Biography Of William Branham

BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM BRANHAM

Index - A Prophet to the Gentiles by Terry Sproule

Chapter 1 - Prophet to the Gentiles The Sign of the Prophet What say the Scriptures

Chapter 2 - The Life and Ministry of William Branham A Man Sent From God Acts of The Prophet Early Life and Conversion His Ministry Begins Seven Prophetic Visions Commissioned by An Angel Three Pulls The Third Pull God Vindicates His Own A Prophet Visits South Africa Chapter 3 - I Will Restore Saith the Lord In Vain Do They Worship Me "Unto what were you baptized?" "...The LORD our God is One Lord" "I will put enmity between thy seed and her Seed" Chapter 4 - If Any Man Hear My Voice "Behold I Stand At The Door and Knock" Appendix 1 - Angels Appendix 2 - Witnesses Appendix 3 - One God or Trinity Appendix 4 - the Godhead The Uniqueness of The Son of God Objections Considered 1. The Use of Plural Pronouns in the Old Testament 2. The Use of the Plural Title, Elohim 3. The Water Baptism of Jesus Christ 4. To Whom Did Jesus Pray? 5. John 1:1 - "The Word Was with God" 6. New Testament Usage of the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ 7. John 17:5 - "The Glory I had with Thee before the World was" 8. How Many Did Stephen See? John 10:30 - "I and My Father are One" THE MESSAGE

 

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A Prophet to the Gentiles (based on the book by Terry Sproule)

- Chapter 1 Jesus was once asked by His disciples, "What shall be the sign of Your Coming and of the end of the world order" (Matthew 24:3)? He responded with a lengthy dissertation on events that must take place from that time to the consummation and concluded with "the sign of the fig tree" (Matthew 24:32). There is little dispute among Bible students, that the fig tree represented Israel and that Jesus was indicating it would be the key sign to awaken the elect to the imminence of His second or 'parousia' Coming and the end of the world order. This prophesied restoration of Israel to statehood has seen its fulfillment only since the end of the Second World War. This, of course, was not the only sign foretold in relation to the end of the Age and the Coming of Christ for His Bride. Actually, the prophetic list is quite lengthy, including such occurrences as the increase of knowledge, a repetition of the characteristics of the days of Noah and Lot, the rise of antiChrist, a flourishing global economy, wars and earthquakes. Their current fulfillment and the everincreasing turbulence of world affairs, has convinced scientist, economist, politician and psychic, as well as theologians that a major catastrophe is imminent.

- The Sign of the Prophet The purpose of this essay is to alert the reader to one more vitally significant sign which, likewise, has found its fulfillment in our day. This sign is unique in that it is God's essential warning before any major, scriptural happening. It is at once His most vivid and yet His most overlooked and misunderstood sign. Amos 3:7, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing without first revealing His secret to His servants the prophets." God's pattern of dealing with His people has always included sending prophets. Amos states emphatically, "God does nothing without a prophetic forerunner" as disclosed by the most rudimentary study of scriptural history. History also reveals that seldom was a prophet greeted with anything but skepticism and abuse. No matter how great their divine vindication, they suffered at the hands of those to whom they were sent. Jesus told the Pharisees in Matthew 23:31-36, "Your forefathers were guilty of the blood of all the prophets from Abel to Zechariah. In this study, we will illustrate how, in maintaining the consistency of His Word, God promised the world a prophetic messenger to announce His Second Coming. We will show that only one ministry in this century could qualify as that messenger, and that William Branham was vindicated by God, and recognized by his contemporaries as a major prophet, then rejected by a wayward and arrogant Laodicean generation.

- What say the Scriptures Before discussing the life and ministry of William Branham, we will list some of the Scriptures which establish that a prophet was to forerun the Second Coming of Christ. It is commonly considered that since the first advent of Jesus Christ, God no longer uses prophets to minister to His people. A carnal interpretation of Scriptures such as Luke 16:16,"The Law and the prophets were until John," and Hebrews 1:1, "God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers in the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us in His Son..." is taken as proof of this. Let it be clearly understood, these Scriptures do not point to a cessation of prophets. They state only that the partial Word each Old Testament prophet uttered was fully expressed in Christ, the Logos (Word), when He appeared in flesh. The New Testament abounds with prophets after Christ, even aside from the prophetic ministries obviously manifest in the Apostles such as Peter, Paul and John.

 

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Let the reader consider Ephesians 3:1-5: "For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles - If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me toward you: how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, (or prophets - Ezekiel 2:1 - Ed), as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit". Here Paul shows that New Testament prophets not only exist but are ordained to carry mysteries the Old Testament prophets (sons of men) under the Law could only see as a shadow. "In these last days God has spoken to us by His Son," defines the first advent. The Son is still speaking through His ordained messengers. The Scriptures are equally clear that a prophetic ministry would be focal at the end of the world to restore the Gentiles to the apostolic faith or true Message of the Son, (the Logos or Word), and after the translation of Christ's Bride of all Ages, to carry the Message of Messiah to Israel during the great tribulation (Revelation 11). The following Scriptures point to our Gentile forerunner: Amos 3:7, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, without first revealing His secret to His servants the prophets." Remember - before any significant, Scriptural event, God always speaks to a prophet to deliver warning and a way of escape for believing souls. He spoke with Noah before the flood, Abraham before the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah; Moses to deliver Israel; John the Baptist before Christ's first advent, and Paul to write and deliver the New Testament revelation to we Gentiles. Malachi 4:5-6, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he will turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." The Spirit of Elijah is here prophesied to precede the Day of the Lord. Any Bible student understands the great and dreadful Day of the Lord is Christ's Second or 'parousia' Coming to Israel in power and judgment after the end of the Gentile dispensation (Isaiah 2:12,19; I Thessalonians 5:2,3; II Peter 3:10). Notice this twofold prophecy, Elijah will come: 1. To turn the heart of the fathers to the children, 2. To turn the heart of the children to their fathers. The following Scriptures show us where this prophecy was partially fulfilled. Luke 1:17, "He shall go before Him in the Spirit and power of Elijah; to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." This speaks of course, of John the Baptist, but notice: the Holy Spirit divided the prophecy of Malachi and showed John fulfilling the first part only; John did not precede the great and dreadful Day of the Lord, but the earthly ministry of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Matthew 17:10-12, "His disciples asked Jesus, Why do the scribes say that Elijah must first come? Jesus answered, Elijah truly is coming first, and will restore all things, but I say to you, that Elijah has come already and they knew him not..." Notice how Christ maintains the continuity of the previous Scriptures, also dividing the prophecy concerning the Elijah ministry. Jesus indicates that part of the Elijah ministry is already fulfilled and part remains to be fulfilled. In this further aspect of the Elijah ministry, He declares he will "restore all things". II Thessalonians 2:3, "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, until first there comes a falling away and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition".

 

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Paul was stating the Lord's Day would not come until there was a "falling away." The Greek word is 'apostasia' and means a forsaking of the faith. If the reader continues through II Thessalonians 2, noting particularly verses 12 to 15, it becomes evident that Paul was warning of a falling away from the Word of God as brought by the Apostles. This is precisely what occurred from about the fourth century after the Roman Catholic church was organized at the first Nicea Council. By about 1200 it had replaced the authority of Scripture with the authority of the church and married Christianity with paganism. Since that time there has been a reformation of the Roman Catholic system of false worship, and more recently a relapse by the once Protestant churches into the apostasy of which Paul was speaking. Acts 3:20-2l, "And He will send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began". Peter also Notice the things as: began." It 1:20-21)?

identifies the fact that before Christ can return physically, there must be a restoration. similarity to Matthew l7:11. Both indicate a "restoration of all things." Peter identifies these "All things which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world is a restoration of all the Word of God. What else is spoken through His prophets (II Peter

Now, let us now apply this Scriptural picture to our concluding text to establish: • • •

Elijah is to restore "all things" (Matthew 17:11.) All things are to be restored before the second or 'parousia' Coming of Christ (Acts 3:21). All things refer to God's unchanging Word as it was inspired and delivered through His prophets (Acts 3:21; II Thessalonians 2:3; II Peter 1:20-21).

Revelation 10:7, "In the days of the Voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God already declared through His servants the prophets should be finished". This seventh angel is identified as the messenger who would preach the mystery of God that has already been declared to the prophets. It is the mystery of Christ who was the firstborn and "beginning of God creating or manifesting Himself" into the flesh of His glorified Family (I Timothy 3:16; Colossians 1:18; Revelation 3:14). That incarnation was the whole Message of the early church prophets and apostles. This seventh angel then will reaffirm this same Word or Logos to the Gentile church. The reader must be aware of the significance of the first three chapters of the Book of Revelation to the Gentile church. They describe the condition and characteristics of seven Gentile churches once located in Asia Minor. It is erroneous to presume that this discourse only had an application to John's day. The first verse of the Revelation describes its contents as "things which must shortly come to pass" (in the future), thus the entire Book is prophetic, beginning with the immediate future and continuing through the Gentile dispensation to the calling of the 144,000 Israelites, the millennium, the White Throne Judgment and even the new Jerusalem. These seven churches then were also prophetic and their characteristics applied to seven Ages which would make up the whole dispensation allotted by God to we Gentiles. From Ephesus to Laodicea, each Age had an angel who would bring it a Message from God. The word "angel," means messenger and here it refers not to heavenly messengers but to earthly through which "the Spirit speaks to the churches." (See Appendix I Angels). Over the past two thousand years, God raised up a succession of great, spiritual leaders such as Paul, Irenaeus, Martin, Columba, Luther, Wesley and Branham to preserve the faith, from age to age. The reformers, particularly after the Dark Ages, were anointed to begin this restoration. God blessed the ministries of Luther and Wesley with mighty revivals as the Light of the Word was reopening to them. The followers of these messengers, however, refused to walk in the Light as God was continuing to unveil it, stopped at a partial restoration, organized, denominated, and died, assuming the identical formalistic characteristics of the organization from which they were once delivered. Hence Revelation 10:7 indicates that the ministry of the seventh angel, or the angel to the Laodicean Church Age, would sound the complete mystery of the unveiling of God manifest in His glorified Family, and how He redeemed the saints in each Age. When this final messenger arrives, he will declare all the Word - "all things," from which the early church apostatized and reveal the mysteries surrounding the threefold rapture and the second appearing of the Lord Jesus.

