William Branham’s Ministry

A letter to my friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ who are believers in Brother William Branham’s Message of the Hour.

 In this letter to you I am going to speak from my heart with the words given to me by our God in Heaven, Jehovah who is the Father of us all and who has created us all for His pleasure in order to reside with Him in His Heavenly Kingdom forever and ever.

 These words that I will speak should be verified by each of you to be from our Holy Scripture and quotations from the words spoken by our brother William Branham.

 God is about to reveal Himself to all of us in even a greater way than He has done before and has put a burden upon my heart for all of you who seek nothing but the truth of His Word and the Holy Scriptures that He has preserved and passed down to us for our benefit and to insure that we all have the opportunity to know the truth of all things and hold them with faith in our hearts.

 It is of utmost importance first of all to remind every one of you concerning certain scriptures that must be adhered to in order to preserve our salvation and be ready to be received at the time of the return of Christ for His Church.

 The first thing that I need to bring to your remembrance is what the Bible says and what Brother Branham preached about, which is the danger of  blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is defined in the Bible as giving credit to the devil for the things that God has done or is doing. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the unpardonable sin which will not be forgiven on the Earth or in Heaven. What this means for each one of us who are believers is that if we are found guilty by God of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, we will lose the chance of salvation that we may have been given.

 Matthew 12:31-32 states as follows:

 Jesus said: “Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

 There certainly may be times when we doubt in our heart that something might not be of God, but since we cannot always control our thoughts, they will not be held against us by God. Where our trouble comes and makes us guilty of blasphemy is when we convert those thoughts into words which are noted in the above scripture, we will be judged by what we speak. A word of caution should be exercised in the event that our thoughts are causing us to doubt as to who is responsible for something that happens, whether it is of God or of the devil, it should be to our advantage to say nothing so that our words do not condemn us in the eyes of God.

 It was the will of God that I presented this reminder of the danger of blasphemy to all of you before proceeding on in this explanation of certain things in the event that doubts would arise in your hearts as to the validity of what I will be disclosing to you about scripture and the Word of God. Please don’t jeopardize your salvation in the event that doubts arise in your heart about what I tell you, only to discover later that all I have said is the truth and vindicated by God in the future.

 For hundreds of years men have performed translations and interpretations of scripture that have deviated from the original scriptures that God gave to His Prophets and Apostles and has resulted in the false teaching that has permeated throughout our Churches. Only by teaching scripture by an Expositor of truth who has been called by God can the truthful meaning of scripture be determined and someone commissioned by God to perform this feat will be consecrated by Him at the proper time that He has determined.

 Just as God called and commissioned Brother Branham to be an Evangelist, He has called and commissioned me to serve His people as a true revealer of the truth of scripture that He has preserved for this end time Church. Many have accepted Brother Branham as not only a God sent preacher endowed with supernatural gifts to vindicate his ministry, but have also accepted him as presenting what many believe as the “revealed word” for this day. Brother Branham had the following to say about the actuality of this being God’s calling for him.

“And my calling was an evangelist. The morning... Laying right here at this cornerstone, if we could burst in there tonight, you'll see a flyleaf off of my Bible where He told me to be an evangelist. See? And I wasn't a successful pastor, never would be, because I haven't got the patience and what it takes to be a pastor. See? So therefore, if I tried to pastor, I would just be as far out as a pastor is trying to be an evangelist. See what I mean? You can see the way the Lord calls you, what your position is in the Body.”

Now, I'm a poor excuse for a--a Bible teacher. And Brother Ern Baxter, and Brother Boze, and those really scholars here, I feel very little to try to explain on the Word, or try to preach, I'm not a preacher. But the most of the people comes to my meeting, is not to hear the teaching, is to see the manifestation of the supernatural. And that's the... I'm too illiterate, unlearned, uneducated to be able to be a--a Bible explainer.

