A Prophet to the Gentiles
(based on the book by Terry Sproule)
- Chapter 1 -
Jesus was once asked by His disciples, "What shall be the sign of Your Coming and of the end of the world order" (Matthew 24:3)? He responded with a lengthy dissertation on events that must take place from that time to the consummation and concluded with "the sign of the fig tree" (Matthew 24:32).
There is little dispute among Bible students, that the fig tree represented Israel and that Jesus was indicating it would be the key sign to awaken the elect to the imminence of His second or 'parousia' Coming and the end of the world order. This prophesied restoration of Israel to statehood has seen its fulfillment only since the end of the Second World War.
This, of course, was not the only sign foretold in relation to the end of the Age and the Coming of Christ for His Bride. Actually, the prophetic list is quite lengthy, including such occurrences as the increase of knowledge, a repetition of the characteristics of the days of Noah and Lot, the rise of anti-Christ, a flourishing global economy, wars and earthquakes. Their current fulfillment and the ever-increasing turbulence of world affairs, has convinced scientist, economist, politician and psychic, as well as theologians that a major catastrophe is imminent.
- The Sign of the Prophet -
The purpose of this essay is to alert the reader to one more vitally significant sign which, likewise, has found its fulfillment in our day. This sign is unique in that it is God's essential warning before any major, scriptural happening. It is at once His most vivid and yet His most overlooked and misunderstood sign.
Amos 3:7, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing without first revealing His secret to His servants the prophets." God's pattern of dealing with His people has always included sending prophets. Amos states emphatically, "God does nothing without a prophetic forerunner" as disclosed by the most rudimentary study of scriptural history.
History also reveals that seldom was a prophet greeted with anything but skepticism and abuse. No matter how great their divine vindication, they suffered at the hands of those to whom they were sent. Jesus told the Pharisees in Matthew 23:31-36, "Your forefathers were guilty of the blood of all the prophets from Abel to Zechariah.
In this study, we will illustrate how, in maintaining the consistency of His Word, God promised the world a prophetic messenger to announce His Second Coming. We will show that only one ministry in this century could qualify as that messenger, and that William Branham was vindicated by God, and recognized by his contemporaries as a major prophet, then rejected by a wayward and arrogant Laodicean generation.
- What say the Scriptures -
Before discussing the life and ministry of William Branham, we will list some of the Scriptures which establish that a prophet was to forerun the Second Coming of Christ. It is commonly considered that since the first advent of Jesus Christ, God no longer uses prophets to minister to His people. A carnal interpretation of Scriptures such as Luke 16:16,"The Law and the prophets were until John," and Hebrews 1:1, "God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers in the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us in His Son..." is taken as proof of this. Let it be clearly understood, these Scriptures do not point to a cessation of prophets. They state only that the partial Word each Old Testament prophet uttered was fully expressed in Christ, the Logos (Word), when He appeared in flesh. The New Testament abounds with prophets after Christ, even aside from the prophetic ministries obviously manifest in the Apostles such as Peter, Paul and John.
Let the reader consider Ephesians 3:1-5:
"For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles - If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me toward you: how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, (or prophets - Ezekiel 2:1 - Ed), as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit".
Here Paul shows that New Testament prophets not only exist but are ordained to carry mysteries the Old Testament prophets (sons of men) under the Law could only see as a shadow. "In these last days God has spoken to us by His Son," defines the first advent. The Son is still speaking through His ordained messengers.
The Scriptures are equally clear that a prophetic ministry would be focal at the end of the world to restore the Gentiles to the apostolic faith or true Message of the Son, (the Logos or Word), and after the translation of Christ's Bride of all Ages, to carry the Message of Messiah to Israel during the great tribulation (Revelation 11). The following Scriptures point to our Gentile forerunner:
Amos 3:7, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, without first revealing His secret to His servants the prophets."
Remember - before any significant, Scriptural event, God always speaks to a prophet to deliver warning and a way of escape for believing souls. He spoke with Noah before the flood, Abraham before the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah; Moses to deliver Israel; John the Baptist before Christ's first advent, and Paul to write and deliver the New Testament revelation to we Gentiles.
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 will 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."
The Spirit of Elijah is here prophesied to precede the Day of the Lord. Any Bible student understands the great and dreadful Day of the Lord is Christ's Second or 'parousia' Coming to Israel in power and judgment after the end of the Gentile dispensation (Isaiah 2:12,19; I Thessalonians 5:2,3; II Peter 3:10).
Notice this twofold prophecy, Elijah will come:1. To turn the heart of the fathers to the children,
The following Scriptures show us where this prophecy was partially fulfilled.
