Jots and Tittles

"And He said on this writing, that not one jot or tittle shall ever pass away until It's fulfilled, and then It's manifested. Then It will pass, because It's manifested, and It can't pass then. But just the Word Itself is made flesh. "Jot" means "small word." "Tittle" means "small mark." Not even one punctuation, one expression, anything shall ever fail in the Word of God."

Being, also, a student of English and having taught the subject to others, I know the meaning and importance of punctuation. More than marks on the page, each period, comma, semi-colon, and colon have a precise purpose and make a declaration of their own.

The definitions I found varied but I found overall that a 'jot' was a dot. That, in our writing form, is what a 'period' is. So, a jot is a period, in modern English. A 'tittle' was defined as a small curved mark of punctuation. That, in our English, is called a comma. Therefore, it follows that a semi-colon would be both a jot and a tittle; a colon would be two jots. All important according to Jesus and His prophet William Branham. All just exactly to the instructions "Not even one punctuation....shall ever fail in the Word of God.

Our Bibles are full of punctuations...jots and tittles. I was told once, by a theologian, that there were no punctuations in the original Scripture. He had heard me preach on their importance and came to argue that I was wrong because 'there were no jots and tittles, as you say, in the original Scriptures.' Well, my reaction probably sent him partly into shock. I shouted a great big, "HALLELUJAH!" Then, I thanked him for proving my teaching. "How?" he cried. I said, "Brother, if there weren't any jots and tittles in the original then Jesus must have been speaking of my King James because they're in it" Amen.

Brother Branham said; ""Well," I said, "of course, it's all right. Every fellow... That's what makes this America: every fellow to his own belief." But I believe that whatever God has said... God's Word does not alter. God's Word does not change: "One jot or a tittle will no wise pass from it, until every bit of it's fulfilled."

So I am a fundamental believer in the Bible. What the Bible says, I believe it. And I believe it's the truth, and ready to hang my soul on any phase of the Bible, or any--any sentence, comma, whatever it might be, that God's Word is everlasting truth. It's inspired and written, and we stay with it." MINISTRY.OF.CHRIST_

"The Word of God is so infallible, that not one jot or tittle can ever fail. And just on that much Scripture we could base an eternity, knowing that it would never fail. And... Because it is a part of God; God is in His Word. And we are... Notice that how that it always happens, no matter how strange it may seem, but in God's own good time He makes every Word testify."

Let's take an example from the Seed Book. "And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." GENESIS 2:9

Now, in the English language a semi-colon translates as "also", "in addition to", "besides", "too", "likewise", "furthermore". Here, in this passage we see the distinction between the two kinds of trees in the Garden. The trees which were for food grew out of the ground. After this statement is made there is a semi-colon. Now, in class, we instruct the student to pause at the thought (as with a comma) and recognize that the next statement included in the sentence is in addition to the previous statement. Thus we see that while God had placed in the Garden of Eden trees which were for food which He had caused to grow out of the ground, He also, in addition to these trees, had likewise two other trees, besides these, located in the midst of the Garden. (Also shown, by type, though not stated, is a third tree, Eve, who had a seed " in the midst")

"God de--commands every Word of His to be fulfilled to the letter. It must be. You must do what He says do, for not one tot or one jittle will ever pass from it. "Heavens and earth will pass away, but My Word shall not fail." It's got to stay. One--one jot or tittle shall not pass from It; It's all got to be fulfilled.

And now, man was God's subject. Man is what God works through. And then when man receives the truth, hits the right highway, and starts moving on, and find these realities moving on, what does it do? The unbelieving brother, he'll look at him; it's like he's... He--he can't accept it. If he does, he has to leave his church. If he leaves his church, he stands alone." UNFAILING.REALITIES.OF.GOD

Can we see these "little realities"? We cannot deny the statement made that indicates the importance of the punctuation. Nor can we deny the evidence of it that we have just seen. But let us not stop here, for we need more than one witness in the Word. Let's now examine something that Bro. Branham showed us about prophecy of Scripture.

