As you know, I'm just a plain vanilla, non-denominational minister of the Gospel, with no law but love, no creed but Christ, and no book but the Bible. Most of my ministry has been teaching in other men's churches overseas. Nowadays I pastor a tiny Bible Believers Church, present this radio program, and manage Bible Believers' web site.
I'd like to start today's program by sharing some dialogue from a new caller to Bible Believers echo, a public message area on the national computer network. I commenced our conversation by asking, 'What do you know of the ministry of the angel to the seventh Church Age who was the Elijah of Malachi 4:5-6?'
He responded, "I've heard a few things regarding this "Elijah". It appears he'll be sent to prepare God's People for the Coming of the Lord".
That's right. John the Baptist was the Elijah of Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:1-4. after he died, John's ministry fulfilled the first part of Malachi 4:5 by 'turning the heart of the apostolic fathers to the children (or elect of God)'. As John foreran Christ's first Coming, the Elijah of Malachi 4:5-6 foreran His second.
The Elijah of whom I speak was to 'turn the heart of the children back to their apostolic fathers'. His ministry is to the end-time Bride of Christ, a little group who'll not die, but change in the atoms, and meet the Lord for the Wedding Supper in the Air. He RESTORES the faith or ORIGINAL understanding held by Paul and the apostlic fathers, and calls both wise and foolish virgin OUT from Babylon and her harlot daughter churches.
He said, "I've heard various people suggest that he might be one of the two prophets mentioned in Revelation. This theory has much weight behind it, but it's of course only a theory".
I replied that such people are confused, because the two prophets of Zechariah 4 and Revelation 11 are Hebrews, whose ministry is to Israel, after the close of the Gentile dispensation. God can't deal with Israel and the Gentiles at the same time. This is only a 'theory', and not faith.
He said, "And I don't really think your salvation or mine depends much on it at all!!!"
True. But then salvation is something that's of little concern to Christians. We're born saved in that our names were on the Book of Life from the foundation of the world. The saints or true Church are not the 'saved', but the born-again, who'll grant the 'saved' into eternal Life at the great White Throne Judgment - after the Millennium. Our concern is the new-birth, which is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Those who hold to the theory you mentioned are without the Spirit, Who 'guides into all Truth revealed for their day, and reveals the future'. They may be 'saved' but they're not in the faith of Jesus Christ, because the elect can not be deceived on the revealed Word of God.
He continued, saying, "I heard the other prophet in Revelation, is Moses. The theory of Elijah and Moses comes from the fact that there is no proof that either of them 'died' an earthly death, but may have been taken directly up to heaven ...'
Moses did die, and Scripture says he was buried. Read Jude 9 and Deuteronomy 34:6-7. These two prophets to Israel are neither Moses nor Elijah, but two men anointed with the 'same portion of the Spirit' which once anointed Moses, and which anointed Elijah, then Elisha in a double portion, John the Baptist, and William Branham. That's why they have the same nature as Moses or Elijah. Those anointings will come upon two Hebrew prophets: who are in Israel today.
He continued, "They will then return to complete their ministry in the last days (which will be cool to see... Even if it does get a little painful)".
This is impossible, 'for it's given unto a man once to die, after that the judgment'. And I don't think it will be too cool because there will not be one solitary Christian on earth when these two prophets are ministering. This is the time of Daniel's seventieth Week, Jacob's trouble, or what we call the 'great tribulation'.
Next he asked, "About this angel, Where are we referencing? Are you suggesting that this Elijah is an angel? Sorry, but I just can't see exactly where you're coming from..."
Reference is found throughout the Book of Revelation. 'Angelos' is a Greek word that means a 'messenger'. I'm an angel, the postman is an angel. Jesus calls this man, 'the angel to the Laodicean or Seventh Church Age'. You can follow his ministry from Revelation 1:1, 3:14, 10:7, 14:9-11 to Revelation 22:6-10. He was the Elijah of Malachi 4:5-6, Matthew 17:11, etc.
This 'Elijah' was the late William Branham. He was born in 1909, and died in 1965. It is later than you think.
Now let's put on our thinking caps. We must understand unto what we're believing. God is building His Church on faith, the one and only faith of the apostles and prophets. That's His thoughts in us. And when a thought is expressed it becomes a word. So faith is a clear understanding of the revealed Word of God.