2. To turn the heart of the children to their fathers.
Luke 1:17, "He shall go before Him in the Spirit and power of Elijah; 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."
This speaks of course, of John the Baptist, but notice: the Holy Spirit divided the prophecy of Malachi and showed John fulfilling the first part only; John did not precede the great and dreadful Day of the Lord, but the earthly ministry of Jesus as the Good Shepherd.
Matthew 17:10-12, "His disciples asked Jesus, Why do the scribes say that Elijah must first come? Jesus answered, Elijah truly is coming first, and will restore all things, but I say to you, that Elijah has come already and they knew him not..."
Notice how Christ maintains the continuity of the previous Scriptures, also dividing the prophecy concerning the Elijah ministry. Jesus indicates that part of the Elijah ministry is already fulfilled and part remains to be fulfilled. In this further aspect of the Elijah ministry, He declares he will "restore all things".
II Thessalonians 2:3, "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, until first there comes a falling away and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition".
Paul was stating the Lord's Day would not come until there was a "falling away." The Greek word is 'apostasia' and means a forsaking of the faith. If the reader continues through II Thessalonians 2, noting particularly verses 12 to 15, it becomes evident that Paul was warning of a falling away from the Word of God as brought by the Apostles. This is precisely what occurred from about the fourth century after the Roman Catholic church was organized at the first Nicea Council. By about 1200 it had replaced the authority of Scripture with the authority of the church and married Christianity with paganism. Since that time there has been a reformation of the Roman Catholic system of false worship, and more recently a relapse by the once Protestant churches into the apostasy of which Paul was speaking.
Acts 3:20-2l, "And He will send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began".
Peter also identifies the fact that before Christ can return physically, there must be a restoration. Notice the similarity to Matthew l7:11. Both indicate a "restoration of all things." Peter identifies these things as: "All things which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." It is a restoration of all the Word of God. What else is spoken through His prophets (II Peter 1:20-21)?
Now, let us now apply this Scriptural picture to our concluding text to establish:1. Elijah is to restore "all things" (Matthew 17:11.)
2. All things are to be restored before the second or 'parousia' Coming of Christ (Acts 3:21).
3. All things refer to God's unchanging Word as it was inspired and delivered through His prophets (Acts 3:21; II Thessalonians 2:3; II Peter 1:20-21).Revelation 10:7, "In the days of the Voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God already declared through His servants the prophets should be finished".
This seventh angel is identified as the messenger who would preach the mystery of God that has already been declared to the prophets. It is the mystery of Christ who was the firstborn and "beginning of God creating or manifesting Himself" into the flesh of His glorified Family (I Timothy 3:16; Colossians 1:18; Revelation 3:14). That incarnation was the whole Message of the early church prophets and apostles. This seventh angel then will reaffirm this same Word or Logos to the Gentile church.
The reader must be aware of the significance of the first three chapters of the Book of Revelation to the Gentile church. They describe the condition and characteristics of seven Gentile churches once located in Asia Minor. It is erroneous to presume that this discourse only had an application to John's day. The first verse of the Revelation describes its contents as "things which must shortly come to pass" (in the future), thus the entire Book is prophetic, beginning with the immediate future and continuing through the Gentile dispensation to the calling of the 144,000 Israelites, the millennium, the White Throne Judgment and even the new Jerusalem.
These seven churches then were also prophetic and their characteristics applied to seven Ages which would make up the whole dispensation allotted by God to we Gentiles. From Ephesus to Laodicea, each Age had an angel who would bring it a Message from God. The word "angel," means messenger and here it refers not to heavenly messengers but to earthly through which "the Spirit speaks to the churches." (See Appendix I - Angels). Over the past two thousand years, God raised up a succession of great, spiritual leaders such as Paul, Irenaeus, Martin, Columba, Luther, Wesley and Branham to preserve the faith, from age to age.
The reformers, particularly after the Dark Ages, were anointed to begin this restoration. God blessed the ministries of Luther and Wesley with mighty revivals as the Light of the Word was reopening to them. The followers of these messengers, however, refused to walk in the Light as God was continuing to unveil it, stopped at a partial restoration, organized, denominated, and died, assuming the identical formalistic characteristics of the organization from which they were once delivered. Hence Revelation 10:7 indicates that the ministry of the seventh angel, or the angel to the Laodicean Church Age, would sound the complete mystery of the unveiling of God manifest in His glorified Family, and how He redeemed the saints in each Age. When this final messenger arrives, he will declare all the Word - "all things," from which the early church apostatized and reveal the mysteries surrounding the threefold rapture and the second appearing of the Lord Jesus.
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