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Thursday, September 27, 2012

Reverend William Marrion Branham



The True Story as I See it!

A Man Ordained by God but Used by the Devil
To Distort God's Word
The Devil is in the Details
The scriptures make it very clear that to blaspheme the Holy Spirit is the unforgivable sin that will not be forgiven on Earth or in Heaven. To blaspheme the Holy Spirit means to give the devil credit for what God has done. If what I am about to describe is not true and I am attempting to prove that the devil is responsible for what has happened, then I will have committed that unforgiveable sin. Even though, I am willing to take that chance in order to oppose what has been revealed to me was the works of the devil. Why am I doing this? I’m revealing these facts in order to save the children of God from missing their chance at eternal life by believing the lies that satan has perpetrated. . The Bible says, in the words of Jesus that: Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”. With this in mind, I am doing just that if I am wrong. But there is no doubt in my mind that God has shown me these things and I am willing to put my life on the line for the sake of my friends who are God’s people in order to reveal to them what the truth of these matters really are.

Because I have such profound love for God and the people of God and because I am convinced that my calling of God is to do this and expose the deceptive works of the devil, I willingly do what I believe with all my heart is in the will of God. If what I know is the truth and I remain quiet about it, I fail in what God has called me to do. I would rather be seen as being wrong by many people and speak out, than to be right and not speak out for what I believe is the truth for the benefit of God’s people and so I will.

It is very clear according to the bible that satan’s work and mission from the beginning was to convince the people of the Earth that God’s Word is not true. From the record that we have in the bible, satan began his deception in the Garden of Eden when he convinced Adam and Eve that they wouldn’t die as a result of eating of the forbidden tree like God said they would. Throughout history satan has been continuing to get the people to disbelieve the word that God has passed on to us and in these last days the Bible which contains the Word of God is his target.

Up to now I have been gently presenting this information about William Branham’s ministry to all of you in the hope that you would open your hearts and see the truth of what I have given you. Since we have but a short time left until this age comes to a close and Christ returns, it is time for me to take the gloves off and present to you the urgency of what God has given me to say. Jesus stated that we must worship the Father in Spirit and the truth. I believe that your worship of God has been in the Spirit and now it’s time for you to see and accept the truth and include the truth of His Word in your worship of Him.

My friends, let me remind you that the bible tells us that at one time there was a war in Heaven. The devil attempted to rise above Jehovah God and take over Heaven, but Michael and his angels fought against the devil and his angels. Michael and his angels prevailed over the devil and his angels and they were cast down to the Earth. Now that the devil knows that the time is short he is engaging in a war against God on the Earth and the spoils are to be the souls of mankind as you know. As always, the devil is attempting to win over God by deceiving mankind into not believing the written Word of God. God has the truth on His side which He has passed down to us in the bible. All the devil has to work with is his lies and his persuasion over mankind to instill doubt in the hearts of man about the truth of the scriptures.

Most of the religions of the World and most of Christianity have already sealed their fate because of the false doctrines they have adopted because of false teachers teaching their interpretation of God’s Word instead of the truth of the scriptures. But now there is a group of called out people, called out of the devil controlled religions of the World thanks to the Evangelistic ministry of William Branham. It is to these people and for these people that God has assembled together for the purpose of learning the truth and preparing themselves to inherit God’s promises.

The things that I am about to point out about William Branham’s ministry have been presented for many years, by every means available to be the truth by those who believe it without any solid evidence to back up their claims. I cannot debunk everything that has been said simply because it is almost impossible to disprove a negative statement, but where facts have presented itself, I can and will speak to them.

William Branham has been said to be many things which have been associated with people and events in bible history. It wasn’t enough to see him as a God sent Evangelist who was successful in his calling to present God to the unbelievers in the World. No that was not enough, instead there were those who attempted to present him as having fulfilled or be associated with many prophesies in the bible without any solid proof that he was indeed connected to them. Sometimes too many assertions make it look too good to be true and it usually is too good to be true. This then is followed according to the truth of the saying that if you proclaim something often enough it will eventually be accepted as truth whether it is or not.

William Branham and his ministry has been associated with many persons and events in the bible such as Abraham’s name change by God. Like Moses, the claim was that William Branham was given two gifts to prove himself to the people that God sent him. Then there was the belief that he was Elijah the Prophet fulfilling Malachi Chapter four and Matthew 17:11. That was followed by the assertion that he was the Messenger to the seventh church age of Revelations 3:14. Then he was seen as the seventh angel of Revelations 10:7 who was to reveal all the mysteries of God and on and on. One of the most profound assertion that William Branham made was that the second coming of Christ had occurred in his flesh being evidenced by the gifts that were prevalent in his ministry. Again I say that too much is too much to believe without any substantial verifiable evidence of the truth of these assertions.

Let’s just examine a few things that are disturbing to me and cause me to doubt that William Branham’s ministry was in totality the perfect will of God.

The bottom line, the end result of his ministry was marred by his deviation from his teaching according to what the scriptures state as facts. His teaching that a person could not understand the bible unless the truth was revealed to them according to his interpretation was an obvious sign that something was wrong. Then he asserted that the only people who could receive the revelation of the truth were those who were chosen by God before the foundation of the World and they would be known as God’s Elect, the Bride of Christ. All of this kind of teaching was a result of the failure to keep the scriptures in context from Genesis to Revelations and believing what they said without depending upon a revelation to understand them. If it wasn’t for this deviation from scriptural truth by the errors that were made, all of the assertions that were attributed to him about the fulfillment of certain prophesies could have certainly been believable.

