The Mighty Conqueror
58-0610, The Mighty Conqueror, Tent Meeting, Dallas, TX, 56 min




Now, just before we read His Word, let us speak to Him in a word of prayer. Shall we bow our head:
Eternal God, Who brought again the Lord Jesus from the dead, we pray that You will forgive us of our many trespasses against You, and that Your Spirit will come to us tonight, in the great outpouring, and may the sinners weep their way through tonight and the--the sick be healed, and the great signs of the Living God be done under this tent tonight, God. Grant it.
This is Thy Word, as we are fixing to read It, and no one can interpret it but the Holy Spirit. And we pray that He will give us the context of the Word. Grant it, Lord, through Jesus' Name, we pray. Amen.


And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that set thereon was given a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. [Revelation 6:2]
I would like to, if it should be mentioned this way, to take this under consideration as to be called, "The Mighty Conqueror."

And the world has been full of heroes, and conquerors, and so forth. And I'm thinking, tonight, of Constantine. As the great mighty warrior was on his road to Rome, being just a little troubled about going over. One night, when he was in his sleep, he dreamed a dream, that he saw a white cross come before him. And a voice spoke to him and said, "By this, ye shall conquer." And he woke all of his men up in the middle of the night, and had them to paint a white cross on their shield. And by that, well, they was to conquer. [Revelation 6:2]

And we know that Constantine was a great man, but then we're thinking again of about three years ago. I was on my way from Germany, where the Lord had give us a great meeting. And we stopped over at Brussels. And we wasn't too far out there, to Waterloo. And they was telling us about some statues and so forth, they had as relics of the great battle at Waterloo, many, many hundreds of years ago, where the great Napoleon was defeated.
And Napoleon, we all know as being a great man, but he started out on a good path when he was a young man; at the age of thirty-three he had conquered the world. After he whipped everybody in the world in all the nations, he set down and wept, because that there was no one else to whip. And he died at a early age, a alcoholic. When he started off, he was a prohibitionist. But when he died, he was an alcoholic. And he was so feared by the world.

And just remember this; that's a good lesson for the church of the living God. If we don't play the game according to the rules, we'll be disqualified at the end. You have to keep the rules of the game to win.
And if the rules of the game in this place, is a man must be borned again to enter into the fellowship of Christ and His church, and we might be the greatest denomination on earth, but if we haven't played the rules of the game, we'll be disqualified at the end. We've got to come straight with God's rules. It isn't our rules; it's His rules, that we've got to abide by. We're running the race according to His rules, and we have to abide by them. [John 3:1-5]

There is no other force in all the world as great as love. And I'm almost sure that we, as people, have put too much emphasis upon other rules that (don't mean to be rude, but sometimes), that we've made ourselves, and put so much stress on those rules, only to find ourself disqualified.

What if Methodist had have played the rules of the game right? There'd never been a Pentecostal church.
But if we fail to play the rules of the game right, God will disqualify us and raise up out of these stones, children to Abraham. And God wants the game played right, and we must do it. So it doesn't make any difference how much we feel like that we're progressing on, until we get back to the rule of the game... [Matthew 3:9], [Luke 3:8]

I said, "I feel for them too, sir." But I said, "If God has given you a talent, stay with that talent. And no matter what you try to do, if that talent isn't operated, no matter how great it is, if it isn't operate according to the rules, you'll be disqualified in the race."

So if we're going to play this game, as we would call it... If we're going to win, we've got to get back to the winning principle. All these great signs and wonders, that we have seen, to God we give praise. But if those things isn't built upon godly Christian love and respect for God and His people, it'll fail. It's just got to fail. See? Because it has no foundation. And in this great thing, I... [I Corinthians 13:1-2]

Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is just an empty dream! (Just eat, drink and be merry.)
And the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! And life is earnest!
And the grave is not it's goal;
Dust thy art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Lives of great men all remind us,
And we can make our life sublime,
With partings leave behind us,
Footprints on the sands of time.
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing over life's solemn main,
For forlong and shipwreck brother,
Seeing shall take heart again.
Let us be up then and doing,
With a heart wherein we strive,
Be not like dumb driven cattle, be a hero.
Life is just an empty dream! (Just eat, drink and be merry.)
And the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! And life is earnest!
And the grave is not it's goal;
Dust thy art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Lives of great men all remind us,
And we can make our life sublime,
With partings leave behind us,
Footprints on the sands of time.
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing over life's solemn main,
For forlong and shipwreck brother,
Seeing shall take heart again.
Let us be up then and doing,
With a heart wherein we strive,
Be not like dumb driven cattle, be a hero.