 

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Chapter 2 The Life and Ministry of William Branham - A Man Sent From God That the ministry of William Branham qualifies as that of a major prophet, thus fulfilling Malachi 4:5 and 6 and Revelation 10:7, should be abundantly clear to any who take time to even briefly investigate its magnitude and impact. Gordon Lindsay gave an apt commendation in the introduction to his book "A Man Sent From God" - in which he describes his experiences and observations as he traveled with God's Prophet: "The story of the life of William Branham is so out of this world and beyond the ordinary that were there not available a host of infallible proofs which document and attest it's authenticity, one might well be excused for considering it far-fetched and incredible. But the facts are so generally known, and of such a nature that they can be so easily verified by any sincere investigator, that they must stand as God's witness to His willingness and purpose to reveal Himself again to men as He once did in the days of the prophets and the apostles. The story of this prophet's life - for he is a prophet, though we infrequently use the term - indeed witnesses to the fact that Bible days are here again" (Gordon Lindsay, A Man Sent From God). Many others, besides Mr. Lindsay, were equally awed by the divine vindication in William Branham's life such as T. L. Osborne, Jack Moore, and Joseph Mattson Boze. (For a list of remarks made by these and other servants of God, see Appendix II, Witnesses).

- Acts of The Prophet In order to give the reader a glimpse of the nature of William Branham's life and ministry, I have selected a condensed portion of his life story as recorded by Rev. Pearry Green in his book - "The Acts of the Prophet." Rev. Green was a friend and associate of Brother Branham, particularly in the latter years of his life. This rich little book was made up of a series of messages preached by Rev. Green in his own tabernacle and then compiled and put into print.

- Early Life and Conversion On April 6, l909, a fifteen-year-old Kentucky mother gave birth to a baby boy. They named him William Marrion Branham, and on the day that he was born there was a strange aura, a presence, in the rustic little log cabin. A Light came whirling in through the window and hung over the crib. No wonder the people who saw it said, "What manner of child shall this be?" When the baby was but six months old, God's protection over him was demonstrated for the first time. He and his mother, stranded in the cabin while his father was away on a job, were miraculously saved from certain death. A great snow storm had isolated the cabin. Food and firewood ran out, so the young mother simply wrapped herself and her baby in all the bedclothes they had and went to bed, waiting for the end. A neighbor a little way off, by some strange phenomenon that he couldn't explain, had for several days felt attracted to visit the little cabin to see how his neighbors were doing. One day the urge came upon him so strong that he was not able to resist it: he crossed the hills to the cabin and found the mother and child nearly perished. Quickly he gathered firewood and built a fire, made a trip back to his home for nourishment, and nursed them back to health. Thus only by a strange Presence that the man could not explain, was he drawn to come at this hour and save the life of this particular six-month-old boy. At the age of three, Brother Branham received his first vision. From the vision, he knew to tell his mother that though they now lived in Kentucky, some day they would live near a city called New Albany. It was not long after that the family moved from Kentucky across the Ohio river to Indiana and a little later moved a few miles south to Jeffersonville, Indiana, which is just a few miles from New Albany, Indiana. The vision was fulfilled. At the age of seven, Brother Branham had another strange experience that he was unable to understand. It happened one day that, while assisting his father, he found himself passing underneath a poplar tree about the size of a barrel and a voice spoke from it saying, "Never smoke, drink, nor defile your body, for when you are older there is a work for you to do." He couldn't understand the mysterious event; it frightened him, and he ran to his mother. She first thought he had been snake

 

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bitten, then thought that he may just have been in nervous shock, so she put him to bed and called the doctor. At the age of nine, one day while he was playing with friends he saw a vision of a bridge. This bridge was to extend across the Ohio River from Louisville to Jeffersonville. He told his friends that he could see the bridge and to his horror, he saw a portion of it collapse, carrying sixteen men to their deaths. His friends told this around the community and twenty two years later that bridge was built at the cost of the lives of sixteen men. The bridge stands today, between Jeffersonville and Louisville. Once as a young man, a girl made fun of him because he wouldn't smoke, and he actually tried to smoke to stop her derision. His testimony is that as he reached for the cigarette he heard the whirlwind again, and the more he tried, the stronger it became, until its rushing sound frightened him. Because of this Brother Branham never did smoke. Another time a man offered him a drink in the presence of young William Branham's father, and insisted that he take it. He was about to take the drink, because his own father called him a sissy, when the whirlwind came again. He could hear it rushing, and as he continued to put the bottle toward his lips, the wind became stronger until It frightened him and he ran off. He did not disobey God - he could not - for God had a plan for his life which He was bringing to pass. As a teenager, he once went to a carnival, and there a fortune teller, an astrologer, walked up to him and said, "Young man, did you know that there is a sign following you?" How similar to the time when the evil spirit said to Jesus, "We know who you are, thou art the Christ, the Son of God." The priests and the religious leaders, the most religious people in the world at the time of Christ, didn't recognize Him, the evil spirits did. When the apostle Paul went to Thyatira to preach, he was not welcomed, but put in stocks, and a young sorceress said, "This is Paul, who preaches Christ unto us, the Message of salvation." There was an evil spirit in her that recognized who Paul was when the others sought to persecute him. So it was in this generation. The evil spirits could recognize there was something different about Brother Branham before the religious people of the world would admit it. Brother Branham almost died for the second time at the age of fourteen. Accidentally shot, lying in his own blood with part of his leg shot away where the blast of a shotgun had struck him, he had a vision, or experience, where he himself faded away and he saw people in hell. He saw things that were to take place among the women of the world in the 1960's, the grotesque use of makeup and the like. These women were in hell and it shocked him to realize that there was such a place, yet he resisted the call of God upon his life. God continued through the years to deal with him, for there was a work for him to do when he was older. He came west to Phoenix Arizona, in 1927, at the age of nineteen. It was while there, working on a ranch, that he received word of the death of his brother Edward, who was closest to him in age. When he heard of Edward's death, he stood and looked out across the desert, and asked himself whether Edward had been ready to meet God. Then, as he made the journey back to Jeffersonville to the funeral, the question came to him, "Are you ready?" He recalled how his father and mother wept and the great impact this made on his life as he began to wonder about himself. He was ever aware of this Voice, this Presence that he had experienced since he was a baby, wishing to speak to him. It separated him from the other boys his age, preventing their friendship because he spoke of strange things and wouldn't smoke, drink, dance, or run around as they did. He couldn't pattern his life after theirs, yet he didn't know how to surrender himself to God. But through the death of Edward, the Spirit of God continued to be with him and brought him to where he actually tried to pray. He didn't know how, but loving the wilderness, he wrote on a piece of paper, "God, help me!" He left the note stuck on a tree because he knew that God was there in nature. Finally the day arrived when he went to a place, knelt down, and though he still did not know how to pray, cried out in simplicity. That was enough to open the windows of heaven and he said it seemed like a thousand pound load lifted off his shoulders. With no other way to express his extreme joy and relief, he stood to his feet and began to leap and run about. He ran into the house and his puzzled mother asked him what was wrong. "l don't know," he replied, "I just feel so light!" He ran out of the house and down the road, using the only way he knew to express his elation.

 

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Later while working for the public service company, he was exposed to some gas and was poisoned, and became very ill. An operation was performed during which he almost left this life again. The situation was grave until a supernatural event took place as a Light came and hung before him. The doctors didn't expect him to live and when he did survive, one of the doctors came to his room after the operation and said, "Truly, God has visited this boy!" Brother Branham said that at the time he didn't know what was happening, but that if he had known then what he learned later, he would have leaped from the bed rejoicing, healed in the Name of the Lord. After he left the hospital, he sought a deeper experience with God, because he realized that God had done a great thing for him. On another occasion, as he knelt in a woodshed to pray, a Light came in and formed a cross. It was then that something swept over him and he experienced an exquisite feeling he had never known before. He once told me personally that it felt like rain was pelting down on his body. Later he heard of a group of people who believed in the laying on of hands for healing and at their church meeting, somebody laid hands upon him, and he was instantly healed of a stomach problem that remained from the gas exposure.

- His Ministry Begins It was after this miraculous healing that he first began preaching and from his very first meeting, people were baptized. It was at a baptismal service on June 11, 1933, that another supernatural event occurred. On this day, as Brother Branham was baptizing in the Ohio river at the foot of Spring Street in Jeffersonville, a strange Light, like a star, suddenly came whirling down and hung over his head. There were about four thousand people sitting on the bank watching, many of whom were witnesses of this unexplainable phenomenon. Some ran for fear, others fell in worship. Many pondered the meaning of this remarkable occurrence. Just as with Saul, a Voice spoke from the Light and said these words, "As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first Coming of the Lord, so are you sent to forerun His second Coming..."

- Seven Prophetic Visions The year 1933 was a time of major revelation for Brother Branham and those who followed his Message. It was also in June of that year when Brother Branham was conducting services in the old Masonic Hall on Meggs Avenue in Jeffersonville, that seven major events were revealed to him which were to come to pass before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. On this June morning, just before he was to preach, this series of visions appeared to him. The first was that the dictator of Italy, Mussolini, would invade Ethiopia, and according to the Voice speaking to him, Ethiopia would fall at Mussolini's steps. However the voice continued and prophesied that there would be a dreadful end come to this dictator. He was to die a horrible death and his own people would literally spit on him. It is now history how this all happened. The next vision indicated that America would be drawn into a World War against Germany which would be headed up by an Austrian. The prediction was that this terrible war would overthrow this leader and he would come to a mysterious end. In this vision Brother Branham was shown the great Siegfried Line, several years before it was built. The third vision showed that there were three "isms" in the world: Fascism, Nazism, and Communism, and that the first two would come to nothing, but Communism would flourish. The Voice admonished him to keep his eyes on Russia concerning future events, and said, "Watch Russia, she will become a great world power." The fourth vision predicted tremendous advances in science right after the war. In this vision, he saw automobiles shaped like eggs traveling the American highways. I ask you to look at the advertisements of the Volkswagen today, even comparing it with the shape of an egg and saying, "Some shapes cannot be improved upon!" In 1933, this car had not even been designed. Also he saw a car with a

 

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bubble roof, traveling completely automatically down the highway with the driver turned and playing some kind of a game with those in the back seat. The car had no steering wheel. They have such automobiles today, controlled by electronics, which were displayed in the 1962 World's Fair. The fifth vision involved the womanhood of the world. In this vision he was shown the rapid moral decay of the women, starting back when they received their so-called, "liberty" to enter into world affairs by means of the vote. He saw that this right to vote would result in the election, by the women of America, of a "boy" president. (Just remember that Jack Kennedy won his election by the vote of the women.) Finally, the vision showed the women stripped practically naked, covered merely with a tiny apron about the size and shape of a fig leaf. In the sixth vision, there arose in the United States a beautiful woman, clothed in splendor and royal robes, with great power given to her. She was beautiful to look upon, but there was a "hardness about her that defied description." Beautiful as she was, she was cruel, wicked, cunning, and deceitful and dominated the land with her authority holding complete power over the people. The vision indicated that either such a woman would literally arise or that this was merely a type of an organization Scripturally characterized as a woman. Though the Voice did not reveal who she was, Brother Branham felt in his heart that this woman represented the rising Roman Catholic church, and he inserted in parentheses at the end of the vision, which he had written out, the words, "perhaps the Roman Catholic church". Then the Voice bade Brother Branham to look once more. As he turned, he beheld a great explosion which rent the entire land and left America a smoldering, chaotic ruin. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but craters and smoking piles of debris, with no humanity in sight - the seventh vision then faded away.