Now let’s just look at a few discrepancies in his ministry and what he had to say.

First we’ll start with his connection to Abraham and the name change that both he and Abraham experienced that indicated approval by God. The following is what William Branham stated that caused the spelling of his last name to come about.

“Now, I have to be honest. There's things here that I do not like to say, and I wish I could bypass it and not have to say it. But yet, to tell the truth, you must tell the truth if it's on yourself or your people. Be honest about it, and then it's always the same.”

“My father was a long way from being a religious person. He was a typical mountain boy that drank constantly, all the time. And he had gotten in some trouble in a fight , and there had been two or three man almost killed as they fighting, shooting, and cutting one another with knives, at some kind of a party up in the mountains. And Dad had been one of the ringleaders of this fight, because that there had been a friend of his had got hurt, and had hit someone with a chair. The man had a knife out and was going to cut Dad's friend on the floor with this knife, through his heart, and Dad took his part. And it really must have been a terrible fight, because they, from all the way down to Burkesville, many miles away, they sent a sheriff up after Dad, horseback.”
“So the man was laying at the point of death. Might be some of his people listening in. But he was a bully, great powerful man, killed his own boy with a fence rail. So he was a very powerful and wicked man. And so there was a great knife fight between he and Dad. And my father almost killed the man, so he had to run and leave Kentucky and come across the river to Indiana.

And he had a brother that lived, at the time, in Louisville, Kentucky, was the assistant superintendent of the Wood Mosaic Saw Mills in Kentucky, in Louisville. And so Dad come to find his older brother. Dad was the youngest of the boys, of seventeen children. And so he came to find his older brother, and while he was gone for almost a year. He could not come back, because the law was looking for him. And then when we had heard from him by letter, signed by another name, but that he had told mother how it would be that she'd hear from him.”


The person who quoted William Branham as telling this story stated the facts as he knew it as follows:

In the Old Testament God changed Abram's name to Abraham. The Lord inserted "ha" into the Name of Abram, giving it seven letters, signifying the "completion" of Abraham's Faith. Charles 'Branam' was unknowingly doing God a service by inserting the letter "h" into 'branam' to make "Branham", seven letters, signifying completion, even in the name that his son, William would also carry the rest of his days. Now, ALL three of William's names would contain seven letters each - William Marrion Branham - the Seventh Messenger to the Seventh and last Church Age. Of course, Charles Branham, being far from religious, knew nothing of these things.

William Branham many times in his sermons spoke of God changing the name of Abram to Abraham, making Abraham’s name seven letters long. William Branham then said that God was responsible for his last name to be changed from Branam (6 letters) to Branham (7 letters) also. He said the way this occurred was that his father, Charles Branam had run from the law in Kentucky to Indiana and changed his last name from Branam to Branham so they could not find and identify him. Thus his last name being changed from Branam to Branham must have been orchestrated by God.

After reviewing the Federal Census records for Kentucky, it was found that William Branham’s Father was born Charles Branham and not Charles Branam as was told. William Branham’s Grandfather and Charles Branham’s Father was listed in the Census report as being George Branham and not George Branam as you would have thought if the name change story was true. The bottom line is that William Branham’s last name was not changed from Branam to Branham and constitutes an untrue story. William Branham was born a Branham as his father and grandfather were. But these are only documented facts that you may chose not to believe because you hold him as a prophet and a prophet can’t say anything but the truth.

William Branham’s similarity with the calling of Moses has to do with the signs that he and Moses received to validate them being sent by God. William Branham said that the angel that visited him said that he would be given two signs just as Moses received to prove to the people that God had sent him. The problem with this statement is that Moses was given three signs and not just two. This should be proof enough that the visiting angel was not sent by God or he would have known the scriptures more accurately,

In addition to the mistake about the number of signs, the angel said that William Branham was being given a gift of healing. It turned out that this also was not true and he didn’t receive a true gift of healing that only God can bestow upon a person. As William Branham stated many times he couldn’t heal anyone, but God was the healer and if a person believed, God would heal them. This is what’s known as faith healing and not someone having the gift and ability to heal someone like Jesus did.

Then we come to the point when William Branham believed that he was the Seventh Church Age Messenger. Well he said that each Church Age Messenger came near the end of each Church Age and he probably was right. This is definitely near the end of this age, but William Branham is gone and the end of this age hasn’t arrived as of yet. Oh but you say that it was his message that was to forerun the second coming of Christ and not him personally. That part is probably right, but I wonder if this age will continue until the real message is accepted before Christ returns? The message that we are to return to the truth in the bible and believe the written Word of God and not the interpretation of some man who was falsely identified as a prophet.

Then William Branham believed that he was the seventh angel of Revelations 10:7 that is supposed to finish all the mysteries of God before the end comes. In order to do that he knew that he would have to preach on the opening of the seven sealed book, which he did. But you see, that also is against scripture. Scripture tells us that no man in Heaven, on the Earth, or under the Earth can break the seals, only the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. Then we must understand and believe that the scriptures tell us that Christ will open this book in Heaven and not on the Earth and this will be witnessed by those who have already been taken into Heaven after the Rapture and the First Resurrection. This also has not happened yet, but we are closer than we might think.