I'm thinking, tonight, as I look over this audience of man--you men and women, that's around my age, of a hero that we used to read about in our reader, all too quickly forgotten, and that was of Arnold Von Winkelried of Switzerland. Why, up in the Swiss mountains, you can just mention his name today, and the expression on the people's faces will change, and tears will run down their cheeks.

But one day, when their little economy had been attacked by an army, and all the Finnish men had gathered into the valley in below the mountain. They had gone there to defend their homes, and their children; and all that they held dear in life, they went to defend it. And when they found themselves a small group out in the field, and looked coming onto them a great marching army, like a brick wall, every man trained with spear, and shield, and helmets, and great armors on, just so trained and perfect, till not one man out of step, looked like, for an endless stretch. And here they were standing, and was standing for right as a group all beat up against the wall, with old sickle blades, and rocks, and sticks in their hands to fight with. What could that little army do against such an onslaughter as they had, as their foe come every man trained right to the spot? Why, they were helpless. They had not one thing they could do.

They said, "Arnold Von Winkelried, what can you do against such a great host coming on?
He said, "Just beyond the mountain, I kissed good-bye my wife and three children. And there's a little white home, and they're standing in the door to watch me come home, but," said, "I'll never see them again this--in this earth, for today I give my life for Switzerland, and it's right."
They said, "What will you do, Mr. Arnold Von Winkelried?"
He said, "You just follow me, and ever what you've got to fight with, fight with all that's in you."
And they said, "What will you do?"
And he threw down what he had in his hand; he seen that great army coming on, and he looked it all over, until he found the very thickest of the spears. And as the story goes, he raised his hands and took right towards the midst of the spears, screaming, "Make way for liberty." And he screamed again, "Make way for liberty." And he run right into those--where a hundred spears to catch him, and he threw out his arms and got a whole armload of them, and plunged them into his chest. Such a display of heroism, it routed the army, and those little Swiss men with sticks and stone, and sickle blades, routed that army out of their territory, and they haven't had a war since.

But oh, brother, sister, that was such a little thing, till one day, when Adam's race was backed up against a wall. They'd had prophets; they'd had laws, and they had killed the prophets, and destroyed the laws. And Adam's race was backed up, helpless and hopeless against the oncoming enemy, the devil and all of his hosts. Well trained spirit beings, the mortal was no match for them at all. And what could they do, they were helpless?
But there was One who stepped out in glory from the bosoms of the Father, and He said, "I'll go down this day and give My life for Adam's fallen race."

He led the way; He was the mighty Conqueror. He didn't conquer for Himself and for His own glory, but He conquered for the good of Adam's fallen race. There's never been a conqueror like that.

Ladies and gentlemen, and my brothers, and sisters, it's time, tonight for the church to pick up that which Christ left us. "This will all men know you're My disciples, when you have love one for the other." And take that sword and self-sacrifice and get back to the old Gospel line again, going out to conquer our enemy. Conquer him by love, by the same thing that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth Him shall not perish, but have Eternal Life." [John 13:35], [John 3:16]

When He was here on earth, He walked up to a--a sick man, that sickness had bound the human race, and He said, "Thou spirit of the devil, I charge thee, come out of the man." He conquered the devil.
When a man lay in the grave dead, He conquered death for the man, or the sickness when the maniac come out to destroy Him, and the maniac realized that He was the Son of God; he said to Him, "Oh, if You'll cast us out, suffer us to go in that bunch of hogs." For he knew the authority that Jesus Christ had. He conquered the devil everywhere He met him. And He not only conquered in Himself, but left the commission to the church that, "Anything that you ask in My Name, that I will do." [John 14:13]

We're living in a day that when this social gospel is becoming predominate, when the--the churches are uniting themselves together and making a social religion, and binding themselves together; it's a terrible day. They're trying to take all the Deity, and all the--the--the glory away from Christ, and trying to make Him just a prophet. If Christ was just a prophet, we're every one lost. He was more than a prophet, and today when... [Romans 11:29]

Well, I said, "What is it, sister?"
And she said, "You try to magnify Christ too much; you brag on Him too much. You try to make Him more than what He is."
I said, "If I had ten thousand languages, I would--could exhaust them, and could never explain what He really is. He is worthy of every praise."
She said, "Mr. Branham, I heard you say from the platform, that you was a fundamentalist."
I said, "According to the Word, yes."
She said, "If I'll explain to you, and prove to you by the Word, that He was just a man, and you try to make Him Deity."
I said, "He was Deity." I said, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself." I said, "If He's just a prophet, we're all lost."
She said, "If I'll prove to you, by the Bible, that He was just a man. Will you accept it?"
I said, "Yes, ma'am, if the Bible said that."
She said, "When He went down to the grave of Lazarus, in Saint John the 11th chapter, the Bible said, 'He wept,'and if He'd been Deity, He could not weep. So that made Him nothing but just an ordinary good man." [John 11:35]

