People take the quotes in 4 different ways

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Brother Branham’s quotes have four different effects on people.

Group 1

1. Most people simply ignore his quotes and do not even know about his preaching.

Thus his quotes have no effect or exert no obvious  influence on most of the people.

Then we consider the people who do read or study his quotes.

There are two extremes. Both think they are right but both are sterile in different ways.

The main separating issue between these two groups is their attitude towards the mistakes that brother Branham made.

One group over emphasizes the mistakes and the other group pretends that there are no mistakes.

Group 2

2. Mistakes made by brother Branham have convinced many that he is a false prophet. Thus they reject his ministry which was to finish the mystery of God by restoring the last church back to the beliefs of the early church apostolic fathers.

The apostles laid down the truth for the first church. Then each church began to elevate some man to be in charge. Human leadership took the churches into the Dark Ages where most of the truth was lost. Slowly the reformers began to pull the church back towards the New Testament. But the full revelation of the written Word was beyond their abilities. So an end time prophet has to appear in the last church age to restore the truths that the first church had.

Brother Branham was the only person who, thanks to his amazing visions,  had sufficient insight into the Bible to be able to restore the understanding of the people back to the early church.

So those who declare him to be a false prophet then end up on a dead end because none of those critics can fully reveal the mysteries of God. Thus they end up without an end-time prophet and are in the same boat as the denominations who are just milling around without any real sense of direction once they have got saved and start living a reasonably holy life.

That is a sterile path that leads to nowhere in terms of getting ready for the second Coming of the Lord.

Condemning the good points of his revelations just because he made mistakes is very short sighted.

These critics score points for honesty because they can admit that there are mistakes in brother Branham’s messages, but by rejecting brother Branham’s Scriptural revelations they end up as the blind leading the blind.

They claim that they “know where to go” but they actually have “nowhere to go”.

Group 3

3. The growth of the second group is largely due to this third group who zealously claim that brother Branham does not make mistakes. People who are led to believe that brother Branham does not make mistakes are totally disillusioned when they discover that he has made mistakes.

Then they reject brother Branham and drop out.

This obsession of trying to prove that every quote is true has unleashed a devastating backlash.

Former believers, having discovered that the Cloud was not photographed either at the time or the place where brother Branham met the angels were so disillusioned by the people who tried to defend these wrong quotes, that they formed an anti-Branham group.

They then dug into numerous of his quotes and found many contradictions, especially in his life story. This was potent ammunition which helped to put even more people off the message. Trying to prove that his mistake concerning the Cloud is correct and thus a basis for doctrine such as the mighty Angel of Revelation 10 coming down, has merely led to the exposure of even more mistakes and the development of doctrines that cannot be proven from Scripture.

This third group is the biggest but it has also  splintered into numerous competing churches due to their different interpretations of quotes.

Success is claimed in terms of the number of docile members, who do not argue, and the amount of money collected, just as is done in denominational churches.

These are the zealots who are dedicated to brother Branham.

They pretend that he does not make mistakes or they ignore any mistakes and claim that these wrong quotes are of no consequence.

They are easy to spot because they always threaten that exposing mistakes in brother Branham’s message will put a person onto the slippery slopes that head for hell.

Notice the contradiction:

If you point out a mistake in a quote they say you are on the downward path for daring to do such a vile act. But when confronted with a quote which is obviously wrong or with contradicting quotes that they cannot explain, they dismiss the quotes as being of no consequence.

Very illogical. If they can dismiss the wrong quotes as being irrelevant, why is God going to send me to hell for pointing out a mistake in an irrelevant quote?

Their big mistake comes about because they believe that they have to say that brother Branham does not make mistakes. Then they actually become dishonest because they cannot face up to the mistakes and try to evade or shrug them off as if they are not important. Now evasion is a slippery tactic. So it is them who are on the slippery slope.

The favourite tactic of message preachers, when they cannot defend a wrong quote, is to terrorize people into believing that you cannot correct the prophet.

But it is the Bible that corrects the prophet. His statements can be compared to historical and geographical facts to check if he got them right or not. We will consider some examples of this just now.

But nowhere in the New Testament is a pastor put in charge of a church. The word pastor is only mentioned once in the New Testament but is condemned six times in the Old Testament. So we have been warned about this ministry. Thus it is not surprising that a man holding down the unscriptural position of head of the church will lash out to defend his unscriptural power over the people, and of course all the lovely money that he shears off the docile sheep.

