This question has become an issue around the world. In the United States, Brother Joseph Branham is pastoring the Branham Tabernacle now. And he is often heard saying we have to believe every word on the tapes and that everything brother Branham said is thus saith the Lord. Also, in Turkey, there is a brother who formerly worked with us that is accusing myself and other brothers of teaching that every word brother Branham spoke is thus saith the Lord. In turn, he is saying Brother Branham made many mistakes in his doctrine. Then we have the former Message believers claiming that Brother Branham was a liar. It’s so sad what has transpired to mar brother Branham’s true message and humble Christian spirit. Brother Branham never claimed that every word he spoke was infallible. People have deified the prophet, and in so doing this has produced all kinds of idolatry and also it has led people to walk away from the Message because the reality is that he isn’t infallible. I want you to see for yourself what Brother Branham said about himself.
“Proves God just reveals to His prophets that what He wants them to know, nothing else. Prophets are not infallible people. Prophets are not Angels. They are men.”[1]
You see, God don’t make all of our decisions. And there’s many times that God doesn’t tell His prophets just what to do, because they have to make the decision. If there is no decision that we have to make, just wait every move on God, then there is no overcoming on our part. And sometimes, they make the wrong decision. God’s anointed prophets makes the wrong decisions, and many times are deceived.[2]
Look at the–this Elijah, setting there and–and here come the Shunammite women and fell down by him like that. Said, “God’s troubled her heart and kept it from me.” They don’t know all things. They just know as God will let them know. They’re not infallible people.
The Bible said, “Elijah was man subject to like such passions as we are,” his up and downs, and differences.[3]
These are very true statements. In fact, they are completely backed up by the Bible.
And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the LORD had given him rest round about from all his enemies; 2 That the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains. 3 And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart; for the LORD is with thee.
2 Samuel 7:1-3
And it came to pass that night, that the word of the LORD came unto Nathan, saying, 5 Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the LORD, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in? 6 Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle.
2 Samuel 7:4-6
Here we have an instance where the prophet Nathan is in fellowship with King David. David speaks of what was on in his heart and Nathan says go and do it. Then later, the word of the Lord comes to Nathan and he returns and tells David that he is not to build the Lord a house of cedar. From our perspective, we say, hey, why did the prophet tell David one thing and then turn around and tell him another thing. The explanation is clear, the prophet is not infallible: he speaks from his heart sometimes and other times the word of the Lord comes to him. One of these words is infallible and the other is not! But imagine if you were a guard in the palace, you overhear the conversation and you start to tell everyone that David is going to build a temple in Jerusalem. Then later that night Nathan returns, and new guards are on duty. He tells him “thus saith the LORD, did I ask you to build a house for me?” Now these two guards begin to tell their stories and they eventually meet up and begin to argue over what the prophet said. Neither of them had the full story so they simply fought one another over the infallible prophet of God. The truth is that Nathan was not infallible, but GOD himself is infallible. When Nathan spoke from his own heart, sometimes he was right and sometimes he was wrong; but since he was a prophet, often God dealt with him and corrected him. Therefore, God dealt with Nathan to correct him and in turn corrected David.
Another instance is the prophet Isaiah:
In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. 2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying, 3 I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. 4 And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 5 Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD. 6 And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.
2 Kings 20:1-6
In this case, we have two “thus saith the Lord” statements and a real puzzle. Thus saith the Lord you shall die and thus saith the Lord I will heal you. How can they both be thus saith the Lord? Here is a scriptural explanation.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. 7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; 8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. 9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; 10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
Jeremiah 18:5-10
In this instance, God sent Isaiah to Hezekiah to provoke him to pray and ask for healing. God heard his prayer and it caused him to heal him and add additional years to his life. This was not a mistake by Isaiah, but God had him speak to seemingly contradictory statements on his behalf. If we were alive in Isaiah’s era we could have found fault with him and said he is liar. He doesn’t have thus saith the Lord. But notice that one of his prophecies came to pass. The other one did not; the true understanding is in the explanation. If we want to doubt God’s Word this is a great excuse for us. If we want to believe there is a perfectly sensible explanation.
And what I read here is His Word. It will never change; It’ll never pass away. It’s eternally right. Mine may fail, ’cause I’m just a man, speak like any other man, make mistakes and everything. But when He speaks, mark His Words; it’s the truth.[4]
So it’s a lesson to us, tonight, to keep our minds upon God, regardless of what man it is. Let him be cardinal, priest, prophet, whatever he might be, he is not immune from mistakes and—and error, and even death, and sin. But there is One Who is, and that’s Jesus Christ; He is the One.[5]
What I’m trying to say, “Don’t never lose your confidence.” Don’t let Satan tell you evil about me; ’cause, there’s much. But you keep that confidence; ’cause, if you don’t, it won’t happen. Don’t look to me, as a man; I’m a man, I’m full of mistakes. But look to what I’m saying about Him. It’s Him. He is the One.[6]
My hands, Lord, is up. What will I do? Now, Father, I’ve got many things that I do wrong. I’ve just confessed my sin this morning before the church, as I confessed it to You on top of the mountain the other morning when it was blowing and snowing, and up there on top of the mountain, to how I cried out and asked You to forgive me for my stupidity. And how I dreaded to come before my brethren, who some of them regard me as Your prophet-servant. And, Lord, how I hated to come before them and tell them of a stupid act that I would do a thing like that, but, God, it’s good for my soul that I confess my sins and not hide them. So to be honest with You, and right before the people, I have confessed it, Lord. I’m wrong, I’m altogether wrong. I pray forgiveness.
