The controversies notwithstanding, we cannot be quiet about the fact that God did send us a prophet messenger for this age (Laodicea) in the person of William Marrion Branham. God, through him, fulfilled Malachi 4:6b, of course, a star in the right hand of God. The question now is, since this ministry is fulfilled already, can we say that his ministry has expired? Follow me as we scripturally answer this question.
Text: Matthew 24:24, Malachi 4:5-6, Genesis 3:15, 1Corinthinas 10:1, 1John 1:1-4, Malachi 4:5, 1Corinthians 1:11-, 2Peter 3:15, Philippians 1:12, Galatians 2:7-, 2Timothy 1:8, Revelation 1:20, Matthew 16:1-2, Psalms 119:105, John 9:4, Matthew 11:14, Act 19:1-5
First of all, it was in the mind of God that a new covenant would be established different from what was given to the children of Israel. Through Moses, the law was established for the children of Israel. These commandments were what made them peculiar people to God, that was what differentiated them from every other person in the world. Amen! We have two sets of people in the world according to scriptures: we have the Jews and the Gentiles. Through Moses and other Prophets, God dealt with them, in accordance with the covenant at work with them -the Old Testament.
At a point in time, the children of Israel were drawn to idols under King Ahab, and the commandment of God was obscured from the people such that they didn’t even know their God any longer. Then, God sent His Witness to them -Elijah. The children of Israel were sent two major prophets who, spiritually, are the two witnesses of God having earthly commission. Elijah came up to restore the people back to God and he stood firm against the doctrine (god) of Baal which Jezebel subtly enticed the people with, thus conquering them (Nicolaitan spirit). We see three spirits to be wrestled with against the standard of God’s truth (Nicolaitan spirit, Baal spirit and Jezebel spirit). 1 Kings 18 gives us this record and of course, it’s a known story. Since the debate was between who the true God was, the prophets of baal were summoned to call on their god and likewise did Elijah agree to call on his God, and whosoever answers by fire, would be the true God. This exercise was not foreign to the baal worshippers, their god was a god of fire, meaning they should have the result calling on their god, except that the True God would be known. The prophets of Baal were put to shame and the true God was made known to men. God used the ministry of this Elijah to establish the truth again in the land of Israel.
Because of this type of ministry, and the sovereignty of God to witness Himself throughout the world, He planned that He would raise people to function in the power and spirit of Elijah. Remember that Elisha took up the double portion of Elijah’s anointing which means he also functioned in the ministry of Elijah. Scripturally, this anointing of Elijah would function five times, but let’s consider what pertains to us.
The Gospel
When it was time for God to establish the new covenant, He sent a man to prepare the way before the Messenger of that Covenant would come as seen prophesied in Malachi 3:1
“Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.”
This ministry was fulfilled by John the Baptist, he was the one God used to prepare the way before the Testator of the New Covenant. His ministry was to the Jewish fathers to point them to the new curve God would be taking through Jesus Christ who is the Messenger of the New Covenant. The Bible explains this to us.
And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Luke 1:17
The fathers are the Jews who would be on earth to witness the new shift of the New Covenant, their heart (faith) would be converted to the faith of what the ministry of Jesus Christ would produce. And of course, the ministry of Jesus Christ did produce the apostles of the New Testament -who are referred to in the above scripture as “children”.
On the day of Pentecost, after Jesus had done what was needed for us to have the Holy Spirit. The Bible made us know that all men would be drawn to God once Jesus is glorified, and when he died and tendered his stainless blood on the throne of mercy, privilege was given to us to have the rivers of living water flow through us. And this was experienced first on the day of Pentecost, after they waited for ten days, the Holy Spirit descended on them, and God began to establish the modus operandi of the New Covenant. When Peter stood to preach the gospel to those who came near, surprised at their staggering, he showed them the right way of entering into the salvation Jesus brought us. He said in Act 2:38
And Peter says to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost”
Before you argue with Peter, I hope you know that he was the one given the key of the kingdom, and if you must have the Holy Spirit, you need to repent first and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit which is the seal of your salvation. You are not saved until you baptize in the name of Jesus Christ and are filled with the Holy Spirit. Amen! When Paul met the disciples of John in Acts 19 who had not the Spirit of God yet, Paul was moved to ask them by what name they were baptized. When he realized they still had the baptism of John, he showed them the New Covenant standard and when they heard the word, they were rebaptized in the name of Jesus Christ. This should let you know there is no other way.
This was what John came to forerun. Yes, but we need to establish that this John came in the power and spirit of “Elijah” which had been prophesied in Malachi. Let’s consider Malachi.
Malachi 4:5-6
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
From the scripture above, we realized two different days which definitely would have two different ministries but both in the power and spirit of Elijah. If you can recall Luke 1:17, you would realize that John the Baptist was the first Elijah who fulfilled the first aspect of the ministry –turning the heart of the fathers to the children.