Now we come to the picture that has been presented to us as being a heavenly being that has been photographed. Well it very well could have been just that, but if it has served God at the time it was taken, it has also served the devil just as well by being the image to worship in every household today. How so? Even after William Branham has gone off the scene we still have this image to convince us that he was a prophet of God and cause us to remember and hold to all that he had taught. I bet the devil just loves that. He is wining a battle finally by using this image to aid us in believing a man’s interpretation of scripture instead of the truth of the written Word of God. This is what it has all been about. The devil used a man that was called of God to be an Evangelist and promoted him in our hearts as a prophet for us to believe his lies.

Let’s look at what helped catapulted William Branham into a Worldwide healing ministry a little while after his angel visitation when he was told that he would have to get the people to believe him to be healed. Not believe God, but believe him. This girl he visited was on the brink of dying and to increase her faith in him, he described that a parlor trick was performed by having a little bracelet hanging from a chandelier move around. When the girl saw that happen William Branham said that God didn’t make it move, that it was his faith that made it move. Well he was right, it wasn’t God because God doesn’t have to perform parlor tricks to heal anyone or prove anything to anyone.

Then there was a story that he told about a man laying in a morgue who was pronounced dead by three doctors who raised up from the dead when he visited him. You would think that one doctor would have been enough, but to make it more believable there had to be three doctors who said the man was dead. These kind of stories that he told went on and on over the years for the benefit of building up his believability so he could get the people to believe him. That is just what the devil was after, that the people would believe anything he said and the devil knew that whatever he taught from the pulpit would become the gospel truth.

Well I don’t believe those things happened and no other sensible person would either, but they worked and gullible people throughout the World believed him and promoted him to the position of prophet. Well, that’s where we are today. William Branham was called by God to be an Evangelist and preach the Gospel of Christ and ended his ministry by preaching another Gospel, just what the Apostle Paul warned the people about.

So the bottom line is this. If you believe that William Branham was Elijah the Prophet, or a Prophet at all, write me and give me the evidence that you have. Or if you believe that he was the Seventh Church Age Messenger or the seventh angel of Revelations 10:7 who revealed all the mysteries of God, then write me and tell me what you believe these mysteries were. Then if you believe that William Branham represented Elijah in turning the hearts of the Children back to the beliefs of the Apostolic Fathers and has restored all things as Jesus said, then write me and tell me what things he has restored.

Now my comment section is open for you to use. I had to install some safeguards on it because of so much spam advertisements, but I will publish your comments as long as they are relevant to the subject matter and not just accusatory or inflammatory. Then I will respond to your comments by using bible scripture and let’s see who comes closer to the truth of God’s Word. For you that say that you have received a revelation that convinced you his teaching was true, I have received a revelation that the scriptures are true instead. So you have your invitation and I am waiting for your comments.

Now if you would like to ask me, which I’m sure that you won’t and don’t really care, why am I presenting these things to you? I’ll tell you this, I am an old man who is not looking for anything from any of you. My time is short to remain in this World and have no desire to acquire a following. I have only one desire that God has called me to do and that is to inspire you all to believe what the bible says. The bible is our only connection to God that we have, without it we have no way of knowing the truth of God and His Son Jesus the Christ. Don’t turn your back on the Word of God in favor of anything or anyone else, your future depends on it.

Look around and you will see the signs of the times being played out. Today in our generation is the prelude to the return of Christ which is being played out as it is described in the thirteenth chapter of Revelations. It tells of great wonders happening, fire or light coming down out of Heaven, signs and miracles being performed, the worship of an image and the mark of the beast that will condemn those who partake of it. This is followed by the return of the Bridegroom. We must keep our eyes open so as not to be deceived and we must hold to the truth of God’s Word to be saved.

Paul the Apostle, the one who met with and heard the audible voice of Jesus and was chosen to be the Apostle to the Gentiles (us) gave us a word that we should all adhere to. That word was “if any man or an angel from Heaven, or a prophet (my words) teach anything contrary to what I have taught you, let him be accursed.”

Now just one more time that it should be very evident as to what has happened. According to William Branham’s testimony, the angel told him that in order for his ministry to be successful, he had to get the people to believe him. And so he did by doing and saying whatever was necessary. So I wonder if the end really justified the means? I’m sure that the devil believes it did because of the false interpretation of scripture that has been accepted by those who are the called out ones.

It’s up to you as to who you will believe and stand with. Will it be God and His Word, or will you believe the lies of the devil?

 

 

(Footnote)

As I look back after beginning to write this article, I am convinced that what I have written has been God’s will. God has had me to change the theme of this article three times until I finally began to say what He wanted me to write. Throughout the writing of this the devil has hindered me in every way that he could because he knew I was about to expose him for what he has orchestrated for his own gain. You wouldn’t believe the steps the devil has taken to stop this from being published, but I held on to the patience that God has given me because I was convinced that eventually it would be complete and I would publish it for the sake of God’s people.

I also recall a dream that I had in August of the year 2000, which is writer about in my testimony which is published on this site. In that dream and the interpretation of it I was told that I should not harm the reputation of William Branham with the information I would learn about him. In view of this I defended him at every opportunity that I had and was ostracized by many people on the Internet blog sites that I visited. That was until certain things came clear to me about the truth of his entire ministry. I now realize that you must be careful about the voice that speaks to you and the revelations that you have. It is important to give everything the Word test using the bible. I now realize that what I was originally told in the dream was not the voice of God that spoke to me because what I was told failed the Word test. It is clear to me now that the voice I heard back then must have been the devil attempting to setup a safeguard for keeping me from using what I was to discover about his devious strategy. Now I speak openly about the truth of the matter according to the true revelation from the scriptures, because only God’s Word is the truth.

