God said a Prophet
must come and restore all things, so who was
that Prophet Messenger?
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Revelation
10:7 "But in the days of the voice of the seventh messenger
when
he
shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished as He
hath
declared to His servants, the
prophets." This one here in Revelation 10:7 is the
seventh age messenger and it is a man, and he is to bring a message from God,
and his message and ministry is going to finish the mystery of
God as declared to
His servants, the prophets. That is what Paul was
in the first age, and the last age
has one, too.
Amos 3:6-7, "Shall
a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be
afraid?
Shall there be evil
in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? Surely the Lord God will do nothing,
but He
revealeth His
secrets unto His servants, the prophets."
It was in the end-time period that the seven
thunders of Jesus will come forth.
Revelation 10:3-4, "And
cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and
when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven
thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice
from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders
uttered, and write them not."
What was in those thunders no one knew.
But we needed to know. And it took a prophet to get the
revelation because God has no other way of bringing out His Scriptural
revelations except by a prophet. This messenger of Malachi 4 and Revelation
10:7 is going to do two things.
One: According to Malachi 4 he will turn the hearts of the
children to the fathers. He will turn those in this last age back to the True
Word as presented by our Pentecostal Fathers. (the
Book of Acts)
Two: He will reveal the mysteries of the seven
thunders in Revelation 10 which are the revelations contained in
the seven seals. It will be these Divinely
revealed `mystery-truths' that literally turn the hearts of the children
to the Pentecostal fathers.
Not only do we see this messenger
coming here in Revelation 10:7, but we find that the Word speaks of Elijah
coming before Jesus returns.
In Matthew 17:10, "And His disciples asked
Him saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must
first come?" And Jesus said, "Elias truly shall first come,
and restore all things."
Before the coming of our Lord, Elijah
must come back for a work of restoration in the church. This is what Malachi
4:5 says, "Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before
the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall 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."
After an in-depth evaluation of all the
men of God that has evangelized the world in our age, none of the rest can
compare to the life and ministry of William Branham, a seer and a prophet of
God to our generation. William Branham, this writer believes, is the angel
messenger to the Laodicean Church Age.
The Full Gospel Men’s Voice,
(now, Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International), in its February 1961
issue wrote about William Branham: “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 Men’s Voice. Branham has been used by God, in the Name of Jesus,
to raise the dead!”
THE COMMISSION FROM GOD
One historian of that movement stated
that William Branham was “a prophet to our generation”, and a
Pentecostal Historian wrote, “Branham filled the largest stadiums and meeting
halls in the world.” On June 11, 1933, while William Branham was baptizing
the 17th person amongst hundreds of converts in the Ohio River near
Jeffersonville, Indiana, a bright fiery Light suddenly appeared over him and a
voice spoke out, “As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first
coming of Jesus Christ, so are you sent to forerun His second coming!”
The next edition of the Jeffersonville
Evening News reported and published the incident with the subheading,
“Mysterious Star Appears Over Minister While
Baptizing”.
Not even Brother
Branham understood then what it meant. Nor could he yet understand his peculiar
life. All the ministers he knew told him the visions he so frequently saw were
of the devil. However, when they were of a future event, the visions never
failed to be fulfilled exactly the way he saw them and they always glorified
God by helping God’s children. To make things more confusing, every time
William Branham came in contact with a devil-possessed person, such as
astrologers or fortune tellers, they would tell him that they see a light following
him, that he was born under a sign, and that there was a divine gift in his
possession. These incidents troubled him greatly. On May 7, 1946, as he was
coming home from work, a mighty wind started in the top of a maple tree and
came rushing down, nearly knocking Brother Branham over. Desperation struck him
and he said to his wife, “For over 20 years, I’ve not been able to understand
this ministry or myself. I can’t go on like this. Is this of God? Honey, I’m
going to go into the woods and seek God with my Bible and prayer and find out,
or never come back!”
VISITATION OF AN ANGEL
In a cave in the
woods, he cast himself down and cried all his heart out to God. At about 11 o’
clock that night, a star of Light filled the cave. Fear gripped William’s heart.