This man-made domination by a human head was already manifest in the early church.

III JOHN 1:9   I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.

Diottrephes loved to be the most important person in that church. Nicolaitanism. The elevation of a holy man above the congregation. He also did not want the apostle John nor John's letter. So message pastors do not want the truth as written in the New Testament by the apostles. They just want a quote to put them in charge so that they can dominate the church with their quotes and their interpretation of quotes.

III JOHN 1:10   Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.

So this early church leader opposed the doctrine of the apostles (who told the elders to rule the church as a group, not one man to be in charge) and he stopped anyone else from believing the Scriptures that the apostles wrote and simply expelled anyone from the church who would argue with him or not obey him. Horrible dictatorship at its worst.

Today this awful conduct is considered quite legitimate for a message pastor or a denominational pastor.

III JOHN 1:11   Beloved, follow not that which is evil,

But John warns us not to follow this terrible example of human leadership of the church.

But that is how message churches are set up to operate and the people follow like sheep to the slaughter, as the Tribulation draws near.

Message pastors used a quote to “prove” that Hillary would win the 2016 presidential election in America. She lost, which just shows how little message pastors actually know about what is going on today. They are right out of tune with God’s thinking.

But their people are so scared of them that they can say what they like. So they are immune from correction. People do not dare to contradict a dictator.

Satan uses the love of force. The nail that sticks up gets hammered. Threaten any dissent.

All this started long ago in the days of the disciples. Yes, the bad error of a human head of the church was right there at the beginning. We cannot say that the Bible did not warn us.

MARK 3:17   And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder:

James and John were called the sons of thunder.

You may think that was a compliment. It was not.

Today message pastors have been preaching "seven Thunders" doctrines since the 1970s. There are probably thirty different Thunders doctrines in circulation. That is the joke. Each church member has to believe what his pastor says, but there are huge differences in opinion between the various pastors. So staying subservient to your pastor has effectively splintered the message into endless variations. Each pastor claiming that he is right. Yet so many varieties of belief amongst the message pastors. This has generated a sad swamp of opinions.

Actually the seven Thunders are unwritten and thus nobody knows what they uttered.

63-0324E  THE  SEVENTH  SEAL

... One of the mystery of that Seal, the reason it wasn't revealed, it was seven thunders that uttered their voices, and there it is perfectly, because nothing knows anything about it; wasn't even written.

After listening to the seven angels brother Branham still knew nothing about what the unwritten thunders uttered. He knew their function was to prepare us for the rapture but did not their unwritten content.

But sons-of-Thunders message pastors claim to know the content of the Thunders, but cannot produce their function which is to rapture us.

They claim to have had rapturing faith for decades, but are still stuck on planet earth. Why God gave them rapturing faith so long ago in the past when the rapture still lies in the future is a puzzle.

But unfortunately the numerous different thunders-believers or "sons of thunders" dominate the message scene.

Now let us look at the behavior of these first thunders-believers, James and John.

LUKE 9:51   And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,

Jesus had to go to Jerusalem so that He could die for our sins.

LUKE 9:52   And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.

Jesus had to pass through the territory of Samaria and messengers were sent to prepare accommodation for the night in one of the villages.

LUKE 9:53   And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.

The villagers were very selfish. They wanted Jesus to focus on them and their problems. But He was focusing on Calvary. So they chased Him away and said He was not welcome.

LUKE 9:54   And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?

Immediately James and John went into their mentality of wanting to destroy anyone who was against them. Typical message attitude.

LUKE 9:55   But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.

Jesus now mentions a deep point. If you have any desire to destroy anyone who opposes you then you have a completely wrong spirit. So a wrong spirit is behind these various Thunders doctrines because the Thunders are not written in the Bible and thus nobody knows what they are or what they utter. Thunders believers do not know what manner of spirit they have. They are interpreting something that is not written. Only a wrong spirit can try to do that. We are only allowed to understand the written Word, because that is what our faith is built on.

LUKE 9:56   For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

The message did not come to destroy people, it came to bring us back to Scripture.

This threatening of people who do not believe what you believe is a wrong spirit. Spiritual bullies does not know what spirit they have when they intimidate people.

The disciples had another problem: self-importance.

LUKE 9:46

Then there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest.