Being infinite makes God omniscient. He knows all things, and He never changes His Mind about His Word. If we can see that much, we'll put God's Word first in all things. We'll make God's Word our absolute and standard in everything we say or do. We'll take everything we're told by our friends, our minister, our church, by film and newspaper, this program, businessmen or politicians, back to God's unchanging Word from Genesis to Revelation, and obey what It says do.
Because faith is understanding of God's Word, we must be sure we understand what we believe. Without understanding it's impossible to please God. Without understanding, we're playing the part of a marionette (or religious puppet) when we worship!
An outward observance without any real inward meaning, is only a ceremony. But a rite which has a present spiritual meaning, is a symbol; and if it also points to a future reality, conveying at the same time, by anticipation, the blessing that's yet to appear, then it's a type. Thus the Old Testament sacrifices were not only symbols, nor merely predictions by fact, but they already conveyed to the believing Israelite the blessing that was to follow for the future reality to which they pointed. Hence the service of the promise and the work-righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ran directly contrary to this hope in faith, and a Spiritual view of sacrifices, which placed all on the level of sinners saved by the substitution of another, to whom they pointed.
Afterwards, when destruction of the Temple rendered its services impossible, another most persuasive reason was added for trying to substitute other things, such as prayers and fasts, in place of the sacrifice. Therefore, although none of the older Rabbis has ventured on such an assertion as that of modern Judaism, the tendency must have been increasingly in that direction. In fact it had become a necessity - since to declare sacrifices the essence of Judaism, would be to pronounce modern Judaism an impossibility. But thereby also the synagogue has given sentence against itself and by disowning sacrifices, has placed itself outside the pale of the Old Testament.
The Jews became apostate 2,000 years ago, teaching for doctrine (or faith) the traditions of man, and knowing it not, because they failed to seek an understanding of the future reality behind the shadows and types of the sacrifice and temple worship. In the same manner the Gentile denominations have disowned the Word, placing themselves outside New Testament grace. As Jesus foretold, they're apostate and know it not. Worshiping Him, but in vain.
So outward observance without any real inward meaning, is only a ceremony. It's spiritual ignorance! No matter how correct the service, without us personally understanding its meaning, it's as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, and unfruitful to us.
When we worship, let's make sure we know what it's all about. And from Genesis to Revelation - not denominational claims. Remember, it doesn't matter what anyone else believes or thinks. All that matters is whether our thoughts are God's thoughts. As God never changes His mind on His Word, we know where we stand by matching our understanding with His Word from Genesis to Revelation.
If our worship has a present spiritual meaning, we'll be able to match our life with the promises of God's Word for THIS day. When we can see the PRESENT Truth manifesting through us, we KNOW we're living symbols of God's Word, known and read of all men. That's His assurance that we're sealed to the day of our redemption. Our lives will point to the future reality of that City, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens which will come down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
So I encourage each of you to study to show yourself approved of God by understanding His Word, so that one day you'll hear Him say - 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world'.
In South Africa, a minister who'd been told that Brother Branham was a spiritualist, a mind reader, said, "That's sin. The man's nothing in the world but a polished up soothsayer. I'll go out and pray for his sinful soul, because God might strike him dead."
And he went out under a little peach tree about twenty yards from the house, raised up his hands, and said, "God, have mercy on my friend in there. He's going to die and go to hell with such thoughts as that. The hour of visitation is here, and look at him in there. There he is setting there..." Oh, he was just telling God ALL about it.
Then he said "A Pillar of Light about two feet long and ten inches high, came down, parted from side to side". And he described that Angel of the Lord to a dot. Said, "He was a large Man, two hundred pounds, dark hair to His shoulder, walked down to me and laid His hand on my back. And when He laid his hand on my back, it felt like fire had burnt plumb through my body."
And He said, "Rise, and tell your friend that this is the hour of visitation, and not to condemn this man."
So, he jumped up from there, and he said, "Did I go to sleep? Was I dreaming?" He ran up and began to tell his friend about it, and his friend looked around, and the shape of the Angel's hand was scorched in that white, broad-clothed shirt. And the next morning, they took it, and there was a big picture in the paper which went plumb through all Africa.
Brother Branham said, "I have the shirt, now. The authorities called me down, checked my hand with it. And there just perfectly a man's hand scorched right through his shirt".
May God's hand be on our shoulder, leading, guiding us along the true path of virtue.
