Why do
I find myself in this position concerning my belief? The reason is very clear
to me insomuch that I recognize the fact that some of the things that Brother
Branham taught from the pulpit differed from what I read in the bible
scriptures. This is my quest, to determine where the truth lies and accept it
as the complete truth concerning the bible and the Word of God.
Just
for a little background I will recall my experiences with Brother Branham and
the association of my family with him and his ministry. My earliest
recollection is that my grandparents, who for the most part raised me, attend
church at the Branham Tabernacle and became close friends with Brother Branham
and his family. My grandfather was a deacon and a member of the church board of
the Tabernacle. At some point my grandparents began to serve as the
Secretary/Treasurer for Brother Branham’s Evangelistic crusades and worked very
closely with Brother Branham to insure that his wishes were carried out
concerning the responses to those who would write in to him from around the
World.
It was
in my early teenage years that I became more knowledgeable about Brother
Branham and recognized that he was truly a man that devoted his life to serving
God and God’s people. It was also at this time when I began to be friends with
Brother Branham’s son, Billy Paul and we began to be buddies. I saw a lot of
Brother Branham at that time as he frequently visited my grandparents home for
reasons concerning his ministry.
Over
the many years after those days I followed Brother Branham’s ministry and
accepted his teaching of the bible as the true Word of God. I took such an
interest in his teaching that I also began an in-depth study of the bible from
Genesis to Revelations and recorded on paper everything that I was learning, to
be maintained for future reference. I was so involved in bible study including
the history of those things written about, that I would use every spare moment
including vacation times following up on the study of the events told about in
the bible confirming the details with secular historical writings.
Yes, I
truly was a “message believer”, one who had accepted Brother Branham’s teaching
a long time before I was converted to Christianity by accepting the Lord Jesus
and submitted to water baptism by Brother Branham’s own brother, Doc Branham,
at the Branham Tabernacle when at the time I was in my thirties, married and
with children.
For
years I felt the leading of the Lord in my life and on one particular day God
spoke to my heart and informed me that a door would be opened for me to begin a
ministry of my own. It was during this preparation for my ministry that I
realized my inability to defend my teaching of the bible, using the bible only
and not attempting to defend my position with Brother Branham’s teaching which
had been my absolute up to that time. This
awakening began a quest for me to enter into a search for the absolute truth
which has continued until this day.
I
recall when John the Baptist told the people that there was somebody coming
that would baptize them with the Holy
Spirit and with fire. It was about this time that I experienced this
same phenomenon when a fire developed inside of me that drove me to a search
for the truth of God’s Word and continues to fiercely burn inside of my heart
unto this day. A flaming fire that can only be satisfied with the knowledge of
all that God has me to know and understand the complete truth of His Word.
After
completing an extensive word study of the bible from Genesis to Revelations, I
then felt a need to search out and examine the ministry of Brother Branham by
an intensive study of all of his meetings and messages. So I contacted Eagle
Computing in Elizabethton Tennessee and ordered a CD with all of the sermons of
Brother Branham on it. The person in charge of Eagle Computing, Neil Halava,
said something very strange to me, he asked me to not use anything on the CD
against Brother Branham. Obviously he knew something I didn’t know,
but it was only my intention to understand his ministry in greater detail and
not looking to find something to use against our Brother. Once again, it was my
motive to completely understand why Brother Branham teaching on certain bible
subjects was different than what the scriptures were saying to me.
Here
was a man that I completely admired, a man of God that I respected and had such
a tremendous ministry for God that I truly wanted to believe our differences in
doctrine was because of my misunderstanding of what the bible was saying.
Before
I get into what I have learned from Brother Branham’s preaching of his
messages, I felt there were a few things that I needed to consider and keep in
mind in order to assist me in my search for the truth of God’s Word.
Jesus
spoke of being sure you know the capabilities of your adversary before engaging
him. Of course our adversary is the devil and it behooves us to understand what
he is capable of in order to avoid being overtaken by him.
My
bible tells me that the devil was known as a high being in Heaven and at one
time was esteemed by God and promoted into a high position to serve God before
iniquity was found in him and caused his fall. Being in such a high position
with God tells us that he was created with powers above other heavenly beings,
but still inferior to the abilities of God. So with this knowledge, The bible
also tells me that the devil has the ability to perform signs and wonders and
can even cause fire to come down out of Heaven in the sight of men. So with
this knowledge, I must be cautious that what I see and understand could be the
results of the devil’s doings as well as the probability of God being behind
whatever happens, it all depends whether it is for good or evil purposes in the
long run.
One of
the important thing that I must keep in mind is the intention of the devil to
deceive man in order to cause him to disbelieve God’s Word. The perfect example
was with his encounter with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. So the devil
has demonstrated that he is a deceiver and a liar with the purpose of
distorting God’s Word for his own gain.
