Jesus spoke about a very important thing that would occur before His return to the Earth for certain believers, those who have been baptized in His name and have received the Holy Spirit; those who are in the body of Christ, His Church.
Recorded in three of the gospels in the Bible, Jesus warned about being deceived by false prophets and Teachers. Remember, the scripture teaches us that “by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word will be established”. So here are three witnesses that have recorded His words.
Matt 24:4-5 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
Matt 24: 24-27 for there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Mark 13: 5-6 And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you: For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
Mark 13: 21-22 And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not: For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.
Luke 21:8 And he said, Take heed that you be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; when the time draws near: go not therefore after them.
Jesus couldn’t have made it any clearer than that. Even with all of those warnings, in this day there are still many people who go whoring after these false preachers that sound like they have been sent by God, but all they want is to build a following that will make them look important. The World is full of them and they are in abundance on television where they mostly preach about how you can be blessed by donating to their ministries.
Now we will look at one, whose name was William Branham, who does not fit into the same category as those mentioned previously. Even though the warning given by Jesus still applies to his ministry and what he taught.
William Branham certainly had signs and wonders that followed his ministry of evangelism and faith healing that many believe were of God and appeared to provide proof that he was ordained by God to minister according to the commission that he said he received.
Even though, because of these supernatural signs that followed his ministry, William Branham began to shape his teaching as though he or his ministry was as he thought, the return of Christ in him. Time after time during his sermons, as he told about the Heavenly visitation on the Ohio River during a baptismal service, he stated that the voice he heard said that “his message would forerun the second coming of Christ”. Yes, it may have been to forerun the second coming, not that it was to be the second coming as he began to believe and teach.
During the year of 1965, the same year that he passed away, he made several statements that conclude that he was convinced that Christ has returned and appeared in him because of all the signs and wonders in his ministry.
His statements are as follows:
2-19-65
“A Voice said, "As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming of Christ, your Message shall forerun His second coming into all the world." This day this Scripture is fulfilled.”
4-18-65
"As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming of Christ, your Message will forerun the second." We're at the end time. And we see it.”
7-18-65
“Now, He promised in the last days that what He would do. And He sent them--us a Message, and this Message would have the same identification as Elijah had, as Elisha had, as John the Baptist had. And It would turn the hearts of the people, not to the denomination, but back to the original, apostolic fathers, back to the Word. And how these things have been a-vindicated. How that in the sounding of the last angel, Revelations 10: In the days of the seventh angel these mysteries that's all been... Them mysteries will be revealed in the last days when the seven angels--seventh angel's Message, when he, not when he starts out doing this, but when he begins to sound his Message but the--when he begins to sound the Message, these mysteries then will be revealed. And here they are,”
“The evening time, He promised He'd reveal--open those Seven Seals and show what them churches had missed back there. Revelations 10, and Malachi 4, Luke 17:30, He said He would do it, so let's not mix it up. Let's keep it right like that.”
“One of these days God's going to take our Message, and we're going to leave here. Something's going to happen sure enough then, when the church is gone, His Body, His Bride.”
William Branham actually believed that every prophecy in the bible has come to pass and all the mysteries had been revealed and his ministry had tied everything together and all they needed to do was to just wait to be raptured off this Earth.
I believe with all my heart that William Branham was not a deceiver in any fashion, but he was just as sincere as he could be with his motives and with his teaching, although it appears to me that he was sincerely wrong about the return of Christ having already occurred.
William Branham must have overlooked just a few scriptures that recorded what was said about His return.
Matt 24:27 For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
John 14:3 and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
1 Thess 4:16-17 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
So Christ has not as of yet returned, neither in William Branham, or his ministry, or in person as the scripture states, which means that all prophesies of the scripture have not been fulfilled.
I end this with one more scripture of which I took the liberty, with permission, to add some words to it in parenthesis.
1 John 2:28 And now, little children, abide in him (and in His Word); that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed (of not staying with His Word) before him at his coming.
Behold, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so,
Amen
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