The Lake of Fire

The Lake of Fire

The Bible speaks of the “Lake of Fire” which it calls “the second death”. The Bible says that this lake of fire was prepared initially for the devil and his angels who rebelled against God and is to serve as a place of punishment for them to be tormented for their actions forever.

Since the devil and his angels are spiritual beings and not physical beings it’s obvious that the fire spoken of is not literal fire as we know it and the Bible doesn’t explain just how this fire could torment spiritual beings forever, so we can only accept that it will just as the scriptures say it will.

Even though this Lake of Fire is spoken of as being the Second Death, it’s obvious that it will not be literally the second death for the devil and his angels since because of being spiritual beings they are not subject to a first death as are physical human beings. The first death that all human beings face is the physical death that our bodies are subject to, but the second death for humans is a spiritual death that they are subject to in the event we fail to inherit the eternal life promised by God for those who failed Him in life.

We have all heard preaching about Hell and Hell Fire and these places are spoken of in the Bible. The way they are described signify that Hell and Hell Fire are really two different places.

As we continue, reference can be made to the diagram posted at the bottom of this article.

Hell is the place where all the souls of the dead go. When death occurs, the body goes to a place called the “Grave” where it returns to the dirt from which it came. Hell then is the place called “sheowl” in the Old Testament and “Haides” in the New Testament. Those souls then are separated into two sections in hell according to being pre judged because of how they have lived their lives. Those who have lived less than righteous lives are put in “geenna” in the Greek New Testament where they are held until the final judgment. This place called geena is referred to as the place of hell fire, but it is not the Lake of Fire. Those who have lived righteous lives are placed in “Paradise” also known as the third heaven.

The first beings that were cast into this Lake of Fire are identified in the Book of Revelations as being the Beast and the False Prophet. According to the nineteenth chapter of Revelations, this occurs at the start of the Millennium, just after the Body of Christ is raptured to meet the Lord.

After the Millennium is over and before the Great White Throne Judgment occurs, the devil is also cast into the Lake of Fire where the beast and false prophet already are.

At the Great White Throne Judgment, where the final judgment of all things occur. It is at this time when death and hell are cast into the Lake of Fire along with all the people whose name are not written in the Book of Life. The significance of death and hell being abolished is that no physical humans are left alive at this time to die and death and hell is no longer needed. Only spiritual beings continue to exist, some to experience eternal life and some to experience the second death in the Lake of Fire.

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William Branham: A Following built upon Deception

The extraordinary ministry that God used William Branham in which resulted in many thousands of converts to Christianity, salvation to eternal life and bodily healings unfortunately ended in a movement that was built upon deceptive practices because of the overwhelming desire to do more for God than what was God’s intent for him to accomplish.
 

Most of what I have witnessed can be contributed to the influence of those men who were in the inner circle of William Branham’s friends who were determined to promote him as the source of the only true interpretation of Bible Scriptures. It was apparent that William Branham was complicit in this promotion on his part because of the influence of his closest friends.

 
 

The complicity occurred because of his use of certain innuendos threaded throughout his sermons which convinced the people to believe that he was the fulfillment of enough bible prophesies and scripture to convince them that his messages were the final and end time truth of God’s plan.

 
 

Some of these concepts that were promoted was that he was the Elijah that was to come to return the hearts of the children back to their apostolic fathers and to restore all things in the end of the Gentile age. William Branham couldn’t have been the one to come in the spirit of Elijah because he was the complete opposite of the character of Elijah during Elijah’s ministry.

 
 

Other things that were promoted were; the promotion of his last name being changed from Branam to Branham just as Abram was changed to Abraham by God because of his calling. This name change was promoted to somehow vindicate his ministry as a prophet. In reality, his last name was never changed. His last name had always been Branham, as well as his Father's and his Grandfather's. This was nothing except a complete fabrication used to present him to be someone special like Abraham.

 
 

Then there was the promotion of William Branham being the seventh church age messenger and the angel of Revelation 10:7. Then the promotion of his gift of the word of knowledge to support his healing ministry being the Messianic sign that was supposed to be evident before the Lord’s return. John the baptist was still alive on the Earth at the first coming of Christ, but William Branham is gone and the Lord hasn’t returned yet.

 
 

Only one more of many things I could comment on was when he cut out a part of his seventh seal message that was on tape and recorded a portion of it over in a motel room because he was afraid that the original message that he preached under inspiration would cause many of his followers to leave him.

 
 

All through his self commissioned teaching ministry William Branham pointed to the supernatural signs that God had given him saying that they were vindication of the truth of his teaching doctrine. Well, these gifts that were in operation during his ministry were to support his healing ministry only, but were promoted to be a vindication of everything that he preached about and not as vindication that his teaching was correct. 


