Watch Aaron in the film Holy Wars

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

An old video of William Branham

Been feeling a little nostalgic today. I found this on You Tube. It's an old video of William Branham, one of the most famous healing evangelists during an unusual outpouring of the Holy Spirit that occurred between 1947-1953 known as the Healing Revival. William Branham was famous for "Words of Knowledge" which in pentecostal/charismatic belief is supernatural insight into a person's life or situation and is one of the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:8.

While it's true that Branham fell into heresy during his later years (he got to thinking that he was Elijah), there's no evidence that William Branham faked his supernatural knowledge. If what you are about to see happened today, people would assume he had an earpiece feeding him the information. One reason why I believe that the words of knowledge operating in Brahman's ministry were real is because Gordon Lindsay, the founder of Christ for the Nations Institute (the Bible school where my wife and I met) was his manager for a period of time and very, very few people dispute Gordon Lindsay's personal integrity.



There's also a famous photo of Branham with what appears to be a supernatural halo floating over his head. This made headline news when it appeared. You can view the photo and read Gordon Lindsey's commentary on the incident here.

I hope this builds your faith...or at the very least make you wonder.

6 comments:

M.A.C. said...

Hello Aaron,

I hope you don't mind answering a couple of questions I am asking all believers everywhere;

Do you believe that God sent His only Son Jesus Christ to start a new religion called Christianity?

And Where is the text in the bible that supports the popular Christian belief that God sent His only Son Jesus Christ to start a new religion called Christianity?

Aaron D. Taylor said...

Thank you M.A.C. for your question. I'm going to have to answer with a qualified no. The word "Christianity" isn't found in the New Testament, although the Bible records in the Book of Acts that the disciples were first called "Christians" in Antioch (Acts 11:26).

I believe that God sent Jesus into the world to die on the cross for our sins and to rise again on the third day so that all who repent and believe can have forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life.

This is the Apostolic gospel that was once and for all delivered to the saints, witnessed by both the Old Testament prophets and by Jesus Himself.

M.A.C. said...

Hello Aaron,

I hope you don't mind continuing some dialogue on this topic.

If there is no biblical text to support Christianity as a religion. Do you think the current status quo of denominational divergence is in danger at the judgment seat of Christ?

Christ said;

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

Sounds like Jesus is talking about church folk here.

Aaron D. Taylor said...

It depends on what you mean by that. If you mean that anyone involved in a denomination is in danger on judgment day, then no. If you mean that sectarianism is a problem in the church (defined as people that believe that their particular church or denomination are the only legitimate Christians) then yes. Obedience to Christ is what matters, not the name tag that someone wears.

Having said that, I'm not surprised that there are different denominations that interpret Scripture differently. I think a worse danger today is self-styled spirituality, meaning people that say they are Christians, but refuse to practice the essentials of the faith in fellowship with other believers.

M.A.C. said...

Aaron,

Would you consider our dialogue fellowship?

If sectarianism is sin then being involved in this sin puts one in danger. For forgiveness is given only to those that repent of their sin.

Also if obedience to Christ is all that matters then should we not be subversive to worldly authorities that would try to represent God?

I'm interested in your interpretation of the essentials of faith. Could you share them?

steve said...

As a former believer in the Branham Message I can say that I liked your post. You pointed out that that there was no evidence that his gift was fake.That is true, however there is no evidence that it wasn't either.I don't think he used an earwig as you pointed out,it was too early for that kind of technology, but he did use "prayer cards"and had a whole day to study them before the service that evening. I'm not saying thats what he did but it is highly suspect in my opinion, but it a little late in the day to do an investigation, isn't it?I also found several times on recorded services where he completely missed it, when he got the peoples names and sickness wrong. How do we explain that? In conclusion, If his "gift" was real and he wasn't faking it, he wasn't 100% accurate as his followers claim, was he? Kind Regards,Steve