And He was a man, when He come off the mountain, that night, hungry, had nothing to eat, and looked around on a fig tree to find something to eat. He was a man when He was hungry, but when He took five biscuits and two little fishes and fed five thousand, that was more than a man. That was God speaking through His Son, Christ Jesus, Deity in man." [John 11:43], [Matthew 14:19-20]

He was a man, when He called for mercy at the cross. He died like a man, but on Easter morning, when the seal of the Roman government was broke and the tomb was empty, He rose again. He might have died like a man, but He raised again like God. He was a God-man. [Mark 4:39]
No wonder the poet said,
Living, He loved me;
Dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away.
Rising, He justified, freely forever.
Someday, He's coming. O glorious day.
No wonder, blind Fanny Crosby could scream,
Pass me not, O gentle Saviour,
Hear my humble cry;
While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by.
Thou the stream of all my comfort,
More than life to me,
Whom have I on earth beside Thee,
Or Whom in heaven but Thee."
Dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away.
Rising, He justified, freely forever.
Someday, He's coming. O glorious day.
No wonder, blind Fanny Crosby could scream,
Pass me not, O gentle Saviour,
Hear my humble cry;
While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by.
Thou the stream of all my comfort,
More than life to me,
Whom have I on earth beside Thee,
Or Whom in heaven but Thee."

We see Him here on earth as a Conqueror. We see Him stand there by the side of the grave and conquer death in that man. His soul was four day's journey; I don't know where he was; neither do you. But wherever he was, He conquered it, and brought it back. Corruption knew it's Master. Amen. And the soul of this man had been dead, come back and lived again in a mortal body, and set at a table and eat. And never was a man could do that before. He was God's mighty Conqueror. [I Corinthians 15:4], [Psalms 16:10], [Revelation 1:18]

We see Him in His earthly ministry as a Conqueror. Certainly, we do. But now, let's watch Him after He died. He still went on conquering. He never ended at the grave. The Bible said, "His soul descended into hell, and He preached to the spirits that were in prison, that repented not in the long-suffering of the days of Noah." [I Peter 3:19]

Everything had to know that He'd conquered. When He shut the door on them, the days of mercy was passed. On down into the lowest pits of hell, He went. And He knocked at the sooty doors of the devil's hell.
And the devil comes to the door, as we could look to see, and there he said, "Well, here You are, after all. I sure thought I had You, when I killed the prophets. I was sure I had You, when I had John's head cut off in prison. But now, after all, You've got here." [I Peter 3:19]

What's the church scared about then? Amen. He conquered Satan; He conquered sickness; He conquered death; He conquered hell. He's on his road out. Remember, there's some more faithful that went on too. They were in a place called paradise. They could not go into the Presence of God, because they had worshipped under the shed blood of lambs and goats and so forth. It never divorced sin; it only covered sin.
And that's it today, friend, you can't cover your sins and get in; it's got to be got rid of. And there's only one thing will do it: that isn't your church; that isn't your baptism by the water; that's the Blood of Jesus Christ, that covers sins and divorces it. The only means of conquer that there is, is through the Blood of the Lord Jesus. [I Peter 3:19], [Revelation 1:18]

Abraham said, "What did you say, Job?" He looks over his shoulder, said, "Come here, Sarah, look here. Look Who's at the door, this morning."
"Why," Sarah said, "that's the One that had His back turned to me, and I laughed in the tent, and He knowed it. That's it. That's Him." [Job 19:25-27], [I Peter 3:19]

Just then, Ezekiel come running up; he said, "That's the Wheel in the middle of the wheel, that I saw turning, way up in the middle of the air."
There's the mighty Conqueror. Oh, my, as we hear them then, said, "Come on, children, you were faithful over a few things. Come on; we're going out this morning. You've been in here long enough. We're going higher." Oh, God, let that be the desire of the church. Let's go higher. Pull up our stakes out of Egypt. [Daniel 2:34], [Ezekiel 1:16], [I Peter 3:19]

"Sure, I'm going to be talking with My disciples for forty days. Look around awhile."
You know, the Scripture says that many of the saints rose, after His resurrection, went into the city and appeared to many. Abraham and Sarah walking through the city, "Wasn't that wonderful?" Said, "Sarah, look at the old place." Oh, my, I feel real religious right now. I really do. "Look it over. There's the city of David; there's all those beautiful spots. There's the altars that I built. Blessed be the Name of the Lord." [I Peter 3:19], [Matthew 27:50-52]