"This day this Scripture is fulfilled." How accurate is the Scripture. If you'll notice this, in Isaiah 61:1-2 is where our Lord was reading from: Isaiah 61:1-2. But in the middle of the second verse of Isaiah 61, He stopped where it said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me to preach the acceptable year." Then He stopped. Why? The other part, to bring judgment, it didn't apply to His first coming, but His second coming. See, it didn't apply there; how the Scriptures never make a mistake. They're always perfect. Jesus stopped just where the Scripture stopped, 'cause that was exactly what was to be vindicated in His day."

This quote from, of course, 'This Day This Scripture Is Fulfilled' shows a gap of two thousand years between two portions of the same verse. " Now, and that first coming... The second coming He will bring judgment upon the earth, but not then. He was to preach the acceptable year." 2000 years apart in time.

"Now, I want you to notice a great thing taken place here now. Don't miss this. See? Now, notice, the Word says here in II Thessalonians that there's three things... Notice, from the 13th to the 16th verse there's three things that has to happen before the Lord Himself appears. (Quickly now so we can close. See?) The first thing happened, notice: a shout, a voice, a trumpet. Let's read it now and see if that's right. See?

"Three things happen, a voice--a shout, a voice, a trumpet, has to happen before Jesus appears. Now, a shout. Jesus does all three of them when He's--He's--He's descending. A "shout," what is a "shout"? It's the Message going forth first, the living Bread of Life bringing forth the Bride.

Now, God has a way of doing things, and He never changes His policy. He never changes His... He's the unchanging God. In Amos 3:7 He said He would do nothing on the earth until first He revealed it to His servants the prophets. And just as certain as He promised it, He'll do it." RAPTURE.THE_

"No, it's... The first thing is the sounding--or the first thing is the trumpet and a--or a voice--a shout, and then a voice, and then a trumpet. Shout, a messenger getting the people ready... The second is a voice of the resurrection. The same voice that, a loud voice in St. John 11:38 and 44 that called Lazarus from the grave. Getting the Bride together, and then the resurrection of the dead (See?), to be caught up with it. Now, watch the three things take place.

"The next is what? was a trumpet. A voice--a shout, a voice, a trumpet. Now, the third thing is a trumpet, which always at the Feast of Trumpets is calling the people to the feast; and that'll be the Bride's supper, the Lamb's supper with the Bride in the sky.

See, the first things comes forth is His Message calling the Bride together. The next thing is a resurrection of the sleeping Bride, the--the one that's died back in the other ages. They're caught together, and the trumpet, the feast in the heavens--in the sky. Why, it's--that's the thing that takes place, friends."

First, the graves were opened. Then, in addition to this (semi-colon) 'many of the saints which slept arose (comma) and then 'came out of the graves after His ressurection'. Notice, an earthquake which shook open the graves, but the saints came not forth until after His ressurection some 36 or more hours later. A time space once again held by a comma. Then, as shown by the comma, at a later time, they went into Jerusalem and were seen, another time or times, by many. Bro. Branham said they were on the earth for 40 days showing themselves on occasion.

Three different Scriptures. Three witnesses in the Word. And, there are many others. I chose these because of their familiarity to the Message believer. The commas, the tittles, are of far more importance than we ever knew before the Bible became a 'new book'.

A colon tells us that there is something to follow AFTER the statement. For example, when we are making a list we use a colon. "The recipe for this cake is as follows: milk, butter, sugar,"; etc. (Notice, I used the semi-colon after the word sugar because their was additional ingredients but not listed...represented by the "etc".) The colon in this statement tells us that there is something or somethings to FOLLOW AFTER. In reading this, we pause and prepare our thinking to recieve an "after" something. Do you see?

Webster says a colon is used "After words that introduce a series of statements or of details". My Schacter English Grammer says, "A colon is used before a series of words or a list of some kind introduced by "as follows". So we see that what comes behind the colon 'follows after'. The example given is: "Last summer the family visited the following places: Yellowstone National Park, Carlsbad Caverns, Zion National Park, and Death Valley. We saw them in the following order: Death Valley, Carlsbad Caverns, Zion, and finally Yellowstone National Park." Each following after the visit to the one before.