 
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Saturday, September 22, 2012

Examining the Ministry of William Branham


Was it a 20th Century Prophetic Ministry

or

A 20th Century Deception of the Devil?

This is without a doubt the most difficult message that I have had to deliver to the people of God. Only by way of hindsight is it possible to see the length that satan has gone to in order to deceive believers in this time of the end for the purpose of disbelieving the Word of God and the scriptures that He has given to us.

Satan has always wanted and strove to be the Master of the Universe and to position himself above God. Even the scriptures say that satan himself is transformed (disguised) as an angel of light and his ministers as the ministers of righteousness. (2 Corinthians 11:14-15) This should be obvious to those who seek the truth and believe the scriptures as they have been recorded throughout the bible.

The only reason that I have taken up this examination of William Branham’s ministry was because of the veracity of his bible teaching. It was obvious to me that the accuracy of his teaching was not in accordance with bible truth as it is written. We must have an absolute and the bible must be our absolute. If not, then who can we believe? Do we believe the doctrines adopted by any of the other churches, or those taught be the thousands of preachers throughout the World according to their interpretation of bible scripture? Without knowing where else the real truth lies, we must turn to the bible and make it our absolute for learning the truth of God’s Word.

Now I want to make it very clear that in the following assumptions I am not declaring all that I say as being factual. I am stating most of what I say as being only a possibility. What I am attempting to describe is not an attack on the ministry of William Branham, or on him personally, but is meant to be an exposition of the continuation of the devil’s plan to deceive the people of God and cause them to not believe God’s Word as has been presented to us in the bible.

Before we start at the beginning when the angel visited William Branham with the delivery of the commission of a Divine Healing Ministry, I am going to begin at the end and show what was the result of the efforts put forth from the devil and how he succeeded in what he intended to do.

Here we are in the 21st century and we have a group of people that have followed and believed completely in William Branham’s ministry, including what he taught as the truth of the scriptures and that God was in it all. But what we presently have is teaching that does not line up with the scriptures, but is one man’s interpretation of them. Here we have millions of people around the World who believe they have received the gospel of Christ and are saved, but may very well not be. Here we have all of his followers that believe that William Branham was a Prophet of God and all they have heard about the supernatural events that occurred in his ministry were of God and actually occurred, but may not have been as they were presented.

First we want to take note of what is known as the “River Scene”. William Branham, at the beginning of his ministry was baptizing new converts in the Ohio River on June 11, 1933 when an unusual event occurred. Out of the sky a bright light came down out of Heaven above their heads and caused great excitement and concern as to what it was. William Branham testified that he heard a voice coming from above that said to him: “just as John the Baptist foreran the first coming of Christ, your message will forerun His second coming”.

It was not defined as to what his message was at that time which was to forerun the second coming of Christ, but even until this day, some eighty years later, this message is still being spoken of and his followers have mixed ideas about what the message is. Because of this so called message, his followers call themselves “message believers” and have designated certain churches as being message churches.

Now I do not deny that this river scene with the light coming down out of Heaven actually occurred and it could very well have been sent down by God. The only thing about the light that causes me to be cautious about is a bible scripture in Revelations 13:13 where it describes fire coming down from Heaven in the sight of men and how they were deceived by miracles being done afterwards.

Then we have a picture that was taken in 1950 that was presented to the people as being a sign of the vindication of William Branham’s ministry, but that might not be completely accurate. Yet without that picture and the testimony behind it, the people wouldn’t have anything except hearsay to anchor their faith on that his ministry was completely being of God.

Do I believe that William Branham was intentionally deceiving anyone with his teaching or anything else in his ministry? Absolutely not! I have always considered William Branham as a Godly man, honest and doing everything that he believed God wanted him to do. Even though, I honestly believe that William Branham could have been deceived by the devil and was an unknowing participant in the devil’s objective to deceive the people of God into not believing the truth of Bible scriptures.

If the devil didn’t have a part in the people accepting what William Branham taught which was in contradiction to the bible, it is hard to believe. From the beginning of mankind, the devil has been instrumental in convincing people of the word of God not being true and from what is evident in William Branham’s teaching, the devil could very well be causing it today.

Now I want you to take a look at what transpired when the Angel visited William Branham on May 7, 1946. The angel introduced himself as coming from the presence of God, but did not introduce himself as to who he was, nor did William Branham ask him.

Many times throughout bible history an angel of God appeared to certain people to deliver a message to them. During many of these appearances the angel made itself known by name. All of the heavenly beings depicted in the scriptures were called angels, even though most of the time it was Jehovah God Himself.

Take as an example the angel who came to Hagar, the maid of Abraham’s wife, who appeared to her in the wilderness. When Hagar spoke to the angel she called Him Jehovah God. So it was God Himself appearing as an angel. The same when an angel visited Abraham when he was about to sacrifice his son Isaac and made Himself known as Jehovah also. Many times that an angel visited certain people throughout history, it was Jehovah God Himself.

Then there was a time when an angel visited Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist and made itself known by the name of Gabriel. This same angel Gabriel also visited Mary the mother of Jesus to announce the birth of Jesus.