He heard footsteps. A man, clothed in white, walked out of the Light and said,
“Fear not, I am sent from the presence of the Almighty God
to tell you that your strange life and misunderstood ways have
been to indicate that God has sent you to take a gift of Divine
Healing to the people of the world. If you will be sincere and can get the
people to believe you, nothing shall stand before your prayer, not even
cancer.” For half an hour, this angel explained to Brother Branham
about the past and told him of his future. He explained why the ministers
couldn’t recognize a gift of God in William’s life, yet the devil could.
It was the same in
Jesus’ day: the religious leaders said Jesus had a devil, yet the devils at
Gadara recognized Him (Mark 3:22; John 7:20). The angel also told Brother
Branham that, even as Moses was given two signs to prove he was sent
from God (Exodus 4:1-8), so he would be given two signs also. First, he would
be able to diagnose diseases by their vibrations, which would cause his hand to
swell. If the swelling went down after he prayed upon
the person, he could say, “Thus saith the Lord, you
are healed.” The angel said that time would come when Brother Branham would be
able to discern the very secrets of men’s hearts (Heb
4:12; John 2:24-25). Millions of people bear record that the words of the angel
were fulfilled exactly (as in Acts 27:21-25). As the sign in his hand was
manifested, which when seen would raise the people’s faith to be healed, his
ministry grew nationwide, then worldwide. Then it came to where the Spirit of
Christ would reveal to him the very thoughts of men’s hearts, reveal their
needs; reveal unconfessed sins that were not cleansed by the Blood of Jesus
Christ; reveal things about their lives that Brother Branham himself couldn’t
possibly know.
Not mindreading or
psychology, but rather he would see a vision of it - the things actually
enacted before his open eyes (Joel 2:28). And when he spoke under the
anointing, out of hundreds of thousands of times all over the world, the words
spoken to total strangers never failed to be exactly the truth. And the
prophesies — of healing, of future events, small to great, thousands and
thousands and thousands of times - not once was one even partly wrong! It was a
literal, “THUS SAITH THE LORD!”
THE PILLAR OF FIRE
The
photograph at the top of the page with the PILLAR OF FIRE above Brother
Branham’s head was photographed at Houston, Texas, in January of 1950. This Light had accompanied Brother Branham since his
birth in 1909. And during a 1933 baptismal service at the Ohio River at
Jeffersonville, Indiana, this SUPERNATURAL BEING appeared before
hundreds of people saying to him, “As John the Baptist foreran the first
coming of Christ, you will forerun His second Coming.” This picture is
displayed today at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and was
examined and certified as genuine by Mr. George Lacy, a federal
examiner of Questioned Documents in the U.S., to be the only authentic
documentation of the supernatural in this generation.
TWO VINDICATED SIGNS
The angel also
told Brother Branham that, even as Moses was given two signs to prove he was
sent from God (Exodus 4:1-8), so he would be given two signs also. First, he would
be able to diagnose diseases by their vibrations, which would cause his hand to
swell. If the swelling went down after he prayed upon
the person, he could say, “Thus saith the Lord, you
are healed.” The angel said that time would come when Brother Branham would be
able to discern the very secrets of men’s hearts (Heb
4:12; John 2:24-25).
Millions of people
bear record that the words of the angel were fulfilled exactly (as in Acts
27:21-25). As the sign in his hand was manifested, which when seen would raise
the people’s faith to be healed, his ministry grew nationwide, then worldwide.
Then it came to where the Spirit of Christ would reveal to him the very
thoughts of men’s hearts, reveal their needs; reveal unconfessed sins that were
not cleansed by the Blood of Jesus Christ; reveal things about their lives that
Brother Branham himself couldn’t possibly know. Not mindreading or psychology,
but rather he would see a vision of it - the things actually enacted before his
open eyes (Joel 2:28). And when he spoke under the anointing, out of hundreds
of thousands of times all over the world, the words spoken to total strangers
never failed to be exactly the truth. And the prophesies — of healing, of
future events, small to great, thousands and thousands and thousands of times -
not once was one even partly wrong! It was a literal, “THUS SAITH THE
LORD!” Many individuals of public influence, including Congressman Upshaw
of the U.S.A. and King George VI of England, were healed as a result of his
prayers.