"The semicolon is used to separate independent clauses of a compound sentence when they are joined by a coordinating conjuction." (Remember our two different trees?) "It is used" says the Grammer, "as a slow down signal and is not a complete stop. A semicolon is a comma with a period over it. (Jot over a tittle.)

You can remove the semicolon and place a period in its place, and you will have two complete sentences instead of one." Amen. That is Genesis 2:9, exactly. It could have been said, "Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food (period) The tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (were) also in the Garden." Same thing, two different trees.

"Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." (1 Cor. 15:50) What if these were two different sentences? What if we were to drop the semicolon and replace it with a period making this into two sentences? Now I am not suggesting that we do alter the written Word....I am just making a point. Would you think that the same thing was being spoken of if it said, 'Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.' And then, 'Corruption doth not inherit incorruption.' Flesh and blood cannot go in...it takes immortality. Mortal must become immortal. And that which is corrupt wont do...must be 'incorruptible'. Must start out incorruptible because the one cannot inherit the other. (Didn't say that about the flesh. It said flesh and blood cannot inherit 'the Kingdom of God' but corruption can't inherit incorruption. Can't gain it. See?) "What's the point, Bro. Paul?"

Point is it is talking about different things. If one must be incorruptible, how then can it refer to the flesh? For all flesh is corruptable...it will pass away. However, when the Bible speaks of corruption it nearly always refers to the spirit of man. Even this quote refers not to the flesh but the spirit: "And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." Not corrupt flesh, but flesh had corrupted His way. The spirit of man was corrupted. And so it is with the wrong seed. But Paul says that in order to be a part of this ressurection one must be incorruptable because he cannot INHERIT incorruption." In order to make the first ressurection (and/or the 'catching away') one would have to be of an incorruptible spirit. Who can that be?

So, Paul, speaking of corruption, speaks of the spirit man. When he speaks of the flesh man he uses the term 'mortal'. Webster says mortal is 'a being that is subject to death; a human being'. A spirit can be corrupted, as were the angels by Lucifer. But a spirit is not mortal. Flesh is corruptible, but no flesh is 'incorruptible'...no 'flesh and blood', that is. (Which, of course, shows that the 'glorified body' is different than this one.) And all this is made plain by the use of punctuation.

"Ahah! Gotcha now Paul!" We shall see. Brother Branham told us that our 'old soul died' and we got a 'new soul'. We know he refered to the nature of the spirit...for he said so. Our human spirit which we got when we were born into flesh was corrupt, but the elect of God had an incorruptible nature in their soul. That human nature is changed into the incorruptible one by the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. It was there all along awaiting a ressurection. Hence, "this corruptible must put on incorruption" by the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, which awakens the incorruptable soul nature. Amen. Again, 'Whosoever is born of God cannot sin, for his seed (God's Life) remains in him, and he cannot sin.' After the corrupted nature is killed there remains the incorruptable soul. Hallelujah!

What has all this to do with punctuation? The point is a TIME ELEMENT. There is a time element involved here between the changing of the soul and the changing of the body. And, in this very important area, we need to watch our jots and tittles.

Now you know why I always stopped at the colon in 1 Thessalonians 4:16. That colon denotes a 'coming after'. There is a spiritual and a natural. I have always taught it that way and believe it, yet, today. We cannot disregard anything that the prophet said. We must say ALL that he said.

" I read an article here, not long ago. I got it in my scrap book, where that the American preacher, they taken a analysis of who he believed in the literal coming of the Lord Jesus. And seventy-eight percent of the American preachers, denied the literal return of the Lord Jesus. Babylon... And there was more than that denied the virgin birth. How do you expect to build the church of the living God upon such ruins and chars of Sodom as that?"

"Sirs, We Would See Jesus." What more would it be, if a man come in here with blood over him, and nail scars, and things... Jesus, when He comes, every eye shall see Him, every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess when the Body of Jesus returns. I believe in His literal coming, corporal body, descending from the heavens with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, the trump of God. The dead in Christ shall rise. But His Spirit is here with us.