Pastors preach their version of the quotes in order to be considered clever. Each wants to be more important than another. This is the sad product of competitive Christianity. “I know more than you” and “I am a better Christian than you”.

LUKE 9:49   And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us.

John, the son of thunder, could not believe that God was using someone outside the 12 disciples.

“We are the only ones who are right” was his conviction. Meanwhile he did not know that one of the twelve disciples was a devil. Judas was in the “elect” group that the disciples thought was so good.

So there was a devil in the group of disciples and yet John-the-thunderer was busy telling someone outside his group that he had no right to be serving God.

That is the spirit of the sons of Thunders.

“I am right and if you are not with me and agreeing with me then you cannot be serving God. And actually if you disagree with me and oppose me, you should be destroyed”.

LUKE 9:50   And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.

Jesus was not impressed with the fighting spirit that emerges from self-importance . It merely splinters Christianity into many rival groups, each protesting that they are right.

So being scared to correct a mistake made by a pastor or by brother Branham  is total nonsense because a mistake is a mistake. People are scared to disagree with their pastor. But the pastors happily disagree with each other. So there is no logic to this intimidation of the congregation.

62-0607  PUTTING  ON  THE  WHOLE  ARMOR  OF  GOD

I've often made a little rude mistake. Maybe... I didn't mean to do it, but maybe I said it wrong.

We all do this. We are human. Thus no-one is above correction.

He never said that because he was a prophet that he could not be corrected.

65-0725M THE  ANOINTED  ONES  AT  THE  END  TIME
So we'll know, to prove this, back and forth, by the Word; not by some man's idea, some theory.
I don't care who he is; any other man, myself or anybody else, "If he speaks not according to the law and the prophets, there is no Light in him." See? That's what the Bible said. "Let every man's word be a lie, and Mine be true," regardless who it is.

He never placed himself above Scripture. He never claimed that he could not be corrected. He said all preachers, including himself, can only say what is written in the Bible.

57-0825M  HEBREWS  CHAPTER  TWO  1

In the Old Testament, before a prophet's word could be made manifest, it had to be examined and proved. They wasn't loose with it, like we are today.

He insisted that we must examine his statements and prove them from Scripture.

CHURCH AGE BOOK   EPHESIAN CHURCH AGE   CHAPTER 3

Get back to the Word!

It is not you that really tries the apostle, and prophet and teacher, IT IS THE WORD THAT TRIES THEM.

One of these days there is going to come a prophet to the Laodicean Church Age and you will know if he is the real one sent from God or not. Yes you will, for if he is of God HE WILL BE IN THAT WORD EXACTLY AS GOD GAVE IT TO PAUL. HE WON'T DEVIATE FROM THAT WORD FOR A MOMENT, NOT BY ONE IOTA.

It is not the person who corrects the prophet.

It is the Scripture that corrects him.

Brother Branham has to say just what saint Paul said.

If brother Branham says something different to what Paul said, then you must have enough sense to stay with what Paul said because brother Branham was sent to restore us back to the early beliefs of the apostolic fathers.

64-0719M  THE  FEAST  OF  THE  TRUMPETS

Paul said, in Galatians 1:8, "If even an Angel from Heaven comes and preaches any other Gospel, let him be cursed." And You commanded those people who had been baptized under John, the same one that baptized Jesus, to come and be rebaptized again in the Name of Jesus Christ, in Acts 19. And said, "Don't even let an Angel tell you anything else."

The seventh angel is not allowed to disagree with Paul on any issue. So we must take brother Branham’s quotes back to Scripture.

George Whitefield the great evangelist friend of John Wesley wrote,

"If we once get above our Bibles, and cease making the written Word of God sole rule both as to faith and practice, we shall soon lie open to all manner of delusion, and be in great danger of making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. Our blessed Lord, though He had the Spirit of God without measure, yet always was governed by, and fought the devil with, 'It is written”.

It is essential to correct certain statements that brother Branham made that were very wrong. Truth is not spread by repeating an error.

Consider a couple of paragraphs near the beginning of the Serpent’s Seed sermon.

58-0928E  THE  SERPENT'S  SEED

After the death of the apostles, there what come the Nicene fathers, and they went on for several years (three hundred and twenty-five years) finally came to Nicaea, France, where they had the great Nicene Council. And in there they formed these dogmas that the Catholic church has now, and also that's handed down to the Protestants.