When Saul of Tarsus was visited by a Heavenly being, he asked the question” Who are you Lord”. Saul thought it was Jehovah God, but was told that it was Jesus.

What really disturbed me about the message the angel gave William Branham was that he was being given a gift of Divine Healing, but the people would have to believe him before they could be healed. Now that doesn’t sound like he was getting a gift of healing to me. If God gave a person a gift of healing, it stands to reason to me that with that gift he would be able to heal anyone he desired to heal whether they believed him or not. So with the statement from the angel being what it was, William Branham didn’t really receive a gift of healing.

Now we all know that God can bestow a gift of healing on a person if He wills. After all, Jesus had the gift to heal whoever He wanted and anytime He wanted. I believe that is how a true gift of divine healing from God would work. Now I’m not necessarily saying that the angel didn’t come from God, but if he did and if William Branham was to be given a gift of healing, he would have used it in that manner. But if this angel wasn’t sent by God, that would account for a true gift of healing not being given to him.

There was said several times by William Branham that his commission was to pray for people and if they were to believe him that he was sent by God, they would receive their healing. There was a time when he said the angel told him after praying for a person’s healing and if there was no indication that the healing took place, “just ask a blessing and walk away”. This sounds like healing was dependent upon the faith of a person and not on a gift of healing from God.

One other thing that we should take note of. I’m not saying that this angel was or was not sent from the presence of God, but consider this. We all know that God has the ability to heal a person of their sickness or their disability and because He can, He can also give someone the gift of healing. We also know that the devil cannot heal anyone, so he does not have the ability to give someone the gift of healing either. So for this angel to say just pray for a person and if they believe then God will heal them and if they are not healed you can say that they didn’t have faith enough to be healed. God doesn’t have to work that way does He?

There was also something else that the angel told William Branham. He told him in William Branham’s own words:"As the prophet Moses was given two gifts, signs (rather) to a-vindicate his ministry, so will you given two--so are you given two gifts to a-vindicate your ministry” The angel said that Moses was given two signs to prove to the people that God had sent him to deliver the people out of Egypt, but that is not true. The angel was in error because the scripture says that God gave Moses three signs. (Exodus 4:1 thru 9) Now you would think that the God who sent the angel and the angel himself would have known the scripture better than that. So I wonder if in fact that angel was sent by God, or was this just the beginning for setting the stage for something to occur later on in his ministry when he began to teach bible scripture which turned out to be in error

Now here was this angel that visited him with the commission who said that he would be with him in the ministry. Here was this angel who traveled with him and moved around the meeting hall pointing out people who he was to address in the meeting. Here was the angel who was always on the platform in the prayer line with him so the people would pass by the angel first before he would pray for them. Here was the angel who had his picture taken above his head. Here was the angel that met with him teaching him different things. Here was the angel who visited him in motel rooms and once allowed William Branham’s son to see him. Here was the angel who was the pillar of fire that led the Israelites out of Egypt. All of this and he never addressed the angel by name, one who was with him from his birth and throughout his life.

Here was an angel who said that he came from the presence of God to present him with a gift of Divine Healing that wasn’t truly a gift and would only be effective if the people believed him. A gift that even cancer would be cured, but only if the people believed him. If William Branham truly was given these gifts to operate throughout his ministry, it doesn’t seem like to me that it would be necessary for an angel to be with him all the time. I did notice in the scriptures that Paul the Apostle used a little caution and common sense when he asked “who are you Lord” to be certain that he was receiving a legitimate Heavenly visitor.

This all seems very strange to me, so I would question just exactly who this angel was and did God actually send him to William Branham? This nameless angel who guided his every move and taught him everything he needed to know. So now I would like to ask, where was this angel when William Branham really needed him the most, at the time of the accident that took his life? I’m sure that some of you will say that William Branham had completed all that God wanted him to do and just took him home. If so, then why is there still no unity of the faith that he worked so hard to attain? If so then why are the message believers themselves not in unity with each other in their beliefs? If so, why is it that many people continue to not accept his teaching? If he was a prophet of God, surely he would have been sent to believers all over the World and not just a few who would be convinced that his teaching was of God.

I would like to insert this to his favor, that I am sure there were a lot of healings as a result of his ministry, but I’m also sure that the healings took place as the result of the faith in God that the people had and not because of this so called gift of healing that he was supposed to have received. I am also certain that because of his ministry there were many that were saved, but I’ll qualify that and say they were saved if they were taught to have faith in the Gospel of Christ, believing that Jesus was the Son of God as the scripture states.

Now as we come to the picture that was taken in Houston Texas in 1950 I have just a few things to say. First, if the picture did show a supernatural light above his head and that’s what it actually was, then God made it appear to vindicate his healing ministry because that is what he was involved in at that time. The appearance of that light on the photo could have been a heavenly being, but no one knows for certain. One thing is for sure, that photograph has been instrumental in the adoption of William Branham’s teaching and the promotion of him being a prophet, whether it is true or not.

In March of 1963 William Branham preached a series of sermons supposedly to explain the meaning of the opening of the secrets of the Seven Seals of Revelations chapter six, seven and eight. The problem I have with any man proclaiming that he has opened the seals is that according to the scriptures, no man in Heaven, nor on the Earth, neither under the Earth was found worthy to do this. (Revelations 6:3) The scriptures state that only the Lamb, Jesus Christ Himself, only He is able to open these seals. Another thing is according to scripture when He is to open the seals it is in Heaven and He does it after the Rapture and resurrection of believers. Verse nine of Chapter Five describes those who are present at the opening, the redeemed out of every Nation on the Earth. So William Branham may have preached on the Seals according to his interpretation and all it amounted to was his opinion on what they meant.