And then, Father, I’ve been dilatory about You, serving You, many times maybe I could have went longer when I didn’t do it. Father, I confess my sins. I want the Angel of God to cleanse me from that, by the Blood of Jesus. Other hands went up tonight, some of them maybe has never asked forgiveness before; but I’m sure of this one thing, if we’ll confess our sins, God will blot them out, put, them in the sea of forgetfulness and never remember them no— no more. And, Father, as I confess mine, about misbehaving before them people, I didn’t carry on myself like a servant of Christ. I didn’t. I was afraid that man might be angry with me and think I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but I didn’t think of what I was doing to You, Lord. And now I — I pray that You forgive me. And now, Father, I know that if I ask forgiveness I have forgiveness, and You’ve put them in the sea of forgetfulness, and You’ll never remember that no more. God, I’m thankful for that.[7]
Brother Branham was one of the most honest, straightforward men you will find. He often rwveals his sins and failures. Most pastors and evangelists are not this open and honest about these things. To me, it testifies to the truth of what he preached.
7 Now, see, I’ve always asked you to be careful what you’re listening to. See? There’s so much of it that it’s just the human side. But always if there is something that goes forth, it will speak it, “It’s THUS SAITH THE LORD,” even to visions or anything.[8]
You can listen closely to each sermon and he will describe how he received it. Sometimes he will finish a sermon series and say this was thus saith the Lord. Other times he will say I received this under inspiration. Or he will be speaking of a doctrine and he will say, I used to think it was one thing, but the Lord revealed it to me that it was another thing. He could speak about various stories throughout his life and ministry and oftentimes it would be retold differently from sermon to sermon. We even find this in the four Gospels, stories told in different order, with different words used and even with portions added and other portions omitted. Paul told his testimony in three different ways in the book of Acts. People attribute Brother Branham’s testimonies to lies; but the fact is that there are witnesses who also testify of these things.
Brother Branham grew in his understanding of the Scriptures over time as God dealt with him. Here are a few examples: Earlier in his ministry he taught that love and the fruit of the Spirit was the evidence of the Holy Ghost. In late 1963 and 1964 God corrected him and he said so.
66 Today I was talking with my good friend, Doctor Lee Vayle, who is present now. And he’s quite a theologian, and so we usually have some—have some pretty good discussions on the Scripture. Very smart. And he asked me one time what I thought about the initial evidence of the Holy Ghost, ‘Was it speaking in tongues?’ It’s been many years ago.
I said, ‘No; can’t see that.’
He said, ‘Neither do I,’ said, ‘though I’ve been taught that.’ He said, ‘What would you think would be an evidence?’
67 I said, ‘The most perfect evidence I can think of is love.’ And so we got to talking on that.
And then I thought that sounded pretty good so I just held that, If a man has got love.
But one day the Lord, in a vision, straightened me out. And He said, that, ‘The evidence of the Spirit was those who could receive the Word,’ neither love, nor speaking in tongues, but it’s receiving the Word.
68 And then Doctor Vayle was saying to me, that, ‘That is Scriptural,’ he said, ‘because, in John 14, Jesus said, “When He the Holy Ghost is come upon you, He will reveal these things to you, that I’ve taught you, and will show you things to come.’”
64-0726E – “Broken Cisterns”
Rev. William Marrion Branham
148 You can’t judge by speaking in tongues, neither can you judge by the fruit of the Spirit. But it’s a manifestation of the Word of God, brought to Light. It’s the Light that does it. The man that walks in that Light! Jesus Christ was not founding upon speaking in tongues, though He did it. He was not the fruit of the Spirit, though He did. You couldn’t judge it. But He believed and punctuated It, and God lived every Word of the promise of that day through Him. That’s the Light of the hour. That’s the evidence.149 When a man tells me that the Holy Ghost falling in them will deny the Word of God being so, there is something wrong with it. There is something wrong with our seminaries, and so forth.
64-0125 – “Turn on the Light”
Rev. William Marrion Branham
Another instance is his teaching on the Logos. In the early 1950’s he taught that the Logos was the Son of God. Then in the late 1950’s he taught that the Logos was the Son of God by prefigure. Then from that time on he taught that the Logos was the pillar of fire or the anointing that came down upon Jesus in the form of a dove and continued this thought through the remainder of his ministry.
Prior to the seals he taught that the new birth was a distinct event from the baptism of the Holy Ghost; but after the seals were opened he clearly teaches that the new birth is the baptism of the Holy Ghost and clarifies this openly in the Church Ages book which was released in 1965.
It is important for us to understand
that the Bible is the unchanging Absolute. Brother Branham taught us this and
the Bible is very much a story of men and women whom God used mightily that
were limited, fallible and in desperate need of a Savior. It is the story of
how God overrode and overpowered the fallible and failing human nature to
reveal his divine truth. This is our story as well and it is the story of
Brother William Branham’s life also. The beauty and glory of Jesus Christ was
revealed through his prophet and it is revealed in the rest of his Bride as
well. All of us are full of mistakes and in desperate need of Christ every hour
and every moment.
[1] 57-0127E – Blind Bartimaeus
[2] 59-0611 – The Time Of Decision
[3] 55-0607 – The True Vine & A False Vine
[4] 54-0302 – The Resurrection Of Jairus’ Daughter
[5] 63-0803E – Influence
[6] 63-1110E – He That Is In You
[7] 62-0909E IN HIS PRESENCE
[8] 63-0721 – “He Cares. Do You Care?”, Rev. William Marrion Branham
Discover more from Present Truth Ministries
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.