And as I said it in the teaching this morning, each one of those church ages on up to that Thessalonica church age, the fifteen hundred years of dark ages, there was not one time but what He said, "You still have My name." And on this other side, they wasn't in Christ any more that come out in a denominational name: Catholic, Luther, Wesley, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, on down. But just before the closing of the age He said, "I've set before you an open door." See? And that's the age that we believe we are in right now, the open door age, between the last going out of the Laodicean church.

And it's exactly three hundred and twenty-five years to the Laodicean council.

There are four serious factual mistakes in this brief passage. Trying to defend them would involve us telling lies.

Nicaea is not in France, it is in Asia Minor, just below Constantinople. Today’s Istanbul.

There was no Thessalonica church age. There was a Thyatira church age from about 606 AD to about 1520 AD, called the Dark Ages.

These Dark Ages lasted about 900 years. They finished around the year 1500 AD. If the Dark Ages lasted 1500 years, then Jesus would also have been in the Dark Ages.

There was no Laodicean council in 325 AD. It was the Nicaean council.

The Laodicean council met from 363 – 364 AD and decided to leave the Book of Revelation out of the Bible because it obviously seemed to condemn the Roman church that had its headquarters in the Lateran palace and basilica (big church) that was on the Caelian hill, one of the original seven hills of Rome.

So these mistakes need to be corrected and we need to move on.

William Branham was not infallible. Check his quotes against Scripture and history and geography.

This is a warning to us.

Don’t think you have the truth because you are hanging onto a quote. Some quotes are wrong.

If you cannot admit that a mistake is a mistake then you are simply not being honest.

“Thou shalt not bear false witness” remains the ninth commandment.

Saying that a mistake is the truth, breaks this commandment.

63-0731  THERE  IS  ONLY  ONE  WAY  PROVIDED  BY  GOD  FOR  ANYTHING

The church sailed good in God's provided way, to the council at Nicaea, Rome, and there is where they made their fatal mistake.

This quote made people think that Nicaea is in Rome. Nicaea was neither in France nor in Rome. It was just south of today’s Istanbul in Turkey.

So what did brother Branham mean when he said, “Nicaea, Rome”. You need to understand his message if you want to explain that properly. Just saying, “Nicaea, Rome” simply means that you do not know what he was talking about.

You can parrot a quote, but the Bible does not mention parrots.

64-0307  A  TESTIMONY  ON  THE  SEA

If the Angel of the Lord told me something that wasn't in the Bible, it wouldn't be the Angel of the Lord. That's right. He has never one time told me anything but what was in that Word, and you bear me record.

We have to check the quotes with the Scripture, because the Angel of the Lord will never say anything that is not in the Bible.

Now concerning the great Cloud of 1963, we come to the major problem of wrong doctrines that were developed out of totally wrong quotes.

In addition, trying to defend these wrong quotes (out of a misguided sense of loyalty to brother Branham) has driven many people away from his message.

Those preachers who developed doctrines around his quotes of the great Cloud of 1963 now have a lot to answer for. The doctrines are based on quotes that are simply wrong and this has turned many people into very effective critics of the Message.

People who were taught that brother Branham could not make a mistake simply collapsed and dropped out when they found out that his quotes around the time and place of the Cloud were wrong.

Those who desperately hang onto these quotes, because they have believed them for so long,  now end up believing doctrines that are built on wrong quotes.

I don’t think that we can get much further from the truth than that.

63-0623M  STANDING  IN  THE  GAP

And, now, I didn't know at the time, that they were taking pictures of that [ Cloud of 1963 ], scientists was, as the Angels lowered themselves from Heaven, to bring the Message........

"A mysterious cloud in the sky"? ........

Now here It is, the same time I was there. See the pyramid of the Cloud? I was standing just below this.

He thought he was standing below the Cloud where he was hunting at 8 o'clock in the morning in the region of Rattlesnake Mesa and Sunset Peak near Tucson city in southern Arizona on 8 March 1963. That was when the seven angels came to him.

The Cloud had been photographed eight days earlier on 28 February 1963 near Flagstaff city in northern Arizona which is 200 miles north of where he was hunting.

Preachers rushed into a doctrine that the Cloud was the seven Angels lowering themselves and coming down to see him.

The Cloud never lowered itself. It stayed at a height of 42 kilometers above Flagstaff during the 28 minutes that it was visible, just after sunset.