- Commissioned by An Angel After Brother Branham's strange early life, the years passed by, and he served God to the best of his ability as a pastor and laborer in the Kingdom of God. The beginning of what was to be a tremendous change in his life and ministry occurred on May 7, 1946. It all started as he was leaving on a hunting trip with a friend. Directly as he walked beneath a maple tree in the front yard of his home, on 8th Street in Jeffersonville, Indiana, he relates that a mighty, rushing wind came into the tree. It hit the top of the maple tree and it seemed to him that the tree would be torn apart. The tremendous impact caused him to stagger and his wife and others ran to him, thinking that he had become ill. He turned to her and said these words, "For over twenty years I've not been able to understand this ministry, this strange feeling on myself. I can't go on like this. I've got to have the answer! Is this of God! What is it all about?" He told her that he was going away, that he would leave her and the children to seek God with his Bible and prayer and that he would not come back until he found the answer. Having made up his mind and stating his intentions, Brother Branham went alone to seek God in a secret place, determined to know the answer and to find peace in his heart about this. God, sometime or another in Brother Branham's younger life, had led him to a cave which he has spoken of often in his later tapes and said that no man could find it. The cave is furnished by nature as though for his very own use. Inside there is a round rock shaped like a table, another, shaped like a chair, and also a place for a man to lie down and sleep. He put none of this there - it simply was there. It was to that secret cave he went that eventful night. Brother Branham lay prostrate on his face in the cave before God. After he had prayed his heart out in sincerity, seeking God, he sat up and waited for an answer. How many times have we heard him say, "They that wait upon the Lord..." So often when we pray, we do all the talking, and as soon we are through talking, we get up and leave. He said that the secret is after you have prayed to have patience to wait until God chooses to speak back. That is, if you believe that God has heard you, then wait for the answer. It was about the 11th hour that he saw a soft light appearing before him. He looked up and rose to move toward this Light and there hung that great star. It didn't have five points like a star, but looked

 

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more like a ball of fire. Then, he heard footsteps, and a man of great stature approached him. The man weighed perhaps two hundred pounds, had a dark complexion, no beard, and shoulder-length hair. As the man caught his eye, Brother Branham became very fearful, but the stranger looked at him in a kindly manner and began to speak. Just as an angel stood by Paul and gave him instructions, so this angel stood by Brother Branham and gave him instructions, I have placed these instructions here in seven separate categories: "Fear not!" said the angel, putting Brother Branham at ease, and continued, saying, "I am a messenger, sent unto you from the Presence of Almighty God." That was the first phase, calming any fears and identifying himself. In the second phase, he spoke to Brother Branham about his life, saying, "I want you to know that your strange life has been for a purpose in preparing you to do a job that God has ordained for you to do from your birth." Third phase: the angel telling him that there were some conditions that he must meet and keep. He said, "If you will he sincere, and you can get the people to believe you..." And then he went on to the fourth phase - the results: He said, "...nothing will stand before your prayers, not even cancer!" The fifth phase of the angel's message was a warning to the people that they were to confess their sins before they came before this man of God, and that he was to tell the people that their thoughts speak louder before the throne of God than do their words. This was a warning to all mankind. Then, the angel went into the sixth phase and told Brother Branham things concerning his life and ministry. He was told that he would preach before multitudes all over the world and that he would stand in packed auditoriums, with people turned away for lack of room. His church in Jeffersonville would become a centralized place where people would come from all over the world, seeking his prayers for their deliverance. Not only that, but the angel went on to say that "You shall pray for kings and rulers and potentates." You ask, "Did this happen?" Let us see if it did. Brother Branham returned to his little tabernacle the next week, and the old timers will tell you of a sincere young man speaking without a doubt in his mind telling them what that angel had said and saying, "There will be thousands come here, they'll crowd you out. You won't find a seat unless you're sincere with God and come early." People of the city, educated people, looked at him and said, "Well Billy Branham, they'll never do that." But did they? In Brother Branham's files is a letter from the late King George VI of England, thanking him for coming to him, at the King's request for prayer, when the King was healed of a leg ailment. Also in a meeting one day, a very well-known congressman, a member of the United States Congress for years, confined to a wheel chair, was sitting back in the aisle of the auditorium while Brother Branham was preaching his Message of faith and healing. Like Paul in the Book of Acts, he stopped his sermon, looked down at this man and said, "Sir, I perceive you have faith to be healed. Rise and walk out of the wheelchair." And Congressman Upshaw, who had been confined to the wheelchair for over 60 years, stood to his feet and walked down the aisle, praising God. He returned to Washington D.C., stood on the steps of the Capitol Building, and declared William Marrion Branham to be a prophet of God of the twentieth century. Faithfully, as long as he lived, the Congressman sent Brother Branham a Stetson hat for Christmas every year. In contrast, there were other people in the world who shrugged him off as an unknown. They just were not listening, or could not hear. The healing of Congressman Upshaw was carried by Reader's Digest. Is it not interesting that two wonderful articles of healings like this in the life and ministry of Brother Branham were carried by the largest circulation magazine in the world, Reader's Digest, quoted second only to the Bible? People say "I read it in Reader's Digest," in the same manner that others might speak of the Bible. It was nothing less than God ordaining it so that the world could know that He had sent a prophet. If they would only have listened.

 

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The seventh phase of the angel's Message concerned the different phases of Brother Branham's ministry. Some people refer to these as the first sign and the second sign. But Brother Branham spoke of them as the "three pulls." (Like the pulls a fisherman makes in attracting the fish, setting the hook, and taking the fish). The angel told him that, under the anointing, he would be able to take people by the hand and the spirit of disease in that person would cause such a commotion and a reaction when it made contact with his spirit that he would he able to feel this vibration physically in his hand. By telling people what the disease was, it would inspire the faith of the audience, and they too, would believe.

- Three Pulls When I first saw Brother Branham, this was the phase of his ministry, the "pull," being manifested. When people came before him, unless he could visibly see their ailment, like blindness, being crippled, or paralysis, he would take them by the hand, and if they had sin in their life, he told them first of their sin. The second sign, or "pull," was to be his knowing the secrets of the heart. He would be able to just talk to people and he would know their name and other facts about them. (Remember, the Word of God is sharper than a two edged sword and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart). People began to see this manifested in the late 1950's and the early 1960's in Brother Branham's ministry. But there was to be a third pull and of this third pull or the final phase of his ministry - he said, "This will be the thing that will take the Bride in the Rapture."

- The Third Pull In one of Brother Branham's sermons entitled, The Anointed Ones at the End Time, he was endeavoring to explain the significance of this latter part of his ministry. The following excerpt was uttered as he came to the end of his message: "Notice the very day when this messenger begins to declare his Message. See? The First Pull, healing: Second Pull, prophesying: Third Pull, the opening of the Word, the mysteries revealed. There's no higher order to reveal the Word than prophets. But the only way the prophet can be vindicated is by the Word. And remember, the Third Pull was the opening of them Seven Seals to reveal the hidden Truth that's been sealed in the Word." Brother Branham's third pull was the teaching segment of his ministry. The first two pulls drew attention to his prophetic ministry by the constant exercise of the supernatural, but this generation needed more than a demonstration of miracles. God's purpose was to send this Elijah with a Message of restoration.

- God Vindicates His Own The world, however, remembers him chiefly for his operation in the realm of the Supernatural and certainly in our day, there has been no parallel. The Gospel of John comes to a close with this remarkable statement: "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written" (John 21:25). It is not preposterous to say that such also is the case of the ministry of Jesus Christ in his prophet today. To attempt to outline the miracles and Supernatural manifestations and their implications would be as impossible as Abraham counting the stars. Till the last year of his ministry (1965), God's humble prophet was still being used to discern hearts, heal every manner of illness and perform diverse miracles. By the providence of God's grace, and a wonderful invention called the tape recorder, thousands of the miracles were recorded as they happened. The world has been left with an authentic record of God in action, not two thousand years ago, but today! Thousands still living, who were in Brother Branham's meetings, witnessed his gift of discernment and saw the healings which took place.

 

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- A Prophet Visits South Africa Probably, his greatest single crusade was held in South Africa. His entire ministry in that country was so phenomenal Julius Stadsklev, who traveled with him, wrote a book dealing only with that trip. In his book - A Prophet Visits South Africa - he relates vividly the results of the Durban meetings. Following are just a few remarks taken from his book: "Sunday, Nov. 25, 1951: Before the afternoon service started, reports were coming in of those who had received their healing in the morning service. It would be impossible to relate the many cases of definite healings which took place in Durban that day. As Brother Branham saw visions of healings he pointed out the people and told them that they were healed. There were those who stepped out of their wheelchairs and walked, some for the first time in many years. There was the deaf and dumb who smiled and made vocal sounds as they were able to hear for the first time in their lives. There were the little children who could not understand it all but who were now able to walk as they had never been able to before. Truly this was a great day of spiritual awakening in the city of Durban. According to the police force fifty-five to sixty thousand people had come to hear the Gospel in addition to fifteen thousand who had been turned away from the gates for lack of room in the largest, finest race course in South Africa. God had spoken to the hearts of thousands and had caused them to come out to hear the Gospel and receive healing for both soul and body." A local Pastor named John F. Wooderson was one of three whose comments were recorded in Mr. Stadsklev's book. Following is a further excerpt: 'But is it not the ministry of the miraculous given to men by God in these days which is a most vital factor and potent force in the spiritual awakening of the countries of the world. Is not this God's answer to an age of apathy, unbelief and skepticism? Under the God honoured ministry of Brother William Branham the most amazing scenes were witnessed. One could not help but be reminded of New Testament days. From everywhere the sick came with all manner of afflictions ... some on crutches, wheelchairs, and stretchers. The extraordinary gift possessed by God's servant, which was manifested in the diagnosis of the ills of men and women, together with his deep humility and overwhelming compassion for suffering humanity was convincing proof that he was indeed "A man sent from God." Never will we forget those prayers which came from the innermost depths of his soul, as he called upon God to "have mercy upon these poor people and heal them." And whilst he prayed, the answer came! All over those vast gatherings men and women were delivered from the power of Satan in their bodies. Crooked limbs were straightened - the blind saw, the deaf heard. Cancers, growths, heart ailments were healed in the Name of Jesus. Brother Branham faithfully pointed his large audiences to the only source of healing, and never failed to discredit the idea that he had any ability to heal.' Let me conclude this portion with some comments made by F.F. Bosworth as he described his impression of the prophet's ministry: "Brother Branham is a channel for more than the mere gift of healing; he is also a seer as were the Old Testament Prophets. He sees events before they take place. I asked him, "What do you mean? How do you see them?" He replied, "Just as l see you: only that I know it is a vision." Just as clearly as one sees material things around them, Brother Branham, while in prayer during the day, sees in vision some of the principal miracles before they take place that night. He sees some carried in on ambulance cots, or sitting in wheel chairs, and can describe how they look and how they are dressed, etc. While being shown these miracles in advance, he usually becomes, for the time, unconscious of things going on around him. Not once during the more than three years since receiving the gift have these revelations failed to produce perfect miracles exactly as he had already seen them in visions. At these times he can say with absolute certainty, "Thus saith the Lord," and he is never wrong. He told me last week that he simply acts out what he has already seen himself doing in the vision. The success of the phase of his ministry is exactly 100 percent. When the gift is operating, Brother Branham is the most sensitive person to the Presence and working of the Holy Spirit and to spiritual realities of any person I have ever known. Under the anointing, which operates his spiritual gifts, and who he is conscious of the Angel's presence, he seems to break through the veil of the flesh into the world of spirit, to be struck through and through with a sense of the unseen."

