Who do you say this is?

William Branham.

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Who do you say this is?

Matthew 21:10-11,
10 And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?
11 And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.

Now, we know the time that it is, and many of you are familiar with the Scripture of this certain chapter. It's on, really on the day that Christ came into Jerusalem, riding on this little donkey. And we... There's a legend says that it was a white donkey, I'd imagine, in prefigure of His second coming on a charger. That time, the prophet said, that "He would ride... Your King comes to you upon the foal of an ass, and is lowly and meek." That's how He come and-- and-- upon a-- a little donkey, a little burden-bearer. But the next time He comes from glory (in the 19th chapter of Revelation), He comes as a mighty Conqueror. His vesture dipped in blood, setting upon a white horse, and all the host of heaven's following Him upon white horses. And the legend (not Scripturally or historically), but the legend believes that He was riding a little white donkey as He come into Jerusalem.

Now, that I have chosen this is still... Because that we're in the shadows of the-- in the time of the yule season of Christmas, and-- and New Year's: the ending of an old year, and the bringing in of a new one. A few days from now, many people will be turning new pages, and-- and doing new things, and making new vows; and it's beginning of a New Year. And it never seems to me too much like Christmas. I don't know why. I always like to call it Santa Claus Day." See? Because there's not much really... It couldn't have been Christ's birthday. It just absolutely could not have been. He'd have had to been born in March or April, 'cause He was the Lamb. And He was a male sheep and borned in under the ram, Aries. It had to be. You see? And-- and sheep are not born in December anyhow. Sheep are born in the spring. And then another thing, the hills of Judaea now, there's twenty feet of snow on them. How could the shepherds have been out there?

So it really comes from Roman mythology, which was the sun god's birthday. The solar sun as it passes, the days lengthen and lengthen, and the nights grow shorter. And between the 20th and the 25th of December is the sun god's birthday, under the Roman-- Roman mythology. And then their gods... And then they celebrated the sun god's birthday. And Constantine in-- in drawing up the constitution of the church and state and so forth, he said, "We will change it (not knowing what the day was) and put it over on the sun god's birthday, and make it: Son of God's birthday." See? Which... But we don't know what day it was. But now, there's taken so much of Christ out, till it's everything... Some again brought back the mythology of some creature that lived, supposingly, by the name of Saint Nicholas or-- or Kriss Kringle, some German mythology. And it's all just a myth, and Christ is not in it at all.

And the people has turned in to buying whiskey, and-- and gambling, and fashions. And a-- a man that... A merchant that can sell his goods through Christmas time can live the rest of the year almost. See? It's such a great holiday, commercial. And poor little kids on the street, their parents are not able to-- to visit them with a-- a present like from Santa Claus, and they walk down the street, and their little dirty hands and their little red eyes. I-- I just hate to see it come along. It ought to be a solemn day of worship to God, instead of a heartache and a headache. And the things that's done, there's nothing to Christ about that. But we're right in the midst of all this now.

We find ourselves, something like they were then. See, it's just entering in now to a great feast. Jesus was coming to a Feast of the Passover. And He had entered Jerusalem-- or entering Jerusalem. And the prophesies of everything He did must be fulfilled. Everything in the Bible has a meaning. Every name has a meaning. There's nothing written in the Scripture but has a-- a profound meaning. I spoke the other night at Tucson, on "Why Did It Have To Be Shepherds Instead Of Theologian?" He was born right in the side of the church. And the Holy Spirit going way out into the wilderness and picking up, not theologians, but shepherds, it had to be that way. Theologians wouldn't have believed such a message. So they-- it had to be shepherds.

I preached up here, a few years ago (two years ago), "Why Was It, It To Be Little Bethlehem?" The Lord willing, next Christmas, I want us to preach on, "Why Did It Have To Be The Wise Men?" These "Why's," they got answers to them, and they're right here in the Bible. And we're living in a marvelous time, the greatest time of all ages. We're living to when, anytime that it-- time can cease and eternity can blend right in with it and go on. The ages of all the prophets and sages looked forward to... We ought to be every hour on our guard, watching for His coming.

We find ourselves at this Christmas, just about like they did the first Christmas though. The world's just about to fall apart, as I preached on once somewhere, about a Christmas message, "The World Falling Apart." And the world again is just about to come to pieces. Look at the earthquakes over here in California. I predict before the coming of the Lord Jesus, that God will sink that place. I believe that Hollywood, and Los Angeles, and them filthy places over there, that God Almighty will sink them. They'll go beneath the bottom of the sea. And it's so much sin (You see?), it's the barrier. Civilization has traveled with the sun, from... And it started in the east going west. And now it's at the west coast. If it goes any further, it'll be back east again. So that's the barrier. And sin has traveled with civilization, and it becomes the cesspool of all ages. Things they do that-- that human beings in any other age wouldn't have thought of such a thing. Women has throwed theirself to such a filth, till no woman in any age would've ever thought of such a thing as we do today. And then still call ourselves Christians. What a disgrace.