 Now, I'm not a Bible teacher, so I'll get off of that onto my subject. If it's contrary to the Word, it's not. So anything, any teacher, any Bible expositor, anything else would teach you or try to get you to believe anything one little iota different from what this Bible says it, it's a false teaching. It's Satan again just exactly like it was to Eve

 So as you can see by Brother Branham’s own words, he confessed that he was not called to be a Teacher of scripture, but was called and commissioned to be an Evangelist. Brother Branham wanted to be a Teacher and would have liked to be a Prophet, but it wasn’t God’s will for him. There were even some of you who believed that he was Jesus Christ reincarnated and promoted that to be true, but he denounced what you were promoting because he knew it was not true. Why did some of you people believe that he was the Christ? You believed it because of the supernatural gifts that were in operation during his healing ministry. Following is what he said about this:

 “Brother Neville and I will be working together on this, and doing everything that we can for the benefit of the people. I do not desire to have any more discernment. See? Now, here's what happened. I've tried. And I know I've done things that's wrong; but I have tried to live close enough to God, all the time to God; that's how these visions would happen, how they would take place. And that's what caused the brethren to get the doctrine started, that I was the incarnated Lord Jesus Christ. And we know that that would just tear the ministry all to pieces, and bring reproach upon Christ and everything. See? So that's the reason I had to give them a great shake to stop it right at once, to let them know that that was not of God; that was of the Devil. See? And they're good people. And it showed those people are born again of the Spirit of God, And it made many of them say to me, "Brother Branham, we got more confidence in you now than we ever had."

 Brother Branham went on to say that if he accepted what some of the people were saying about him being Jesus reincarnated, what could have happened?

  “Cause, see what with the gift that God has given me, what could I have done with that? Throwed the nation at my feet, “

 Just because of the supernatural gifts that were given to him for his divine healing ministry, he could have nations bow down to him, at his feet. But he knew that was of the devil if he allowed it to happen. Remember the devil approached Jesus the same way saying:

 Matthew 4:8-9 Again, the devil took him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and said unto him, All these things will I give you, if you wilt fall down and worship me.

 By the same token you people attempted to promote him as a prophet of God, again because of the supernatural gifts, the signs and wonders. Following is what Brother Branham said about this:

 “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, 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. Standing on the platform... It's never been good, successful. God has used it, but I've never thought it was His direct will; it's been His permissive will. Stand on the platform, a vision or two will knock you out almost. See? And then if you tell this person how to straighten hisself up and what to do, and then the next person stands there, he's expecting the same thing, and you can't tell him 'less Something tells you to tell him. And then the other people feel like you're a traitor or a backslider or--or a--a demon or something because you don't tell them what they want to know. See, that's not the office, the way a prophet operates.”

 “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?”

My friends, my brothers and sisters, Brother Branham could not be all things to all people. Why could you not be satisfied with the great ministry that God sent him on and not try to promote him to be something that he was not called to be? You expected too much out of him and he tried his best to be everything that you expected out of him which caused him to get out of his original calling. If this had not have happened, maybe he would not have been taken off the scene before it was time. Now what will you do with what God has sent me to tell you?

It just breaks my heart to put forth negative comments about what I believe was a great man of God that had such a tremendous evangelistic ministry and whom I have the greatest respect for and that is William Marrion Branham. Although if he was in error and I believe that he was about some of the issues he preached about according to the bible, I must speak out about it.

One thing that William Branham said was that he might not know his bible very well, but he knows the author real well. I thank God that he did know the author because he certainly served Him in a mighty way, but I just wish that he had been better versed in what the scriptures said and maybe his teaching would have lined up better with scripture.

According to William Branham, he didn’t feel like he was doing enough for God as an Evangelist and wanted to do more. During one of his sermons a vision came to him concerning the events that happened in the Garden of Eden that convinced him to embark on his teaching. It was his interpretation that surrounded Adam and Eve leaving the Garden that prompted him to believe that God was calling him to teach scriptural doctrine.

 As he viewed in the vision seeing Adam and Eve walking out of the Garden, he believed that Adam was not forced out by God, but left willingly with Eve because of the love he had for her. But you see, this is in contradiction to what the scripture says. The scripture tells us that God drove Adam from the Garden. This was probably the first of many doctrinal errors that were part of his teaching. He said that Adam was innocent, but Eve was guilty. Obviously he had forgotten that Adam was guilty and because of him, sin entered into the World.

 In the same manner that satan deceived Eve about eating from the tree in the Garden, William Branham was deceived about which of them was guilty of the sin that caused their life in the Garden of Eden to end, when he preached that it was Eve’s fault.  This conclusion that was reached was in direct contradiction to the scripture of Romans 5:12 and 5:19 where it says that sin entered into the World because of the disobedience of one man. The man Adam disbelieved God’s Word about the consequences of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and caused the first sin which has continued to be prevalent down through the ages.