 

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- Chapter 3 I Will Restore Saith the Lord - In Vain Do They Worship Me Jesus Christ infuriated many of His Jewish listeners by informing them that the religion they so devoutly followed was unacceptable to God. The reason for this startling denunciation was simply, "they taught for doctrines the commandments of men" (Mark 7:7). Over the years, they had introduced many traditions, interpretations and even laws which were not given by God and not a part of Holy Scripture. The average Israelite, reared under this mixture of divine Law and human commandment, trusted the ministry and accepted it without question as God's Word. The main promulgators of this tepid stew were the zealous denominations known as the scribes and pharisees. Though unnoticed by the general public, their heresy was foremost in the eyes of Jesus Who indicted them for altering God's immutable Word and thereby closing heaven, not only to themselves, but also to those who listened to and trusted in them (Matthew 23:13). The Gentile church world William Branham stepped into, had drifted into the same unholy mixture. They had the Word of God from which the preachers drew their sermon texts. But overall the people had adopted a very lax attitude with respect to the authority and constancy of Scripture. They took it upon themselves to define major and minor doctrines, choosing which parts of God's Word were relevant and which no longer applied. Complete trust rested in the interpretations of particular denominations which became the ultimate arbiter on Scriptural issues. Consequently, Christ the Word was no longer Master as every church was ruled by a collection of sayings, traditions and misinterpretations built upon the apostatizing of the fourth century AD. No denomination was innocent in this regard and no denomination is capable of repenting because it is governed by organization and program, not led of the Spirit. Individual repentance must necessarily require forsaking the systems and interpretations of man, just as the followers of Jesus bade farewell to their beloved Judaism. Revelation 17 and 18 teach us that by the time of the Lord's 'parousia,' the true enemy of the Gospel is a great world church called the Great Harlot, Mystery Babylon, and the Mother of Harlots. She and her adulterous daughters are seen united into a vast system, able to control politics, religion and commerce. This is the destiny of every man-made denomination which, like the first or mother church, vaunt their word above the Word of God. Such will be the momentary splendor of Rome and her Protestant denominational daughters from which God will separate a true Word Bride so She can unite with the Word Groom. I have selected three of the doctrines William Branham taught which serve to illustrate why it was essential for God to anoint this restoration ministry.

- "Unto what were you baptized?" (Acts 19:3) It is evident that sprinkling and infant baptism have no Scriptural foundation, but there is another even more prevalent error that has gone largely unchecked for centuries. The great majority of Christian churches, baptize using the Titles, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, believing they are obeying the commandment of Jesus in Matthew 28:19. They overlook the majestic truth expressed by the prophet Isaiah when he foretold that a Son would be born Who would have ONE (1) glorious Name that would embody all of the Titles and manifestations of God. "For unto us a Son is born, unto us a child is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His Name shall be CALLED (not is), Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." The disciples to whom this commission was given had the revelation that the NAME (singular) of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost was none other than LORD JESUS CHRIST. Consequently, every recorded baptism was done in that Name (Acts 2:38; 8:16; 10:48; 19:5). Even secular history has no record of water baptism in three Titles until the time of the First Nicea Council. And according to page 59 of the New Catholic Encyclopaedia it was not until about 1100 that the false baptism in three Titles was adopted by the majority of the churches (at the point of a sword). (For more on water baptism see Appendix III). In one of the many places William Branham expressed this truth, he said as follows:"I admit that it takes a real revelation from the Holy Ghost to see the truth about the Godhead these days when we are in the midst of the perverting of so much Scripture. But the prevailing, overcoming church is built

 

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on revelation so we can expect God to reveal His truth to us. However, you actually don't need a revelation on water baptism. It is right there staring you in the face. Would it be possible for one minute for the apostles to be led astray from a direct command of the Lord to baptize in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost and then find them in willful disobedience? They knew what the Name was, and there is not one place in Scripture where they baptized any other way than in the Name of Lord Jesus Christ. Common sense would tell you that the Book of Acts is the church in action, and if they baptized that way, then that is the way to baptize. Now if you think that is strong, what do you think of this? Anyone who was not baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus had to be baptized over again. Acts 19:1-6, "And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples He said unto them, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" And they said unto him, "We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And He said unto them, "Unto what then were ye baptized?" And they said, "Unto John's baptism." Then said Paul, "John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on Him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them and they spake with tongues and prophesied." There it is. These good people at Ephesus had heard about the coming Messiah. John had preached Him. They were baptized unto repentance of sins, looking forward to believing on Jesus. But now it was time to look back to Jesus and be baptized unto remission of sins. It was time to receive the Holy Ghost. And when they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul laid his hands on them and the Holy Ghost came upon them. Oh, those dear folks at Ephesus were fine people; and if any one had a right to feel secure, they did. Notice how far they had come. They had come all the way up to accepting the coming Messiah. They were ready for Him. But don't you see that in spite of that they had missed Him? He had come and gone. They needed to be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They needed to be filled with the Holy Ghost. If you have been baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, God will fill you with His Spirit. That is the Word. Acts 19:6 which we read was the fulfilling of Acts 2:38, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost." See, Paul, by the Holy Ghost, said exactly what Peter said by the Holy Ghost. And what was said cannot be changed. It has to be the same from Pentecost until the very last elected one has been baptized. Galatians 1:8, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed" (William Branham, An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 26-27).

- "...The LORD our God is One Lord" (Mark 12:29) Directly associated with the understanding on water baptism is the truth about the Godhead. The churches "traditionally" believe in three separate or distinct persons in one God. This was the result of a misinterpretation of Scripture which mentions the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost incorporated in a Trinitarian definition at the fourth century meeting of the First Nicea Council. Like the false so-called "baptismal formula," this "new" concept (with the help of armed might), swept Christendom, and over the centuries has become so embedded in Christian thought that to question its validity is tantamount to heresy. The church lost the revelation that the one God, Jehovah, expressed Himself in the Old Testament as the Father, manifested Himself in the Gospels in the Son, Jesus, and revealed Himself in the Book of Acts as the Holy Spirit. In reality, it is three dispensations of the same God - God above us - God with us - God in us, NOT three persons, but one glorious personage finally and wonderfully unveiled (Hebrews 1:3). The heathen intellectual minds of the theologians could not reconcile the appearance of the Son on earth to the Father remaining in heaven. They, forgetting that God can be in heaven whilst at the same time manifesting Himself on earth (John 14:10), decided there had to be at least two in the Godhead and the entrance of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 made it three. They made the Son the second person of this Godhead, failing to realize that the Scriptures do not teach that Jesus is in the Godhead, rather

 

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that the Godhead is in Jesus. "For in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9). They could only see that the Father was a God and the Son was a God and missed the true concept that the Father was God and the Son was the flesh or Man in Whom that God dwelt to redeem Adam's fallen race and was the beginning of God creating or unfolding Himself in the form of His Family - the New Testament saints in whom He will dwell and be worshipped through eternity (Luke 1:35; I Timothy 3:16). The ensuing three-personned deity is every bit as much a form of idolatry as the various pagan gods the children of Israel consistently worshipped. Through the ages, Bible Truth became increasingly obscured by ignorance and superstition forced upon what was once the Empire of Imperial Rome by a new mistress, the Roman Catholic church. Such was her power, kings submitted to her outrageous demands, and laity were forbidden to read the Bible on pain of excommunication or death. By her own records, and history found in any encyclopaedia she martyred over 68 million Christians during almost a thousand years of "Dark Ages" which ensued, many by unspeakable torture. Because the faith was thus lost, God "winked" at the ignorance of the saints during the Church Ages, provided they walked in the Light as He was restoring It. The ministry of the last angel was to fully restore the true understanding or faith (including the Godhead and water baptism) to the elect. (For more on the Godhead, see Appendix IV.) I have selected some comments made by Brother Branham in his series on the Seven Church Ages: "Now all these expressions, 'Him Which Is,' and 'Him Which Was,' and 'Is to Come,' and 'Faithful Witness,' and 'Firstborn from among the Dead,' and 'Prince of the Kings of the Earth,' and 'The Alpha and Omega,' and 'The Almighty,' are titles and descriptions of one and the same person, Who is the Lord Jesus Christ, Who washed us from our sins in His own blood. The Spirit of God in John expressed thusly in order to set forth the supreme deity of Jesus Christ and to reveal the Godhead as ONE God. Today there is a gross error. It is that there are three gods instead of one. Thus, revelation as given to John by Jesus, Himself corrects that error. It is not that there are three Gods, but one God with three major offices or dispensation claims with the Titles, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This mighty revelation is what the early church had, and it must he restored in this last day along with the correct formula of water baptism. Now modern theologians won't agree with me for here is what was written in a great Christian magazine. "That teaching (on the Trinity) is at the very heart and core of the Old Testament. The New Testament is just as much opposed as the Old Testament is to the thought that there are more gods than one. Yet the New Testament with equal clearness teaches that the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and that these three are NOT three aspects of the same Person, but three persons standing in a truly personal relationship to one another." There we have the great doctrine of the Three Persons but one God." They also state, "God, according to the Bible, is just one person, but He is three persons in one God. That is the great mystery of the Trinity". It sure is. How can three persons be in one God? Not only is there no Bible for it, but it shows even a lack of intelligent reasoning. Three distinct persons, though identical substances, make three gods, or language has lost its meaning entirely. Just listen to these words again, "I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, saith the Lord, Which Is, and Which Was, and Which Is to Come, the Almighty." This is deity. This is not simply a prophet, a man. This is God. And it is not a revelation of three Gods, but one God, the Almighty. There can only be one All-mighty. They didn't believe in three Gods in the beginning of the church. You can't find that sort of belief amongst the apostles. It was after the apostolic age that this theory came in and really became an issue and cardinal doctrine at the Nicene Council. The doctrine of the Godhead caused a two-way split at Nicea. And from that split there came two extremes. One actually went into polytheism, believing in