And as the church, like the pyramid, comes into a--a point, so has the church in the days of Luther, days of Wesley, days of Pentecostal. And now just before the Headstone comes into it, that church has to be honed so perfect, till the same ministry that He did here, His same Spirit, so predominant, will bring that same Body right into it, and resurrect the whole thing. That's exactly. Amen. Glory to God."

" Some of them don't believe in His literal coming. The Bible said He will come. So we're looking for His coming. If He isn't here tonight, we'll be looking in the morning. If He isn't here in the morning, we'll be looking tomorrow night for Him, and we'll keep on looking. If we fall asleep, or--or we haven't fainted in vain, for the trumpet of God shall sound that final trumpet, and the dead in Christ shall rise. And we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air and forever be there. That's the sound of the trumpet. Whether I live or whether I'm gone, don't make any difference. I'll hear the sound. I'll rise: rise, oh, yes. Yes."

Here the other day, on a estimation, it showed that ninety-nine percent of the Protestant preachers throughout the nation don't believe in the literal second coming of Christ. Eighty-seven percent Deny the virgin birth. Think of that. What are our children going to face out yonder? God give us back to the faith again that was once delivered to the saints. JEHOVAH.JIREH.3_ LOUISVILLE.MS 1964-

Now, the first thing happens when we're resurrected... The ones which are a-living will just still remain... The resurrection will set in first, the resurrection of those that are asleep. There'll be a wakening time, and those which are asleep in the dust now, not those that are asleep in sin, 'cause they sleep right on. They don't awake for another thousand years. But those who are--are sleeping in the dust will be awakened first, and they'll--these corruptible bodies will put on incorruption in the rapturing grace of the Lord. And then we'll all get together. And when they begin to get together, then we which are alive and remain shall be changed. These mortal bodies will not see death, but just of a sudden, there'll be like a sweep go over us, and you're changed. You're turned back like Abraham was, from an old man to a young man, from an old woman to a young woman. What's this sudden change? And after while you--you're traveling like a thought, and you can see those then who are already resurrected. Oh, what a hour. Then we'll gather with them and then be caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air.

Do you see those COLONS. First is the Coming of the Lord in clouds, and THEN (After, as denoted by the colons) the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then ...we, too, will be caught up together with THEM in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air......not in the sky, in the air.

It never said, 'in the sky', it said 'in the air.' That old Babylon spirit of tradition says, 'in the sky' like there's no AIR all around us. (Now, I know Bro. Branham said, 'sky' in the quotes we read. He was talking to 'traditional' believers.) But, Bro. Branham went into the sixth dimension with the saints in light and while he was greeting them, thousands of them, he looked back and saw his body lying not ten feet away, he said. Where was he? He was right there in that room...in the air. Amen.

I believe the Coming of the Lord in 1963. I have preached it for over twenty-five years. I believe that we are 'raptured', 'caught up' to sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Rapture is not an event, it is a state of being. Rapture is a revelation. It is a 'Mystery going'. It is being 'taken up' into the Seventh Seal Mystery as he said in Feast of the Trumpets. "Now, as soon as this Church, the Bride is drawed together, she's taken up; in that mystery of the Seventh Seal, or the Seventh Seal, the mystery going. " I believe that I have been ressurected...from dead creeds and spiritual death. As Paul said, " Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak [this] to your shame." There must be a spiritual ressurection that will rapture the Church, the Bride, into the Seventh Seal, Christ. The Seventh Seal is Rev. 10, said the prophet (Feast of Trumpets)and Rev. 10 is the Coming of the Lord. Oh, I believe it! Hallelujah! Yes, I believe. But, I also believe in a literal translation of the Bride...a catching away into another dimension AFTER the sleeping ("means 'dead', Pearry"..he said in Communion) Bride of all ages has come forth. Amen!

John sat on a rock on Patmos, staring out across the Mediterranean and heard a trumpet. Bro. Branham said, "Someday He'll summons again; we'll go on out of the world. For there's no uncertain about that trumpet. Yes, sir. Yes, sir, no uncertain sound anytime.