 Paul the apostle was speaking of not allowing a woman to teach or usurp any authority over a man when he made the statement about Eve being deceived, but Adam was not.

 1 Tim 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. 13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

You must remember that it was Adam that was warned and commanded by God, not Eve. Yes Eve was in the transgression, but Adam was guilty of disbelieving God’s Word. Remember that it was Adam that heard God’s warning and told Eve about it. Eve never heard it directly from God. According to scripture, Eve never heard the voice of God before the incident she had with the serpent it’s very possible that when the serpent spoke to Eve, she could have thought that he was God saying that she would not die from eating the fruit of that tree. Believing the word of the serpent, Eve did eat and didn’t die as she was told that she would. Then when Adam saw that Eve didn’t die, he ate also of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, this was an act of Adam's when he disbelieved the Word of God.

 Obviously Paul the apostle had the same regard of women as William Branham had and instead of putting the blame on the man, the buck was passed to the woman. That brought to mind something else that William Branham said about the woman, saying that because of the way a woman dresses it causes the man to commit adultery in his heart towards her. Just another error by stating something not in the bible, due to his reading between the lines by a man that was not called to teach.

This flies right in the face of the statement that he made about reading between the lines as follows:

“Now, I'm going to tell you what you must not do. Now, you must not misinterpret the Word. It means just what it says. It needs no interpreter”

 “But if you're reading between the lines and try to make It say something, that in between the lines says something different than what the lines says, then it's wrong.”

 Yes it is true that Adam was not deceived, but because Eve ate of the fruit and didn’t die, Adam doubted the truth of God’s Word and his disbelief was the sin that entered into the World.

 One major doctrine that William Branham taught on was the doctrine of predestination. He used the scriptures of Ephesians 1: 4-6 where it says that God has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the World and has predestinated us ….. The first mistake that William Branham made was not realizing that this passage in the scripture was not talking about everybody; it was referring to only the apostles. The apostles were chosen before the foundation of the World to be the first fruits of Jesus Christ, those who believed in Him first just like verse 12 states.

 Where William Branham went wrong with his interpretation of predestination was because he didn’t read past the 12^th verse of this chapter. Verse 13 is the part that takes in all other people with the exception of the apostles.

 William Branham stated that part of predestination was the assumption that God knew in advance who would and who would not be saved. This thinking flies right in the face of us being free moral agents. There are many examples in the bible where God did something that didn’t turn out like He wanted and He repented of doing it. One was in Noah’s generation when after God had created man, He wanted to just destroy mankind and start over. The same stands true with the Nation of Israel after leaving Egypt. God was so upset with how they turned out, He wanted to destroy everyone except Moses and start a new Nation with him.

 Part of William Branham’s understanding and acceptance of predestination came from the belief that God knows everything that every person will do in this life. He bases it on the scripture which says that God has declared the end from the beginning. I agree that God did declare what the end shall be in the beginning, but that does not mean that He is aware of everything that happens between the end and the beginning. If it was true that God knows what everyone would do and be like, it would not have been necessary for Him to repent over something He allowed to happen. This is either an attribute of God or He just chooses to be that way.

 William Branham explained in detail about what he thought was God’s call for him to take a healing ministry to the World, but he didn’t say a thing about God calling him to teach or commissioning him to start. On the other hand it was William Branham who made the decision on his own to teach and because of a vision of Adam and Eve walking out of the Garden, which gave him the false interpretation of the event; he took that as his vindication from God to teach. When a person wants vindication from God to do something that God didn’t intend for you to do, just about anything will convince a person that they are in God’s will. After this, he made the statement that he hoped his influence with the people and the gifts he had received would convince the people that his teaching was correct.

 Let me just quote something that William Branham said when he realized that he was getting out of what God called him to do as follows:

 “And this poor, sick, crippled-up world is waiting for a deliverance, and looking at a signpost. Have mercy. The signpost is nothing but a sign to prove the commission. There's the new ministry. It's just been revealed to me. "Pray for the sick. Get the people to believe you." God can never leave that. That's His commission; no matter what goes on, how much I fail. I fail miserably. I should've never went ahead with them signs; that wasn't the will of God, but God's blessed it anyhow. But I'm ready to leave this mountain. I want to go across Jordan. I want to carry the commission. "Get the people to believe you."”