Brother Branham just got this all wrong.

This quote of seven angels  lowering themselves (which never happened with the Cloud)  turned into a doctrine that the Cloud was the coming of the Lord. It then morphed into a doctrine that the Cloud was the mighty Angel of Revelation 10 coming down to William Branham to open the mysteries of the Book, the Bible.

When the mighty Angel comes down, then the seven Thunders must utter.  So clever preachers invented various doctrines of what the seven Thunders are and what they uttered. The seven Thunders are not written in the Bible, so this opens the door to any speculations.

The seven Thunders will reveal the new Name of the Lord so these clever preachers invented various new names for Jesus.

The seven Thunders holds the mystery of when He is Coming. So the message preachers know when He is Coming, or when He did Come. It gets rather confusing because the seventh Seal brings Him back to earth and the seventh Seal was never opened.

64-0719M  THE  FEAST  OF  THE  TRUMPETS

The Seventh Seal hasn't opened yet, you know. That's His Coming.

63-1110M SOULS  THAT  ARE  IN  PRISON  NOW

The Seventh Seal brings Him back to earth.

The Message believers, as a result of these differing speculations, thus splintered into various divisions, like the toes of Daniel’s image.

Wrong doctrines are like a virus, they just keep mutating. All because brother Branham said that the Cloud was the seven angels coming down to him. And this was totally wrong. There was no Cloud formed when the seven angels came down to him on 8 March 1963.

The Cloud was photographed eight days before the angels came to him. They came to him invisibly. No one else saw them come or go from him. Where he stood was 200 miles south of where the Cloud had been seen eight days before.

The Cloud was seen for twenty eight minutes just after sunset. The angels came to him in the morning.

Claiming that the Cloud was the Angel of Revelation 10 coming down to reveal the message to brother Branham does not fit in with his quotes.

This next quote is from 1964, about a year after the Cloud was photographed. He speaks of the Angel coming down  after the earthly angel had been given the message.

64-0112  SHALOM_  SIERRA.VISTA.AZ

But in the seventh hour, the seventh messenger, that all these mysteries should be finished. See? The seventh earthly messenger, see, this angel that He speaks of then was on earth. An angel means "messenger." And then, after that, he saw another Angel coming down, not the earthly angel that had been given the Message here, but the (another) mighty Angel came from Heaven with a rainbow over Him, and set His foot on the land and sea, and swore by Him that lives forever and ever, "Time shall be no more." See? But before He broke forth on those Seven Seals to reveal them, that He showed miraculous, He showed it first in the heavens.

That day they took pictures all across southern United States and Mexico. There it hangs now in the Life Magazine, still a mystery to them. But He declares it in the heavens before He does it on earth. He always does that. He shows His signs in the heavens first.

He refers to the Cloud as a sign in the heavens.

By the time the Angel came down in Revelation Chapter 10, the earthly angel had already been given his message.

The message was complete by December 1965. The mighty Angel can only come down after that.

The Cloud that was photographed on 28 February 1963 was simply a sign in the heavens that the seven Seals were going to be revealed, although the seventh Seal was revealed as being a total mystery as it refers to the second Coming of Jesus.

Thus we only really have an understanding of the first six Seals.

64-0816  PROVING  HIS  WORD

The seventh angel was to open the six-seal mystery. It's all to be gathered up in the Son of man, His fullness of time has come to the fullness of His Word, to manifest the fullness of His Body. That's the Word, then, that's the spoken Word made manifest by the Word, reveal the Word.

64-0719M  THE  FEAST  OF  THE  TRUMPETS

The Seventh Seal hasn't opened yet, you know. That's His Coming.

Only six Seals had their  mysteries  revealed.

64-0119  SHALOM_  PHOENIX.AZ

But, remember, if it goes plumb into the shadows of death, "I am the resurrection and Life; I'll raise him up again." And when the great Director comes down and bears that stick down, then, "time shall be no more." When that Angel, of Revelation the 10th chapter, puts one foot on land and one on the sea, and a rainbow over His head, He swore, "time shall be no more." When that time comes, you will rise up from among the dead. While the rest of them lay there, you'll go in.

This is 1964, a year after the Cloud was photographed, and brother Branham speaks of the Angel coming down in the future.

"When that Angel ....puts one foot on land ..... time shall be no more.  When that time comes you will rise up from among the dead".

All these statements concerning the Angel are in the future tense.