 

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three Gods, and the others went into Unitarianism. Of course, that was a little while in coming about, but it did, and we have it right today. But the revelation through John by the spirit to the churches was, "I am the Lord Jesus Christ, and I am ALL of It. There isn't any other God." And He put His seal on the Revelation. Consider this: Who was the Father of Jesus? Matthew 1:18 says, "She was found with child of the Holy Ghost." But Jesus Himself, claimed that God was His Father. God the Father and God the Holy Ghost, as we often express these terms, make the Father and the Spirit ONE. Indeed they are, or else Jesus had two Fathers. But notice that Jesus said that He and His Father were one - not two. That makes ONE God. Since this is historically and Scripturally true, people wonder where the three came from. It became a foundational doctrine at the Nicene Council in AD325. This trinity, an absolutely unscriptural word, was based upon the many gods of Rome. The Romans had many gods to whom they prayed. They also prayed to ancestors as mediators. It was just a step to give new names to old gods, so we have saints to make it more Biblical. Thus, instead of Jupiter, Venus, Mars, etc., we have Paul, Peter, Fatima, Christopher etc., etc. They could not make their pagan religion work out with just one god, so they split Him up into three, and they made intercessors of the saints as they had made intercessors of their ancestors. Ever since then, people have failed to realize that there is one God according to Scripture, but they try to make it the fantastic theory that God is like a bunch of grapes: three persons with the same Divinity shared equally by all. But it plainly says here in Revelation that Jesus is "That Which Is, That Which Was, and That Which Is to Come," He is the "Alpha and Omega," which means He is the "A to Z" or THE ALL OF IT. He is everything - the Almighty. He is the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the Valley, the Bright and Morning Star, the Righteous Branch, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. He is God, Almighty God. ONE GOD. I Timothy 3:16 says, "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up to Glory." This is what the Bible says. It doesn't say a thing about a first or second or third person here. It says God was manifest in flesh. One God. That One God was manifested in flesh. That ought to settle it. God came in a human form. That didn't make Him ANOTHER GOD. HE WAS GOD, THE SAME GOD. It was a revelation then, and it is a revelation now. One God (ibid. p. 17-19).

- "I will put enmity between thy seed and her Seed" (Genesis 3:15) The third and perhaps the most scrutinized of all William Branham's teachings is the truth he restored on the original sin recorded in Genesis 1-4. Genesis 4:1 and 2 begins, "and Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel..." Herein, we see Eve's great deception at the birth of her first son. Still believing the Serpent's lie, she actually thought Cain was the beginning of the creation of God, the Savior of mankind. However God acknowledged no direct relationship with Cain and he is from birth an outcast. His name was to become synonymous with treachery and murder. The next mention of Cain is on this Wise: "But unto Cain and to his offering He had not respect" (Genesis 4:5). Not only was Cain's offering refused, but Cain was himself forbidden an approach that his brother Abel enjoyed. Why was Cain rejected? Also in relation to this - what was the fruit Adam and Eve partook? What role did the serpent play in the fall? What was the serpent seed of Genesis 3:15? The answer to this mysterious riddle has remained hidden for centuries. Under this prophet's ministry, God has provided the solution: "Now in the Garden of Eden there were two trees standing in the midst of it. One was the Tree of Life, the other was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Man was to live by the Tree of Life; but he was not to touch the other tree or he would die. But man did partake of the other tree, and when he did, death entered into him by his sin, and he became separated from God.

 

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Some have an idea that the two trees in the garden were just two more trees like unto the rest of those that God had placed there. But careful students know that this is not so. When John the Baptist cried that the ax was laid to the root of all trees, he was not talking of simply natural trees, but of spiritual principles. Now in I John 5:11 it says, "And this is the RECORD, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His son." Jesus said in John 5:40, "And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life." Thus the record, God's Word, states plainly and clearly that LIFE, ETERNAL LIFE, is in the Son. It is no other place. I John 5:12, "He that hath the Son hath LIFE: and he that hath not the Son of God hath NOT Life." Now since the record cannot change, be taken from or added thereunto, then the record stands that THE LIFE IS IN THE SON ... Since this is so. THE TREE IN THE GARDEN HAS TO BE JESUS. Alright. If the Tree of Life is a person, then the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is a person ALSO. It can't be otherwise. Thus the Righteous One and the Wicked One stood side by side there in the midst of the Garden of Eden. Ezekiel 28:13a "Thou (Satan) hast been in Eden, the garden of God". Here is where we receive the true revelation of the "serpent's seed." Here is what really happened in the Garden of Eden. The Word says that Eve was beguiled by the serpent. She was actually seduced by the serpent. It says in Genesis 3:1, "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." This beast was so close to a human being (and yet was pure animal) that he could reason and talk. He was an upright creature and was somewhere in between a chimpanzee and a man, but closer to a man. He was so close to being a human that his seed could, and did mingle with that of the woman and cause her to conceive. When this happened, God cursed the serpent. He changed every bone in the serpent's body so that he had to crawl like a snake. Science can try all it wants to, and it won't find the missing link. God saw to that. Man is smart and he can see an association of man with animal and he tries to prove it out of evolution. There isn't any evolution. But man and animal did mingle. That's one of the mysteries of God that has remained hidden, but here it is revealed. It happened right back there in the midst of Eden when Eve turned away from Life to accept Death. Notice what God said to them in the garden. Genesis 3:15, "And l will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, and it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." If we give credit to the Word that the woman did have a seed then the serpent must have surely had a seed also. If the seed of the woman was a man-child apart from the man, then the seed of the serpent will have to be in the same pattern, and that is, another male must he born apart from human male instrumentality. There is no student who does not know the seed of the woman was the Christ Who came by the instrumentality of God, apart from human intercourse. It is also just as well known that the predicted bruising of the serpent's head was in actuality a prophecy concerning what Christ would accomplish against Satan at the cross. There at the cross, Christ would bruise the head of Satan while Satan would bruise the heel of the Lord. This portion of Scripture is the revelation of how the literal seed of the serpent was sown in the earth, even as we have the account of Luke 1:26-35, wherein is set forth the exact account of how the seed of the woman came unto physical manifestation apart from the instrumentality of the human male. "And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, 'Hail thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women.' And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, 'Fear not, Mary; for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His Name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the Throne of His father David: And He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever: and of His kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, 'How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?' And the angel answered and said unto her, 'The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also That Holy Thing Which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God'." As the seed of the woman was literally God reproducing Himself in human flesh, so the seed of the serpent is the literal way that Satan found he was able to open the door to himself into the human race. It was impossible for Satan (for he is only a CREATED spirit-being) to reproduce himself in the manner which God reproduced Himself, so the Genesis account tells how he produced his seed and

 

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introduced or injected himself into the human race. Also recall that Satan is called the "serpent." It is his seed or injection into the human race we are speaking of. Before Adam ever had carnal knowledge of Eve, the serpent had that knowledge ahead of him. And that one born of it was Cain. Cain was of (born of, begotten of) "that Wicked One" (I John 3:12). The Holy Spirit in John could not in one place call Adam the "Wicked One" (for that is what he would be if he fathered Cain) and in another place call Adam the "Son of God" which he was by creation (Luke 3:38). Cain turned out in character like his father, a bringer of death, a murderer. His utter defiance of God when faced by the Almighty in Genesis 4:5,13-14, show him to be absolutely unhuman-like in characteristics, seeming even to surpass any account we have in Scripture concerning a confrontation of Satan with God. "But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, 'Where is Abel thy brother?' And he said, 'I know not; Am I my brother's keeper?' And Cain said unto the Lord, 'My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth: and from Thy face shall I be hid: and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me'." Notice the exact way the record of God sets forth the account of the births of Cain, Abel and Seth. Genesis 4:1, "And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, 'I have gotten a man from the Lord.' And she again bare his brother Abel." Genesis 4:25, "And Adam knew his wife again and she bare a son, and called his name Seth..." There are THREE sons born from TWO acts of carnal knowledge by Adam. Since the Bible is the exact and perfect Word of God, this is no mistake but a record for our illumination. Since THREE sons were born from TWO acts by Adam, you know POSITIVELY that ONE of those WAS NOT the son of Adam. God has recorded this in this exact manner to show us something. The truth of the matter is that Eve had in her womb TWO sons (twins from SEPARATE impregnations). She was carrying twins, with Cain's conception sometime previous to that of Abel's. TWINS again. Perfect type as always. To those who think that this is not possible, let it be known that the medical records are replete with cases where women have carried two who were of separate ova and separate insemination with the fertilization of the eggs being days apart, and NOT ONLY SO, but some of the records show that the twins were fathered by separate males. Recently worldwide coverage was given to a Norwegian mother who was suing her husband for support for herself and her twins, one of which was white and the other black. She admitted that she had a Negro lover. The two conceptions were about three weeks apart. In Beaumont, Texas, in 1963, the records again set forth a multiple birth wherein pregnancies were many days apart, in fact so much so the woman almost died along with one child in childbirth (ibid. p. 97-100).

 

