Dear Friends, beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This is Brother Frank speaking to you from the international Mission Center in Krefeld, Germany. It’s always a privilege to talk to those who respect God’s Word. I like to share a few scriptures with us. Not what men say, but what God promised in His Word will come true. Every promise in God’s Word is divine; every verse, every line of the Scriptures we do believe to be divinely inspired. God’s everlasting Word. We also have to realise that God does all things according to His Word. First, He makes promises, and then He watches over His Word to fulfil what He promised. It was so with Abraham in the natural. God gave a promise to Abraham about Isaac to be born. And the time came that the Scripture or the promise given to him was fulfilled. The promise then was in his hands. He could take Isaac as the fulfilment of what God promised. In the same way we read, God made a promise also to Abraham, “After 400 years I will bring your people out of bondage.” When the time came and the 400 years had passed, God remembered His promise and appeared to Moses in a burning bush and sent him to deliver God’s people.

Beloved, coming right to the beginning of the New Testament. John the Baptist was a promised prophet: Isaiah, chapter 40, verse 3; Malachi 3, verse 1. The two promises were fulfilled, and when the fulfilment comes, the supernatural takes place on earth. God begins to move in a supernatural way as soon as promises are being fulfilled. According to Luke, chapter 1, the Angel Gabriel came to Zacharias, informing him that his wife Elisabeth will have a son. His name should be John, because he would go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the way, to make ready a people for the Lord. That is actually the purpose of a God-sent messenger and of a God-sent message. Not a man presenting himself or his programmes, but a man sent from God with the Word of God, with the message of the hour, acquaints God’s people with the promises for that age. Now, since we live very close to the return of Christ, we have to acknowledge everything that was promised and also all things which were predicted to take place just prior to the return of Christ. First we must go to John, chapter 14, where our Lord made the promise to go and prepare the place for His own and then He would return and take us to be where He is. This has been the hope of all true children of God through the past 2,000 years. It is our hope today, and by the Scriptures we understand that the time is ending. Nobody knows the time or the hour, but our Lord said in Matthew 24, verse 25, “I foretold you all these things.” And He continues to say, “When you see all these things come to pass, then you know it’s near, even at the door.” He speaks about the end time, about earthquakes and wars and all the catastrophes that would come upon humanity. And then He says in Matthew 24, verse 8, “This is the beginning of the time of sorrow.” 

Beloved Brothers and Sisters, dear Friends, we were acquainted with many things, but recently we had the Tsunami waves, we had known the impact that connects with such waves. How many died in the floods which were incomparable and unknown up to our day and time! Then we know about Israel, about the Gaza strip which had to be vacated by the Israelis, because it’s not part of the Promised Land. And we understand that the peace process is also marching forward, and the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 1–3, “When they will say, ‘Now is peace and safety!’, then sudden destruction will be.” Beloved then we come to the promise for the New Testament Church. Before the Day of the Lord comes, before the Day of Salvation ends, before grace finishes, God promised to send a prophet like Elijah. This we have to respect. 

We know, John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah. And according to Matthew 17 and Mark, chapter 13, our Lord took His disciples, three of them, and went unto the Mount Transfiguration. There Moses and Elijah appeared. But when they came down, the question was only about Elijah, not about Moses. There are two promises, one promise for Israel and one for the Church. When the concern is with Israel, then the two prophets are spoken of in Zechariah, chapter 4, and also in Revelation, chapter 11. There will be two prophets in Jerusalem after the rapture of the New Testament Bride Church at the return of Christ to take us to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. First, we are now waiting for the Lord to return. But to wait for His return without preparing, without being ready is a waiting in vain which will lead to disappointment. So there has to be a preparation of the Bride Church for the coming of the Bridegroom. And as a bridegroom shares the mysteries with his future wife, with his bride, so the heavenly Bridegroom shares His promises, His Words, His secrets with us at this time – not with everybody, just with the Bride Church of Jesus Christ. 

My Beloved, coming to the point. I believe the Scripture; I don’t believe a single interpretation, and, Beloved, I don’t want you to further on interpret God’s Word and put everything in the past and not realising what God is doing in our time. When our Lord spoke about the Elijah to come, He also mentioned John the Baptist to be Elijah, because he came in the spirit and power of Elijah. But at his day and time the Day of the Lord did not come and 2,000 years have passed and the Day of the Lord is not yet, because the Scripture says in the Old Testament, in the Prophet Isaiah, chapter 13; in Joel, chapter 2; in Matthew 24 and all the parallel scriptures that the sun will turn into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. So, up till now that day has not come. And God made two promises: one promise in Malachi, chapter 3, “I will send My messenger before My face to prepare My way before Me.” This scripture our Lord confirmed to be fulfilled in John the Baptist’s ministry. You can go to Matthew 11, verse 10, you can go to Mark, chapter 1:1-3; you can go to Luke, chapter 3, and read that our Lord and the writers of the gospels confirmed John the Baptist to be that promised prophet of Malachi, chapter 3, verse 1 and also Isaiah, chapter 40, verse 3. Then in John, chapter 1, this man of God was asked, “Who are you? Are you the Christ.” He said, “No, I am not.” “Are you Elijah?” His answer was, “No, I am not.” “Are you that prophet?” He said, “Are you that prophet?” He said, “No, I am not.” And then those who were sent to ask him and had to give an answer, addressed John and said, “Please, we must give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say of yourself? If you are not Christ, if you are not Elijah, if you are not that prophet, why are you even baptising? So, who are you, man? We wish to know.” Then the man of God said, “I am the voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” (John 1, verse 23). 