The two events were joined together by the conjunction “and”. God used to join events that are thousands of years apart with this conjunction, we shouldn’t let that confuse us, please. Having this knowledge, it will be needed to know if the second ministry of Elijah has fulfilled, who fulfilled it and when it was fulfilled, and more so, consider if the fulfillment of the second ministry brought about the expiration of the ministry. But before then, we should consider if the ministry of the first Elijah (John the Baptist expired)
Can a Message Expire?
Truly, a message can expire and so is a ministry. The ministry of John the Baptist has expired (John 10:41). He was sent to prepare the way, and his ministry should decrease the moment the ministry if Jesus Christ is established. The Bible made us understand that John was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness to that Light. What men need is the Light, because everyone who would see God at the end of their race on earth must be lightened up by this Light (Jesus Christ). So, the expiration of his message did not come by his death (no, the death of a messenger does not make the message expire). That was why when Paul saw some disciples of John without the Holy Spirit, he made them know they were carrying over a message that had expired and showed them the new way of baptism.
Another reason for the expiration of his ministry was because he didn’t really come to restore anything, he only came to point men to Jesus Christ who was bringing the New Testament. There would not be any restoration to be done yet, because the New testament is just in view to establishing. The restoration of Malachi 4:5-6 would be accomplished by the second Elijah, we would know the reason for this very soon.
The Gentile Time
Yes, known to God are all His works from the beginning. He had a mystery locked up in Himself to engraft the Gentiles into the commonwealth of Israel such that we can partake of the blessings of Abraham, this mean that the Gentile would be converted from serving their dumb idols to serve the living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Oh, He had a plan that the middle wall of partition would be broken down and there wouldn’t be differences between Jews and Greeks any longer, for all will be reconciled in the ministry of Jesus Christ. And when God wanted to achieve this, he sent forth a man to bring the message to us -Gentiles, in the person of Paul. Paul was one of the foundational apostles of Jesus Christ through whom the arm of the Lord should spread towards the Gentiles. No one, who would know the true worship of Jehovah and despise the ministry of Paul, would worship right. In fact, the bible already revealed to us that in God’s dealership with the Gentiles, he’s going to operate with Seven stars that would last through the allotted dispensation for God to finish His work with the Gentiles -which of course will be seven dispensations. They are also called the seven church ages. Let’s see that;
“The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.” -Revelation 1:20
Paul was one of these stars, who established the Gentiles in the true word of God. he showed us the right baptismal formula, he showed us the position of women in the ministry of Jesus Christ and many more. He simply expounded the Present Truth to us, which is the truth of the New Testament. Paul told us in 1Corinthians 9:17 that a dispensation of the gospel was committed to him. We can also check that up in Ephesians 3:2, Colossians 1:25.
Paul told Timothy in 2Timothy 1:8: “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner:” Why do you think Paul told Timothy to not also be ashamed of him? Paul was an instrument through whom God shone His Light to the Gentiles. We wouldn’t have known how to approach the God of Israel as Gentiles if Paul was not sent to us. He was one of the foundation apostles who established the truth in the Gentile land. You cannot believe a message and not know the name of the messenger. Every age will have their Messenger (angel) through which the specific message for that age will be spoken. This should mean that, in order not to carry over an expired message, you need to recognize YOUR DAY AND ITS MESSAGE. When you know your day, you will know how to live.
The shape the gospel would take through time was pictured in the seven churches Jesus selected to write to, when he summoned John on the isle of Patmos. Well, the devil is always fighting the things of God, he came for gospel, and sowed tares amongst the wheat of God, and no sooner than the church started, corruption began to set in as the men God used in establishing the truth slept in the Lord. A Mixture of truth and falsehood set in and the church began to commit spiritual fornication, hardly was the doctrines of the apostles known, to talk of believing it or acting on it. Satan fought the church with the three spirits we earlier talked about, and it became necessary for God to send the spirit of Elijah to combat the antichrist’s spirit that had taken over the churches through the ages, and it God deemed it fit to send this Elijah at the close of the ages, the seventh -Laodicea. Now we know why another Elijah was promised to restore us back to the truth. But in this context, the children are no longer children. As the age progressed, the children grew and became fathers and gave birth to children. I’m saying that the ministry of Jesus gave birth to Peter, Paul and the rest of them, and they grew up and gave birth to children. The second Elijah therefore, was to restore the heart of the children who are recipients of the last church age, the Laodicea to the Fathers (the apostles of Jesus Christ). In actual sense, we are restored to their faith, the revelation of the New Testament.
The Seventh Messenger
In Revelation 10:7, the bible says, “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.”
