Tuesday, January 29, 2013

THE UNPARDONABLE SIN

For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. (Hebrews 10:26 KJV)

Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation: (Mark 3:28, 29 KJV)

Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. (Matthew 12:31, 32 KJV)

Now, the first thing we want to know, what is the unpardonable sin? Some of them said, "It's suicide." Some of them said, "It's—it's a mother that gets rid of her child," abortion case. Others have said this. Others has—has said "Because you once had the Holy Ghost and backslid on the Holy Ghost, that's the unpardonable sin." It isn't. No, sir.

Let's look at it intelligently. Let's look at it, at the Word of God. Now, over in the Book of—of Matthew, the 12th chapter, Jesus had cast out a dumb and blind spirit—or a deaf and dumb spirit, I believe it was, out of a man. And when He cast it out, the deaf and dumb spoke. The people turned around looked at Him; they said, "Why, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils." And Jesus turned around and asked them.

Then Paul comes over here to cap it off, said, "If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." Then that's got to be the unpardonable sin, is sinning wilfully. Is that right? "He that sins wilfully…"

I had a place here I wanted to show you, the first place of this Scofield here, what he wrote in a footnote here. I believe it's found in Romans the 3rd chapter. He said here, as he interpreted it through Webster, of course, in the footnotes. He said, "Sin is rejecting the revealed will of God."

Sin in its initial form is to reject the revealed Word of God, what God—or will of God. When God has revealed something as His will, and to reject that is to blaspheme, or to reject God.

Now, watch when Satan come to Eve, he said "God hath said, 'Thou shall not eat thereof,' but surely thou shall not die." See it? Then Eve wilfully… You get it? Eve wilfully doing something that she knew God said not to do. Is that right?

Then what is sin? In Saint John the 3rd chapter, the 18th verse, Jesus Christ said, Himself, is this, that, "He that believeth not is condemned already." Is that right? Then "sin" is actually "unbelief."

Satan in his enticement told Eve that God said that, but He didn't mean it. See how he whitewashed the Word? Well, now he said, "Now, God said It, but He didn't mean It." In other words, "You'll be… Our eyes will be opened. You'll know, know a lot more knowledge."

And now, that same rotten lie is told by Satan to preachers and church members today, to say, "The Word of God says so-and-so, but It don't mean that." God's Word means just exactly what It said. That's right.

"If we sin, or disbelieve, wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." There is your unpardonable sin.

If you know what is the Gospel truth, and it's laid out to you, and God has revealed It to you, and you know it's the truth; but just to satisfy some congregation or some petty preacher, or to be popular, that you want to hold onto the things that you want to hold onto instead of taking God's Word; Paul said, "He that sins, or disbelieves, wilfully after he has received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." There's your unpardonable sin, is to know what is the truth and refuse to walk in it. Amen.

Reference:
54-1024 - "The Unpardonable Sin"
Rev. William Marrion Branham

Saturday, January 26, 2013

IS GOD JESUS' FATHER OR THE HOLY SPIRIT?


Matthew 1:18 clearly tells us that the Holy Spirit is Jesus' Father. In other places, He said my Father is God or I came from God.  He also said I will send you the Comforter. And then at another place He says I will pray that the Father will send Him. Again Jesus says I will be with you and even in you till the end of the age.  

With all these I believe that a Trinitarian should be very confused about this. However, the true REVELATION here is that:

GOD IS ONE; not three in one. Mark 10:18, Mark 12:29, Mark 12:32, Romans 5: 15, Galatians 3:20, Ephesians 4:6

GOD IS SPIRIT - John 4:24, Romans 8:9, 1 John 4:2

GOD IS HOLY Leviticus 19:2, 1 Samuel 2:2, Joshua 24:19, Revelation 4:8

THEREFORE GOD IS THE HOLY SPIRIT. He became Man (son) and was called Son of God.

He is also called Emmanuel - God with us.

One this issue, no minister who believes in trinity will be  able to give even ONE scripture that says God is three persons in one. The best anyone can do is inference from the scripture which is very dangerous thing to do. Making the Bible say something that it does not.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6 KJV) 

From the above and many other quotes in the scriptures, it is clear that Jesus (the Son) is the Father and He is the Mighty God. Some may say the Mighty God is not the same as the Almighty God but in Revelation 1:8 it says He is the Almighty!

Listen carefully to what Jesus said to the Pharisees which also applies to all of us.
I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. (John 8:24 KJV)

Son of God


When you are born naturally, you become your parents' son or daughter. When you are born by the Spirit of God, it's only then you become a son or daughter of God. 'As many that receive Him, to them He gave power to become sons of God.'