William Branham thought he knew why God had given him those two signs. Here is what he said: “There's the new ministry. It's just been revealed to me. "Pray for the sick. Get the people to believe you. God can never leave that". That's His commission; he said: "no matter what goes on, how much I fail. I fail miserably. I should've never went ahead with them signs; that wasn't the will of God”. Those signs were to vindicate his calling to “pray for the sick” and not to vindicate his doctrinal teaching, but he allowed the people to believe that they did.

 

So that is what it was all about. Everything that occurred was to promote whatever had to be done to insure that the people would accept his teaching as the true interpretation of God’s Word and know because of their acceptance of him as a prophet, what ever he preached about had to be the complete truth of God’s Word and they couldn’t find the truth anywhere else.

 

That’s all about control over the people and is evident to those who are not blind or deaf that God probably wasn't in it.

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The Great Commission

Examining the great commission that the angel informed William Branham about.

It went like this:

The visiting angel in April 7, 1946 said:

"Do not fear; I'm sent from the Presence of God to tell you that you're taking a gift of Divine healings to the people of the world." Then said "If you'll get them to believe you, and be sincere when you pray, there'll be nothing stand before your prayers. Not even cancer"

Do you see that? He was given a gift of divine healing, but he had to get the people to believe him. If you really possess the power to heal someone, it shouldn’t be necessary for the people to have to believe you. Either you’ve got the gift or you don’t. Either you’ve got the power to heal, or you don’t. Obviously in this case, William Branham did not possess the power to heal anyone. So if the healing took place, what was the cause of it?

If the people had to believe before they could be healed, what did they have to believe in? Did they have to believe that William Branham possessed the gift or the power to heal, or did they simply have to believe that God would honor his prayer and heal the person?

Well for certain, they had to believe something; they had to have faith in something. If it was necessary to believe that God would heal them, what did they need William Branham for? Was their faith in the ability to be healed based upon God or William Branham?

Now we all know that man does not have the ability to heal anyone and only God can heal. Many times, William Branham told this to the people that it was not him, but God who performed the healing. So, if God does the healing why doesn’t God just heal the person if they ask for healing, instead of feeling the need for someone else to pray for them? Could this just simply be a lack of faith and they need to have their faith built up to a point that God will heal them? Or do they just need to have faith and believe without doubting that God will give them what they request of Him?

Let’s ask ourselves, where does our healing come from? Does it come down from God above or do we possess the ability in our own bodies to receive our healing? God did say in the Bible that in the last days that He would pour out His Spirit on all flesh. So if our bodies contain the Spirit of God, is this how we can obtain our healing, by believing in the healing power of God who dwells in us?

Even in the Bible Jesus made it known that He did not perform the healing, but it was from the Father who dwelt in Him. Many times He said that a person’s own faith was responsible for their own healing. So it appears that the answer is in our faith, our faith without doubting that God will give us whatever we ask for if we ask in faith, doubting nothing.

Now back to William Branham again. Did God give him the gift of Divine healing? Not at all, because he could not heal anyone. So, did God give him the gift of having his prayers answered for a person’s healing to take place? Yes, but it was conditional upon the faith of the person being prayed for. If the person didn’t have the faith that God would answer his prayers, they wouldn’t receive their healing. So without the faith in his prayers to be answered by God they remained sick. It obviously would take more than what is on the surface to achieve what the people wanted.

Now, here comes the influencing factor in order for the people to have enough faith to receive their healing. It was the supernatural signs that were in operation that were used to get the people to believe that he would have his prayers answered by God. Without these signs in operation, faith could not be established and William Branham’s prayers would not be answered. It goes right back to the faith that the people needed to have. Only the signs could accomplish the results that were needed. Still there was a condition that had to be met here also. According to William Branham the signs would not work unless the angel he talked about was present in the meetings with him. So this looks like the signs were in operation because of the angel and William Branham didn't have any gift that caused the signs to be in operation.

The bottom line here is not the people to receive their healing, because they could possibly get sick again from something else or even die soon after receiving their healing. The bottom line was to get the people to believe the gospel and receive salvation for eternal life.

This became just a shadow of what happened during the ministry of Jesus. Without God providing supernatural signs during the ministry of Jesus, He would not have been accepted as the Son of God. Without the signs the people would not have had the faith to be healed and would not have believed upon Jesus for their salvation. It all comes down to the effect brought on by supernatural signs which are provided by God.

Even after the ministry of Jesus, down through the years men have been gifted with supernatural gifts proving that God had ordained these certain individuals to preach the Gospel. Without these supernatural gifts in operation during the ministry of anyone, the proof of their commission by God is absent and serves to us all that they have not been sent by God.

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God Manifested in the Flesh

Debunking the misrepresentation of the End Time Message Web Site concerning God being manifested in the Flesh.

Quoting what this site claims
“And thus, God fulfilled His plan of salvation, the fulfillment which is written in 1 Timothy 3:16 which states: “And without controversy, great is the mystery of Godliness, God was manifest in the flesh.””