 “I've wronged. I've done wrong. That's why I've based these sermons the way I have. 'Cause He said, "As I was with Moses, so will I be with you," and when that hand come down and pointed that very same Scripture... For a long time I've wondered, because I didn't know what the commission was. I've looked for something supernatural beyond that. God cannot get away from His commission. God give the commission; that's what it must remain.”

 Just as Eve was deceived in the Garden of Eden by the Serpent, thinking that he was God, and believed his word that she would not die; in the same manner the “Message of the Hour” believers are being deceived into believing that William Branham’s word was the “revealed Word of God for this day.

 The revealed Word of God for this day will not contradict the written scripture which contains the Word of God. If it does, then it is not the “Revealed Word of God for this day or any other day.

 God has sent these words to you my friends, now what will you do with them? Just as I warned you in the beginning about watching about what you speak for the Holy Spirit has inspired this message and will prove Himself in due time.

 

Choose this day what you will believe; will it be God’s Word, or some man’s word.

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Index List of Articles

Please Click on A Name to Open and Read Each Article

1. William Branham's Ministry
2. My Search for the Truth
3. The Conclusion of my Search for the Truth
4. What is a Prophet?
5. I am not a Prophet?
6. A Religious Following Built Upon Deception
7. I heard a voice said William Branham
8. Can You Face the Facts?
9. Reverand William Marrion Branham....The true story

Brother William Branham and his Angel

Brother Branham testified that an Angel was in contact with him throughout his life. He said that when he was a young boy the Angel would speak to him from the top of a tree as he heard what sounded like the wind blowing through the tree. The first time he actually saw this Angel was when he was alone praying and the Angel approached him out of a bright light which appeared in the room he was in. He said that the Angel came to inform him of a ministry of divine healing that God was commissioning him to minister in. He recognized that the Angel that visited him was the same one that had been speaking to him starting when he was very young and knew it was because of the sounding of his voice. Brother Branham also testified that the Angel was always present when he was holding his meetings and was responsible for the operation of the discernment gift and the visions that he experienced.

There are some who question whether this Angel was actually an Angel of God or not. That is the reason that I decided to write this article so that you who read this can decide for yourself after looking at the facts which are stated here. You will read what Brother Branham said in his own words along with my comments which will be based upon what I am inclined to believe as I relate the things that were said by Brother Branham and how the veracity of the statements line up with bible scripture.

My big concern is that most of Brother Branham’s teaching on the bible did not conform to written scripture, but consisted of his own interpretation. Also my concern is just how much of Brother Branham’s teaching was influenced by the presence of this Angel, especially if he was not an Angel of God.

Up until I was about 34 years old there was no doubt in my mind that Brother Branham’s complete ministry was ordained by God. I believed that he truly was a Prophet of God and had the gift of divine healing. All of this was my belief because of all that I heard about which took place in his meetings. Even more than what I heard about him, I knew him personally and members of my family were actively involved in his evangelist crusades and I had a personal insight into everything that was taking place in his ministry. We all considered our relationship with Brother Branham as though he was part of our family. Had it not been for my discovery in 1969, shortly after his death, because of my intense bible study, I became aware that a problem with his bible teaching existed and that was the reason I began to take a closer look at his complete ministry. If it was not that his teaching was in conflict with bible scripture I would never have doubted anything about his complete ministry having been ordained of God. So following is some of what I discovered.

We are all interested in the truth of this matter because God has the right for us to know the truth of His Word. So following are the facts that I have gleaned from the transcript of Brother Branham’s preaching.

This is all about the Angel according to what Brother Branham said.

“I raised up. I laid down on the bed, and there It was, above the bed, milling around, like a whole lot of colors in a rainbow, milling around”

“And then when I opened my eyes, there He was, just above the bed whirling around and around.”

( Brother Branham speaking to his son) “Now, you remember that night in Vandalia, Illinois, when you were laying, sleeping on the bed, and the Angel of the Lord was standing over me there?”

“And I wasn't but eighteen months old when the vision came. And the very time when I was born, that Angel that you see on the picture here was hanging over the little crib bed, where I was born in.”

“that Angel stood right over the bed where I was born in a little cabin down in the mountains of Kentucky. And now that same Angel is not five feet from where I'm standing right now”

“And--and that Angel of God, at five o'clock in the morning, April 6, 1909, at five o'clock in the morning, come right in and stood over that little bed where I was laying.”