Some say we are all sons of God which is not true. In fact, we are all God's creation but not all His sons. 
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. (Romans 8:13, 14 KJV)

'Every tree shall produce according to it's kind.' Notice that in the Bible trees type human beings. That is why you behave like your parents because you were born by them. But when you are born by the Spirit of God, His Spirit comes to dwell in you and you act and behave like God. It is therefore imperative that everyone is BORN AGAIN so we can have the Spirit of God which is immortal and only then we can claim that we are sons and daughters of God and that we have eternal life. If you are born by flesh, the works of the flesh you will produce. 

All have sinned and have come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) Jesus was born by the Spirit of God and that's why he did not need to be born again because that made Him sinless.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. (Matthew 1:18 KJV)

This is why Jesus was called the Son of God. He is not a third person in the Trinity, He is Emmanuel, The Almighty God with us. If you are not sure of this, read Isaiah 9:6 again and this time, carefully.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6 KJV)

On the Mount of transfiguration God spoke and said 'this is my beloved Son, hear ye Him.' If you can only listen to Him, saying 'you must be born again,' eternal life awaits you.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

ANCESTOR WORSHIP

Revelation 2:13 "I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast My Name, and hast not denied My faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth." 

Now up to this point we have seen whence polytheism or the worship of many gods came. But did you notice that we also found a mention of a man named Cush who was given a title of "the father of the gods."? Did you notice here the old theme of ancient mythologies, that gods identify themselves with men? That is where ancestor worship comes from. So we might just examine history to find out about ancestor worship. Well, it was brought out that Cush introduced a three god worship of father, son and spirit. Three gods who were all equal. But he knew about the seed of the woman coming, so there would have to be a woman and her seed come into the picture. This was brought to pass when Nimrod died. His wife, Semiramis deified him, and thus made herself the mother of the son and also the mother of the gods. (Just exactly as the Roman church has deified Mary. They claim she was without sin and was the Mother of God.) She (Semiramis) called Nimrod "Zeroashta" which means, "the woman's promised seed".

But it wasn't too long until the woman began to attract more attention than the son, and soon she was the one who was depicted as trampling underfoot the serpent. They called her "the queen of the heaven" and made her divine. How like today wherein Mary, the mother of Jesus, had been elevated to immortality and right now as of September 1964 the Vatican council is attempting to give a quality to Mary she does not possess, for they would like to call her, "Mary the Mediatrix," "Mary the Mother of All Believers," or "Mother of the Church." If there was ever Babylonish ancestor worship in a religion, it is the religion of the Church of Rome.

Not only was ancestor worship originated in Babylon but so also was the worship of nature. It was in Babylon the gods were identified with the sun and moon, etc. The chief object in nature was the sun which has light giving and heat giving properties and appears to man as a ball of fire in the heavens. Thus the chief god would be the sun god whom they called Baal. Often the sun was depicted as a circle of flame and soon around that flame there appeared a serpent. It wasn't long until the serpent became a symbol of the sun and consequently worshipped. Thus the desire of Satan's heart became full-fledged. He was worshipped as God. His throne was established. His slaves bowed to him. There in Pergamos in the form of a living serpent he was worshipped. The tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, now symbolized in the form of a living serpent had not only seduced Eve but the majority of mankind.

But how did Pergamos become the seat of Satan if Babylon was the seat? The answer again is in history. When Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians, the priest-king, Attalus fled the city and went to Pergamos with his priests and sacred mysteries. There he set up his kingdom outside the Roman empire, and thrived under the care of the devil.
This has been a very short resume of the history of the Babylonish religion and its advent to Pergamos. Many questions are no doubt left unanswered and much more, no doubt, could have been said to enlighten us, but this is not intended to be a study of history, rather it is intended to be a help to the study of the Word.

An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages (Chapter 5 - The Pergamean Church Age)
Rev. William Marrion Branham

Monday, January 21, 2013

ORIGIN OF THE DOCTRINE OF TRINITY


The ancient histories agree with the Bible that this Babylonish religion was most certainly not the original religion of earth's early peoples. It was the first to drift away from the original faith; but it was not itself the original one. Historians such as Wilkinson and Mallett have proven conclusively from the ancient documents that at one time all the peoples of the earth believed in ONE GOD, supreme, eternal, invisible, Who by the Word of His mouth spoke all things into existence, and that in His character He was loving and good and just. But as Satan will always corrupt whatever he can, we find him corrupting the minds and hearts of men so that they reject the truth. As he has always attempted to receive worship as though he were God and not the servant and creation of God, he drew worship away from God to the end that he might draw it unto himself and so be exalted. He certainly did accomplish his desire to spread his religion throughout the whole world. This is authenticated by God in the Book of Romans, "When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, until they became vain in their imaginations, and through darkness of heart accepted a corrupted religion to the extent that they worshipped creatures and not the Creator." Remember, Satan was a creature of God (Son of the Morning). 