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God gave-- gives the answer to your prayer. You asked, and you shall receive. And that's... I could stop here for hours on men and women, Christians even, praying for something; and God gives the answer and they don't even recognize it. And now, God gave them the answer. They wanting a Messiah. They knowed that they'd had Caesars, and they'd had-- they'd had Davids; they'd had Solomons the wise man; they'd had David the mighty warriors; they-- they'd had all kinds; but they knowed they had to have help from heaven and they... God had promised them a Messiah. And He sent them that Messiah in answer to their prayer, but they didn't want Him.

I wonder today, if our prayers... You hear them say, "Pray for a great revival. Pray for this. Pray for a breaking forth. Pray for unity." I wonder, if God would send such a program, if we would accept it. I just wonder if we would accept what He sends to us. You see, He... The reason that we pray for these things, because we know it's needy. But when God sends it in the way that He wants it, then it's not according to our taste, and therefore, we won't receive it. And that's the way it was in that day. If He was not in the taste of their belief and their... They-- they would not receive Him again today. That's the reason they asked this question, "Who is this? Who is this fellow that's coming?" See, it was a--a tremendous time. Oh, everybody was-- a tension. Something was fixing to happen.

Look at the world today, what a tension the whole world lives in. You go down the street... It's-- it's not even safe to drive. It's not safe to be on a four lane highway. Everybody's at a tension, snapping and... What's the matter? Quieten down. Where you going? That's what's making the insane institutions fill up. That's what's got the church in such a turmoil. They're-- they're so head-bound on certain thing. They won't stop and consider God's Word and the hour that we're living: all under a strain, tension.

And now, we know. We are aware. The earth has just went through some great birth pains. And the church is going through some birth pains. It had to go through birth pains 'fore it could give... Each one of the prophets, when they came into the world, it was a birth pain to the church. The world has went through a First World War, Second World War, and now it's ready for a Third World War. And it's in birth pains again. But there's only one thing that can bring peace, and that's Christ.

All of our schemes, and our ideas, and our ecclesiastical builds ups, and all of our politics, and all of our science and everything, it's been proved that it's nonsense. And then we pray for God to-- to help us, to intervene, "Come in and do something for us." And then when He does, I just wonder if we would be able to understand it; if we would be able to receive it; or even would we consider it?

Now that's what was done back in them days. They'd been praying; they'd had all kinds of great leaders; they'd been under governments; they'd been under kingship; they'd been under everything, judges. But they knowed that there's only one thing that could save them; that was the coming Messiah. And the "Messiah" means "the anointed one," a human being that was anointed, then the human being, anointed with the Word, the Word made flesh among us. And when He come, He-- He wasn't just exactly in the taste that they wanted Him, not the taste that they had-- that He should come in. So therefore they-- they-- they cry, "Who's this fellow? What's all this racket about?" A bunch of peasants down there at the gate, breaking off palms and... And he said, "Why, make them hold their peace. They make us nervous the way they scream, and holler, and carry on." He said, "If they hold their peace, these rocks will immediately cry out."

Oh, time was unfolding. Prophecy was being fulfilled. No wonder. "The Lion roareth and who will not fear? And God has spoken; who cannot keep from prophesying?" No, if He wasn't just in our own taste... If He wasn't just the way we wanted Him, the way that we thought that He should come, we wouldn't receive Him. Then it was their creeds had gotten them so off of the written Word. They were so far off, they failed to recognize Him Who they had prayed for to come. Their churches had got them so far away, till the very thing that they had prayed for was right with them, and it wasn't in their taste, and so they-- they-- they couldn't believe it. They had to get away from it. They ousted it. They... There's only one thing you can do when you meet Christ. That's either accept Him or reject Him. You can never walk away neutral. You cannot do that. It-- it's not for you to do it. It's just that way.

Just notice, how few recognized Him to be the anointed Word of that day. See, God in the beginning, being infinite, and knowed all things from the beginning... And the only thing that these things are is the display of His attributes. An attribute... You have an attribute. It's your thought. You think of something, then you speak it, then you take it. That's God. He, in the beginning... If you're... If you ever was or ever will be in heaven, you was in heaven to start with. You're part of God. You were His thought. He knew your name. He knew who you were before there ever was a-- a--a molecule, before there was a light. Before there was anything, He knew you and your name, and put it on the Lamb's Book of Life before the world was ever formed. See, you were His thought. And then a... Then you become a Word. And a word is a-- a thought expressed. Then you're manifested.

That's the way He was. He was in the beginning by Himself. God dwelt alone with His thoughts. He'll never do that again 'cause His thoughts are being made manifest. And that's why we are right here this day: is God fellowshipping with His thoughts being made manifest. See? There we are. So you, by taking thought, cannot add one cubit to your statue. You cannot do this, that, or other. It's God that showeth mercy. It's God. "All the Father has given Me will come to Me, and no man can come except My Father draws him." That settles it.

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Who do you say this is?

He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:15-16