“When was God manifested in flesh? It was when Jesus Christ was born through a woman; without any resulting sexual act but it was God Himself making both hemoglobin and egg cells in the womb of Mary, God Himself taking the form of a man.”

The above statement can’t be true for these reasons. Jesus was known as the Son of God, the son of man and the son of David. If God provided both the egg in Mary and the fertilization of that egg, then Jesus could not be the son of man or the son of David. The egg in Mary would have to contain the genetic characteristics passed down physically from King David in order for Jesus to be either the son of David or the son of man. If God actually provided both the egg and the fertilization then Jesus could only have been the Son of God. In order for Jesus to be a son of any man, some genes would have to be passed on to Him from a man.

“Jesus Christ was the FLESH of God, none other than God Himself creating a BODY of His own. That fleshly BODY was called the “SON”, while the SPIRIT indwelling that body was the “FATHER”.”

This is in error. The flesh body of Jesus was called man because He was man and the son of man. Jesus was called the son because God provided the fertilization which made Him the Son. I do agree with one thing they say, the Spirit indwelling in the body of Jesus was the Spirit of the Father which He received when He was baptized by John the Baptist.

“When the Father decided to come down as our Saviour, He put on a robe of flesh and planted Himself, as a seed, in the womb of Mary. This seed was to produce the flesh and blood of the Body He would dwell in as the Son, Jesus Christ.”

This is about as non-scriptural as you can get. Nothing in scripture indicates that God planted HIMSELF in the womb of Mary. This is nothing but an error produced by the incorrect thinking of a person trying to prove that Jesus was God the Father, Jehovah. This is nothing more that coming up with the concept of Jesus being God, and then misinterpreting scripture to fit into the concept.

The misunderstanding of the meaning of the following scripture in First Timothy has lead this person into a false doctrine simply because of not understanding the basic meaning of the word “manifest”. Following is the scripture in question followed by the breakdown of the scriptural basis for understanding the meaning of this scripture.

1 Tim 3:16  And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

What does this really mean?  God was manifest in the flesh

It means that God was made know to man through the works He performed through the body of Jesus. To be manifested means to be made known in a certain way. God made Himself known by performing the works through the person of Jesus His Son just as John 14:10 states that Jesus was not God, but God the Father was dwelling in the man Jesus.

John 14:10 “the Father that dwells in me, he does the works.”

He was justified in the Spirit when He received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit after He was baptized by John.

Matthew 3:16 “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:”

He was seen of Angels when they ministered to Him in the Wilderness.

Matthew 4:11 “Then the devil left him and behold angels came and ministered unto him.”

He was preached unto the Gentiles when His apostles carried the word of the Gospel to the Gentile Nations.

Acts 15:14 “Simeon has declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.”

He was believed on in the World when the Gospel went into the World by His Apostles.

Mark 16:20 “And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.”

He was received up into glory when He was carried up into the clouds and took His seat on the right hand of the Father on His throne.

Mark 16:19 “So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.”

Once again, when we let the scriptures interpret themselves, we show forth the truth of their meaning.

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The Last Days

Recognizing the Last Days according to Bible Prophecy

Paul the Apostle wrote concerning the last days.

2 Timothy 3:1 know this, that in the last days difficult times shall come. 2 For people shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, without self control, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, full of pride, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 6  For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive foolish women loaded down with sin, led away with various lusts or desires, 7  Forever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Jesus spoke of last day occurrences.

Matthew 24:5 for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ (anointed); and shall deceive many. 6 And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. 9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. 10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold.

When do/did the last days begin? They started right after the Ministry of Jesus ended.

John the Apostle also said: 1 John 2: 18 little children, it is the last time (days): and as you have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time (days)

As applied in scripture, antichrist is referred to anyone that does not believe that Jesus was the Christ, the anointed one and the Son of God. Another definition for antichrist is someone who claims to be in the place of Christ or the ambassador of Christ on the Earth. In any event, the Apostle John proclaims that it must be the last days because many antichrists were in the land at that time. The spirit of antichrist in today’s World does not deny that Jesus was the Christ, instead the antichrists today say they are here in the place of Christ and have been anointed of God and have been baptized with His Spirit.

Because of the ministry of these false Messiahs, these antichrists of today who pretend to be anointed, but are not, the people are duped into joining their ministries of deceit and false teaching of scripture which is deceiving many who follow them.

These false anointed ones practice the slaying in the spirit, speaking in tongues which the Spirit does not invoke through them and many other deceitful antics to convince the people of their calling of God and of their anointing for doing what Jesus did in His ministry.

With all of that said, the two scriptures of second Timothy chapter three and Matthew chapter twenty four about how people will be in the last days, coupled with the antichrist statements above describes just exactly what it occurring in the World right today.

These are the last days of the Gentile dispensation before the return of the Lord to pull His Body of believers out of here.

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