Thus we find that where once truth was disseminated amongst men, and all held to that one truth, there later came a day when a vast group turned from God and spread a diabolical form of worship around the world. History bears it out that those of the tribe of Shem that stood with the unchanging truth were in solid opposition to those of Ham who turned away from truth to the devil's lie. There is no time to engage in a discussion of this; it is merely introduced that you may see there were two religions and two only, and the evil one became world wide.  Monotheism turned to polytheism in Babylon. The devil's lie and the devil's mysteries rose up against the truth of God and the mysteries of God in that city. Satan truly became the god of this world and exacted worship from those that he had duped, causing them to believe that he was truly the Lord. The polytheistic religion of the enemy began with the trinitarian doctrine. It was way back there in antiquity that the "ONE GOD in three persons" idea came into existence. How strange that our modern theologians have not spotted this; but evidently just as duped by Satan as their forebears were, they still believe in three persons in the Godhead. Let us be shown just one place in Scripture where there is any authority for that doctrine. Is it not strange that while the descendants of Ham went on their way in Satanic worship which involved a basic concept of three gods that there is not one trace of the descendants of Shem believing such a thing or having any ceremonial worship that involved even a type of it? It is not strange that the Hebrews believed, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is ONE GOD", if there were three persons in the Godhead? Abraham, the descendant of Shem, in Genesis 18 saw only ONE GOD with two angels. Now how was this trinity expressed? It was expressed by an equilateral triangle even as it is expressed in Rome today. Strange, the Hebrews did not have such a concept. 

Now who is right? Is it the Hebrews or the Babylonians? In Asia the polytheistic idea of three gods in one came out in an image with three heads on one body. He is expressed as three intelligences. In India, they found it in their hearts to express him as one god in three forms. Now that really is good modern day theology. In Japan there is a great Buddha with three heads like the one we previously described. 

But the most revealing of all is that which sets forth the trinitarian concept of God in a triune form of: 1. The head of an old man symbolizing God the Father, 2. A circle which in the mysteries signified "Seed" which in turn means the Son. 3. The wings and tail of a bird (dove). Here was the doctrine of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, three persons in the Godhead, a veritable trinity. You can see the same thing in Rome. Now let me ask once again, is it not strange that the devil and his worshipers actually had more truth revealed than the father of faith, (Abraham) and his descendants? Is it not strange that the worshipers of Satan, knew more about God than the children of God? Now that is what modern theologians try to tell us when they talk about a trinity. Just remember this one thing from now on: these records are facts and this is a fact--Satan is a liar and the father of lies, and whenever he comes with any light it is still a lie. He is a murderer. And his doctrine of the trinity has destroyed the multitudes and will destroy until Jesus comes. According to history it did not take long for a change to be made in this concept of a Father and a Son and the Holy Ghost. Satan took them a step at a time away from the truth. The evolved concept of Deity was now: 1. The eternal father, 2. The Spirit of God incarnate in a HUMAN mother. (Does that make you think?) 3. A Divine Son, the fruit of that incarnation, (Woman's seed). 

But the devil is not content. He hasn't achieved worship of himself yet, except in an indirect way. So he takes the people away from the truth still further. Through his mysteries he reveals to the people that since the great invisible father God does not concern himself in the affairs of men, but remains silent relative to them, then it follows that he may well be worshipped in silence. Actually it means to ignore him as much as possible, if not altogether. This doctrine spread around the world also, and right today in India you can see that temples to the great creator, the silent god, are strikingly few in number.  

Since it was not necessary to worship the creator-father, it was only natural that worship swung to the "Mother and Child" as the objects of adoration. In Egypt there was the same combination of mother and son called Isis and Osiris. In India it was Isi and Iswara. (Note the similarity of names even.) In Asia it was Cybele and Deoius. In Rome and in Greece it followed suit. And in China. Well, imagine the surprise of some Roman Catholic missionaries as they entered China and found there a Madonna and Child with rays of light emanating from the head of the babe. The image could well have been exchanged for one in the Vatican except for the difference of certain facial features.  

It now behoves us to discover the original mother and child. The original goddess-mother of Babylon was Semiramis who was called Rhea in the eastern countries. In her arms she held a son, who though a babe, was described as tall, strong, handsome and especially captivating to the women. In Ezekiel 8:14 he was called Tammuz. Amongst classical writers he was called Bacchus. To the Babylonians he was Ninus. What accounts for the fact that he is represented as a babe in arms and yet described as a great and mighty man is that he is known as the "Husband-Son". One of his titles was "Husband of the Mother", and in India where the two are known as Iswara and Isi, he (the husband) is represented as the babe at the breast of his own wife. 

