Then there is Brother George Warnock in Canada. He may still be living. He wrote an early booklet on the feast of Tabernacles which was an inspiration to me.

In 1948 many things happened. The State of Israel was recognized by the United Nations. Branham was operating a gift that remains one of the marvels of this century. A young evangelist from Dr. Mears "Fellowship of the Bleeding Heart" (or some such name) was holding a meeting in Los Angeles. The editors of the Hearst newspapers said, "Spotlight Graham" and Billy has been going strong ever since.

The latter rain came down from Canada in that year. It was a busy year as you can see.

Audrey and I were in Bible school at that time. The change in the spiritual atmosphere from 1947 to 1948 was noticeable. 1947 was typically Pentecostal in the Berean Bible School (Assembly of God) in San Diego.

Something changed in 1948. A quietness settled on the students. Instead of the usual messages in tongues and interpretation we began to prophesy almost unheard of.

At that time the popular preaching was, "We are in the great falling away." "The Catholic Church is Babylon the Great." And our old friend, "We are going to be raptured any minute now." So we were all falling away. We stayed clear of the Catholic Church. And we passed up some extraordinary real estate opportunities (I would be a rich man now had I bought a house then and sold it now) because of the imminence of the "rapture."

But when the prophecy came in 1948 there was no mention of the great falling away, the Catholic Church, or the rapture. (I have never once in my life heard a person with an accepted gift of prophecy proclaim by the Spirit the pre-tribulation rapture. I honestly think it is a concoction of the mind.)

Well anyway, the Spirit was telling us that the greatest days of all were upon us. There was much praising of the Lord. Two years later David DuPlessis began his work among the historic denominations.

The gifts of the Spirit have been on the increase since then because we are approaching the fullness of the latter rain, the unprecedented worldwide revival predicted by the Hebrew Prophets and also the Apostle James. There is a slowly- building crescendo (having begun, I believe, at the time of the Protestant Reformation) that will climax only when the Gospel of the Kingdom of God has been preached to every nation for a witness. Only then will the end of the Church Age be here. After that the Christian witness will be driven from the major cities of the earth.

It is the writer's point of view that the great last-day witness is symbolized by the two witnesses of Revelation, Chapter Eleven. Do with this what you will, but the end-time, latter rain revival certainly isn't portrayed in any other chapter of Revelation!

So please no more running down William Branham or the latter rain revival. Audrey and I were there at the time, which I don't think was true of today's critics.

To be continued.