As He was speaking, gravitation become conquered. There becomes light under His feet, as hundreds of brethren, watching. And He begins to move up, on up, ascending up, Him and the Old Testament saints, going into glory. They went on beyond the stars, beyond the moon, beyond the stars of stars. And they come in sight of the great City. Oh, what that must have been, Jesus out in front, as that great Conqueror, marching on.
And all of a sudden, the Old Testament saints come in the sight of the big beautiful City, and they screamed with one great blast that shook the heavens. "Lift up, ye everlasting gates, and be ye lifted up, and let the King of glory come in." [Mark 16:16-18], [Psalms 24:7], [Acts 1:9]

And the Angel said, "Who is this King of glory?
And the Old Testament saints, cried back, "The Lord of host, mighty in battle, the great Conqueror. He led captive captive and give gifts unto men." The Bible said He did. [Psalms 24:7-8], [Psalms 68:18], [Matthew 25:21]

He said, "Get up here, Son, and set on the right hand, until I make all Thy foes, Thy footstool." There He stands, tonight. [Matthew 22:43-44], [Psalms 110:1], [Mark 12:35-36], [Luke 20:42-43]
Lo, behold the mighty Conqueror.
Lo, and behold Him in plain view.
For He is the mighty Conqueror,
Since He rent the veil in two.
Lo, and behold Him in plain view.
For He is the mighty Conqueror,
Since He rent the veil in two.
[Acts 2:34-35]

Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth, but if the earth has lost it's savour--or the salt has lost it's savour, it's not good for nothing but to be made roads out of."
Salt is the savour, if it contacts. You just be salty; the world will get thirsty. God give us men and women who are real, men and women who stand gallantly. You're weakest link in your chain, is the strongest place. That tells the chain, no matter how strong other things are, that weak in one point. There's where you want keep covered. [Matthew 5:13], [Revelation 1:18]


I would go up there to hunt, each fall, and one day going up, I was talking to Burt. And he was one of the best hunters I ever seen. I... You never had to worry about him; you would know where he was at. You didn't have to hunt him up; he knowed where he was at in the woods. He was a good hunter, but the meanest man I ever knowed. He was just cruel as he could be. He loved to shoot little fawns, just to make me feel bad.

Did that stump you? He did do it. He eat the calf, drink the milk of the cow, and eat some corn cakes. It's exactly right. Eat the butter, that the milk was churned from, He certainly did. And God did it, and vanished right before Abraham.
You say, "That was an Angel." Abraham said it was God, Elohim. That's right. Was God. Oh, I'm so glad, that He holds it in His hand. How great Thou art. [Genesis 18:1-18]

I said, "Sure, It was God." That... Our great Creator? He just... We're all made out of sixteen elements. He just reached down and got some petroleum, cosmic light, and--and atoms, and [Brother Branham makes a blowing sound--Ed.] blowed a little body, stepped into it, and put His Angels in there, and walked to Abraham. Certainly. Eat the meat, and was hungry, and vanished out of his sight. That same God knows where I'll be buried. He knows where you'll be. [Genesis 18:1-18]

I said, "But I haven't lost a one of them."
She said, "Where are they at? Tell me."
I said, "Where was they, before I got them? They're there waiting for me; someday I'll go to them." They was. Every hair of your head's numbered, and not one of them can be lost. These hands that used to be a little boy, these shoulders that's stooping under preaching the Gospel, someday will spring back again to the picture made in His image, stand in His likeness, washed in His Blood, redeemed by His grace, I shall stand (Yes, indeed.), and no fear to death. There He come. [Luke 12:7]

He said, "Oh, Billy, get next to yourself. You're just a chicken-hearted preacher. That's the way with all of you." Said, "You're a good hunter, but you're too chicken-hearted."
I said, "Burt, I'm a hunter, but not a killer. I don't like to see you do that." I said, "Don't use that, Burt."
He said, "Aw, go on."
We started hunting that morning, about six inches of snow, good tracking weather, as any hunter knows. And we hunted--I was a little late in the season, 'fore I got there. I'd been in the meetings quite a bit, and we'd hunted all morning and found nothing, because them white-tail deer, up there, they really know how to hide. And they got away, under the daytime, especially.