The Angel of Revelation Chapter 10 will come down to perform the resurrection of the dead. That is the purpose of Revelation Chapter 10.

The dead saints rise and the living Bride is changed into immortal bodies. That is when you step out of time. That is when time shall be no more for the church age saints. Time will have no effect on our resurrection bodies. We will live in them for eternity.

63-0320  THE.THIRD.SEAL

-the seventh angel, when he sounds, all the mysteries of God should be finished up by his sounding. Then after it's revealed, the Angel come down from heaven, which was Christ (Now remember, this angel and is on earth, a messenger). Down comes Christ (You see Him in the 10th chapter of Revelations.), puts one foot upon the land and the other one on the sea, rainbow over His head,

The mysteries must be finished by the seventh angel before the mighty Angel can come down.

The mighty Angel of Revelation 10 only comes down after the mysteries are revealed.

Thus we are still waiting for that Angel of Revelation 10 to come down.

Taking future events like the coming down of the mighty Angel and placing them in the past is a classic means of deception.

If you think the Angel has come down, you will oppose Him when He does come down because you will think that He is a fraud.

Time ends when the Angel comes down because He performs the resurrection and the changing of the living Bride. That puts the saints into eternal glorified bodies where time will have no effect on them. Thus time ceases for the glorified saints, but not for the rest of the world.

64-0830M  QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS.3

Now, if time ceases when the Seals were opened, then if time ceased when the Seals were opened, then the Millennium is also--then the Millennium is also finished, is it not?

No, no. Time didn't cease when the Seals were opened. Misunderstood it. What happened, the mysteries was revealed, not time ceased.

Please remember. Time did not cease when the brother Branham got the revelation of the opening of the Seals. That means that the mighty Angel had not come down at the time of the Seals being revealed in March 1963.  When the Angel comes down, then time ceases.

Now let us look at John the Baptist who introduced the first Coming of Jesus.

MATTHEW 11:2    Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,

3:   And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?

John was still the prophet but he had made a big mistake. So prophets can make mistakes.

Jesus did not disqualify John from being a prophet because he made a big mistake.

Two disciples of John insisted on following John and not Jesus. So they merely repeated  John’s  mistake.

They quoted what John had said but Jesus, the Word,  was not impressed with this mistake and corrected the mistake.

The Word corrects the prophet when the prophet is wrong.

But those two disciples of John just faded off the scene and are never mentioned again.    That is the sad fate of those who  recognize the prophet but cannot see Who the prophet is pointing to. They cling to the prophet's quotes instead of the Word. And the quotes of the prophet can be wrong at times.

What went wrong for these two disciples of John?

JOHN 5:33   Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.

JOHN 5:35   He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.

John had pointed out Jesus and thus introduced the Messiah. John had an incredible ministry and the light of truth shone out from him. But these  disciples of John were so entranced and dazzled with John’s  great ministry that they could not stop following John. Even when John got it wrong, they preferred to follow John’s mistake. Even when they left John to go to Jesus, they preferred to then leave Jesus and return to follow John. They were so obsessed with John’s ministry that they did not want to follow Jesus, the Word.

Brother Branham had a first Pull of healing and a second Pull of discernment which fascinated the people. But these two pulls only attracted small fish. His third Pull was to reveal the mysteries of Scripture. This was the real purpose of his ministry.

But people do not want to track his quotes through the Bible. That is too much like hard work. They just prefer to stay with the quotes and their interpretation of the quotes, even when that means contradicting the Bible. Repeating quotes is easier than reading the Bible and it makes you popular with your pastor. Humans always want the easier route. Like these two disciples of John, they preferred to leave Jesus (the Bible) and hang onto John's quotes. It was not a wise decision, then or now.

People are so impressed with the brightness of brother Branham’s ministry that they keep exalting him. His messages are now released as if they are the "Voice of God”. You cannot get higher than that.

They claim that he is infallible, that he cannot make a mistake.

His quotes replace Scripture in the minds of the people.

COLOSSIANS 2:18   Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

The elevation of the seventh angel has proceeded so far in people's minds until his quotes replace Scripture. This is quite scary.

But the Bible has a greater witness than what brother Branham had.

Jesus said :

JOHN 5:36   But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.

Brother Branham had a great ministry and incredible depth of Scriptural revelation. But all of that was intended to make us follow the Scripture as we see Jesus revealed in the pages of the Bible. We are not supposed to stay with the quotes, we are supposed to follow the quotes through the Scriptures.

