One vital topic we should consider as we understudy the subject: From Malachi to Rapture is the “Restitution of All Things”. This will help us grasp God’s way of restoring His church and then His entire program from creation. The devil did not begin his treachery when the church began, he has been fighting every plan of God, and God must restore both His church and His entire plan for creation. His will must eventually be done on earth as it is in heaven. The church is not the only entity that God must restore, in fact, the restoration of the church is a part of the restoration He began when the Devil thwarted everything from Genesis. It’s like molding blocks for the purpose of building a house. Before you can erect a building, you must have an adequate number of blocks, but the blocks were also a finished product of sand, cement, and water. You cannot pile sand upon sand upon cement upon water and have a structure, you have to mold the blocks, then mold the structure. Similarly, there is a great picture God has in His mind, and restoration must happen to each section that is necessary to make the great picture come to the perfect view.
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. Acts 3:19-21
God is eternal, and His restitution is back to eternity, thus, the restitution of all things is from eternity to eternity. In eternity past (if we should borrow that word), concealed in God are all the mysteries of His will, purposes, and intentions which He determined to express gradually until all comes to pass. In eternity, He had the mind to be a father, a savior, a redeemer, and so on. He had the plan to have a family who will be named after Him, without spots without wrinkles. Then He created the heaven and the earth (the then earth which was the world of angels), and everything was perfect. After “God knows” years, Lucifer came up with a rebellion that rendered the earth void and void, and darkness was thriving upon the face of the earth. God froze that world and recreated it by commanding Light to prevail, then placed man as the head. But the doer of evil, Satan was not about to give up on his treachery. He overcame man also and became the prince of this world, rendering the earth Satan’s Eden. Then God sent His son, Jesus Christ for His redemption plan which he fulfilled and was taken up to heaven. God did not deem it fit to restore everything then because the price of the cross should bring many sons to glory. Thus, God planted His church in His Holy Name and released His Spirit upon her, raising Jesus Christ up to sit on His right hand until all enemies bow at His footstool. Known to God are all His works from the beginning! Amen! The devil as usual came for the church and was able to overthrow the church into outer darkness, however, the God that commanded the light to shine out of the darkness was shining in the hearts of His elected ones to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. By this, God was having witnesses in the midst of the gross darkness that the church was going through until God sent the seventh church-age messenger to restore the church back to what He established her to be.
The Restoration of the Seventh Messenger
The prophet of this age did not restore all things. The restoration of Malachi 4:6 is not the same as the restoration of Acts 3:21.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,
and the heart of the children to their fathers,
lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Malachi 4:5-6
Of course, there are two ministries in the above scripture (which we have taken the time to explain in our previous reviews), however, the fulfillment of this scripture is not the restitution of all things. At the beginning of the Gentile church age, the Son of Man sowed the good seed in His field. The good seed is the word of God. That was the age with broader light, the Spirit of Lion was roaring in Paul, disdaining anyone that came to spy on the liberty the church has in Christ. This time, the doctrines of devils we have like the trinity, women’s ministry, and others could not surface at all. The church had their first love for the word of God, intact and bold enough to confront any enemy that wants to sow tares.
And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. Galatians 2:4-5
In this age, the apostles were bold to declare their faith in the face of persecution and trials, the church was in its original state. But when these men slept, enemies came and began to sow tares. And God was not so bothered because He reserved the end of the church age for the separation of the two. The fan in His hand is for purging and He will thoroughly purge His church. So, as the church continued, heresies were mixing up with the truth till there was gross darkness about the fourth church age. The devil rode on a black horse and substituted the word of God for dogmas and creed of men, leavened the whole lump of God. The church which is the body of Christ must then be restored to the head, so God sent reformers in the fifth and sixth church age, who began discovering true treasures and costly pearls in God’s word and paid the price for the church to have them. This continued until God saw that the Philadelphia church with their little strength upheld His name and did not deny Him -He set before her an open door.
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Revelation 3:7-8
This open door is the true revelation of God’s word that the church will be restored back to. The revelation that the first church had. Thus, the messenger restored to the church what the church lost and what the church needed.
Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old. Mathew 13:52
This is the restoration of the church, yet this is not the restitution of all things. This then means that William Marrion Branham did not restore all things. The restoration of all things is from the garden of Eden to the garden of Eden. Just as it was in the beginning at the perfect creation of God, thus will it be when the restitution of all things is accomplished.
If you are part of that restoration, it means that you have been in God in eternity. Everyone that will have eternal life in the gospel of Jesus Christ had been in God in eternity and because they came from eternity, they will return to eternity.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Ephesians 1:3-4
The proof that you came from eternity is that when the world that should restore you back to eternity is preached to you, you will not disdain it, because those God chose before the foundation of the world, He chose them to be holy and without blame, to conform to the image of His dear son. The word of God is what will separate the good seed from the evil ones. That is the plumb line that will test what seed is domiciled in you. What is your reaction to the world of God, it will tell evidently where you came from.
Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. John 17:24
And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 1Peter 1:17-23
The Restitution of All Things
For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. 1Corinthians 15:25-28
Restoration cannot happen at once, God does it gradually. The intention of God to have us live eternally when He created Adam was destroyed. Sin came in and man fell short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death, so before death can be taken away, sin has to be dealt with. If Jesus must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet, it showed that sin must have been dealt with, then death, before eternity can reign. This means that the rapture is neither the end of everything nor the restitution of all things.
When Jesus was resurrected, the disciples questioned him about the kingdom of Israel and whether he would restore it then. He told them that it is not for them to know the times and the seasons that the Father has put in His own care (Acts 1:6). But they will receive power after the Holy Spirit is come upon them to be witnesses of Him throughout the world. The reason is that the restitution of all things is not limited to the land of Israel alone, God’s scope span across the world as a whole, and all things must be reconciled in Christ to be restored to eternity, therefore the mandate to witness Him throughout the world. For those who would be alive and ready when Christ will appear mystically in heaven, they will be raptured. But the world will continue. It is after the rapture that the Jews will have the two witnesses preach to them. This is when the seventieth week of Israel will be accomplished, for they have 7 years left according to the timing of God. After this, Jesus comes in his second coming to rule the earth with the rod of iron in the millennium. The millennium is also not the restitution of all things, because there will still be death.
The Millennium
But in the last days it shall come to pass,
that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains,
and it shall be exalted above the hills;
and people shall flow unto it.
And many nations shall come, and say,
Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
and to the house of the God of Jacob;
and he will teach us of his ways,
and we will walk in his paths:
for the law shall go forth of Zion,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
And he shall judge among many people,
and rebuke strong nations afar off;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruninghooks:
nation shall not lift up a sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.
But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree;
and none shall make them afraid:
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.
For all people will walk every one in the name of his god,
and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.
In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth,
and I will gather her that is driven out,
and her that I have afflicted;
And I will make her that halted a remnant,
and her that was cast far off a strong nation:
and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion
from henceforth, even for ever. Micah 4:1-7
And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people:
and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
There shall be no more thence an infant of days,
nor an old man that hath not filled his days:
for the child shall die an hundred years old;
but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.
And they shall build houses, and inhabit them;
and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
They shall not build, and another inhabit;
they shall not plant, and another eat:
for as the days of a tree are the days of my people,
and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. Isaiah 65:19-22
For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
as the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2:14
And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. Revelation 20:1-3
The devil must be bound before there can be peace in the Millennium. There would be the immortals and the mortals in the millennium. These mortals would marry and give birth, which was captured in Isaiah 65. The immortals are the saints that have been tested and approved here on earth, upon these, the devil has no power again, but as we know, nobody will enter into rest without tests. After the thousand years are accomplished, the devil will be loosed to tempt these mortals, and there will be death in the millennium.
But in eternity, death would have been swallowed up. That is when Revelation 21 will fulfill;
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
Brethren, to this end, will our faith anchor on God, for He that had all things in Himself will bring all things to pass to the glory of His Name.