A WHITE LINEN THAT IS SEEN THROUGH DIFFERENT LENSES explores the nature of the bride of Christ, the garment of righteousness, and the ministry God uses to clothe His people in the last days. Let’s get right into it.
The foundation of our faith rests on the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, which was made once and for all. If you are struggling with guilt for a past mistake, remember that Christ has forgiven you, and your sins have been wiped off from memory; you have been justified. When guilt returns, recognize that the accuser is trying to tell you that Christ’s blood and sacrifice are insufficient. You must counter this by remembering that the one offering made by Christ is acceptable and cleanses us from all sin.
The core subject of the white linen relates to the marriage of the Lamb. Revelation 19:7-8 describes the Lamb’s wife being granted clothing in fine linen, clean and white. This fine linen is identified as the righteousness of the saints. It is crucial to understand that this righteousness is not based on external dressing or human manufacturing (like Adam’s fig leaves). The righteousness referred to here is the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ upon all believers.
The Bride and the Bridegroom’s Provision
Christ has a Bride and Christ will have a bride that is fully ready and clothed in white linen. This Bride is a reality, not merely some spiritual thing that doesn’t exist. The concept of the Bride requires a Bridegroom; a woman cannot be a Bride until there is a Groom who wants to take her. This relationship implies that the Bride must be groomed by the Bridegroom. The husband is responsible for providing the clothes and the coverings. In the spiritual sense, the Bride is clothed with nothing more than what her Bridegroom provides—and that is that white linen. Our Bridegroom is Jesus Christ.
The Pattern of the Bride in Scripture
God is a God of pattern and consistency. Before the Gentile Bride, Jehovah referred to Israel as His bride.
Through the prophet Ezekiel, God described picking up Israel in their birth, polluted in their own blood, naked, and desolate (referencing their time in Egypt). God cleaned them, washed them with water, anointed them with oil, and clothed them with fine linen. That fine linen provided to Israel was the law and the uniqueness they possessed among the nations. Moses was the messenger who introduced Jehovah (the Bridegroom) to Israel (His future wife). The ministry of Moses painted a perfect, correct picture of what the Bridegroom looked like to the Bride.
Similarly, in this last day, the Lord God is working upon the Bride (the Gentile church) and clothing her with the fine linen through the ministry of William M. Abraham. This fine linen is being worn as a result of the Bride’s full belief in the Word of God, which has been restored. This ministry must reveal the Bridegroom well enough for the Bride to fall in love with Him and have a perfect understanding of what He looks like; otherwise, it has failed.
Comparing the Ministries of the Bridegroom’s Friends
The ministry of William Branham parallels the ministry of Moses, as both were friends of the Bridegroom, introducing the Bride to her intended.
| Feature | Ministry of Moses (Introducing Jehovah to Israel) | Ministry of William M. Abraham (Introducing Christ to the Gentile Bride) |
| Accompanying Presence | Always accompanied by an Angel sent by God. The Angel led them (pillar of fire/cloud). | Accompanied by an Angel; the ministry was given by an Angel, and he could do nothing without that Angel on the scene. |
| Appearance/Identity | Looked so much like Jehovah, having all the components so the Jews could know their Husband. | Looked so much like Christ that some religious people called him Beelzebub, while others saw him as God. |
| Commissioning | Commissioned by an Angel appearing in the burning bush. | Commissioned by an Angel. |
| Signs and the Voice | Given two signs (hand becoming leprous, rod becoming a serpent). The objective was not the signs themselves, but the Voice that followed them: a call out of Egypt. | Given two signs, paralleling Moses. The objective was the Voice that followed them: a call out of denominationalism, out of Catholic systems, and out of the creeds of men (Egypt). |
The Voice that accompanies the sign is essential, as it lets you know where to place the messenger. A sign without a message or a voice is just lost in the crowd. For instance, Balaam had huge signs and prophesied Christ’s coming, but he was a false prophet because of his doctrine (the doctrine of Balaam), which taught people to eat things sacrificed to idols and commit fornication. If you remain in full obedience to God’s Word (the righteousness of the saint), no one can curse you.
The Promise of Full Adoption
Just as Moses was given a sneak peek into the Land of Promise, the ministry introducing the Gentile Bride must also be given a sneak peek into the promise awaiting her.
The promise made to the Bride in the New Testament is full restoration to sonship and full adoption. Currently, we are accepted only in Christ (the beloved), as we only have a down payment (intermediary adoption). But when the full purchase is done, we will be fully adopted. Paul described this time as seeing face-to-face and knowing as we are fully known by the Father.
Upon full adoption, we become co-heirs with Christ of God. We become sons of God, just as Christ is the Son of God, possessing the right, authority, and privileges of a son, without any intermediary. The major thing that this full adoption secures is the power of the spoken word. Just as God or Adam could speak things into existence, a fully adopted son of God would have that same authority.
God gave William Branham a sneak peek into this full adoption, most significantly during the squirrel hunting incident. In the most unlikely places, the voice instructed him to speak for squirrels to show up. He declared that the squirrels would come out, describing their color and tail, and this occurred three or four times. Crucially, he did not say, “in the name of Jesus Christ,” demonstrating the exercise of the power of the spoken word—a glimpse into the full adoption of the Bride.
The White Linen Seen Through Different Lenses
The ministry of William Branham is a ministry of restoration. Restoration is about bringing something back that already existed, not introducing anything new.
However, this message of fine linen and restoration is often viewed through various distorted lenses:
- Legalism: Legalists preach the message, viewing the white linen as forceful submission or external rules. However, there is liberty in Christ, and forceful submission is not an acceptable sacrifice. Beliefs not grounded in God’s Word (mere legalistic opinions or traditions) will crumble when challenged by criticism or environmental changes.
- Deification: Some people deify the man who brought the message. They cannot handle the fact that the messenger had his human side, mistakes, and weaknesses. For example, Moses had weaknesses (breaking the stone tablets in anger), but this did not reduce his standing as a messenger. Similarly, William Branham had weaknesses; he is not infallible. It is important not to lift any man more than is meet and to bring everything back to the Word.
- Partitionism/Fights: These individuals view the message through the lens of emotional fighting and disagreements (“I don’t agree with what you believe. I break up from you”).
- Intuitivism: Those who simply like new things throw the message away if they find it was preached by someone before, because they wrongly assume that for something to be the truth, it has to be new.
The core message remains a white linen; it is the lens through which you are looking that has the issue. Do not lose your vision of Christ, which is the Word of God. Keep your eyes ever on the Word. The message has come to give us restoration back to the Word of God.