Proving what you believe from the Bible is a greater ministry than just believing quotes. The Word of God has a greater witness than the quotes of the prophet.

Proving what the prophet said from the Bible has more punch to it than just repeating a quote.

JOHN 5:37   And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.

God can use a human voice in terms of tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophecy. God can speak through a human voice in terms of discernment.

But we have not heard the "voice of God",  as it was not promised in our day, as far as revealing the Scripture is concerned. The mysteries of the Bible would be revealed by the "voice of the seventh angel". Then when those mysteries have been revealed, we should be able to prove those mysteries just from Scripture.

REVELATION 10:7   But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

Even in the days of Jesus the people did not want to prove their beliefs from Scripture.

Jesus said :

JOHN 5:38   And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.

But Jesus warned us that the Word of God will not really abide in most people. They will prove some things from the Bible and then drift off and try to prove other things from quotes and their interpretation of quotes. Cherry picking a few quotes that suit them, rather than following the idea through the Bible.

JOHN 5:39   Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

The purpose of brother Branham’s message was to teach us what is in the Bible so that we can understand the Bible. Then we can run his quotes through the Scriptures as we search for truth.

Your ability to understand the Bible  is the evidence of whether you have accepted the prophet’s message.

If the mysteries of Scripture have not been revealed to you then you have missed the whole point of brother Branham’s ministry.

Why did Jesus write twice in the ground with His finger when men wanted to stone a sinful woman?

Can you read a much deeper significance into this story? You should be able to if you have understood brother Branham's message.

So what should we do with brother Branham’s message?

The message is designed to turn us to Scripture. We listen to brother Branham preach and he keeps telling us what the Bible verses mean. He shows us how to follow an idea through the pages of the Bible.

Then we follow the Bible and when we speak to people we can point them to the Scripture verses rather than to the quotes. Brother Branham did not restore us to the Scriptures in order for us to follow him.

John the Baptist collected some disciples as a result of his great ministry. But John kept pointing to Jesus, not himself.

JOHN 1:35   Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples;

:36     And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!

:37    And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

The evidence of John’s ministry was not the disciples who followed John, but rather the disciples of John who began to follow Jesus as a result of John’s preaching.

Then we come to a shocking fact.

Only one disciple of John the Baptist, called Andrew, actually became one of the special 12  disciples of Jesus who were called apostles. Jesus chose His 12 disciples.

JOHN 1:40   One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

So the sad truth is that very few disciples of William Branham will be in the Bride of Jesus Christ because they insist on staying with quotes rather than following their beliefs through the Scripture. Jesus calls and chooses His Bride.

MATTHEW 20:16   ... for many be called, but few chosen.

Not everyone who is called gets chosen.

Even a parrot can repeat quotes without understanding what the quotes mean, but God is looking for eagles who can rip their way through the Bible verses in order to establish what they believe.

Group 4

4.  So we get to the fourth type of believer.

PERGAMEAN  CHURCH  AGE  -  CHURCH  AGE  BOOK  CPT.5

… according to Revelation 10:7, a prophet will come and reveal all the mysteries and then the Lord will come

To these people brother Branham is a prophet and not God.

Brother Branham came to reveal the mysteries in the Bible. To reveal Christ hidden away in His Word.

Only after he has revealed all the mysteries, which had happened by December 1965, then the Lord will come some time after that.

He then stresses that the seventh angel is not the Son of Man.

Brother Branham cannot replace Christ.

65-0725M  THE  ANOINTED  ONES  AT  THE  END  TIME

"As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses," the anointed Word of the hour, "so will these men," not man, "men," anointed ones, "resist the Truth."

"In the very day that the Son of man is revealed." Revelations 10:1 to 7, read it when you get home, "the seventh angel's Message, opening up the Seals." What is it?

Not the angel is the Son of man; but the messenger is revealing the Son of man.

Can you get it separated now? That's where it seems to be so hard for you, you see.

Not the Son of man, Himself; but the seventh angel, the seventh messenger, is revealing to the public the Son of man, because It's left the shuck. He can't organize It. It's the Grain, Itself, again.