John sat on a rock on Patmos, staring out across the Mediterranean and heard a trumpet and saw a door open in heaven. He went up while his body remained. But he had to leave here to go to his theophany. He died and went into that dimension 'in the air'. But not before he was 'caught up' while his body remained.

Apostle Paul was 'caught up' to the third heaven' (where God is, according to Bro. Branham) while, yet, his body remained on earth. He, too, died...was beheaded and went to his theophany to await the ressurection. First, the spiritual...then the natural. For here, in this life, it was first natural and then the spiritual...theophany (for we bypassed our theophany to be born of sexual birth). But to get to that Life we must be ressurected and raptured spiritually, THEN comes the natural.

On Sunset Mountain the prophet was 'caught up' naturally, in body form, to type it out and show that there will be a natural, literal translation. KEEP YOUR BALANCE IN THE SCRIPTURE! DON'T MISLOCATE, MISPLACE, OR MISQUOTE THE WORD! SAY ONLY WHAT HE SAID AND ALL THAT HE SAID!

"There'll be one in the field; I'll take one and leave one," just somebody come up missing. There'll just be a very, very few in that rapture, that'll be changed. The sleeping Bride, the Bride that's been taken through the age, she'll come forth first. And then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up with them, just one here, and one there, and one over here. PERSEVERANT_

"Now, we find here that Enoch was the seventh from Noah which was a type of the church ages. Now, all of the rest of the six men before him died, but Enoch was translated; Enoch was raptured, the seventh, showing that it's the seventh church age that takes the rapture. Now, there's no doubt we're in the seventh church age. We all know it.

Now, it's the seventh church age that takes the rapture. All of the other six died. But Enoch was translated because he was not found; God took him. But Enoch raptured, was a type of all of the rest of them dying, but the--the end time Bride will be called out of the (the rapturing, without death)--will be called out of the seventh church age....... The first thing is the sounding--or the first thing is the trumpet and a--or a voice--a shout, and then a voice, and then a trumpet. Shout, a messenger getting the people ready... The second is a voice of the resurrection. The same voice that, a loud voice in St. John 11:38 and 44 that called Lazarus from the grave. Getting the Bride together, and then the resurrection of the dead (See?), to be caught up with it. Now, watch the three things take place.....See, the first things comes forth is His Message calling the Bride together. The next thing is a resurrection of the sleeping Bride, the--the one that's died back in the other ages. They're caught together, and the trumpet, the feast in the heavens--in the sky. Why, it's--that's the thing that takes place, friends.

We're right there ready now. The only thing, the church coming out has got to lay before the sun to ripen. The great combine will come by after while. The wheat will be burned, the stalks, but the grain will be gathered into it's garner. See?...........The loud voice awakened. And the second is fulfilled in II Thessalonians the 4th chapter. Let's just take a read--read... We just read it a few minutes ago. See? "I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those that sleep, that you sorrow not, even..." That's I Thessalonians 4:12-18. That--that will be the second rapture. The second rapture will be the catching away of the Bride.

The Old Testament saints has gone into His Presence, paradise done away. And the Old Testament saints ascended up at His loud voice when He screamed and give up the ghost. Because why? The sacrifice, their propitiation of their sins that they'd waited on... Believing that perfect Lamb was coming, they'd offered the sacrifice of the lamb. And when He died and yielded up the ghost, He screamed with a loud voice, and the Old Testament saints awoke. Watch the shout and the voice over here, the same thing at His coming. See? Yielded up the ghost, and when He did the sacrifice was perfect, and paradise emptied out; and the Old Testament saints came to the earth again, walked around on earth, and entered in with Him at His rapture....The next rapture takes place is II Thessalonians for the church, the Bride, to be resurrected to be raptured into glory. "We which are alive and remain (That's the body that's left on earth.) will not prevent or hinder them which are asleep; for the trumpet of God shall sound first, and the dead in Christ shall rise. (See?) And we which are alive and remain shall caught up together with them."