If I
understand it correctly, Brother Branham taught that the true meaning of
scripture could only be determined by a revelation from God and not by just
reading and studying the bible. So with these things in mind, my search for the
truth was to determine if what Brother Branham taught was the true
interpretation of God’s Word which he taught because of the revelation of God’s
Word that he received or not.
Brother
Branham told about a voice that spoke to him all of his life, starting when he
was just a young lad and was told by the voice that he had a work to do for him
when he got older. At that young age, Brother Branham didn’t know whose voice
it was and being so young and frightened by it, he didn’t ask who it was
speaking to him.
The
next time Brother Branham heard the voice speaking to him was while he was
baptizing new converts after conducting a tent meeting in Jeffersonville
Indiana. During the baptismal service a bright light that he described as a
ball of fire came down above him and he said that he heard that voice again say
to him that his message would forerun the second coming of Christ. So I ask,
what was the message that he had that would forerun Christ’s return. Was this
the voice of God that spoke to him or even an angel that came down from the
presence of God to deliver that message to him?
Brother
Branham testified that his original calling was to do the work of an
Evangelist. So what does an Evangelist do? An Evangelist preaches the Gospel of
salvation to make new converts to Christianity. That’s just what Brother
Branham was doing in that tent meeting, preaching a Gospel message of
salvation. Could the voice from above have been referring to that same exact
message of salvation or was it more far-reaching than that?
Then
there was the day when he was out hunting for squirrels and hadn’t seen any
when that voice spoke to him again and told him to say what he wanted and it
would come to pass. So he asked for squirrels to appear in certain places and
they did. Now would God really be that interested in producing some squirrels
for Brother Branham to kill just to make his day? Can I really be certain that
it was the voice of God or an angel of God?
One of
the first and very important things that I read his testimony about was the
time when he was visited by what he believed was an angel that came to give him
a commission from God. It went like this.
In May
of 1946 he was visited by a man that said he came from the presence of God and
Brother Branham stated that the voice of this person was the same voice that he
had heard all his life. This man that appeared to him didn’t introduce himself
as an angel, Brother Branham just assumed that he was. There were times in the
bible when an angel messenger would introduce himself by his name to the person
who he was delivering a message to, but he didn’t introduce himself by name to
Brother Branham and Brother Branham didn’t ask him who he was.
At this
point I question the authenticity of this man or this angel who visited Brother
Branham for the following reason. This person misquoted the scriptures by
saying that Brother Branham was being given two signs to help him in his
ministry just as Moses was given two signs. Well that was in error
because Moses was given three signs not two as this visitor stated. Don’t you
think that if this person actually came from the presence of God, he would have
known scripture better than that? As I read the scripture in Exodus 4:1 thru 9,
it describes three signs that God gave to Moses to convince the people of
Israel that God has sent him to deliver them out of Egypt.
Without
giving any consideration to the remainder of the conversation between Brother
Branham and this messenger, this one error of the two or three signs became
a stumbling block for me. How could a messenger that claimed to come from
the presence of God make this kind of mistake in quoting scripture?
Brother
Branham made the statement that the voice of this messenger was the same voice
that had spoken to him when he was a young boy and had continued to speak to
him all of his life. Now I just wondered if after this messenger made such a
mistake in quoting scripture about Moses’ signs, what other things did he tell
Brother Branham that were not true? The only conclusion that I could come to
was that I don’t believe that this messenger actually came from the presence of
God and would not believe anything that this messenger would ever say.
Then I
wondered if this was the same angel and voice that Brother Branham said that he
heard speaking to him at the River baptismal scene and the other times when he
heard the voice speaking to him about the squirrels in the woods, the part
about Jesus in the New Testament being Jehovah in the Old Testament and many
other things?
I read
Brother Branham’s statements that his gifts would not work in the meetings
unless this “angel” was present with him because he depended upon his presence
for him to receive what he called an anointing for the success of the meetings
even after being told that he was being given two signs to use in the meetings.
Now I read that these signs won’t work unless this “angel” was present with
him.
I can’t
argue with the success of the healings that was reported having taken place in
his meetings because I believe that God would honor the faith of any believer
and heal their bodies with or without the operation of certain signs. After
all, the signs and wonders and healings were intended for one reason and that
was to draw the people to believe the Gospel of Christ. Without drawing the
people in to hear and believe the Word of God, these signs and wonders are of
no permanent value.
Now I began
to look at another subject concerning the belief that Brother Branham was the
fulfillment of the prophecy of the return of Elijah to restore all things.
People
today are looking for Elijah the Prophet to return to turn the hearts of the
children back to the Fathers, but the understanding and the teaching of this is
not according to what is written in the scriptures.