One thing occurred during the week of his delivery of the seven seal messages that I thought was very wrong and shouldn’t have happened. The Monday morning after the seal messages were complete, William Branham met with two other men in a Motel room and cut about 20 minutes of recording out of the seventh seal message that could cause him a problem. Then William Branham, while in the Motel Room, preached into a recorder a substitution for the part of his message that was cut out. After preaching this message to the people in the church, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit if he was, then he replaces the cut out part with an ending that suited him. This kind of deception is certainly not pleasing to God and beneath what I expected from an honest man which I had always believed he was.

Up until sometime in the 1950’s William Branham mostly evangelized and held meetings where he concentrated on praying for the sick. For the most part in the beginning of his ministry when services were held, other preachers would preach a sermon and afterwards William Branham would conduct his healing ministry. Sometime in the 50’s he then started to teach out of the bible, something that God didn’t ordain him to do, although he knew that it was not his calling, he was insistent to begin teaching anyway. Because of his heretical teaching which was in opposition to Bible scriptures, almost no church group would invite him to hold services.

By December of 1955, his invitations to hold meetings for other church groups started to diminish and found that finances were not available to pay the expenses for holding evangelistic meetings, so he announced that he was going to leave the missionary field. According to what he said afterwards, God was not pleased with his decision.

Then at some time while he was squirrel hunting he told of a voice that spoke to him out of nowhere and said to him: “Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jesus of the New”. He said that he had always thought that was true, but after hearing that voice tell him, now he was sure. Well without a doubt this was the most profound departure from scriptural truth that I have ever heard. Throughout the bible it testifies that Jesus was the Son of God and now William Branham is about to teach that Jesus was in fact God in the flesh. I believe that under the circumstances I would be most inclined to question just whose voice it was that he heard.

Prior to this, William Branham had decided that it was not possible to know the truth of Bible scriptures without receiving a spiritual revelation of what they really meant. He followed this up with the statement that unless you were a part of God’s Elect, you could not receive the revelation of the truth of the scriptures. All of this was a result of his own private interpretation of what the bible literally said.

This departure from literally believing what the scriptures teach led his followers and himself down a path that led them just exactly where the devil wanted them to go. Nothing pleases the devil any more than getting people to mistrust the meaning of what God has sent to us in the Holy Bible.

William Branham made the following statements at one time or the other as follows”

“So anything, any teacher, any Bible expositor, anything else would teach you or try to get you to believe anything one little iota different from what this Bible says it, it's a false teaching. It's Satan again just exactly like it was to Eve. God goes right on, no matter what he does, what Satan does, God goes right on proving it to be so.”

“Now, I'm going to tell you what you must not do. Now, you must not misinterpret the Word. It means just what it says. It needs no interpreter. But if you're reading between the lines and try to make It say something, that in between the lines says something different than what the lines says, then it's wrong.”

William Branham said: “You say, "I heard a voice tell me this." If it's contrary to the Word, it wasn't God's voice. God's voice comes with the Word.”

“If anybody teaches anything contrary to the Word, I wouldn't believe it”

William Branham throughout his ministry preached that if you hear a voice, or have a revelation, or read something between the lines (your own interpretation) and it doesn’t conform to what the scriptures say, then it’s wrong. Then he turned right around time after time and did the exact thing that he said you shouldn’t do.

That is the whole reason that his teaching on predestination, God’s Elect, God’s foreknowledge, things that occurred before the foundation of the World and the most extreme thing that Jesus was not the Son of God, but God Himself that came to Earth in a flesh body that He made for Himself, was in error. These things were taught in error because his teaching was not according to the written Word of God.

Was William Branham’s ministry ordained by God? Was he really given a gift of Divine Healing? Did he get out of what God called him to do when he started to teach scripture instead of staying as an Evangelist? Was William Branham a God sent Prophet? Was William Branham the prophesied coming of Elijah? Was William Branham the Seventh Church age messenger? Was William Branham the 7th angel of Revelations 10:7? Did William Branham reveal the secrets of the seven sealed book? Did his message forerun the second coming of Christ just as John the Baptist foreran the first coming?

John the Baptist was still alive when Jesus came the first time and now William Branham has been gone for 47 years and Christ hasn’t returned as of yet. So what do you think about the totality of his ministry? Was it a bible based ministry or a ministry of errors that deviated from bible truth.

The real end time Message of the Hour, just as William Branham stated, is to return back to the truth of Bible Scripture and believe what it says. Following is William Branham’s statement about the “message of the hour”.

“The Message of the hour is, to repent and turn back again to the faith of the Father and we're promised that to restore. Every voice has a message behind it. And the message was restore the faith back to the original faith, Malachi 4. Restore back the faith to the‑‑of the fathers to the people. They've got off in all kinds of everything, but restore back again that faith. The message of the hour is, "Return back to the Word."

What is God going to have to do in order for all you poor mislead message believers whose doctrines that you have accepted which are in error and not according to the written word, to get back to the truth and prepare yourselves for the soon return of Christ for His Church?



Do you see this above picture? I bet that every Message believer has it and every “Message Church” has it displayed in their church. Every web site on the Internet has it displayed on their front page.