WORLDWIDE MINISTRY
Over the next ten
years Brother Branham circled the globe seven times, holding some of the
largest meetings in history. Some 100,000 people heard him in Durban, South
Africa. Seven truckloads of crutches, wheelchairs, canes, etc.. were hauled away after the
healing services. One healed was a poor deformed beggar, who had never in his
life been able to walk erect, but walk all bent over
on both hands and feet. This beggar was widely known, because those who cared
for him exhibited him as a curiosity, putting a collar and chain on him and
having him dance like an animal in the streets. Brother Branham saw a vision of
this man standing upright, so he challenged the people and they agreed that if
this man was healed in Jesus’ Name, Jesus was indeed God. As soon as Brother
Branham prayed, the man stood erect, (as in Luke 13:11-13). Is it any wonder
that 30,000 people surrendered their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ that night?
Once, God showed
Brother Branham a vision of a little boy being raised from the dead. Brother
Branham told the vision to about 2,000 people, describing the scenes, and
telling them to write it down for it was “Thus saith
the LORD!” Two years later, while they were on a campaign in Finland, they
came a across a car accident in the mountains. And a little boy lay on the
road, crushed, bloody, having been dead for half an hour. It was the boy of the
vision. Brother Branham faced the crowd standing around and said, “ If that little boy isn’t on his feet in five minutes, you
can run me out of Finland as a false prophet. But if he is, you owe your lives
to the Lord Jesus Christ!” As he prayed, life came back into that dead boy (as
in Luke 7:11-16).
While
preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Portland, Oregon, a huge, demon
possessed man strode to the platform, calling Brother Branham a fake, an
imposter, a deceiver, threatening to break every bone in his body. As the man
drew near to execute his threats, Brother Branham said softly, “Satan, because
you have challenged the servant of God - in the
Name of Jesus Christ, you shall fall at my feet.” The powerful man struggled to
come nearer, but couldn’t. He sank to the floor and had to be carried out by
ushers because he fell on his face in front of God’s vindicated servant.
In Bombay,
India, where some 400,000 came to hear the Gospel, there was a blind beggar
brought before Brother Branham for prayer. In a vision, Brother Branham saw who
this beggar was, where he lived, and that he had become blind by staring at the
sun, which he worshipped as God. Then Brother Branham challenged the various
heathen Indian priests in turn saying, “If your god be God, then come up here
at the platform and have him open this man’s eyes and we’ll fall down and
worship your god.” None moved. “But if my God, the Lord Jesus Christ, be God
and opens this man’s eyes, will you forsake your powerless gods and accept
Jesus as your Saviour?” To this they agreed. The
reason for this prophet’s fearless confidence was because he had already seen
the man healed in a vision, and these visions never failed him. When the
beggar’s eyes came open that he could already see all the people in that
meeting, pandemonium broke loose as those poor people strove just to touch
Brother Branham to be healed.
Check out the article
below and see where you fit, as to how he was able to do the same things that
Jesus did.
How Did He Do It?
A Biographer Answers Critics of William
Branham....
My name is Owen Jorgensen. Some of you
may know me as the author of Supernatural: The Life of William Branham. It
took me twenty-five years to research and write that biography, so you know
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Brother Branham’s life. Here are some
thoughts that might be helpful to those who might be questioning his ministry.
Brian Tracy, a famous motivational
speaker, says of human nature: “Your beliefs act as a set of filters that
screen out information that is inconsistent with them. You do not necessarily
believe what you see, but rather you see what you already believe. You reject
information that contradicts what you have already decided to believe, whether
or not your beliefs, your prejudices, are based on fact or fantasy.”
I agree. It takes effort to be honest
and objective. The easy path for people is to filter out any facts that
contradict their theories and then they will always feel they are
right. I think this is one reason people reject the Message of the
Hour.
One could go many directions with
explaining William Branham’s extraordinary life, including how he fits into
dozens of scriptures. But here I would like to present one very
basic idea. Nicodemus said to Jesus, “We know you are a teacher sent
from God because no man could do these things unless God was with him.” If that
was true for Jesus, why wouldn’t it be true for someone else who did similar
miracles in Jesus’ name?