Daylight came. The Angels rolled the stone away. A great mysterious something happened. I can see Caiaphas walking down the street and say, "You know the story they're telling about that man, raised from the dead? I hear them say He come right into a--a building last night and talked to the disciples and so forth. I see Sarah and Abraham, sweethearts, never to be old no more, arm in arm, walking down the street. And I hear Abraham say, "Sarah, darling, look at that old place, you remember that?"

I thought, "Oh, my God, one day there'll come a blast from heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Them Old Testament saints back yonder who are waiting a blast forth and come out of there first and go into the resurrection; we'll drop right in line and going to the skies, these old mortal bodies changed and made like unto His own glorious body. What a--what a parade that'll be when it starts heavenward some of these days in that rapturing time that lays ahead, oh, proudly displaying the Blood of Jesus Christ upon their chests, the Message of God in the hour that they lived in. That's the hour that we're looking forward to, brother.

Now, the third one is the two witness of Revelation 11:11 and 12, which these are the ones that turns back with the Spirit of Christ to witness to the Jews like Joseph did to his brethren. And you remember their dead bodies laid in the streets for three days and a half; then the Spirit of life came into them and they were raptured, taken up into heaven. There's your three raptures of the New Testament. Three raptures of the Old Testament, all of them past.

"But I believe that the coming of Jesus Christ is drawing nigh. I--I believe it with... You--you... If you want to call that fanaticism, just go ahead and mark me a fanatic then. Because I believe in the literal, physical coming of Jesus the second time, and I believe it's drawing nigh and now. I believe we have just a short time to work." MINISTRY.EXPLAINED

"Oh, won't it be wonderful on that day? Aren't you happy today to be a living to see the Son of man revealing Himself to His Church? "In the day that the Son of man is revealed..." What does He do? Reveal Himself in mercy first. Then the next time, He reveals Hisself in judgment to condemn those who spurn mercy. Now it's time. Get this on your mind now as we hum this. One of these days we'll be standing, and you'll be changed. These mortal, vile bodies will be turned back from an old man to a young. We'll go in the air to meet Him, and to be with Him, and to fellowship together forever.

Look, God was painting a picture, when you--He was painting you and mother. He brought you up to a certain picture; He said, "There it is. That's just what I like. I think that's beautiful. That's what I'll have in my Kingdom. All right death, come on. But you can't take them till I tell you to. You have to leave them right there till I tell." Why was it then they growed to that picture? God had them just at the beauty, just at the--the time that He thought they were their best, and then He painted the picture, and set it over in the Kingdom. And some glorious day, everything that death done to us will be taken away, and just what life give us we'll have. Amen.

"What warrior can see this great Holy Spirit come in the form of Jesus Christ, the literal body of Christ to take over again, stand with me. Stand by me. Let's cut a hole through this denominational creed. Let's get in there. He's crying for a good fresh drink of Pentecostal Water, original Pentecost, not a bunch of carrying on, screaming, hollering. Yeah, I mean a genuine Holy Spirit baptism that produces the Life of Jesus Christ back into the person."

"Now, we are living in the shadows, and the wrath is ready to strike, and God's requiring a Token that you, yourself, have received His Token, the Holy Ghost. It's the only way and the only sign that God will ever pass, because It is the literal Life of Jesus Christ returned back into the believer." TOKEN.

"Oh, I love this. Here it is in Galatians 1:8, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have (already) preached unto you, let him be accursed." It was the apostles who brought the original Word to the people. That original Word could not change, not even a dot or dash of it." EPHESIAN.CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.3

Since I have just introduced the principle of punctuation and its importance in Scripture let's examine these words in that light. Notice the two parts of this prophecy as divided by a colon. First we have a "child born", then we meet a colon showing that something follows AFTER. In the second part of the verse we have a "son GIVEN" upon Whose shoulder the government rests. Who is this 'second son'?

Jots & Tittles

MINISTRY.OF.CHRIST

MATTHEW 5:18

THREE.KINDS.OF.BELIEVERS