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- Chapter 4 – If Any Man Hear My Voice - "Behold I Stand At The Door and Knock" (Revelation 3:20) Two matters had to be dealt with by the Holy Spirit in order to prepare a Church for the manifestation of the Sons of God and the translation. First, it was imperative to restore the elect to the apostolic faith and correct the doctrinal mishmash created by hundreds of denominations. And there were many revelations of Scripture essential to the end-time Bride that had never been clearly taught. The wheat and tares of Matthew 13:24-30,36-43; the anti-Christ of II Thessalonians 2:4: the mystery of the rapture; the mysteries of the Book of Revelation, and others. This is precisely why a prophetic forerunner, with a vindicated "Thus saith the Lord," was essential. You will notice ONLY the forerunner of Christ's first Coming, John the Baptist, was able to identify the Scriptures such as Isaiah 40:1-3 that were being fulfilled and only he was able to identify the Lamb. So was it in the ministry of this endtime Elijah concerning the multitudes of Scriptures coming to pass in his day! The second matter concerned the conduct of the people. You will notice that besides rebuking the traditions of the clergy, John also trumpeted a call to repentance and holy living. Today, we find churches have relaxed their standard of holiness to such an extent that the conduct of their people conforms almost completely with that of the world. In today's evangelical World, the focus has shifted from holiness to finance. The various projects of many internationally famous preachers are costing billions to build and to maintain. One can hardly attend a meeting or turn on a religious broadcast without being accosted repeatedly for enormous sums of money to pay for religious resorts, hospitals, broadcasts, colleges, and universities. Adherents are compelled to support real estate empires and worldwide organizational systems. In addition to this, mixed swimming, scantily clad women, social drinking, smoking, necking and petting among the young people, etc., has become acceptable in the churches. Jesus identified these days with the days of Lot and Noah. In them, the prevalent sin was sexual promiscuity and finally, total perversion. The word 'unisex' has been widely used to describe the attitudes, styles and appearances of today's men and women. Over the last 20 years, the trend has evolved until now they are literally exchanging roles. Women are cutting their hair, wearing men's garments, demanding equal rights and have forsaken motherhood and home-keeping to pursue their own careers, while men have become morally weak and perverse, growing their hair like women, wearing blouse-like shirts, tight suggestive pants, high heels, and even necklaces and earrings. The churches, instead of resisting this perverse decline, have succumbed and adopted most of its standards of conduct, dress, music, and entertainment. Consequently God has given then the portion of the unbeliever. Ichabod has been scratched across their ornate portals and God has abandoned them to the harlot system and the irrevocable mark of the Beast (Revelation 13:15-18). God, however, cannot forsake His predestinated and in spite of this dismal, end-time scenario, He promises "a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing" (Ephesians 5:27). Once again, God has prepared an ark for a lovely but tiny end-time Bride. Her final call is twofold. One, "Come out of her (Rome and her daughters) My people" (Revelation 18:4); two, come into Christ (Ephesians 1:10), the Living Word of God. She alone will recognize Christ's forerunner and begin to busily prepare for the great translation; the rest will be swept away by modern so-called revivals into the council of churches and perdition. This truly is the last call - there will not be another. The Jews are in their homeland, the Elijah of Malachi 4:5-6 has come and gone, his Message is in the hands and hearts of God's people, and the stage is now set for the rapture! Multitudes of tapes and books of William Branham's sermons have been distributed all over the world. In country after country, through the still-speaking voice of His prophet (Revelation 10:7) God has raised up churches, and thousands have been delivered from sin, the world and denominationalism to walk according to the Scriptures. If you have been baptized by some organization under the Titles

 

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Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, you need to be rebaptized (Acts 19:1-5) in the Name of Jesus Christ. Every Christian must realize that he cannot follow God without following His Word! The evidence of our love for God is measured directly by our obedience to His revealed Word (John 14:15) and we can only know Him as we see Him unveiled in His Word. The Laodicean Church Age (Revelation 3:14-22) presents a pitiful picture of Jesus Christ knocking on the outside of the church, not the heart as so many suppose. Notice the call sounds to the individual, "any man," and not to the Word-rejecting systems. May whoever reads this, heed the Voice of the Bridegroom and join Him on the outside of everything that has to do with man and enter into His perfect Word! Jesus promised in Matthew 24:45 that His faithful minority at the end of the world who love to do the will of God would be given "meat (spiritual food) in due season." He promised that while He was withdrawing from an apostate world where there is "a famine for hearing the Word," they would have provision and be nourished. Just as Elijah provided meal and oil for the widow of Zarephath, so the Elijah of this final age has been commissioned to leave a "Message" which would carry the Bride through to the manifestation of the Sons of God and the translation. (See the last page regarding "The Message"). - Appendix 1 - Angels The Greek word for "angel" means "messenger." It is used in Scripture to mean mortal men and, less frequently, supernatural beings. In both Luke 7:24 and James 2:25, the word is translated "messengers" and obviously means men. The following excerpt is from THE NEW SCOFIELD BIBLE footnote to Hebrews 1:4: "Angel, summary: Angel, i.e. 'messenger,' is used of God, of men, and of an order of created, spiritual beings whose chief attributes are strength and wisdom (II Samuel 14:20; Psalms 103:20; 104:4). In the Old Testament, the expression "the angel of the Lord" (sometimes "of God") usually implies the presence of Deity in angelic form (Genesis 16:1-13; 21:17-19; 22:11-16; 31:11-13; Exodus 3:2-4; Judges 2:1; 6:12-16; 13:3-22). See Judges 2:1, note cp. Malachi 3:1, note the word "angel" is used of men in Luke 7:24; James 2:25; Revelation 1:20; 2:1,8,13,18; 3:1,7,14. - Appendix 2 - Witnesses ORAL

ROBERTS:

"A

humble

devout

man

of

God"

(HEALING

WATERS,

July

1948).

GORDON LINDSAY: "Never had we known of any preacher calling deaf mutes and blind people to be prayed for, and then to see those people delivered on the spot - a ministry that was beyond any we had before witnessed" (THE HOUSE THAT THE LORD BUILT). JACK MOORE: "The most gifted of all the evangelists (ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE, by David Edwin Harrell, jr). F. F. BOSWORTH: "When the gift is operating, Bro. Branham is the most sensitive person to the presence and working of the Holy Spirit and to spiritual realities of any person I have ever known (A PROPHET VISITS SOUTH AFRICA, by Julius Stadsklev). TOMMY OSBORN: "God has chosen diverse and mysterious ways to reveal Himself to His servants, especially those called for dispensational purposes as was Brother Branham's call" (William Branham's Memorial Service). "In short, the man we know as William Branham, was sent to demonstrate God again in the flesh" (William Branham's Memorial Service). "So, He (God) sent forth a particular human vessel surrounded by supernatural signs to attract attention, to make this wayward generation stop and look and ponder and search and think. Thus the halo of Light that appeared at his birth, the star, the angel, the discernment, the gifts, all of these for that purpose. What for? To show us God again. To repeat what He showed us in Jesus Christ when He came in the form of flesh. To remind us one final time. Like Jesus, Brother Branham redemonstrated the very things which made men believe that the true Messiah had come" (William Branham's Memorial Service).

 

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GEORGE EKEROTH: "God called this humble man ... and anointed his ministry to a degree that within a few short years his name was known in the most remote jungle out-station. Wherever you would go in this world you would find that the name of this messenger had preceded you" (WIND OVER THE 20TH CENTURY, by Morris Cerullo). DAVID EDWIN HARRELL, JR: "Most of the participants of the Healing Revival (that erupted in 1947) looked upon Branham as its initiator ... William Branham became a prophet to a generation ... Night after night before thousands of awed believers, he discerned the diseases of the sick and pronounced them healed" (ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE). "The power of a Branham service ... remains a legend unparalleled in the history of the charismatic movement" (ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE). JAMES MORRIS: "It was Branham, more than any other evangelist, who started the post-World War II fundamental faith healing revival allowing his encounter with an angel on May 7, 1946" (THE PREACHERS). "Word radiated in every direction that all manner of diseases and afflictions were healed instantly by the little Indiana preacher. Even cases of raising the dead were published" (THE PREACHERS). THOMAS R. NICKEL: "In Bible days, there were men of God who were prophets and seers. But in all the sacred records, none of these had a greater ministry than that of William Branham, a Prophet and Seer of God, whose photograph appears on the front cover of this issue of "FULL GOSPEL BUSINESSMAN'S VOICE. Branham has been used by God, in the Name of Jesus, to raise the dead" (FULL GOSPEL MEN'S VOICE, February 1961). JOSEPH MATTSON BOZE: "Sometimes I was scared because of the deep sense of holiness that penetrated the meetings, but I never failed to see the gift of God in operation through His servant and to feel the warmth of love that flowed through his ministry" (THE HERALD OF FAITH, February 1966). - Appendix 3 - One God or Trinity JAMES HASTINGS: "It has been customary to trace the institution of the practice to the words of Christ in Matthew 28:19, but the authenticity of this passage has been challenged on historical as well as textural grounds. It must be acknowledged that the formula of the threefold name, which is here enjoined, does not appear to have been used by the primitive church, which so far as our information goes, baptized 'in' or 'into' the Name of Jesus, or Jesus Christ, or the Lord Jesus, without any reference to the Father or the Spirit" (DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE, Page 88). SCRIBNERS: "The original form of words were into the Name of Jesus Christ or Lord Jesus. Baptism into trinity was a later development" (DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE, Vol. I, Page 241). CANNEY ENCYCLOPAEDIA: "The early church always baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus until the development of the trinity; afterward they were baptized in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" (Page 53). ENCYCLOPAEDIA AMERICAN, INTERNATIONAL EDITION: "The term Trinity was used by Theophilus of Antioch in AD 180" (Vol. 27, Page 116). BRITANNICA ENCYCLOPAEDIA: "The triune and trinity formula was not uniformly used from the beginning, and up until the third century, baptism in the Name of Christ only was so widespread that Pope Stephen, in opposition to St. Cyprian, said that baptism in the Name of Christ was valid. But Catholic missionaries, by omitting one or more persons of the Trinity when they were baptized, were anathematized by the Roman church. Now the formula of Rome is, "I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and in the name of the Son and in the name of the Holy Ghost" (11th Ed., Vol. 3, Pages 365366). ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIONS: "Persons were baptized at first in the Name of Jesus Christ, or 'in the Name of the Lord Jesus.' Afterwards, with the development of the doctrine of the Trinity, they were baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost" (Page 53).

 

21

NEW INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA: "The Trinity doctrine. The Catholic faith is this: 'We worship one in trinity, but there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. The glory equal - the majesty co-eternal.' The doctrine is not found in its fully developed form in the Scriptures. Modern theology does not seek to find it in the Old Testament. At the time of the Reformation, the Protestant Church took over the doctrine of the Trinity without serious examination" (Vol. 22, Page 476) HASTINGS ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION: "Christian baptism was administered by using the words 'in the Name of Jesus.' The use of a Trinity formula of any sort was not suggested in the early Church history. Baptism was always in the Name of the Lord Jesus until the time of Justin Martyr when the Triune formula was used" (Vol. 2, Pages 377-378, 389) "NAME was an ancient synonym for "Person." Payment was always made in the name of some person referring to ownership. Therefore one being baptized in Jesus' Name became His personal property. "Ye are Christ's." (Acts 1:15; Revelation 3:4; I Corinthians 3:23). LIFE MAGAZINE: "The Catholics made this statement concerning their doctrine of the Trinity to defend the dogma of the assumption of Mary in an article by Graham Green: 'Our opponents sometimes claim that no belief should be held dogmatically which is not explicitly stated in the Scripture but the Protestant churches have themselves accepted such dogma as the Trinity for which there exists no such authority in the Gospels'" (October 30, 1950, vol. 29, Number 18, Page 51). CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPAEDIA: "The true doctrine of the sacrament of baptism is not taught by the Roman church. Baptism given by heretics in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost with the intention of performing what the church performs, is not true baptism" (Vol. 2, Page 259). NEW CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: "With regard to the form used for Baptism in the early church, there is the difficulty that although Matthew (28:19) speaks of the Trinitarian formula, which is now used, the Acts of the Apostles (2:38; 8:16; 10:48; 19:5) and Paul (I Corinthians 1:13; 6:11; Galatians 3:27; Romans 6:3) speak only of Baptism 'in the Name of Jesus.' Baptism in titles cannot be found in the first centuries..." (McGraw Hill Publishing, Page 59). WILLIAM PHILLIPS HALL: "In this very ancient version (Syriac Peschito Version) which is believed by good authorities (Gwilliam, Boners, and others) to represent a text much older that of the Greek manuscript from which our English New Testament was largely derived, 'The Name of the Lord Jesus Messiah or Christ' appears in all four readings given (Acts 2:38; 8:16; 10:48; 19:5)" (A REMARKABLE DISCOVERY, Page 70). INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA: "The doctrine of the Trinity did not form part of the Apostles' preachings, as this is reported in the New Testament" (First Edition, Vol. 18, Page 226). NEW INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPEDIA: "The term 'Trinity' was originated by ... Tertulian, a Roman Catholic church father. No record of the Trinitarian formula can be discovered in the Acts of the Apostles... At the time of the Reformation, the Protestant Church took over the doctrine of the Trinity without serious examination" (Vol. 1, Page 396).  