I thought, "Surely, Burt, you won't do that." And he looked up at me with them lizard-looking eyes, and he said--laughed, and he started to blow it. I said, "Don't do that, Burt."
But when he blew it, just across, about twenty yards from me, a great big mother doe stood up. Now, a doe is the female deer. Why, she was so close I could see her big brown eyes, and those veins in her face, beautiful looking animal, her ears standing up. What was it? It was a baby crying.
And I looked down to Burt, and he looked up at me again; I thought, "Burt, you won't do that. Surely, you won't."

And I heard that rifle, as he pulled back the--the lever, on that .30-06, a hundred and eighty grain mushroom bullet in there. And he was a dead shot. And as he leveled down that rifle, I thought, "Oh, God, surely he won't do it. That loyal mother, she wasn't playing church; there was something real in her. She's a mother. A baby was in trouble. She wasn't just acting that way. She had something in her that was real, genuine. She was a mother. She wasn't just acting that way. There's something making her do that. It was because she was a mother."

And the deer looked around and saw the hunter. She quivered, but, no, she didn't run away. She was a mother. She stood there. The baby was in trouble. Oh, how real it was.
I turned my head; I just couldn't look at it no more. I thought, "God, I can't see him do that, kill that poor precious mother, and her there with that--with something in her that was driving her, a mother." And I listened for the gun to fire. I turned my back. I thought, "God, don't let him do it." I waited a minute; I didn't hear the gun. I looked around, and the gun was going like this. He couldn't do it.
He looked around, the big tears running down his cheeks. He threw the gun on the ground and grabbed me by the trouser leg; he said, "Billy, I've had enough of it. Lead me to that Jesus that you're talking about. Let me know that Christ that brings love."

Oh, church of the living God, the world's looking for something real tonight. Would you love to have enough Christ in your heart, that you could stand in the face of death? Even you sick people, that's sick, could you just take Him at His Word, live or die, stand here on His Word? You, that's had these differences, and all these little troubles, and denominational barriers, wouldn't you love to have something to display, that when you walk down the street, men and women say, "If there ever was a godly woman or man, there it goes." Something real, a life that tells.

"Lord, make in me... Let me rise, Lord, as a woman or as a man, let me rise a saint. Let me rise from my seat to be something real. And, God, let me display Your love so in my heart, that cruel-hearted sinners might follow, and watch me for an example, and follow me to Calvary.

Way back in there. The Lord bless you. Way outside now, put up your hands, say, "God..." Look friend, you say, "What difference does that make, Brother Branham?"
Oh, friend, let's not be cold and stiff any longer. Let's realize where we're standing. Let's raise up our hand, say, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner, I..." God bless you, way over here in this aisle. I didn't see you awhile ago. The Lord bless you, back over here. Be real honest.

Will just someone else now will raise your hand, that didn't awhile ago, say, "God, be merciful to me." Don't you think He's standing there looking at you? God bless you, young lady; that's good. Little lady here, maybe... God bless you, the lady setting here. It may be the last opportunity you ever have. Bless that little girl back there, a little boy it is, bless his little heart.
Say, "What does that child know about it?"
Jesus said, "Suffer little children to come to Me, forbid them not, for such is the Kingdom." [Luke 18:16]

Another hand? God bless that young woman, her little friend setting there by her. [John 6:44]

Whether you want to run to the altar, whether you want to kneel at your seat, whether you want to raise your hand, where you want to make your surrender, it matters not. It's the condition you meant when you went to the altar, knelt at your seat, or raised your hand. It's all what you meant, what you thought about God. [John 5:24]

God willing, tomorrow night, or next night, I want to preach on the handwriting on the wall, the sputnik in the sky, drawing God close to the end of the age.
Was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
What if this is the last hour to separate you between mercy and judgment?
I come...
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
What if this is the last hour to separate you between mercy and judgment?
I come...
Would you just raise up your hand? "God, be merciful to me." God bless you, back there, young fellow, weeping with your hand down. No doubt a many an old mother's prayers went up for you, son. God heard you. He saw you. He's standing there by you. He's the One told you to raise your hand.

Maybe you do belong to church, oh friend, that--that just--it's nice to belong to church, but oh, my, if you're not borned again, you're lost. See? Think of it. Jesus conquered; He will give you something in your hand to fight the battle with. Once more now, before we pray. Be sure you've made the right decision. If you've raised your hand, you know you have. If you haven't... God bless the little lady here. Bless you, honey. All right.
Way back in the back, yes, a little teen-age girl. God be wonderful to you, sister dear. Let's bow our heads real reverently now. Every one in prayer.
I'm going to ask Brother Cerullo, if he will come here and lead this prayer for me. I'm getting hoarse. With your heads bowed, every one. Pray now, and God be with you.