Brother Branham was the prophet of Malachi 4:5-6 and Revelation 10:7 whose ministry restored the apostolic faith, finished the mystery of God and is now calling God's elect out from all man- made religious systems, into oneness with the fullness of the Word for the manifestation of the Sons of God, and the translation. In Acts 3, Peter said the soul which does not receive this Message of restoration will be destroyed from among the people. In Revelation 22, Jesus said they'd be smitten by the Tribulation plagues.
William Branham's life was a parade of the Supernatural. The LAST Sign God promised before the end of the Gentile dispensation was to reveal Jesus Christ in the Office of the Son of Man, 'the same yesterday and today, and forever' by the Messianic Sign of Hebrews 4:12: "discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart." Jesus said, 'As it was in the days of Lot, so will it be when the Son of Man is revealed'.
Homosexuality was rife in that Gentile civilization, as it is in our Gentile civilization. God sent three messengers in the days of Lot - three created Men. Abraham worshipped one Man, calling Him Elohim. He proved He was the Word by "discerning the thoughts and intents of Abraham and Sarah's heart." You can read about this in Genesis 18. This was not Jesus, for Jesus was not yet born. He was the Word, God veiled behind the flesh of a created Man. Jesus was born of a virgin, 2,000 years later. This Man, who proved He was God, stayed with the elect. The other two messengers went to Sodom where they preached a basic salvation Message to Lot's family, a type of the foolish virgin today.
In this day, God veiled Himself behind the flesh of a sinner saved by grace and revealed Jesus Christ, the same, by the Messianic Sign - "discerning the thoughts and intents of people's hearts" around and around the world. That was the prophet William Branham. The two messengers God sent to the worldly church in this day were Billy Graham and Oral Roberts.
Through Brother Branham, God discerned the thoughts and intents of people's hearts, raised the dead, healed the lame, restored sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and cast out demons - revealing the Son of Man before congregations of up to 500,000, around and around the world for twenty years. This was not done in any secret place and is on film, cassette tape, in books and newspapers.
If you'd like to prove these things, visit your Christian bookstore or library and read the criticism of his unbelieving opponents. If you read between the lines you'll notice they can't fault his Scriptural vindication. Their opposition to his ministry is based on the fact that Brother Branham was true to God's word - against their denominational theology.
"Do you expect Christ to return for His Bride in this day?" Most professing Christians answer, "Yes!" Yet they're denominationals, when Jesus and Paul clearly warned that the Gentile denominations would be apostate in the end-time, and God would call both the wise and foolish virgins out of that mess!
How can these good people be blind to what's so plainly written in God's Word? Why are they baptized in the Titles of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost instead of the Name of those Titles, which is Lord Jesus Christ? Paul said there's one baptism for the remission of sins, and anyone preaching a different baptism was anathema.
The true Church is built on the doctrine of the apostles and prophets. History proves no one was baptized in the Titles Father, Son, and Holy Ghost until hundreds years after Pentecost. Anyone baptized in three Titles, has by-passed Bible teaching, and missed the faith of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth". Then if Jesus has all power, where's this Big Fella God? Jesus is not a second, third or any other fraction of God. He was Emmanuel, or God with us.
He continued, "Go ye therefore, (or because I Am God), teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." Father's no Name, It's an OFFICE or Title God became when Adam was formed. Son is not a Name, but a Title or OFFICE God received when He was manifest as the virgin-born Jesus. And Holy Ghost is what God IS. God is a Spirit: the Holy Spirit. He's not two Spirits and one Man.
"Teach them to observe all I've commanded you: and I, (personal pronoun), will be with you, even in you to the end of the world." Jesus is the Holy Ghost, the One Person of God, manifest in the flesh of a virgin-born Man to pay sin's price.
In Luke 24:47 Jesus said, "That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." His Name is not Father. Many of you are fathers, but not one of you is named father. His Name is not Son, and It's certainly not 'Holy Ghost'. His compound redemptive Name is LORD JESUS CHRIST, and if you're not baptized in the Name of Lord Jesus Christ then you're not baptized in the NAME of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and your sins are not remitted.
Peter said, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the new birth. For there's no other Name under heaven given among men, whereby you must be saved".
In Acts 19, Paul found a group who were baptized unto repentance. He commanded them to be rebaptized in the NAME of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the Doctrine of Jesus Christ, the common faith once delivered unto the saints. And It can never change. radio044.html