- Appendix 4 the Godhead The Bible is the story of one God changing His form or unfolding Himself from the eternal Spirit alone with His thoughts to the flesh of His glorified family. Since God's thoughts are eternal and they are real, they are the attributes of what He is and must manifest in their designated and decreed season and time. His Word is His eternal thoughts expressed and is therefore the absolute, but It can only manifest what was spoken when It is received by faith.

 

22

Jesus Christ was the beginning of this creation when He was born of a virgin, 2,000 years ago. As Eve was formed from a rib taken from the side of the first Adam, the true Church is made up from the Holy Spirit taken from the side of the last Adam. The New Testament saints are the continuation of the creation of God in Christ. We are each born-again Spiritually once our soul is quickened to transform our lives into written epistles of the revealed Word for our day. Father, Son and Holy Ghost are the pivotal offices or dispensation claims of Gods many Titles. Father is the Office or Title God received when His first Son, Adam, was formed (Genesis 2:7). And since Jesus came in His Father's Name, the compound redemptive Name of the Father is Lord Jesus Christ (John 5:43; 17:26). Holy Ghost is what God is. God is one Spirit, not two Spirits and one Man as He would be if "the Father" were a person other than the Holy Spirit (Numbers 23:19; Matthew 1:20; John 4:24; Acts 17:24). The compound redemptive Name of the Holy Spirit is Lord Jesus Christ (John 14:16,26). Son is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the virgin-born Jesus to fulfill the part of Kinsman Redeemer for Adam's race (Isaiah 7:14; I Timothy 3:16). Scripture informs us that the fullness of the character and nature of the godhead was expressed bodily in Jesus Christ. Scripture does not say that the fullness of Jesus Christ dwelt in the godhead (I John 18; II Corinthians 5:19; Colossians 2:9). When He was born, Joseph called His Name Jesus which means "Jehovah-Savior." As Jehovah means "the Self-existent One," not two or three, Jesus means, "the Self-existent One, the Savior." Joseph sonamed Him because Isaiah had prophesied, "they shall call His Name Emmanuel" which means "God with us." or Jesus (Matthew 1:21-25). When John baptized Jesus in the Jordan He was anointed for His ministry by the Shekinah or Pillar of Fire in the form of a Dove, and became the Christ or Anointed One (John 1:31-34). Later, when He had overcome in the garden of Gethsemane, He became Lord (John 17; Acts 2:36; 5:31). He is Lord Jesus Christ. God revealed Himself in the Old Testament as: Jehovah-Jireh (The Lord our Provider - Genesis 22:14), Jehovah-Rapha (The Lord our Healer - Exodus 15:16), Jehovah-Nissi (The Lord is our Banner - Exodus 17:15), Jehovah-Shalom (The Lord our Peace - Judges 6:24), Jehovah-Raah (The Lord is my Shepherd - Psalms 23), Jehovah-Tsidkenu (The Lord our Righteousness - Jeremiah 23:6), and JehovahShammah (The Lord is Present - Ezekiel 48:35). These many different names or titles described different offices or manifestations of one God as He revealed Himself to His people. These names and attributes were expressed when the fullness of the nature and character of God dwelt bodily in our Lord Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:9; Hebrews 1:1-3). "Jehovah," means "the self-existent One." This one Lord of the Old Testament Who was many things to His people finally became our Savior, manifesting all of these attributes in "Jesus," which means "Jehovah-Savior." "Call His Name Jesus," the Angel told Joseph, for He shall SAVE His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21 and Isaiah 45:15, 21). Jesus is Prophet, Priest, and King-Son of man, Son of God, and Son of David. This does not make Jesus a "Trinity" of three persons or three gods. These are simply the three major offices or dispensation claims of the first God-Man from His birth to the Millennium just as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three offices or dispensation claims of one God who has revealed Himself as the Father in creation, the Son in redemption, and the Holy Ghost in regeneration (Isaiah 41:4; Revelation 1:8,1718).

- The Uniqueness of The Son of God Jesus is the visible manifestation of the invisible God. I Timothy 3:16, "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory". The key word in understanding the supreme Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ is "manifestation." Jesus is the fullness of the nature and character of God manifest in virgin-born flesh in order to meet the

 

23

requirements of a sinless, spotless kinsman Redeemer for Adam's fallen race. Prior to His birth by the virgin Mary, the Man Jesus existed only in the foreknowledge of God. Luke 1:35, "The Angel Gabriel told Mary, The Holy Ghost will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God". When Mary told her espoused husband Joseph of her Supernatural pregnancy he was minded to quietly divorce her as a dishonorable woman. Matthew 1:20-23, "But the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, fear not to take to you Mary your wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call His Name Jesus: for He will save His people from their sins. Now all this was done, that the words of the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated, God with us". In the Old Testament the Son of God is only mentioned in a prophetic sense because He did not exist other than in the mind of God as One Who was to come. No Scripture speaks of an eternal Son; the begotten son is familiar to all. In John 14:10-14, Jesus clearly explains who He is, "Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The Words I speak are not My own, they are spoken on authority of the Father who dwells in me and does His work through Me. Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. Or believe it because of the mighty works you have seen Me do. In solemn truth I tell you, anyone believing in Me shall do the same miracles I have done, and even more, because I (will be raised for your justification and) go to the Father. And whatsoever you ask in My Name, I will do it that the Father may be glorified in the Son". Our Father condescended to reveal Himself in His first begotten Son, a man born of a virgin, the first God-man in the new creation. To see the Son is to see the Father. Jesus said, "Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). To know the Father is to know the Son. Since Pentecost, the same God dwells in His elect. John 14:19-20, "When you are born-again you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you". Jesus Christ was the "Beginning of the creation of God" just 2,000 years ago (Colossians 1:18: Revelation 3:14). His elect Church is the continuation and the Capstone Bride is ending or completion of the same creation (Hebrews 2:10-18). Jesus Christ is "the Alpha and the Omega, the (Word at the) beginning and the (same Word restored and manifest in the Sons of God at the) ending" (Revelation 1:8).

- Objections Considered We will briefly review what appear to be the major arguments presented by the Trinitarians to support their doctrine:

1. The Use of Plural Pronouns in the Old Testament Genesis 1:26 says, "Let us make man in our image." And Isaiah 6:8 says, "...I heard the Voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" In such references, Trinitarians have tendered the use of the plural pronoun conclusive proof of the plurality of persons in the godhead. They forget that the Bible is the story of the eternal Spirit unfolding Himself, His eternal thoughts, through the expressed Word, into the flesh of that Word in the form of His glorified Family - Jesus Christ and the New Testament Church. So when God says "us," He is speaking of the Logos or Word which is the expressed attributes of Himself: His eternal thoughts. Once we understand this revelation the mystery of the godhead becomes wonderfully clear, and we see how we as His elect were with Him in eternity, for by foreknowledge He knew who would become "written epistles" or the manifestation of His Word in their flesh. Hereby we see the elect were always eternal with God. Ephesians 1:4-5, "God has chosen us in Jesus before the foundation of the world. Having predestinated us (by His foreknowledge of how we would exercise our free moral agency when presented with His Word) to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will".

 

24

That means that we were right there with Him in the mind and thoughts of God before the foundation of the world. That gives an eternal quality to the elect... In very plain language the True Bride of Christ was in the mind of God eternally, though not expressed until each came forth in their designated, decreed season. As each member was born-again by expressing the Word for their Age, they took their place in the body. Thus this Bride is the literal Spoken Word Seed Bride. And though she is feminine in designation she is also called the "body of Christ." It is very apparent that she ought to be called that for she was predestinated in Him, came from the same source, was eternal with Him, and is now manifesting God in a many membered Body whereas once God was manifested in One Member, even our Lord Jesus Christ. (William Branham, An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 150). Another illustration of the plural pronoun is found in John 14:23, "Because I only reveal Myself to those who love Me and keep My Words, The Father will love them too, and We will come to them, and make our abode with them". As already shown in I Corinthians 12:13 and Acts 2:4, there is in fact one Person who came to us at our new birth - the Holy Spirit (to this the Trinitarians agree). Yet Jesus said, "We will come," so who is this "We?" It is the revelation of the Father, who is the Holy Spirit, manifest in the flesh of the Son, quickening and uniting with the soul of His elect upon regeneration. One God, One Person manifesting Himself in three offices or dispensation claims is Savior, Healer, Baptizer, Judge, Mediator, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!

2. The Use of the Plural Title, Elohim Elohim is a plural word. In English we would say "gods" were we speaking of two or more pagan deities. Baal and Beelzebub, are both called Elohim but they were not trinities (Judges 6:31; II Kings 1:2). When used with reference to the One Creator God it is the Hebrew plu-perfect meaning ONE God who is the sum of all Deity, so our English translation is "God" singular. And one day Jesus Christ and His glorified New Testament Church will be the manifestation of those glorious attributes - Elohim in the flesh of His Family. Trinitarians mistakenly maintain that this word indicates a plurality of persons in the godhead. One of the best known Titles of Elohim is "Jehovah" which means "the Self-Existent ONE" and when manifested in the flesh as our Kinsman Redeemer He was known as "Jesus," meaning "Jehovah Savior." Jesus Christ is not a second or third Person, He is the Person of the Holy Spirit MANIFEST in virgin-born flesh. The burning bush, the Pillar of Cloud and Fire that led Israel through the wilderness, and the created Men who spoke with Abraham and Jacob were earlier manifestations of the same Holy Spirit. Trinitarians sometimes link Genesis 1:26 with Colossians 1:13-19 to prove to their satisfaction Jesus of Nazareth created the world with the Father and Holy Spirit, but "Thus saith the Lord, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb, I am the Lord who makes all things; who stretched forth the heavens ALONE; who spread abroad the earth by Myself" (Isaiah 44:24; 37:16; Nehemiah 9:6; Psalms 33:8). God created all things by the spoken WORD when time began, NOT the Man from Galilee Who is that Word made flesh, born of a virgin trillions of years later. As the first resurrected son and firstborn in the new creation, Jesus has preeminence over all things. To make Jesus the beginning of God's creation, as Trinitarians teach is to make Him less than God. The beginning of God's creation is the sun, the planets, the rivers and trees. Jesus is the beginning of ANOTHER Creation. He is the beginning of God creating HIMSELF a part of a finished new creation redeemed to original perfection (Revelation 3:14). RALPH E. KNUDSEN: "The word Elohim is one of the more general names for God and is plural in form. This is what is usually known as the plural of 'majesty or eminence,' or the plural of 'fullness or greatness.' It is not uncommon in the East to use the plural to express the idea of the singular in an intensified form. The singular of Elohim means strength, power, or might, and the plural is simply an intensifying of the singular meaning. There is no idea of making God more than one by the use of the plural form Elohim" (CHRISTIAN BELIEFS, 1947, Page 26).