What does this picture represent to you? Does it represent a Prophet of God with a supernatural light above his head vindicating that God is with him in his ministry? Does it validate all of what he taught to be the truth of God’s Word? Well, that is possible and easy to believe considering all that we have read about him and the signs that followed his ministry. But what affect does this picture have on the believer? Does it represent a man that has brought the revealed word of the day to the church? Was his revealed word the absolute truth of God’s Word? I say that it does not considering how his teaching deviated from bible scripture. Even William Branham taught that the written word of the Bible must be our absolute and according to scripture we are not to add to or take away from what is written.

If that is our absolute, then how can we ever accept that Jesus is God and not the Son of God when the scriptures overwhelmingly say something different? It is written in the scriptures in at least two places that God the Father spoke from Heaven and said aloud: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him”. If God openly recognized Jesus as His Son, who are we to deny that? I believe that if we knew the mind of God, He probably regrets allowing this picture to exist for so long to represent what a lot of people believe that it represents. If anything and if God was responsible for it, it was meant for the vindication of William Branham’s ministry of Evangelism and not a vindication of his teaching.

There are those who question why God would select a man like me to bring up these points of discussion about William Branham’s teaching and make the charge that his teaching was in error and did not conform to bible scripture. Unlike William Branham I can’t produce a picture with a supernatural light above my head, I don’t have the gift of healing, I don’t have the gift of knowledge that allows me to know what’s in the mind of others and I can’t walk on water. The only thing that I do know is that God has endowed me with the gift of wisdom and spiritual discernment that permits me to understand and believe the scriptures just as He expects all of us to do.

Well just as Jesus made a statement about if the people didn’t sound off as He entered Jerusalem, He would have the stones to speak out. The same stands true today. If God can’t find anything except modern day hard headed, cowardly preachers that would speak out the truth of the scriptures, He must have chosen me. If you want to question that, please take it up with Him, don’t ask me.

If any of you chose to not believe what I say, that’s up to you. I’m not so much asking you to believe me, but I am asking you to believe the scriptures that I speak of without considering them in regard to any man’s interpretation.

Consider the alternative to not believing what the Bible says and the result of your choice. The Bible must be our absolute. Only the Bible is the absolute truth and God expects all of us to keep His Word and believe what His Son Jesus Christ said:

Those who believe the Gospel and are baptized will be saved. The Gospel states that God sent His only begotten Son into the World and those who believe in Him and who He is shall be saved. If you hold to the false teaching that Jesus was actually God in the flesh, then you are denying the truth of the Gospel.

The devil has been deceiving the people since the beginning and still is doing it in order to foil God’s plan of salvation by convincing you that the Word is not complete or true and requires you to have a revelation according to someone’s interpretation in order to know the truth.

The devil is a liar, always has been and always will be. His future is in the Lake of Fire, don’t make the mistake of believing his lies or you may be joining him there.

Now that I have completed my examination of Brother Branham’s ministry and considering what I have discovered, I feel great disappointment, sadness and despair. I began as a true believer in what I have heard and read about the things that occurred during his services and now I feel about as low as I possibly can. Like I have said many times, I owe my great faith to those things I thought I knew about his work for God, but now I feel very despondent over my findings.

Regardless of those facts that have disappointed me, I still have my experiences with God that I know are real and will continue to rely on the Bible for my absolute. I have met with God in many ways and know what He expects of me and will continue in the truth of His Word and not depend upon man’s interpretations to teach me, instead as always I will depend upon the Holy Spirit to guide me into even a closer relationship with Him.
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Saturday, September 15, 2012

Why did God Test Abraham?

There is an event depicted in the bible about Abraham being tested by God that needs to be examined. It tells us that God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his only son on an altar just to see if Abraham was faithful enough to God to obey Him. It ended with Abraham just about to kill Isaac his son when God intervened and provided an animal to Abraham to sacrifice instead of his son. Then God told Abraham that because he was willing to obey Him in this manner by killing his only son, that God would bless Abraham in many ways. (Genesis 22:1-18)

Now this was not the first time that God told Abraham that He would bless him if he would obey what God commanded to do. God first told Abraham that He would bless him if he would leave his family and homeland. Then God told Abraham that He would provide him with a son to be his heir. Then God appeared to Abraham again and promised him that He would bless him by making him a father of many nations if Abraham would walk before Him and be perfect in his ways. Then God again promised Abraham increased prosperity if Abraham would keep a covenant with God, signified by circumcising every man child in his family from then on.

Finally after all the promises that God had made to Abraham and commandments that He required Abraham to keep, then God felt the need to test Abraham in the most terrific way that Abraham would have to face, taking the life of his promised son. It makes one ask themselves, why after all that God had required Abraham to do and Abraham obeyed in every way, did God test him once again in this manner?

It appears to be very clear to me that God didn’t know how far Abraham would go to prove his faith and trust in Him. Although, shouldn’t God have know that before? We have been taught over the years that God knows everything, but this incident makes you wonder if that is true.

Let’s look at another case in point. In the beginning after God created man on the Earth and a number of generations had passed, God must have discovered that things didn’t turn out as He had hoped. It turned out that men became so wicked and evil that God was repentant for creating them and decided to destroy all that He had made. Does this sound like our God was all knowing, or did He not know in advance that man would turn out like he did?

Doesn’t our bible teachers quote a scripture that says that God knows the end from the beginning and interpret that to mean that God is all knowing? (Isaiah 46:10) In the two cases that I pointed out it should be obvious that either God didn’t know, or had the capability to know and chose not to see the end result in the beginning before these kinds of incidents occur.