Beloved we must pay attention to what the Scripture says and take every place, like in Matthew, in Mark, in Luke, in John. We have to take every place dealing with the same subject. Only then we have the full and complete understanding of what the Lord said and promised in His Word. So, according to the Scripture, at the end of the time of grace a man like Elijah was to appear on the scene to take the hearts of God’s children back to the fathers, back to the beginning. Like if you read in Hebrews, chapter 1, the Scripture says, “God, in diverse times and many ways spoke to the fathers by the prophets, but in the last days He spoke to us by His Son, Christ Jesus.” So in the ministry of John the Baptist according to Luke, chapter 1, verse 16 and 17, the hearts of the fathers, to whom God had spoken throughout the period of the Old Testament were turned to the beginning of the New Testament. That’s the Word of God; that is Thus saith the Lord. So the first part of that promise was fulfilled in John the Baptist’s ministry. Therefore he was also called Elijah. But the second part to turn the hearts of God’s children back to the apostolic fathers in the restoration of all things, this is what counts, beloved Brothers and Sisters! We cannot continue in our own ways, our own teachings, our own programmes. I mentioned one incident, one experience I had in one of the greatest churches on earth, Full Gospel Church, where a brother read Acts, chapter 2, verse 42, “And they remained in the doctrines of the apostles, in fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in prayer.” He read it, but there was no trace of any apostolic doctrine, and when the Lord’s Supper was to be administered, Beloved, there was no bread that could have been broken, there was no cup that could have been blessed, there was no true fellowship in the Holy Spirit. It was a little “ramba-zamba” and some atmosphere, good music, but that’s something that I don’t appreciate. I want the old Bible way, the true moving of the Holy Spirit. I don’t want a man to take off his coat and say, “Now the Holy Spirit is moving.” It’s not the Holy Spirit moving, it’s the man moving his own coat. I don’t want to be deceived. And if we look into the world, especially the religious world, and I should not criticize, because I preach world-wide, I have been to over 130 countries in my lifetime, I spent a few million miles in the air, because I am travelling every month to the nations of the earth; about two weeks home and two weeks on a mission trip. So, I should not critisize. But from my heart I have to say, people might say, “Christ is here. Christ is here. Christ is here.” And then the others might say, “But Christ is here. Christ is with us.” And everybody claims to be anointed. And everbody claims, “Christ is with us.” And everybody claims, “I or we have the message of the hour.” 

Where is Christ? Christ is in His Word! And if there are no promises of God’s Word with you, then I doubt, I doubt if God can be with you. Abraham believed the promised Word of God. Mary believed the promised Word of God. Throughout the period of the New Testament, we find the fulfilment of what God promised in the Old Testament. In fact, if Doctor Larkin counted right, 109 promises from the Old Testament were fulfilled at the first coming of Christ. Everything was foretold, was promised in God’s Word, right from Genesis, chapter 3, verse 15, to the last promise, Malachi, chapter 3, verse 1, that the Lord would come after the messenger had prepared the way. 

Now, what about the promises for our day? The main promise is – believe it or not, but you better believe it – the main promise is Malachi, chapter 4, “I will send you the Prophet Elijah, before the great and dreadfuld Day of the Lord comes.” What did Elijah do? According to 1 Kings, chapter 18, Elijah called the priests together, the Ashera priests, the Baal’s priests, but he also called God’s people together and he took the twelve stones according to the twelve tribes of Israel. He rebuilt the altar, he put the sacrifice on the altar, he put the water on top of the sacrifice and then he looked up towards heaven and he said, “Let it be known today who the true God in Israel is and who His servant is.” And the fire came down and God confirmed His Word and the priests were slaughtered and the Kingdom of God, I would say, was established again within Israel, because the hearts of the people were turned back again to God. And this is what the man sent from God in our time had to do! I am not ashamed to mention William Branham as a man sent from God. I knew him for ten years, I drove with him in the same car, I ate with him at the same table, I was in his meetings in Germany and in his meetings in the United States of America. My eyes have seen it, my ears have heard it. I am a true witness of the fulfilment of that promise! And just between you and me: He was the only man that I came to know in my lifetime who preached the true apostolic doctrines, who brought us back to the Word of God. And I challenge you today: Try all your big TV-evangelists, if they do preach the full gospel: if they preach repentance, if they preach baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, if they preach baptism in the Holy Spirit, or if they just concentrate on signs and wonders, on giving money, on supporting a programme. I don’t need your money! I need your soul, God needs your soul! I want to fall God’s Word into your soul. Because heaven and earth shall pass away, but God’s Word shall remain for ever. 

Beloved, the return of Christ is near. We must prepare. Behold, the Bridegroom cometh! Go ye out to meet Him! Don’t remain in your own ways, in your own teachings! Return to God and His Word, believe all the promises He made. And after you believe them, you shall experience the fulfilment of God’s promised Word right until the moment the Lord returns and we are changed and taken up into Glory. 

The God of heaven bless you and be with you. I would love to hear from you. In Jesus’ holy Name. Amen.