We’re The Church – Catholic
Here not long ago down–I was down in Mexico last year. Here come a poor woman dragging, her knees all drug off like that, (the hide), crying, and holding her hands, and the father walking along, packing two little children, them crying, mother suffering so ’cause some woman that they call a saint, died. They had her statue up there on the hill. Some lover killed her. And as soon as she gets killed like that… ‘Course she was a saint; she was Catholic. So then she was going to do repentance, and she had to drag two miles over cobblestones to do repentance. Brother, if there is one thing that I have to do, Jesus Christ died in vain. Grace I am saved, and that not by myself, but by the will of God, and by the goodness and mercy…
Them reporters asked me, said, “Mr. Branham…” (The–the little dead baby had been brought to life and a few things there.) Thirty thousand Catholics… No, I beg your pardon, it’s twenty thousand (Thirty thousand was Africa.)–twenty thousand Catholics received Jesus as a personal Saviour at one time when that happened, standing in Mexico City. And those priests, they couldn’t send too many; it would start a riot. Had too many on the side, so they said, “Mr. Branham, do you believe that our saints can do the same thing that you do?” Knowing their doctrine, I said, “Sure, if they’re living.” (See? So you can’t be a Catholic saint until you’re dead, you know.) So he said, “Oh, you can’t be a saint till you die.” I said, “Where do you read that at? Paul said, ‘To the saints that are at Ephesus and them that are called of God. To the saints which are at Ephesus (he was reading his letter) and the saints that are other places, at Galatia, and–and the saints in Rome, and so forth.’ the saints, the sanctified ones, what about that?”
He said, “Of course now we ain’t supposed to argue the Bible because we’re the church, and what the church says… We don’t care what the Bible says; it’s what the church says.” Said, “What is your opinion then of the Catholic church?”
I said, “I wished you wouldn’t ask me that. ‘Cause you ask me, and I’m going to tell you the truth.”
Said, “Well, I want you to tell me the truth.”
I said, “The highest form of spiritualism I know.”
He said, “How do you get that?”
I said, “Anything that intercedes with the dead is a spiritualist.”
I said, “If that saint talks back, then he’s in hell; because those that’s crossed the path, my–my Bible said that he could not come back.” That’s right. And I said, “If it is–if he was a saint, it’s the devil talking like a saint, and it isn’t a saint after all.”
And he said, “Well now, just a minute.” Said, “You intercede with the dead too.”
I said, “Where?”
He said, “Jesus Christ died.”
I said, “But He rose again. He’s not dead, but He lives to make intercession, by the only Mediator between God and men.”