instead of rebuking it, he actually falls in love with ladies that do that.

1st Corinthians 6:9-10
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall Inherit the Kingdom of God.

Brother Branham said our soul is worth more than 10,000 worlds, and a wise man will not trade his soul and heaven for some filthy worldly pleasure.

Brother Branham said the following:

INFLUENCE 1963, paragraph 13

"And especially after you have said and made your confession that you are a Christian, they'll watch you much closer then, and that gives an influence to--to the people that's around about you. And we should watch what we do. Because, if we produce the wrong influence, then we bring reproach, not so much upon ourselves, but upon what we claim to be: Christians. We bring it upon Christ."

WHAT WENT YE OUT TO SEE 1959, paragraph 27

"God doesn't send you to hell for being a sinner. God sends you to hell because you won't repent and take Christ as your Saviour. You refused to take the right road. You send yourself to torment. You send your own soul to its eternal destination upon the free moral agency of your own convictions. "

Continue to pray for the Church that the life of every believer will be completely surrended to God for the hour is late.

Good question. I have spoken about this before but I guess you were not around the time I said it.

In PLACING OF DEACONS 1958, the prophet said, "And the church ARE THOSE who come and support the church with their presence, with their tithes and offerings, are always the ones that has the legal say-so in the placing of such"

So, there are three things that identify a believer as part of a local assembly:

(i) Their presence
(ii) Their tithes and
(iii)Their offerings

So, a church member must be doing ALL THREE to be considered a member of a particular church.

Being baptised in water puts you in fellowship, making a public declaration that you have believed, and being baptised with fire (the Holy Ghost baptism) puts you into the Body of Christ. The assumption is that before you begin to fellowship and pay your tithes and offerings, you must have been baptised in water in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

For tithes not to be mixed with offerings, tithes are always enveloped. The envelopes must have on them the names of those paying because a record is kept of all tithes and offerings of the church as long as the church lives. So write your name on the envelope each time you pay tithe.

Brother Branham said, "The church's responsibility is first towards its members."
So when the church is undertaking any responsibility or obligation towards anyone, it first considers whether the person to be helped is a member, because it has a responsibility FIRST towards its members.

The pastor and the trustee are the only ones who have the privilege to know those who pay tithes and those who do not pay tithes. RECORDS MUST BE KEPT. Branham Tabernacle kept records.

I think I have provided enough answers on tithing on the platform than any other question I have had to answer. Always endeavour to read the answers I provide to other questions.

Well, the Bible does not say that when your money is not enough for you and your family, don't pay tithe but pay only when your money is sufficient for you.

If we understand that the tithe is God's own money we are giving back to Him, we'll always give it to Him and we will be afraid to use it.

In Malachi 3:8-11, God calls anyone who does not pay his tithe a robber because tithe is the Lord's money. He assures us that He'll rebuke the devourer if we pay our tithes. And if we don't pay our tithes, we are cursed with a curse.

Consider the following quotes:

HEBREWS CHAPTER SEVEN PART 1, 1957 PARAGRAPH 123

"Why would He ask Abraham to pay tithes? You see what a strict thing it is to pay tithes? Tithing is right. Every Christian is duty bound to pay tithe. That's right. Never has been changed.

GOD BEING MISUNDERSTOOD 1961 COD PARAGRAPH 111 Q.146

"All right, if you will... That is right, that the Bible said in Malachi the 4th chapter, 'Will a man Rob God? And you say, "Where have we robbed Thee?" In tithe and offerings. Bring all your tithe and offerings into My storehouse and prove Me," saith the Lord, "if I will not open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that there'll not be room enough to receive."
That's a challenge to any individual. And if I only had the time, and would not get to this little Scripture that I wish to get to in about the next ten minutes , I would like to give you a personal testimony of how that I was even hungry, and my mother and them hungry, and my daddy sick, but I took my tithes out first and give it to God, and you ought to see what happened. I have never seen in my life, that any man or a woman, that if you only make one dollar a week, will bring the ten cents of that money and put it into your storehouse, your church where you come, if God don't bless that, call me a hypocrite. Yes, Sir. That's a challenge to anybody. And every Christian...That goes to this other question. Every Christian should pay tithes. That's right. It should be done."

Different pastors in the Message draw different inspirations from the Message of the Hour and from the prophet's personal life and end up doing things differently based on their level of their understanding of the Message.

Every pastor is accountable to God for the flock over which God has made him a shepherd. He's not accountable for another church. Every local assembly is independent and sovereign, the prophet said, and therefore should not do things based on what other sister churches do.

I have observed, with keen interest, how the prophet said the Angel that came to him was always clean-shaven.

A brother shaving off his beard should not be based on doctrine but on common decency.

In Genesis 41:14, when Pharaoh sent for Joseph to appear before him, Joseph did not only change his clothes to look presentable before the king, he shaved as well. It's gentlemanly to do that.

Genesis 41:14

"Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of ⁶the pit. And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharoah.

61-1015M - Questions And Answers

191 Now, you wasn’t in no battle here, you was just slopping along. See?
But now, you’ve—you’ve cleaned up; you’ve dressed up; you’ve shaved; you’ve combed your hair; you put on a uniform; you’ve got a gun in your hand. “

Let’s go!” See? You’re in battle, not to show off, but to fight, fight! Sure when the temptations rise, with the Spirit, the shield of faith, buck it off, and move on. See? That’s right. Oh, put all the whole armor of God. Why do you put on a armor if you’re not going to fight? All soldiers are dressed to fight, not to show off,

walk out and say, “I’m So-and-so. Now, I’m a Christian. See who I am. I belong to so-and-so. Hallelujah! I got the Holy Ghost the other night. Sure, nothing bothers me anymore.” Huh-uh! Oh, brother, I—I believe you better go back and try again. See?

1st Timothy 5:1 reads "Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren."

All denominational churches and even some Message churches see elders as Officers of the church and not the Pastors/Bishops.

The prophet completely disagrees and gives a detailed explanation in the following quotes:

THE PERGAMEAN CHURCH AGE (An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages from page 197, last sentence, to page 198)

"Though Scripture shows that there are several elders in each church, some began (Ignatius among them) to teach that the idea of a Bishop was one of preeminence or authority and control over the elders. Now the truth of the matter is the Word 'elder' signifies who the person is, while the word 'bishop' signifies the office of the same man. The elder is the man. Bishop is the office of the man. 'Elder' always has and always will refer simply to a man's chronological age in the Lord. He is an elder, not because he is elected or ordained, etcetera, but because he IS OLDER. He is more seasoned, trained, not a novice, reliable because of experience and long standing proof of his Christian experience. But no, the bishops did not stick to the epistle of Paul, but rather they went to Paul's account of the time he called the elders from Ephesus to Miletus in Acts 20. In verse 17 the record states, 'elders' were called and then in verse 28 they are called overseers (bishops)."

In A RESUME OF THE AGES (An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages page 369, last paragraph to page 370)

"The third age revealed by the Spirit of prophecy that the worldly church would adopt Nicholaitanism as a doctrine. The separation of the clergy from the laity grew from the Biblical truth of the elders (shepherds of local flocks) ruling the flock by the Word..."

HEBREWS CHAPTER 7 PART 2 1957

"But the full and complete authority of the church is the pastor. Read that in the Bible; see if that's not Bible order. That's exactly right. There's no one above the elder."

I hope the above quotes make you now realise that the words elder and pastor/bishop refer to the same person.