“I told her that the Lord was going to heal her. And I... Brother George and I got down to pray, and when I started to pray, well, that Angel that I see, that--that you see in the picture, I seen it hanging over the bed.”

(Note) Here was some very strange occurrences. An Angel of God that made a habit of flying around over the bed that Brother Branham was sleeping on. This was similar to Brother Branham testifying that during some of his meetings the angel would be flying around over the congregation, hanging over someone he was to call upon.

Brother Branham spoke about waiting for the Angel to arrive before he could start a meeting because the discernment wouldn’t work unless the Angel was present.

‘Say, "You're stalling for something, Brother Branham." That's exactly right. Sure, I'm waiting on Him, and if He doesn't come, I can't minister. I can do nothing, not a thing. But when He's here He can do all things, and He can do it through me if I can submit myself enough to Him. in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I take every person, every spirit under my control for His glory.”

( Note) Isn’t that something, that Brother Branham had to wait for the Angel to arrive? The Angel must have been busy doing something else.

“I want this audience in one control. I want to take these spirits under my control”

“Don't move now; set still. See, each one of you are spirits, and every one of those spirits is right in my control. See?”

Do you see what Brother Branham said about him not being able to do anything in a meeting until the Angel arrived and when the Angel arrived he spoke through Brother Branham that he was taking everyone under his control? It becomes obvious that he didn’t depend upon the anointing of the Holy Spirit to help him in the meetings. He depended upon the Angel to help him and the Angel to operate the gifts, because Brother Branham didn’t possess the gifts that the Angel said would be given to him.

Brother Branham said that when the discernment was in operation, it wasn’t him doing the talking, it was the Angel just using his voice and talking through him. The only way Brother Branham would know what the Angel spoke through him was to listen to the tapes after the service was over. See just a few examples below.

“Now, I do not know what I said to the woman; that wasn't me talking; that was that Angel you see on that picture”

“Tomorrow you know the only way I will know what I said to you? When them recorders right there, see them going, see here? When them recorders they play it back to me, and I see what I said. See?”

“That was Him just using my voice. "What is it?" you say. It's the way I have just submitted myself to the Spirit. And He does the talking”

 

The following are comments by the Author

Over and over Brother Branham stated that the Angel would talk through him, using Brother Branham’s voice, but it was the Angel’s words. For this to work for the operation of the gifts is one thing, but I have a concern that the Angel might have been responsible for some of the teaching that did not conform to Bible scripture. Did the Angel just use Brother Branham’s voice, speaking through him and doing some of the teaching?

One of the most egregious things that I realized occurred when Brother Branham’s angel first visited him on May 7, 1946. The angel told him that he was being given two signs that could be used to help convince the people that God had given him a gift of divine healing and nothing could stand before his prayer. The angel said that he was being given two signs just like God gave Moses two signs to prove to the people that God had sent him. The problem with this is that the angel made a mistake quoting scripture. Moses was given three signs and not two.

So the angel was wrong about everything. Brother Branham wasn’t given a gift of healing. Instead he could only pray for sick people and if they really believed that he had this gift from God, then God would heal them. Brother Branham also wasn’t given even two signs because it was the angel that operated the gift of discernment, not Brother Branham as has been stated before in Brother Branham’s own words.

Brother Branham received a calling from God to be an Evangelist preaching the gospel of Christ and praying for sick people and was very successful in this ministry. When the Angel came along, which I am certain was not an Angel of God, Brother Branham’s ministry changed for the worse. Because of the operation of these supernatural signs performed by this Angel, Brother Branham began to think of himself as more than just an Evangelist. He was convinced that he was a Prophet of God, but there is evidence that his prophecies did not come to pass as the prophecies of a God called Prophet did. He thought that his ministry reflected the return of Christ and his preaching convinced the people that he actually was the return of Christ. When he began to teach scripture and saw that the supernatural signs continued to work, he was convinced that God had revealed his interpretation of scripture to be true, but it wasn’t according to the God inspired Holy scriptures.

One of the most dangerous doctrines that he taught because of the influence of that angel was the gospel he preached which was a different gospel that the bible presents and it is of utmost importance to believe the true gospel of Christ according to the bible in order to be saved and inherit eternal life.