Unequivocally, we can see that the mystery to engraft the Gentiles in had an allotted time span, and during the voice of the seventh angel, that mystery would end. So, we have a question: is the church in the last church age? Yes! Has God sent us Elijah? Yes! In the person of William Marrion Branham.
Truly, the ministry of Malachi 4:5-6 has been fulfilled. God used William Branham to fulfill the second aspect of the Elijah ministry needed to restore the heart of the children back to the Apostolic Fathers of Jesus Christ. More so, it pleased the Lord to fulfill this ministry in the last dispensation of the Gentile time, which is the Laodicea age, and a messenger’s voice will be relevant as long as his age lasts. Yes, this has indeed been fulfilled but the fulfillment does not render the ministry obsolete so long as his age lasts. Although the Prophet is dead, and has long gone since 1965, his message has not expired! Here’s why?
The restoration God did through William Branham was a staunch restoration from Genesis to Revelation, and His message points to the rapture! As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming of Christ, he was sent with a message to forerun the second coming of Christ, and his restoring us to the whole bible truth, and our aligning to it to the letter makes us fit for the rapture. William Branham did not come with another message outside of the Bible, to say it as it is, His sole message was a shout that yelps, “BACK TO THE BIBLE”. When we are restored back to the Bible, then we can be revived thus, perfected.
If you happen to be in this age, let me take the bold to tell you that there’s no other message God is using to restore or will use to harvest His people in the rapture than the message He’s given to His humble messenger. We are not restored to Branham, but God through the sharp sword of His word and revelation through him, restore us back to HIMSELF. Amen!
Yes, this seventh messenger’s ministry also gave birth to the ministry of the fivefold, but that is in no way replacing the position of the seventh messenger. God is not an author of confusion, He won’t raise two voices in an age. We are in the seventh church age, and our messenger is William Branham.
Revival upon this generation can only come when we are in the ministry of Restoration. There’s nowhere God will meet with you except in the message of your day; God is not haphazard.
The Cry, The Shout and the Voice
There are three descriptions the Bible used in telling the ministry of the seventh messenger, all pointing to His ministry. Let’s check the scriptures for that:
“And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” -Matthew 25:6
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout…” -1Thessalonians 4:16
“But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” – Revelation 10:7
Praise God for this great ministry that revived us back to life, because except that God sent us the prophet, we would all be dead in religion, and our end can only be peril. The message, if you have heard it right, only points us back to one thing -the word of God. The prophet never used the ministry to build an empire for himself, thereby pointing to himself, he stayed with the word and his message was indeed one. The various idolatries we see amongst message believers today did not come from him, to say it really, those in that error are not even message believers, they are idolaters.
The Fivefold Ministry
Like I said before, the ministry of the prophet messenger of the seventh church age gave birth to another ministry. Because God through him had restored the church back to the original word of God, God can then begin a work of perfection, so that the church will be fit for rapture. And that was commissioned to the fivefold ministry. Let’s check the scripture:
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; -Ephesians 4:11-14
God allowed the prophet to make dual statements, which he really did not live to explain them by the scriptures. Also, the revelation God gave to him needed to be expounded because the essence of God giving revelation is not so we could pile up intellectual properties, but to have a life worthy of the gospel. So, God decided to continue the furtherance of the message of the gospel through the fivefold ministry. But, the ministry of the fivefold cannot replace the position of the prophet. This ministry also is not different from the message of the prophet, but a continuation of it. The fivefold ministry is not preaching a different Godhead doctrine, not another baptism doctrine. There is nothing the fivefold (if she’s the true fivefold), is teaching that wasn’t gotten from the ministry of the seventh messenger. To think that the fivefold is an entirely different ministry from the Shout is nothing but self glorification. Again, God is only using her to further what God achieved through the message of William Branham. We should be humble, please.
The Present Truth
We’ve been able to establish that God only gave two covenants, the Old and the New. The old which came by Moses, and the New which came by Jesus Christ. Therefore, no fivefold ministry preaching a different message today and calling it the present truth is correct. The New Testament is the only present truth because it is actually different from what God brought through Moses. The New Testament which was established by Jesus Christ and through the apostles is the present truth, nothing more.
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. -2Peter 1:10-12.
In conclusion, let me ask you: have you recognized your day? Do you know its message? Have you seen the light? God has got no other medium of harvesting His own than with His pure word. Believe the word, believe the message, don’t make an idol out of the messenger but respect his position, you cannot replace him regardless of how anointed you are in your respective ministries. His ministry cannot be substituted with another. Don’t be part of those who demean the prophet all because they’re trying to avoid extremism. Read the sermon books -they point to the bible.
I encourage you to embrace the gift that God has sent to us in this age, don’t miss out. God has shown us the way brothers, it is none other than the message of the hour.