This is the end of the next two thousand years, 1954. And the Gospel, Jesus said, “The work would be cut short.” For what? “The elect’s sake, or no flesh would be saved,” it would so wicked. So we’re at the end time. And then the seventh, in type, is the Millennium, a thousand years.

54-0513 – William Marrion Branham

He lived through many of the years that he said the world would end. I was born many years after his latest in 1977. His predictions vary from a periodic 50 year jubilee to call the Christians home to a two thousand year cleansing of the Earth, and after each one, we remained. In many instances, the worry and fear of an end time can drive people to their religious centers, praying and dedicating everything in their lives towards the faith that they hope will spare them. Only God knows when the end is coming, and man was wrong, again.

When I fail to build on the foundation of the scripture, or allow a man to tell me I was anchored instead of making sure myself, I get the blind predictions like the above. We know that no man knows the day for Jesus told us that, but we get caught up in the movement around us. We like being a part of something that’s happening now. I know some of it for me was the disconnect that comes from thinking all that God had done was so long ago and I couldn’t take part in it. Being in the Message gave me a sense of being in what God was doing right here and now.

The Old Testament prophet, Elisha, once had the same complaint to God: that there was no one else doing anything for God, that he alone was where it was at. God simply reminded him that there has never been a time that He has not been in control and had people on Earth for his purpose. Without knowing the whole picture, I begin to want something more tangible, more human. Suddenly, a man from my grandfather’s lifetime  said he was hearing the fresh word of God, and I wanted to hear it too.

When most of us left the Message, we were not asked about our standing with God. We were asked how we could disbelieve the Prophet. As we try to find the truth, we struggle most with the random quotes, more upheld than scripture itself. The Bible is plain, yet we get selfish and want something specifically crafted for us, as if we’re more important than all else. That filter is hard to cast off.

Jesus, making it simple as He always did, put it best. Many would come, many “Christs” even. But there is only one thing that will give you peace that passes the ‘understanding’ of men: those precious letters in red in your Bible. When God speaks, He speaks for Himself.

5For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 6And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places                                                           Jesus – Matthew 24

The Bible is our guide, spiritual and practical, to everything we will ever face. It not only tells us about God and who He is. I grew up singing songs like ‘every promise in the book is mine, every chapter, every verse, every line.’ It meant that when God worked something out for someone in the pages of the Bible. I too have a chance for his help if I trust and love Him as they did.He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The Word, the Word in the days of the apostles does not work in this day.

  64-0112  William Marrion Branham    http://table.branham.org

    I was taught to value someone else’s words over the Bible. I had thought that without his version of the story or filter to read it through that I couldn’t read God’s Word or receive his mercy. He would repeat and repeat that we needed him to be able to read between the lines and see what God was saying to this specific day and age, that God’s word didn’t mean anything to us without his translation. The issue being when we replace God’s words with man’s words, it is then a slippery slope to replacing God with man. If we’ve already compromised on the words that gave us the power in those situations, then the person behind the words is just as interchangeable.

Only one being has the power to change our situation. He’s not buried in Jeffersonville or the middle east; he’s risen. Taking anyone but Christ on that level of reference substitutes the only man to have ever conquered the grave. We can not have anything else before god: no gods, no idols, no men.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. – Paul – II Timothy 3:16

I said, “If they don’t know abc, how am I going to teach them algebra? If they don’t know kindergarten, don’t know how to behave themselves, don’t know how to look, and act, and dress, and be decent, how you going to teach them prophetic things?”  61-1224 – Sirs, We Would See Jesus

William Marrion Branham

  http://table.branham.org

Have you ever been afraid to go to the bathroom during a class? You convince yourself that the teacher will be bothered by your request. Someone will think you have to go all the time. You’ll be a disturbance. On and on. But now you’re not getting anything from the lesson because you’re completely distracted. If you had simply asked, and gone, it would be over you would be focused and learning again, but now the imagined peer pressure and fear is keeping you from peace and learning. It seems funny, but how many of us have used the same exact thing to talk ourselves of asking for understanding with church and our spiritual walk.

There are those that teach in a way to encourage us to ask questions. When a teacher is so well versed not only in the subject but also in all the ways they at one time didn’t understand the material, it makes for an amazing source for us to come to and learn from. There are also those teachers that write it out on the board exactly as it was explained to them and make eye contact with us and tell us now if you can’t understand something as simple as this the first time, you’re in the wrong class. No one would dare raise their hand and ask for clarification at that point.

Whether it was about the workings of automobiles or the scripture I loved having people to go to and open up to and learn from. So when I took on the youth ministry and faced a classroom of almost 20 teenagers full of questions, I knew I needed to know my stuff better than ever. So that if I ever didn’t have the answer I would know where to point them so we could learn it together. I dug through my Bible, my study books, my translations, every discourse I could find. I wanted to know more about God’s word, and I wanted to teach them everything I could.

Almost immediately I ran into walls, things I wasn’t supposed to question, or things that was just how it was supposed to be. The amount of times that despite my questions they would angrily point back to the chalk board and say I should already understand. I had questions but was told to place it on the shelf and pray about it, or even that the elect would know since it was spoken to them. Here I was as a youth pastor quickly becoming afraid to ask about things I didn’t know lest someone think me unsaved. I began feeling not only insecure in my own salvation, but I was worried about my ability to teach those in my class.