65-0725M  THE  ANOINTED  ONES  AT  THE  END  TIME

Now, I want you to know this is sure, and you that listen to this tape. You might have thought today that I was trying to say that about myself, being that I was packing this Message. I have no more to do with It than nothing, no more than just a voice. And, my voice, even against my better judgment; I wanted to be a trapper. But it's the will of my Father that I declare to do, and determined to do.

I wasn't the One that appeared down on the river; I was only standing there when He appeared.

I'm not the One that performs these things and foretells these things that happens as perfect they are;

I'm only one that's near when He does it.

I was only a voice that He used, to say It. It wasn't what I knew; it's what I just surrendered myself to, that He spoke through. It isn't me, it wasn't the seventh angel, oh, no; it was the manifestation of the Son of man. It wasn't the angel, his message; it was the mystery that God unfolded. It's not a man; it's God. The angel was not the Son of man; he was the messenger from the Son of man. The Son of man is Christ; He is the One that you're feeding on.

 You're not feeding on a man; a man, his words will fail.

But you're feeding on the unfailing Body-Word of the Son of man.

Here brother Branham makes it clear that he is not the Son of Man. Only Jesus can be the Son of Man.

64-0830E  QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS  4

Brother Branham, a sister came to the Tabernacle some eight hundred miles, and she said she believed you are Jesus Christ incarnate. Please speak on this. She was very impatient in trying to tell others what she thinks.

All right. Now, 'course the sister was wrong. I am not Jesus Christ; I am His servant. We've went through that so many times.

62-1007 THE  KEY  TO  THE  DOOR
That, they claim in here that some brethren up there that said that I sent them up there, and they're preaching that men should leave their wives and hunt for their spiritual mate, and that I am perfectly infallible. That there's nothing... And, oh, some of the awfullest things you ever heard.

If you think brother Branham is infallible, that is about the most awful thing you can say about him. He will condemn you for believing that.

He came to restore us back to the beliefs of the early church.

He can only teach what saint Paul taught.

If he says anything different to the written Scripture then he is wrong.

He taught us how to understand the Bible so that we can run our beliefs through the Bible.

He wanted us to be Bible-quoting Christians. Able to read the Bible and understand it.

We must regard the Bible as our Absolute.

Brother Branham is great but at his best he is only a star in the right hand of Jesus.  So Jesus gets the greater glory. He must be the focus of our lives.

Message believers are almost proud of their ignorance of the Bible. They can parrot quotes. And they can elevate William Branham.  But that is all wrong.

61-0611  REVELATION  CHAPTER  FIVE  1

And the other day in Canada a brother showed me a little ticket of a thing he's packed in his pocket, said "William Branham is our Lord," baptizing in the name of William Branham.

........saying that I was Christ. Brethren, that is a horrible, disgraceful, ungodly lie of the Devil! See? See, I am your brother. Now, that would run any person from the field.

That would make anyone that loves Christ run from the very thing.

If we love Jesus we must flee from this elevation of a man.

Remember that only one disciple of John the Baptist, called Andrew,  ever became a disciple of Jesus.

So Jesus chose the rest of His disciples from those who were not disciples of John the Baptist.

Those who heard John speak as he pointed out Jesus as a Man amongst men, then stopped following John and followed Jesus.

Those of us who heard brother Branham explaining the Bible then no longer have to keep relying on quotes as they can follow their beliefs through the Bible.

Those disciples of John who stayed with Him and never followed Jesus  (the Bible) ended up believing the big mistake that John made.  Neither John nor brother Branham are infallible. Those disciples of John who believed John’s mistake just faded out of the Bible and were never heard of again.

If you hang onto brother Branham’s mistakes you will also fade off the path.

Those followers of John the Baptist who left John in order to follow Jesus made the right decision.

John the Baptist was a sign post pointing to Jesus Who was the Way or Path to heaven.

William Branham was a sign post who revealed the mysteries that blocked the Way to understanding Scripture. If you can read the Bible with understanding, then you are on the Way  to the second Coming.

The sign post shows the Way.

You can rejoice in the light of the sign post for a while, but then you have to get onto the Way (the Path) and follow as you walk through the pages of Scripture.

Those who are standing still at the sign post and praising it, have lost the vision of what Elijah’s ministry was all about.

The sign post shows the way.  It is not the way.

We learn to read and then we read to learn more.

From brother Branham's quotes we learn to read and understand the mysteries in the Bible, then we can read more of the Bible to learn how God thinks and understand what He is doing in this day.