Brother Branham testified that an Angel was in contact with him throughout his life. He said that when he was a young boy the Angel would speak to him from the top of a tree as he heard what sounded like the wind blowing through the tree. The first time he actually saw this Angel was when he was alone praying and the Angel approached him out of a bright light which appeared in the room he was in. He said that the Angel came to inform him of a ministry of divine healing that God was commissioning him to minister in. He recognized that the Angel that visited him was the same one that had been speaking to him starting when he was very young and knew it was because of the sounding of his voice. Brother Branham also testified that the Angel was always present when he was holding his meetings and was responsible for the operation of the discernment gift and the visions that he experienced.
There are some who question whether this Angel was actually an Angel of God or not. That is the reason that I decided to write this article so that you who read this can decide for yourself after looking at the facts which are stated here. You will read what Brother Branham said in his own words along with my comments which will be based upon what I am inclined to believe as I relate the things that were said by Brother Branham and how the veracity of the statements line up with bible scripture.
My big concern is that most of Brother Branham’s teaching on the bible did not conform to written scripture, but consisted of his own interpretation. Also my concern is just how much of Brother Branham’s teaching was influenced by the presence of this Angel, especially if he was not an Angel of God.
Up until I was about 34 years old there was no doubt in my mind that Brother Branham’s complete ministry was ordained by God. I believed that he truly was a Prophet of God and had the gift of divine healing. All of this was my belief because of all that I heard about which took place in his meetings. Even more than what I heard about him, I knew him personally and members of my family were actively involved in his evangelist crusades and I had a personal insight into everything that was taking place in his ministry. We all considered our relationship with Brother Branham as though he was part of our family. Had it not been for my discovery in 1969, shortly after his death, because of my intense bible study, I became aware that a problem with his bible teaching existed and that was the reason I began to take a closer look at his complete ministry. If it was not that his teaching was in conflict with bible scripture I would never have doubted anything about his complete ministry having been ordained of God. So following is some of what I discovered.
We are all interested in the truth of this matter because God has the right for us to know the truth of His Word. So following are the facts that I have gleaned from the transcript of Brother Branham’s preaching.
This is all about the Angel according to what Brother Branham said.
“I raised up. I laid down on the bed, and there It was, above the bed, milling around, like a whole lot of colors in a rainbow, milling around”
“And then when I opened my eyes, there He was, just above the bed whirling around and around.”
( Brother Branham speaking to his son) “Now, you remember that night in Vandalia, Illinois, when you were laying, sleeping on the bed, and the Angel of the Lord was standing over me there?”
“And I wasn't but eighteen months old when the vision came. And the very time when I was born, that Angel that you see on the picture here was hanging over the little crib bed, where I was born in.”
“that Angel stood right over the bed where I was born in a little cabin down in the mountains of Kentucky. And now that same Angel is not five feet from where I'm standing right now”
“And--and that Angel of God, at five o'clock in the morning, April 6, 1909, at five o'clock in the morning, come right in and stood over that little bed where I was laying.”
“I told her that the Lord was going to heal her. And I... Brother George and I got down to pray, and when I started to pray, well, that Angel that I see, that--that you see in the picture, I seen it hanging over the bed.”
(Note) Here was some very strange occurrences. An Angel of God that made a habit of flying around over the bed that Brother Branham was sleeping on. This was similar to Brother Branham testifying that during some of his meetings the angel would be flying around over the congregation, hanging over someone he was to call upon.
Brother Branham spoke about waiting for the Angel to arrive before he could start a meeting because the discernment wouldn’t work unless the Angel was present.
‘Say, "You're stalling for something, Brother Branham." That's exactly right. Sure, I'm waiting on Him, and if He doesn't come, I can't minister. I can do nothing, not a thing. But when He's here He can do all things, and He can do it through me if I can submit myself enough to Him. in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I take every person, every spirit under my control for His glory.”
( Note) Isn’t that something, that Brother Branham had to wait for the Angel to arrive? The Angel must have been busy doing something else.
“I want this audience in one control. I want to take these spirits under my control”
“Don't move now; set still. See, each one of you are spirits, and every one of those spirits is right in my control. See?”
Do you see what Brother Branham said about him not being able to do anything in a meeting until the Angel arrived and when the Angel arrived he spoke through Brother Branham that he was taking everyone under his control? It becomes obvious that he didn’t depend upon the anointing of the Holy Spirit to help him in the meetings. He depended upon the Angel to help him and the Angel to operate the gifts, because Brother Branham didn’t possess the gifts that the Angel said would be given to him.
Brother Branham said that when the discernment was in operation, it wasn’t him doing the talking, it was the Angel just using his voice and talking through him. The only way Brother Branham would know what the Angel spoke through him was to listen to the tapes after the service was over. See just a few examples below.
“Now, I do not know what I said to the woman; that wasn't me talking; that was that Angel you see on that picture”
“Tomorrow you know the only way I will know what I said to you? When them recorders right there, see them going, see here? When them recorders they play it back to me, and I see what I said. See?”
“That was Him just using my voice. "What is it?" you say. It's the way I have just submitted myself to the Spirit. And He does the talking”
The following are comments by the Author
Over and over Brother Branham stated that the Angel would talk through him, using Brother Branham’s voice, but it was the Angel’s words. For this to work for the operation of the gifts is one thing, but I have a concern that the Angel might have been responsible for some of the teaching that did not conform to Bible scripture. Did the Angel just use Brother Branham’s voice, speaking through him and doing some of the teaching?
One of the most egregious things that I realized occurred when Brother Branham’s angel first visited him on May 7, 1946. The angel told him that he was being given two signs that could be used to help convince the people that God had given him a gift of divine healing and nothing could stand before his prayer. The angel said that he was being given two signs just like God gave Moses two signs to prove to the people that God had sent him. The problem with this is that the angel made a mistake quoting scripture. Moses was given three signs and not two.
So the angel was wrong about everything. Brother Branham wasn’t given a gift of healing. Instead he could only pray for sick people and if they really believed that he had this gift from God, then God would heal them. Brother Branham also wasn’t given even two signs because it was the angel that operated the gift of discernment, not Brother Branham as has been stated before in Brother Branham’s own words.
Brother Branham received a calling from God to be an Evangelist preaching the gospel of Christ and praying for sick people and was very successful in this ministry. When the Angel came along, which I am certain was not an Angel of God, Brother Branham’s ministry changed for the worse. Because of the operation of these supernatural signs performed by this Angel, Brother Branham began to think of himself as more than just an Evangelist. He was convinced that he was a Prophet of God, but there is evidence that his prophecies did not come to pass as the prophecies of a God called Prophet did. He thought that his ministry reflected the return of Christ and his preaching convinced the people that he actually was the return of Christ. When he began to teach scripture and saw that the supernatural signs continued to work, he was convinced that God had revealed his interpretation of scripture to be true, but it wasn’t according to the God inspired Holy scriptures.
One of the most dangerous doctrines that he taught because of the influence of that angel was the gospel he preached which was a different gospel that the bible presents and it is of utmost importance to believe the true gospel of Christ according to the bible in order to be saved and inherit eternal life.
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