Then I seemed to go into still another higher dimension. The fishing line I had in my hand turned into a shoestring, about one-half an inch in diameter. I was holding a baby’s shoe, with eyelets about an eighth of an inch in diameter. I was trying to put this half-inch shoestring through one of the eighth-inch eyelets, and I had broken many threads in the shoestring. The Angel of The Lord was still standing in front of me, and he asked sternly, yet kindly, “What are you trying to do?” I answered, “I am trying to lace this shoe.” He said, “You are using the wrong end of the string.”

I looked down at the other end of the string and noticed it was reduced and bound with a metal tip that would easily go through the eyelet. I said, “Oh, I’m sorry, Sir, I hadn’t noticed that I was using the wrong end.” He said, “You can’t teach babies supernatural things without causing carnal comparisons!”

Portion of a vision given to William Branham

In understanding this portion of this vision given to William Branham, the most important part is the lesson at the end.  You can’t teach babies supernatural things without causing carnal comparisons.  Jesus indicated that the same was true as He was departing, saying, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” (John 16:12).

This lesson was important for the work of William Branham, and it is important for us to understand the principle as we enter into the deeper things of God today.  Let us consider the parable presented by the angel of the Lord.  As we are faithful with what we have (someone else’s revelations), perhaps God will be so gracious as to give us our own.  Only, let us go on to maturity, holding fast to the head, not forsaking the Word.

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Then, from my right side, behind me, came the same voice of The Angel of The Lord, who had spoken to me since I was a child, saying: “I will teach you how to fish; but you must keep quiet-don’t say anything about it!” I answered, “I will.” He said, “Fasten on your lure.” This I did. Then he said, “Now, to catch those big fish you have to go way out in the deep water.” I swung and cast with all my might, and the line went out its full length. He said, “That was good!”

. . .

I got so excited trying to show the ministers how to fish that I jerked the lure completely out of the water, catching a fish about the size of the lure, seemed as though the skin of the fish was stretched tight over the the lure. I wondered how I would ever get it off!

(William Branham’s Third Pull Vision, excerpt)

William Branham was a man sent by God.  He was a prophet, but he was also a man.  When he spoke for God, he never made a mistake, but, in the day to day of his life, he admittedly made a few (as he points out himself, especially as regarding certain personal decisions).  He was no more infallible than the young prophet in 1 Kings 13, who, after he delivered a true word from God, was deceived by an older prophet who deliberately lied and deceived him to eat when he had been told not to.  That prophet, a true prophet, whose prophecies were later fulfilled exactly, made a mistake in his personal life (not his prophecies), and died prematurely because of it.  The same is true of William Branham.

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For the clergy to organize themselves with one rank over another until they are finally headed up by a president is a manifestation of the antichrist spirit, regardless of how wonderful and necessary it may seem. It is nothing but human reasoning taking the place of the Word.

William M. Branham, “A Resume of the Ages”, An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages

Did you know that you can have all the form of “Church”, and not have God?

Let’s take a little walk down history lane.  1 Kings 18 shows a good “church service”.  Two of them, in fact.  Two churches, on the same hill-top, eaching having services.  One service was the first church of the Baal prophets, complete with altar, worship service, sacrifice, and even wood.  I hear they sat somewhere near 850 faithful, plus the general congregation.  The second, was the much smaller one.  It wasn’t nearly as fancy.  In fact, I hear it was all wet.  But, they too, had their altar, their wood, their sacrifice.  And, they only had one minister, instead of the hundreds.  But, they seemed happy, so why not let them be?

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Now watch this doctrine of Balaam most carefully. Notice above all, that it is the deliberate maneuver of a corrupt clergy to bind the people to them, by leading the people deliberately into the sin of unbelief. The Nicolaitane doctrine was the corruption of the clergy as they sought political power amongst themselves, while Balaamism is the subjection of the people to their system of creed and worship in order to hold them. Now watch this carefully. What was it that bound the people to the nominal church and thereby destroyed them? It was the creeds and dogmas formed into church tenets. It was the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. They were not given the true food, the Word. They were given the food that came from idol worship, Babylonian paganism wrapped up in Christian terminology. And that very same spirit and doctrine is right amongst all Protestants and it is called DENOMINATION. Nicolaitanism is organization, humanizing the leadership of the church, and thereby deposing the Spirit. Balaamism is denominationalism which takes the church manual instead of the Bible. And right to this hour, many of God’s people are caught in the snare of denominationalism and God is crying to them, “Come out of her My people, lest ye be partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not her plagues.” You see they are ignorant. But if the rapture should take place at this moment, ignorance would be no court of appeal from the judgment of God for being in the wrong ranks.

William M. Branham, a prophet from 40’s and 50’s, wrote the above words towards the end of his book on the seven church ages.

 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”

John 18:36

Jesus said His Kingdom was not of this world, nor of this realm.  It was the Kingdom of the Heavens.  John 3:3-5 indicates that the Kingdom cannot be seen nor entered unless one is born again, born of the water and the Spirit.

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“‘At the end of 1965, He who now stands in the forefront of the healing ministry as a prophet will be taken out of the way. He’ll make a false step and Satan shall destroy his life, but his spirit will be saved, and his works will follow him. Ere 1966 shall come, he shall be gone.’  –Kenneth Hagin

The prophecy stated that the leader of the deliverance movement was soon to be taken in death, because he was getting into error and the Lord was having to remove him from the scene for that reason. Gordon took the prophecy and placed it in his desk. After Brother Hagin left I asked, ‘What do you think about this? Is this Branham?’  Gordon answered gravely, ‘Yes, it is Branham. He is getting into error. He thinks he is Elijah. He thinks he is the messenger of the covenant. The sad thing is that unscrupulous men around him are putting words into his mouth, and due to his limited background he is taking them up.'”

William Branham was a man sent from God.  No one else in the modern century has come close to his accuracy, humility, and giftedness.  He also got off.  Way off, if you talk to some.  If you read some his published works, not to mention his nearly 2,000 recorded sermons and broadcasts, you will come across it.  He was a man, and just as we do not rush out to stone every woman caught in adultery, we do not, in New Testament Christianity, rush out to stone every man when his doctrine gets off.  Surely, every one of us had our doctrine a little “off” before we got saved, and it took at least a little while to get it straightened out after that.  He was a man with less than an eighth grade education!

Whether Branham as a prophet was false stands on something else, although his end does matters as well.  But, if we judge by the same standard for us, I would err on the side of mercy and grace, believing for the same for myself one day.

One of Branham’s major works, published at the end of his life, was his Exposition of the Seven Church Ages.  In it, he presented his teaching that the seven churches of the first three chapters of the book of Revelation were to be interpreted as church ages, or periods of time, each one to follow the other in sequence, through the two thousand years of church history we have had.  Following this, would come the fulfillment of the ages, the tribulation and sequence of events following in Revelation 4-22.

From the end of the book, the very last paragraph in fact, I quote the following:

Not for one moment do I bring a message to the people that they may follow me, or join my church, or start some fellowship and organization. I have never done that and will not do that now. I have no interest in those things, but I do have an interest in the things of God and people, and if I can accomplish just one thing I will be satisfied. That one thing is to see established a true spiritual relationship between God and men, wherein men become new creations in Christ, filled with His Spirit and live according to His Word. I would invite, plead and warn all to hear His voice at this time, and yield your lives completely to Him, even as I trust in my heart that I have given my all to Him. God bless you, and may His coming rejoice your heart.

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