Consider for a moment
William Branham’s miraculous gift of discernment. I will pick one
particular case for this example because it happened to Minnie Peterson, who is
a personal friend of mine. She was a stranger to Brother Branham when she stood
before him in a prayer line in 1955. He told her seven things… (1) You are
standing here for someone else; (2) It’s your half-sister (3) who is ill with
rheumatic fever; (4) And your daughter is sick (5) with a fever; (6)
And your son is sick; (7) And your teeth need healing. (You can hear what
Brother Branham said to Minnie on the sermon “Doctor Moses” 55-0114, E-55; at www.Branham.org)
Minnie Peterson told me that every one
of those things was true. “But wait,” the critic might say, “Branham was wrong
when he started off by saying ‘you are standing here for someone else,’ because
she wanted prayer for her own teeth.” No, his discernment was correct. Minnie
told me that her teeth had been hurting her earlier in the week, and she had
prayed about it earlier in the week… but when she stood in the prayer line, she
wasn’t thinking about her teeth because she was so worried about her
nine-year-old half-sister, who had suddenly become paralyzed with a high fever.
That’s
my first point... the critics don’t know all the facts. No one knows all the
facts. Some of the critics in Jesus’ day said he couldn’t be the Messiah
because he came from Nazareth, and the Scripture said the Messiah would
come from Bethlehem. They made their judgment based on incomplete information.
But my second point is stronger. What
are the odds of a man telling a stranger seven facts
about her, and that man being correct on all seven? The statistical odds are so
astronomical as to be practically zero. Brother Branham had never
seen Minnie before, or heard of her. How did he know she had a sister, let
alone a half-sister? How did he know she had children? And how did he know she
had prayed about her teeth earlier that week? But this did happen. He knew.
This, then, is the first important
question a skeptic should ask about William Branham’s unusual ministry—how did
he do it? How did he know those 7 facts about Minnie Peterson’s life? This is a
serious question that calls for an honest query. What possible explanations
could there be for such a fantastic thing to happen? Here are the choices as I
see them…
Theory #1: He made a lucky guess.
My response: Once or twice,
maybe, but he displayed this accurate discernment tens of thousands of times.
So, the ‘lucky guess’ theory is statistically impossible.
Theory #2: He could
read minds.
My response: Scientists have done
many double-blind experiments trying to find out if there is such a thing as
extra-sensory perception, and all such experiments have failed to
prove ESP exists. Exactly how would mind reading work anyway—I mean, what would
be the science behind it? No, Brother Branham couldn’t read minds. No one can.
Theory #3: It was
all a scam. He planted people.
My response: Over 17 years
Brother Branham prayed for upward to 100,000 people personally all around the
world; and in all that time no one ever came forward and said they were paid to
lie, or anything like that. No, it was not a scam. He
discerned people with prayer cards; he discerned people without prayer cards.
Many times he would tell strangers their names and addresses. He had a number
of different campaign managers over the years. None of them cried foul. There
were no tricks involved. Remember that in the 1950’s microphones were the size
of hotdogs and the smallest speakers were the size of baseballs. You couldn’t
hide a speaker in your ear like you can today.
As far as I can tell, that rules out the
natural possibilities, leaving us with only supernatural theories to consider.
Theory #4: Perhaps
he got his discernment directly from Satan.
My
response: Brother Branham used his gift of discernment to
raise the faith of people high enough to accept Jesus Christ as their healer.
He gave all the credit to Jesus Christ. This is not something Satan would
sanction. When Jesus was on earth, the demons that he came near cried out, asking
him to leave them alone. There is no example in the Bible of a demon-inspired
person using a gift of discernment in
conjunction with divine healing. None. In
contrast, Jesus definitely had the gift of discernment and the gift of divine
healing. Therefore it would be an error to attribute Brother Branham’s gift to Satanic forces, when there is no Bible references to support
such a claim.
Theory #5: Brother
Branham was one of the false prophets Jesus warned us against in Matthew 24:24…
“beware of false prophets who will do great signs and
wonders and will deceive many.”
My Response: What Jesus
said is true… beware, because false prophets are out there and they are busy
deceiving. But notice, Jesus didn’t tell us what those great signs and wonders
would be. Why would those “signs and wonders” be “discernment and
healing”—which are the same things Jesus did when he walked the earth? Why
would “discernment and healing” be good 2000 years ago, but bad now? It
wouldn’t, of course. Hebrews 13:8 says Jesus Christ is same today as he was
yesterday. So Brother Branham does not fit the false prophets of Matthew 24:24.
Besides, if you read on to verse 27, it takes you right into the prophecy of
the “coming of the Son of Man,” which is Jesus in his prophetic form, coming in
the end time as openly visible as lightning. William Branham’s ministry was
open to the world—and still is.