 

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THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA: "By far the most frequent form of the Old Testament writers is the plural Elohim, but they use it regularly with singular verbs and adjectives to denote a singular idea" (Page 1254). DR. WILLIAM SMITH: "The plural form of Elohim has given rise to much discussion. The fanciful idea that it referred to the Trinity of persons in the Godhead hardly finds now a supporter among scholars. It is either what grammarians call the plural of majesty, or it denotes the fullness of divine strength, the sum of the powers displayed by God" (DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE, Page 216). "For in Him (Jesus) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and power" (Colossians 2:9-10).

3. The Water Baptism of Jesus Christ It is pointed out by the Trinitarians that there were three present at the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. The Father was in heaven, the Holy Spirit was somewhere between heaven and earth and Jesus, the Son, was on earth. There is no clearer proof of God's majesty and manifestations than this picture of Jesus in the River Jordan. Do you see that God can be in heaven and manifested on earth at the same time? Jesus claimed Himself to be just that (John 3:13; 1:18). Together with all of the New Testament saints I am even now seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:28-30; Ephesians 2:6). He claimed also, in John 14:10 that it was the Father Who dwelt in Him that did the marvelous works. If the Father remained in heaven while the Spirit descended, where and how did the Father finally get into Christ? The Spirit who descended had also to be the Father. "God is a (ONE) Spirit" - He is the Holy Spirit (John 4:24). Trinitarians invariably overlook the fact that the Pillar of Fire in the form of a dove was a SIGN promised to John to identify the One he was to introduce. The Voice and the sign were seen and heard by John alone. Furthermore, Scripture does not say the dove was the Holy Ghost but that it was a manifestation of the Holy Ghost; the concept of a presence of three persons evaporates - yet there were three witnesses (I John 5:7).

4. To Whom Did Jesus Pray? Incidents in the Gospels, as when Jesus prayed to the Father from the cross, have been used to support the idea that there must be two in the Godhead. A Trinitarian would ask, "Did Jesus pray to Himself? If not, then there must be two - one praying to the other." But recognizing His Deity and His humanity provides the key which makes understanding very simple. Jesus was not praying to Himself. "O You who hear prayer, to You shall all flesh come" (Psalms 65:2). Prayer is defined in the Bible as flesh praying to deity. Like EVERY Son of God, the humanity of Jesus was praying to the Divinity dwelling within Himself. To Whom do you pray? If you are born again, you speak to the Holy Spirit Who dwells "in" you. Isn't that true? "In Jesus dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily," He was the manifestation of God in the physical Form of a man. Yet God is not a man but a Spirit, alone with His eternal thoughts in another dimension we call heaven (John 14:10; Matthew 12:50). "In the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared" (Hebrews 5:7). "As a man," Jesus hungered, slept, wept, learned, prayed, and experienced all that is common to mankind. "As God," He healed the sick, raised the dead, calmed the seas and forgave sins. When the disciples were at sea and a storm threatened their lives, it was a man who was fast asleep in the boat, but when He awoke and lifted His voice to rebuke the wind and waves, then it was God who spoke! As a man, He wept before the tomb of Lazarus, as God He cried, "Lazarus, come forth!" It should not be difficult to comprehend that as a man Jesus prayed, but as God, He heard and responded to those prayers.

 

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"The vessel or manifestation of God can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do: for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner" (John 5:19; 14:19). And is this not so with His brethren who are written epistles of the Word God is manifesting in THIS hour? A life lived by the Word is the Word expressed. "It is no longer I that live but Christ living through me by faith in the Son of God" (Galatians 2:20). The only way God can be omnipresent is by the manifestation of His Word. That is how He was in Jesus and that is how He is in His saints today - the New Testament Church. We receive the Spirit as we receive the understanding of the Word - by faith. We can only receive the Spirit in Word Form (Galatians 3:2,5).

5. John 1:1 - "The Word Was with God" Trinitarians maintain that because the Word was with God, that makes two persons. For those who feel that John 1:1 indicates two divine persons, let us read it as a Trinitarian would see it, bearing in mind, God, by their definition, is a Trinity. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the Trinity, and the Word was Trinity." If the Word was with the Trinity, we now have four persons. If we say that in this verse, God stands not for trinity but for Father, we would read, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with the Father and the Word was the Father." The Word, then is not he Son but the Father - It was His eternal thoughts yet unexpressed - which is precisely what we maintain. The simplest paraphrase of John 1:1 would say, "In the beginning God was alone with His eternal thoughts". What is true for God, is true for man also. How can you separate a man's word from himself? Although your word is with you and it is you, that does not make you two persons. God's thoughts he has always had, they are Eternal and they are real, they cannot be added to or taken from and we know them as Logos or concept. A thought expressed is a Word. In Jesus the fullness of the nature, character and purpose of God was manifest bodily. That is why He is called the "Word" or "Logos." This verse only substantiates that it was God manifest in the flesh of the Man we know as Jesus Christ, the beginning of the creation of God - just 2,000 years ago.

6. New Testament Usage of the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Frequently, in the epistles, we find a variety of expression embodying the words Father or God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. For example, Ephesians 1:2, "Grace be to you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." To whom, asks the trinitarian, can this refer if not to two divine persons? We will illustrate it in one source and it will suffice for all others, because the meaning is the same. I Peter 1:3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead". Notice what is being expressed - the Father and Jesus Christ who is risen from the dead. God and the man who died and rose again. Very simple, when we realize that God desires to reveal to the Church, not only His Deity, but also His justice in meeting sin's penalty and His righteousness and grace fulfilled in the humanity of the last Adam Who was raised for our justification. It identifies the sinless Source of the Son, for since Adam, "all are born in sin and shapen in iniquity." NOT a second person in the Godhead but THE Person. Our Kinsman Redeemer was GOD manifest in the flesh, or we are all lost. The Bible calls Him "Emmanuel" meaning, 'God with us', not a second, third or any other fraction of God (Matthew 1:18)

7. John 17:5 - "The Glory I had with Thee before the World was" This verse of Scripture, when understood in the Light of God's foreknowledge cannot be interpreted to mean a preexistent glorified Son. Such an interpretation would contradict all other passages of Scripture which reveal the Son in relation to time and humanity.

 

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However, Jesus was glorified before the world was, He was also a Lamb before the world was, and was slain before the world was (Revelation 13:8). The whole plan of salvation including Christ's redemptive Work was established in the mind of God from eternity. This is the glorification for which Jesus prayed. Even we as redeemed sons of God are ALREADY glorified. "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the FIRSTBORN AMONG MANY BRETHREN. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified" (Romans 8:29-30). We are even now glorified because it is established in the mind of God that we shall be glorified. He foreknew whom they would be, therefore we too can pray like Jesus, "Father glorify me with the glory I had with You before the world was".

8. How Many Did Stephen See? "Behold I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56). It is ridiculous to suppose that Stephen, as his life was being dashed out of him, beheld two divine persons standing side by side. It is ridiculous because: (a) "NO man has seen God at anytime" (John 1:18; I John 4:12). (b) God "The Father," is a Spirit and as such is invisible (Colossians 1: 15; I Timothy 1:17; Hebrews 11:27). Stephen did not see two Gods and He did not say, "I see Jesus standing beside God." The term, "right hand of God" provides us with the key that gives the explanation. In Exodus 15:6 Moses and the Israelites claimed to have "seen the right hand of God." But God is a Spirit with neither right nor left hand; what they saw was a manifestation of God's power and glory. As an Israelite Stephen knew what "the right hand of God" meant. He saw the Son of Man in power and glory. He saw the Son of Man on the right hand of God. When Jesus ascended, "ALL power was given unto Him in heaven and in earth," He was God's right hand Man, His first adopted son with all the Authority of His Father."

John 10:30 - "I and My Father are One" Jesus is actually saying "I and the Father are in perfect agreement by faith, or at-one with each other." His prayer for the New Testament saints was, "That they ALL might be one; as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, THAT THEY MIGHT BE ONE IN US..." (John 17:21-26). God and the soul that's joined together with God is ONE Spirit manifest in a many-membered Body (I Corinthians 6:17). And "ALL the saints speak the same thing" because they are each a manifestation of the same (One) Spirit of God (I Corinthians 1:10; 12:4-12.) Not "three in one" but "thousand thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand" in One (Daniel 7:10; Hebrews 12:22-24; Revelation 5:9-13). What perfect clarity and certainty comes to the heart of the believer when he begins to rest on the majesty of the revelation that there is one God with one Name! And through the Spiritual Marriage Union or new birth, that Name is the Name of the Bride also - Christ is the Head and She the Body (Ephesians 1:21-23). Holy Spirit is "what" God is, Father is a Title or office He received when He formed His first son, Adam; Son is what He became when He began unfolding HIMSELF into the flesh of His Family (John 4:24; Genesis 2:4; Revelation 3:14). "Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God is ONE Lord," unfolding Himself from the eternal Spirit alone with His thoughts to the Flesh of those thoughts in the Form of His Glorified sons and daughters among Whom Jesus is the firstborn of many (Colossians 1:18; Hebrews 1-3). Comparing the words of Isaiah and Paul we can see that Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jesus of the New:

 

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"Take counsel together, argue your case and state your proofs that idol-worship pays. Who but God has said from ancient times that these things concerning Cyrus would come true? Who has told it from that time; have not I the Lord: and there is no other God but Me - a just God and a Savior - no, not one! Let all the world look to Me for salvation! For I am God, there is no other! I have sworn by Myself, and I will never go back on My Word, for it is true - that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear" (Isaiah 45:21-23). At the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth; and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the father" (Philippians 2:10-11). The believer longs to behold the face of the Son in glory; when he falls at Jesus' feet, he will be at the feet of Jehovah - HIS GOD AND HIS SAVIOR.

- THE MESSAGE The "Message" sent by God through His prophet can change your life and make the Word of God come alive to you. Paul spoke of the Bereans in this manner: "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things Were so" (Acts 17:11). Take this message, consider it, check it out with the Scriptures and let the Lord reveal Himself to you.

 

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