Branhamism in the News
Dated: 21 June, 2005

This new report was sent to me a week ago.  It is disturbing to say the least.  However, some believers are denying that the article was true, claiming that the publisher or the editor or the reporter of the newspapers was stirring up a sensation as to make money.  Individual views are being posted on some Forum sites. Those who denied what was reported are mostly the Branhamites.

Surely, we cannot believe everything that the news media has reported. For if the publisher/editor/reporter of the newspaper is anti-Branham, or if he does not possess good ethic in his profession, then the article is pure fiction.  But what if the report is true, can believers face the fact?  Can you see where the "errors" of those believers lie in?

It is not so much as what was reported about the dress code of a woman who wanted to follow the Bible way.  The report may have highlighted the right values as bad.  But what is disturbing is that the two young men acted unbecomingly by "kidnapping" the young woman right outside her parents' home.  That certainly fuelled the emotion of the parents that their daughter must have been involved with a false cult.  You would too if your daughter was snatched away right from your doorstep.  Your mind would go: "Why are these Christians behaving like that, kidnapping my child?  Are they really Christians?"

Some may say, "What if that "quick getaway" was the idea of the young woman?"

"What if?"  Then where was the Holy Spirit at?  Where was His leading in the life of these young men?  Are these young men born again believers?  Or are they just religious men, caught up in some cultic teachings?  Did not their mere common sense tell them that such an action was not right?  Think.  Are Endtime Message believers so righteous and so right that such an action was justifiable?

No, I am not judging the young men.  Maybe what they did was just something that they foolhardily committed on the spur of the moment.  Maybe they didn't mean to.  The truth lies with them.

Back in the late 1970s, there was a teenage girl who came to embrace the Message (here in Singapore).  Her parents were set against her belief and reprimanded her for going to church.  The pastoral advice given her created in her a rebellious spirit against the parents.  One advice (a very common advice) given her was this: "If you love Jesus, then you should do what He said. You must come to church if you love Him. If you love your parents more than Jesus Christ and not come to church, then you are not His disciple."  Her rebellion became too much for the parents to handle and the police was called in.

Many preachers have been guilty of the above advice and brought much misunderstandings and sorrows.  There must be wisdom in how to deal with cases such as that.  A minister must consider the case he is faced with carefully and prayerfully examine how the Scriptures should be applied, taking in the age, the gender, the maturity, etc., of the person(s) involved.  To simply utter: "If you love Jesus, then you should do what He said. You must come to church if you love Him. If you love your parents more than Jesus Christ and not come to church, then you are not His disciple" is foolishness.  One cannot simply take some Bible verses and dispense them as the answer.  You need to know who you are dealing with.

Now, the two young men might have been misguided, indoctrinated by false teachers of the Word.  There are many false preachers in the Endtime Message movement.  The many extremists in Branhanism have brought about a reproach on the name of Branham and his message.  They are so cultic, blinded to the fact that they are, that they have actually destroyed the lives of simple minded believers by their indoctrination, doctrines of devils.  Many such believers are so indoctrinated that they think that they are doing God a service by "protecting" new converts from their parents, schools, and whatever they consider as "worldly" and "devilish".  Some have even condemned other Christians as of the devil.  No wonder the world look at the Endtime Message believers as fanatics − in bad light.  It is one thing to be call "fanatics" if the believers are walking in Scriptural truth; it is another if they are walking erroneously and contradictorily to the Truth.

Just as Christ dwells in His own Word, His Truth (true teachings), demons dwell in their false doctrines.  If we have the Truth, we walk in the Light and have the Life.  We glorify God by the actions in our lives.  "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:" (1 John 1:5-6).  However, if we hold to false doctrines, we can expect the devils to move us about.

Is the church in the report believing in polygamy?  I don't know.  But I do know a few preachers and pastors who actually believe that Bro. Branham taught polygamy and that a believer can have as many wives as long as the law of his nation allows it. This is one of many false doctrines that has been attributed to William Branham.

As Bible believers, where do we stand?

The answer is simply: In the Word of the Lord!

2TI 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

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Click to read: Branhamism in the very extreme