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My Search for the Truth

I find myself in a straight between what I should believe and what I shouldn’t believe concerning the ministry of Brother William Branham. My quest is to be certain that my faith is on solid ground and not on the sinking sands that might cause me to lose the chance of obtaining the salvation of eternal life with God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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.

 

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The conclusion of my search for the truth.

A search for the truth must begin with the Holy Bible because only the bible scriptures will point us towards God who inspired its writing. We have to believe that the bible contains God’s Word to us and the study of what is written in it is the only means available to mankind to learn about why we are here and what God has in store for us when this short life is over. If we depend on anything else except the bible for the knowledge we obtain and it doesn’t agree with bible scripture, it probably is not true.

It has become accepted in life that spiritualism exists and is real. There are both good and bad spirits that exist in the World. The good Spirits that exist are those of God and the bad or evil spirits that exist are of the devil. The bible demonstrates that to us and must be the only source of knowledge we can depend upon.

There are many examples in the bible where it describes the evil spirit of the devil in operation. There in the Garden of Eden when the spirit of the devil spoke through the beast in order to tempt the first woman Eve. It spoke through a beast in the Garden who probably could not normally speak because he was a beast like the other animals in the Garden, but the devil was able to speak through him. Then there was the example of a possessed man in the land of the Gergesenes who the devil spoke through to Jesus when he encountered Him.

Now we see that the bible tells us that the Spirit of God also spoke through a dumb beast to the prophet Balaam after Balaam whipped him because he wouldn’t move. Then again on the day of Pentecost when the disciples spoke with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. The Spirit of God spoke through them in languages they did not know. Another example is In the Book of Acts where the Holy Spirit gave instructions to certain ones present by speaking to them through the mouth of one of them present. So we have these biblical examples where it is possible for both the devil and God can use any vessel that is needed to speak through to the people.

I have myself actually witnesses this to occur in my life on one occasion when God spoke through the lips of someone in my presence and said words that the person denied ever saying. In other words, they were not aware that certain words came out of their mouth, but I was a witness that it did happen and can testify that it was from God because of what came out of this person’s mouth.

Now I want to present to you some examples of this that occurred during the ministry of William Branham starting with the visit of an angel that he testified to have encountered in the year of 1946.

 He stated that the angel told him that he came from the presence of God, but the things that he told him were flawed. First this angel said that William Branham was being given two signs just like Moses was given. Two signs to help convince the people that God sent him with a gift of Divine Healing. It turns out that what this angel said was an untrue statement and did not agree with bible scripture, The scripture states that Moses was given three signs to use to prove to his people that he was sent to deliver the people out of Egypt and not just two.

The scripture in Exodus 4:1 through 4:9 tells about these three signs that God gave unto Moses. After this the scripture of Exodus 4:29 through 4:31 tells us that these signs were demonstrated in the presence of the people of Israel and the people believed all that Moses told them.

Later on, we were told by William Branham, in his own words that these signs would only work when this angel was present with him during his ministry services.

This angel also told him that he was being given a gift of divine healing, but this gift of healing wouldn’t work unless he could get the people to believe him. The people would have to believe that he had this God given gift of healing. It was based upon them believing his testimony by their faith in his testimony or they wouldn’t receive their healing. That doesn’t sound like a gift that could do anything without having a condition associated with it.

 Then this angel concluded his message to William Branham by telling him that he (the angel) would be with him to help him in his ministry. This certainly was proven to be a fact and necessary because William Branham by his own words would stall during the start of a service just to wait until he knew this angel was present. Then when his angel’s presence was realized and he felt what he called an anointing come on him, he would proceed with the service. What I would question was this an anointing of God or was he being possessed by some other kind of spirit. The reason I say this is because the first words that would come out of his mouth was that he was taking control of everyone’s spirit in the audience. Looking at this testimony of William Branham, along with him telling about this light that flew around the meeting and hanging over certain people caused concern as to what kind of spirit was operating during these meetings.

The most disturbing thing that William Branham admitted to by his own words, was that he didn’t know what he was saying to the people because it wasn’t him speaking, it was this angel speaking through him calling out personal information about the people. What was very obvious about this was that according to his own words he would have to listen to the tapes after the services in order to find out what he said. If this is what took place during the discernment part of the service, could it have also happened during the preaching part? Also could it be that the teaching was not him speaking, but this angel speaking through him? If so, shouldn’t we question if what this angel said through him agreed with bible scripture?