There is a word that is used to describe one of the attributes associated with God which is the word “omniscient”. This word does not appear in scripture, but was developed by man and included in the dictionary to attribute to the all knowing attribute of God. Could this word omniscient and the attribute of all knowing be the result of an incorrect interpretation of Isaiah 46:10”?

We are also taught that God has the attribute of foreknowledge, but it obviously wasn’t in play in the cases that I described. As a matter of fact, the only foreknowledge that God exhibited was when He determined in the beginning to predestinate certain individuals to perform His future will. Cases in point are the predestination of Jesus (Romans 8:29-32) and the Apostles. (Ephesians 1:4-5) Nothing in scripture indicates that God had any foreknowledge as to who would or would not be saved in the end. These would be true and accurate facts of scripture unless you choose to accept some man’s private interpretation of them.

If God had the attribute of foreknowledge, knowing in advance that certain individuals would believe the gospel and be saved and/or if God actually predestinated certain ones to be saved, it would fly into the face that God has given each one of us the ability to be free moral agents, to do good or bad. Nothing in the bible, except for certain predestinated individuals chosen to accomplish certain tasks for God, indicates that God micromanages the individual lives of the people.

Now if we look back at Abraham being tested by God by the commandment to sacrifice his only son, there may have been another objective of God’s. Could it have been that in God’s plan for the future that He was contemplating the sacrifice of His only Son for the sake of mankind and wanted to see how such a perfect and righteous man like Abraham would react? Since probably the most righteous man as Abraham was could perform such a task, God thought that if righteous Abraham  could do such a thing by sacrificing his only son, how could He do any less for the sake of mankind to prove His love for them.

Yes, this no doubt was an example of God’s foreknowledge and predestination by giving His only Son for the atonement for mankind’s sin. The only thing that could have come close to this feat would be for God himself to shed His own blood for the atonement. Since this was not possible because God is a Spirit not having necessary blood, that the only thing left He could do was to send His Son in the flesh to be born of a woman which would have made His Son a qualified sacrifice.

Now comes the future when God gave His only begotten Son Jesus, who became the Christ, being anointed by God’s Spirit to preach the gospel required for every person to believe and be saved from the second death and to obtain eternal life.
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Thursday, September 6, 2012

The Throne in Heaven


The bible tells us about the Throne of God which is in Heaven. The question that I want to ask and pursue the answer to is Who sits on the Throne in Heaven? Is it Jehovah God, or Jesus Christ, or are they one and the same?

In the first century AD there was no question about who Jesus was, He introduced Himself as being the Son of God and was accepted as such. At no time did Jesus say that He was God or the Father. The angel Gabriel who spoke to Mary His mother to be that she was to bring forth a child who would be the Son of God. For the most part all of the church for about three hundred years accepted Jesus as the Son of God with some exceptions. There were even at that time where it was questioned whether Jesus was actually God or not.

Finally all of the church leaders at that time got together to unite and solve the differences in what they believed and decided to solve the diety in question and concluded that Jesus was God. In fact they concluded that He was part of the Godhead made up of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and adopted the term of the Godhead being the trinity, three persons in one God. A false doctrine that has stuck with the churches for hundreds of years.

Now how can the trinity be made up with three persons when it is made clear in the first chapter of Luke that God and the Holy spirit are one and the same? In verse 35 of that chapter the angel speaks of the Holy Spirit coming upon her and the child would be the Son of God. Now that should be very clear that God and the Holy Spirit were one and the same. That leaves the trinity being composed of just two persons and not three. See how unscriptural that is?

Now concerning the Throne we start by examining one statement in the book of Revelations. Chapter five verse one starts off by saying:And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. Then there appeared a Lamb as it had been slain, And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.”

Now what is pictured here is that someone was sitting on the Throne and without a doubt it was Jehovah God the Father and He had a book in His hand. That should be pretty clear and needs no further explanation. Then it is said that a lamb that appeared to have been slain came along. This should also be clear that Jesus was the Lamb of God and He was killed on the cross by the Romans. Then this lamb, Jesus, took the book out of the hand of the person sitting on the Throne which was God the Father. That’s pretty clear also that there were two people involved in this, there was God the Father and Jesus Christ. Does that sound like they are one and the same? Not hardly!

Throughout the whole New Testament Jesus speaks of God the Father who is in Heaven and how the Father sent Him. You see Jesus praying to the Father and instructing others to worship the Father etc, etc. If there is no God the Father in Heaven and He is really on Earth in the person of Jesus, then Jesus was not telling the people the truth about the Father being in Heaven.

If Jesus was actually God Himself then all of the references to God and the Father being in Heaven should be taken out of the Bible, all the hundreds of them because those references do nothing more than to mislead the people as to what the truth really is.

So now, who was on the Throne? Jehovah God the Father was alone there until His only begotten Son completed His work and has been given a seat on that Throne on the right hand of God His Father. When the time of God’s judgment comes and you stand before that Throne, you may be asked why you failed to believe the gospel of God sending His Son to us and chose to believe that was not the truth, but that God Himself came down and made Himself a body to dwell in.

Even not we know that our bodies are the temple of God and His Spirit dwells in us. Does that make us God? The answer is no it doesn’t and because the Spirit of God that was in Jesus didn’t make Him God either.

 
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