Nevertheless, some Christians say it was
his doctrine that made him a false prophet. I suppose by this they mean his
doctrine came from Satan.
My response: What did William
Branham teach that would harm someone’s soul? Answer: Nothing he
taught would hurt anyone. He taught that people should repent and get baptized
in Jesus name, and then God would give them the Holy Spirit, which is eternal
life. (Hmm… that’s the same thing Peter preached in Acts 2:38.) Brother Branham
taught that we should love one another; and forgive each other; and do good
things for everyone we can. (Are there any complaints about that?) Yes, he said
some things that offended some people. So did Elijah, and Elisha, and John the
Baptist; and so did Jesus, for that matter. Brother Branham is in good company
there.
“Wait a minute,” the critic says.
“William Branham taught against the Holy Trinity. That right there is enough to
make him a false prophet.”
My response: That’s not
exactly true. Brother Branham believed in the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, but not as “one god in three persons” the way it is so often taught.
(Look, even those people who believe the “one god in three persons” doctrine,
even they admit that it doesn’t make any sense.) Brother Branham taught that
God the Father is a spirit (the Holy Spirit) and we can’t know a spirit. So God
became flesh and dwelt among us for a while. That was Jesus Christ, who we call
the Son of God. (That is exactly what John chapter 1 says. No false doctrine
there.) After Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected, he returned to the
Father, and then He sent back His Spirit to indwell His children. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—just like the New Testament teaches.
Besides, where in the Bible does it say you have to believe in “the Trinity” to
be saved? It doesn’t say that. The New Testament says you have to believe in
Jesus Christ to be saved. And surprise… that’s what Brother Branham taught
also.
Theory #6: His gift was from God, but William Branham
went wrong when he taught doctrine. If he had just prayed for the sick, he
would have been all right.
My
response: Have you thought that idea through? Are you saying that
God was shortsighted and picked the wrong man to give such a monumental
supernatural gift to? Or are you saying that God purposely gave William Branham
this great supernatural gift knowing he would end up teaching wrong? What would
be the purpose in that? Neither of these responses matches the omnipotent,
omniscient God of the Bible. What you really might be saying is, “He
didn’t teach what I believe, so he must be a wrong.” (Re-read
Brian Tracy’s comment about human nature.) Well, if we we’re all correct
in our doctrine, God wouldn’t have needed to send a prophet at all, would he?
But Jesus said, “Elijah shall first come and restore all things,” so apparently
Elijah must show up sometime, somewhere, and do some restoring. If you were God,
how would you vindicate such a modern day Elijah?
Theory #7: William
Branham’s amazing gift of discernment came from God for the purpose of
vindicating him as a true servant of God.
My response: This is the only
theory that matches all the facts: physical, spiritual and biblical. That’s why
I believe it this way. Brother Branham never said he had the spirit of
Elijah—but he did point out many of the scriptures this end time Elijah would
fulfill—and guess what, Brother Branham’s life matched all those scriptures.
I’ll tell you at least one thing he obviously restored—he restored visible
proof that Jesus Christ is real. Jesus said, “He that believeth on me, the
works that I do shall he do also; even greater works than these shall he do
because I go unto my Father.” No one has fulfilled this scripture more fully
than humble little William Branham.
For those who are skeptical, before you
reject William Branham’s ministry, give some serious consideration to this question:
How did he do it? Don’t skip this question. You need to settle on a honest, sensible answer. If you come to the same
conclusion I came to, then your next question should be: What does this mean to
me?
One of my favorite spots in researching
Brother Branham’s life was when I heard him say to a woman who was sitting in
the audience during one of his 1957 meetings in Edmonton, Canada. “Here, there hangs that Light over a woman. She's suffering with
high blood pressure. Stand to your feet. Her name is Mrs. Fishbrook. You're from this city.
You live on 125th Street. The number of your house is 13104. That's exactly
right. If that's right, raise your hand. All right, go home. You're healed,
lady. Jesus Christ makes you well.” (God Projecting His Love, 57-0806, E-52)
Now, what are the statistical odds of
William Branham guessing that?
Owen Jorgensen, 2014
Author of
Supernatural: The Life of William
Branham
www.supernaturalchristianbooks.com