 I believe this was the case because of what happened after he concluded the message he preached on the opening of the seventh seal. After that service was over he found something on the tape that he didn’t want to get out and made plans to rectify it. Could it have been that this angel spoke something through him during this service that disturbed him? The morning after preaching on the seventh seal, he met with his tape boys in a motel room and had a portion of what he said during the service removed from the tape that was going to be distributed. It wasn’t until after William Branham’s funeral in 1966 that the powers that be of the Branham Tabernacle decided to release that portion of his message to the public.

 How could all of this have happened? When this angel first appeared to him, he was convinced that this was an angel of God that had been speaking to him for years. Because of this conviction he submitted himself under the control of this angel which he believed was the anointing that he felt so often and he probably believed it was the Holy Spirit.

 I believe that it was this angel or whoever sent him to William Branham, that orchestrated everything that occurred during the many years of his ministry for the purpose of achieving the end result of what we see now. That result was the acceptance of his bible interpretation, his revealed word of the hour that went against the true Word of God in the scriptures. Satan began distorting God’s Word in the beginning with Adam and Eve in the Garden and is still doing it today with the distribution of his taped messages and through the ministries of the “message” preachers.

 Now on a personal note I just want to just say this. For many years I accepted everything that William Branham said to be the truth of God’s Word because of the marvelous things that were told about what took place in his meetings. Then came a day when without any prompting from anyone, no other person and no other preacher, that I realized that what this Brother was preaching was in error according to the Holy scriptures. This was some 22 years ago when it was revealed to me that the things I had learned were not according to God’s Word and I had to do something about it. So I began my own study of the scriptures depending only on the leading of the Holy Spirit that was accepted by me to be my teacher.

 But even after I started to reject his bible teaching, I still considered him to possibly be a Prophet of God with God given supernatural gifts. It was only after carefully examining what he said during his services did I realize that something more was wrong. What I discovered was that a lying angel who misquoted the scriptures had deceived him with little effort and took control of the ministry with William Branham’s cooperation and submission to its will, because he believed that God was in it.

 Just thinking about it, there was no way that God would send His Word into all the World by way of the inspired bible scriptures and after that to send one man to explain to His people what the scriptures really meant. Was God unjust to have done this? The answer is absolutely not! So it was obvious that it was not God who orchestrated this, it was His adversary the devil.

Now there are probably millions of believers around the World who have been misled by false teaching of the Bible and is being continued by this “Voice of God” Recordings and those ‘Message preachers” who know nothing else but to continue their prophet’s work, acting like drones who have no mind of their own of which I have such empathy for because they have been taken in by the prince of this World.

Can they be helped? I doubt it because they are where they are because of the signs and wonders they have been told about. Signs and wonders which can be performed by the devil as well as God. The only way that you can tell who is behind these signs and wonders is by confirming them with the Word of God by using bible scripture and calling on the Holy Spirit to help them.

Here we have a group of people who can’t agree with each other on things concerning sound doctrine and will not bring themselves to look at real evidence when presented to them. They consider themselves to be bible believing Christians and accuse those who don’t believe what they do to be devils and many other descriptive things. I have in my own family those who have called me a devil possessed person and the antichrist because I don’t conform to their belief in the “Message of the Hour”.

 No person on this Earth can help them to see the truth. God knows that I have put many people at odds with me including some in my family for attempting to present them with the facts that are so obvious. Only God can help them. If false signs and wonders have caused them to go the way they have gone, it might be that only God can intervene with a sign that can be undeniably from Him.

 Well it appears that my search for the truth has concluded. Being a person, just like any of you, I choose to believe what the bible says and believe in the Gospel of Christ and not all the interpretations of man. The wise Paul the Apostle said that if any person or even an angel from Heaven preach any other gospel than what he has preached, let them be accursed. That sounds like good advice to me so I’ll stay with the gospel that he preached and the scriptures that he drew from.

 People from around the World read my writings every day. Many of them tell me that they have too much invested in their present beliefs and they are comfortable with what they have come to believe and accept.

 As for me, I too am comfortable in my belief because I know it is based upon the Word of God and not some man’s word. If you choose to ignore the facts that have been presented to you, it’s your God given choice.

 

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