When
the Prophet Malachi wrote about this, it was directed to the people of Israel
and not to the Gentile Nations. Look at what it says in the first chapter and
the first verse of the Book of Malachi. It says: “The burden of the Word of the
Lord to Israel”. Yes it was
spoken to the people of Israel, not to the people of the World.
When
John the Baptist came to fulfill the first part of this prophecy, he came to the
people of Israel. When the second part of this prophecy is fulfilled,
whoever that person will be, he will go to the people of Israel for the
purpose of “turning the hearts of the children of Israel back to their
Fathers”. This has nothing to do with the Gentile Nations. Anyone who is
looking for Elijah to return to preach to the Gentiles is looking for him in
vain because that is not scriptural. The scriptures tell us that when Elijah
does return, it will be in Jerusalem for him to preach to the Israelites and
Moses will be with him. Why Moses and Elijah? First of all neither one of them
saw death because they were raptured and secondly the two of them appeared on
the Mount with Jesus. If you continue to look for Elijah when we are supposed
to look for the return of Jesus, you might just miss the one who has purchased
your salvation. You can call anybody you want to and say they are Elijah or a
prophet, but that doesn’t make it true.
Now
speaking of Brother Branham being a Prophet, I can only turn to what Brother
Branham himself said about this.
Brother Branham said: “Now, here we are then, right up here to the end of the time
when... If God did call me (Now listen, this is not to be repeated.), if He did
call me to be His prophet, then I'm certainly not holding the office of one.
Prophets don't evangelize. A prophet hides himself in the wilderness alone with
God, until he gets exactly directly what God wants him do, and he stomps right
out and gives his Message, and back into the wilderness he goes again. He's not
an evangelist, holding meetings and getting cooperations and all these things
like evangelists do. He don't teach like evangelists. He has THUS SAITH THE
LORD, and that's it, and that's all. He gives it, throws it out, and lets the
chips fall where it will, and then away he goes again. Nobody knows where he's
at, and he's in isolation somewhere.” “Now, I cannot... or... If He's called me
to be that, I cannot be an evangelist. And if He's called me to be evangelist,
I cannot be a prophet. Now, you get what I mean?
“Now, as I have done the work of an evangelist (And here's my
plea.), if that is pleasing to God, and I've done the work all right, trusting
that I've pleased Him, asking forgiveness for all my mistakes, then He may be
calling me from the field of evangelism to be His prophet. Then if it is, I'll
leave evangelism. But if He calls me to be a prophet, I cannot be an
evangelist. If I'm to be evangelist, I cannot be a prophet. I'm mixing the two
offices; that's where I've always fussed about.” “A prophet stays back here
till he stomps right into the hospital, or wherever he's going, with THUS SAITH
THE LORD and say it and stomp back out again. He's no evangelist at all. He
don't hold meetings and discuss things, he's got the Word of the Lord for
whoever he's sent to. If he's sent to the White House, he stomps right up in
front of the White House and it's THUS SAITH THE LORD. If it's to the Governor
of the state, whoever it is, it's THUS SAITH THE LORD. He don't fool around
with a group of churches, trying to get them to come in and take the Word, and
preach these things like evangelists, he's not an evangelist. So you see,
brethren, that's the reason I don't call
myself a prophet. I'm not even in
the office of one. See? Now, you understand what I mean? “
Now I
can do nothing else but believe what Brother Branham said about this subject. I
certainly am not going to say that he was wrong and didn’t know what he was
talking about because what he said was based upon bible scripture.
Now
there is a picture of Brother Branham that was developed showing a light above
his head, which was taken in a Houston Texas meeting in 1950. I’m certain that
we all have a copy of it and have been made to believe that it is evidence of a
supernatural heavenly being. This might very well be true because God does have
the ability to cause something like this to happen. One thing is certain in
that is has provided many people with the evidence they needed which validates
to them that God has vindicated Brother Branham’s ministry.
The
fear that I have about this picture is that it could be serving as an
idolatrous symbol which could cause a person to maintain an excessive
admiration or devotion towards Brother Branham when our thoughts and devotion
should be on the one who provided the way of salvation for us.
Yes as
I said before, it could very well be of God, but it does has the possibility of
being an anomaly or unusual occurrence produced by natural means of which I
have no way of verifying myself. In any case, I would take caution about basing
my belief on a picture instead of the Word of God which is the link to our
eternal salvation.
In my
search for the truth, there still exists differences between the doctrinal
beliefs of mine and verses that Brother Branham taught on certain subjects. My
fear is that the visitor that he received in 1946 and misquoted scripture may
very well have been responsible for some of our brother’s teaching that does
not completely conform to what is clearly written in the bible. I suppose that
all of this will be made clear when the day comes that Christ opens the book
and explains everything to us. I look forward to the privilege of standing side
by side with my brother and learning the truth with him as we stand together
listening to the true story that only Christ can tell.
No comments:
Post a Comment