That this Ninus is the Nimrod of the Bible we can affirm by comparing history with the Genesis account. Pompeius said, "Ninus, king of Assyria, changed the ancient moderate ways of life by the desire for conquest. HE WAS THE FIRST WHO CARRIED WAR AGAINST HIS NEIGHBORS. He conquered all nations from Assyria to Lybia as these men knew not the arts of war." Diodorus says, "Ninus was the most ancient of Assyrian kings mentioned in history. Being of warlike disposition he trained many young men rigorously in the arts of war. He brought Babylonia under him while yet there was no city of Babylon." Thus we see this Ninus started to become great in Babylon, built Babel and took over Assyria, becoming its king, and then proceeded to devour other vast territories where the people were unskilled in war and lived in a moderate way as said Pompeius. Now in Genesis 10, speaking of the kingdom of Nimrod it says, "And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur and builded Nineveh, and Calah etc." But the translators made a mistake in translating Asshur as a noun for it is a verb, and in the Chaldee means 'to make strong.' Thus it is Nimrod, who having been made strong (he established his kingdom by building the world's first army which he trained by drilling and through the rigors of hunting) went beyond Shinar with his strong army and subdued nations and built such cities as Nineveh, which was named after him, for even today a chief part of the ruins of that city is called Nimroud!  

Since we have discovered who Ninus was, it is now necessary to discover who his father was. According to history it was Bel, the founder of Babylon. (Now it is to be noted here that Bel founded it in the sense that he started this whole move, but it was the son, Ninus, that established it and was the first king etc.) But according to the Scripture, the father of Nimrod was Cush: "And Cush begat Nimrod." Not only is this so but we find that Ham begat Cush. Now, in the Egyptian culture Bel was called Hermes, and Hermes means, "THE SON OF HAM". According to history Hermes was the great prophet of idolatry. He was the interpreter of the gods. Another name by which he was called was Mercury. (Read Acts 14:11-12)  

Hyginus says this about that god who was known variously as Bel, Hermes, Mercury etc, "For many ages men lived under the government of Jove (not the Roman Jove, but Jehovah of the Hebrews who predates Roman history) without cities and without laws, and all speaking one language. But after that Mercury (Bel, Cush) interpreted the speeches of men (whence an interpreter is called Hermeneutes) the same individual distributed the nations. Then discord began." It is seen from this that Bel or Cush, the father of Nimrod, originally was the ring leader that led the people away from the true God and encouraged the people as the "interpreter of the gods" to take another form of religion. He encouraged them to go ahead with the tower which his son actually built. This encouragement is what brought the confusion and the division of men, so that he was both, "interpreter and confuser".  

Cush, then, was the father of the polytheistic system and when men were deified by men, he of course, became the father of the gods. Now Cush was called Bel. And Bel in Roman mythology was Janus. He is pictured as having two faces and he carried a club by which he confounded and "scattered" the people. Ovid writes that Janus said concerning himself, "the ancients called me Chaos". Thus we find that the Cush of the Bible, the original rebel against monotheism was called Bel, Belus, Hermes, Janus, etc. amongst the ancient peoples. He purported to bring revelations and interpretations from the gods to the people. In so doing he caused the wrath of God to scatter the people, bringing division and confusion.  


Pergamean Church Age- William Branham  

Thursday, January 17, 2013

ANTIPAS MY FAITHFUL MARTYR

Revelation 2:13 "I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast My Name, and hast not denied My faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth." 

ANTIPAS MY FAITHFUL MARTYR There is no other record in the Word or in any profane history concerning this brother. But surely there need not be. It is more than enough that he was fore-known and known of the Lord. It is more than enough to see his faithfulness unto the Lord recorded in the living Word. He was a Christian. He had the Name of Jesus. He had the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and he was amongst those who lived by it. He had responded to the words of James, "Have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons." Full of the Holy Ghost and faith as was Stephen, he respected no one, he feared no one; and when death was pronounced upon all who would take that Name and walk in the faith of Jesus Christ he took his stand with those who would not turn back. Yes, he died, but like Abel, he obtained a witness from God (his name is written in the Word), and though dead, his voice still speaks in the pages of God's Divine Record. Another faithful martyr was carried to his rest. But Satan did not triumph then, even as he did not triumph when he killed the Prince of Peace, for as Satan was despoiled at the cross, even so now will the blood of Antipas cry out to hundreds more who will take up their crosses and follow Him. 

Pergamean Church Age