- 2 months ago
Personal prophecy has become one of the most influential—and controversial—practices in the modern charismatic movement. In this episode, John Collins and Chino Ross examine the rise of prophetic culture, the promise of receiving a personal “word from the Lord,” and the often-overlooked dangers that can follow when individuals allow others to direct major life decisions through claimed revelations.
Drawing from historical examples, firsthand experiences, and documented cases from across the charismatic world, they explore failed prophecies, spiritual manipulation, prophetic excesses, and the psychological impact of predictions that never come to pass. Along the way, they discuss famous prophetic stories, examine the roots of modern prophetic ministry, and ask an important question: What happens when believers begin looking to prophets for guidance that Scripture never intended them to provide?
Whether you’re familiar with prophetic movements or simply curious about the role of prophecy in modern Christianity, this conversation offers a thoughtful examination of discernment, authority, accountability, and the real-world consequences of personal prophecy.
00:00 Introduction
02:59 Hobart Freeman’s Ministry Began with Personal Prophecy
05:36 Freeman Calls His Son-in-Law to Be a Prophet
08:48 It’s Your Teeth”
15:38 Absurd and Failed Personal Prophecies
18:30 Hobart Freeman’s Admiration for William Branham
22:23 The Supernatural Squirrel-Hunting Story
25:35 Examining the Hunting Story’s Contradictions
29:10 How the Story Shaped Freeman’s View of Faith
33:15 Listening to Miracle Stories with Discernment
34:48 Why Freeman’s Education Made Him Persuasive
37:52 Personal Prophecy in a Memphis Church
40:13 Prophets Roger Teal and Stanley Rankin
43:30 The Lasting Influence of Personal Prophecies
45:07 Personal Prophecy as Religious Fortune-Telling
48:38 Why People Participate in Prophecy Lines
51:08 Life-Altering Decisions Based on Personal Prophecy
52:42 Prophecy as a Tool of Manipulation
55:10 Rejecting Personal Prophecy
56:33 The Harm Caused by Failed Prophecies
58:06 Conclusion
______________________
Weaponized Religion: From Christian Identity to the NAR:
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1735160962
Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCGGZX3K
______________________
– Support the channel: https://www.patreon.com/branham
– Subscribe to the channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBSpezVG15TVG-lOYMRXuyQ
– Visit the website: https://william-branham.org
– Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WilliamBranhamOrg
– Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@william.m.branham
– Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/wmbhr
– Buy the books: https://william-branham.org/site/books
Drawing from historical examples, firsthand experiences, and documented cases from across the charismatic world, they explore failed prophecies, spiritual manipulation, prophetic excesses, and the psychological impact of predictions that never come to pass. Along the way, they discuss famous prophetic stories, examine the roots of modern prophetic ministry, and ask an important question: What happens when believers begin looking to prophets for guidance that Scripture never intended them to provide?
Whether you’re familiar with prophetic movements or simply curious about the role of prophecy in modern Christianity, this conversation offers a thoughtful examination of discernment, authority, accountability, and the real-world consequences of personal prophecy.
00:00 Introduction
02:59 Hobart Freeman’s Ministry Began with Personal Prophecy
05:36 Freeman Calls His Son-in-Law to Be a Prophet
08:48 It’s Your Teeth”
15:38 Absurd and Failed Personal Prophecies
18:30 Hobart Freeman’s Admiration for William Branham
22:23 The Supernatural Squirrel-Hunting Story
25:35 Examining the Hunting Story’s Contradictions
29:10 How the Story Shaped Freeman’s View of Faith
33:15 Listening to Miracle Stories with Discernment
34:48 Why Freeman’s Education Made Him Persuasive
37:52 Personal Prophecy in a Memphis Church
40:13 Prophets Roger Teal and Stanley Rankin
43:30 The Lasting Influence of Personal Prophecies
45:07 Personal Prophecy as Religious Fortune-Telling
48:38 Why People Participate in Prophecy Lines
51:08 Life-Altering Decisions Based on Personal Prophecy
52:42 Prophecy as a Tool of Manipulation
55:10 Rejecting Personal Prophecy
56:33 The Harm Caused by Failed Prophecies
58:06 Conclusion
______________________
Weaponized Religion: From Christian Identity to the NAR:
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1735160962
Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCGGZX3K
______________________
– Support the channel: https://www.patreon.com/branham
– Subscribe to the channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBSpezVG15TVG-lOYMRXuyQ
– Visit the website: https://william-branham.org
– Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WilliamBranhamOrg
– Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@william.m.branham
– Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/wmbhr
– Buy the books: https://william-branham.org/site/books
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LearningTranscript
00:31Hello, and welcome to another episode of the William Branham Historical Research Podcast.
00:35I'm your host, John Collins, the author and founder of William Branham Historical Research
00:40at william-branham.org, and with me I have my co-host, minister, and friend, Cheno Ross,
00:45pastor and the voice of the understanding scripture and truth by Cheno D. Ross' YouTube
00:50channel.
00:51Cheno, it's good to be back and to talk about personal prophecies.
00:55I grew up in this weird world where I wasn't really at the bottom with the rank and file
01:01member, and I wasn't really at the top because I didn't have any money, but there's this weird
01:06tear in between the central figure and the rank and file member where you kind of see
01:10what's going on, and you're in the know, but you know just enough to be dangerous, and my
01:16family was in that section, so we saw some things that were weird.
01:20My family, most of them stayed in it.
01:23We did escape my immediate family, my wife and my kids, but we saw personal prophecies,
01:29and these things were outlandish.
01:33I'm just going to be honest with you.
01:35We heard about personal prophecies.
01:37We had legend of personal prophecies.
01:39We had everything.
01:41The greatest one for me was, no matter what I do in this life, Cheno, I am saved.
01:46I have a get-out-of-jail-free card.
01:48I could go do whatever I want.
01:50This man, William Brandon, prophesied to my grandfather, all your children and your
01:55grandchildren will be saved, and my grandfather wasn't the only one that he did this to, so
02:01we all had get-out-of-jail-free cards, and there were people, he told one guy that, now
02:07whenever I come back, I'm going to drive around from coast to coast, and I'm going to have the
02:12biggest tent ever, and I'm going to need you to help me fly it around from city to city.
02:18Can you get me an airplane?
02:20And the guy bought the airplane after Branham died, expecting Branham to come back.
02:25The plane set out until I think it's no longer mobile out in Arizona.
02:30I can't tell you how many million dollars.
02:33I mean, this was one of those big jumbo jets.
02:35It was a million dollars or more way back then, and it sat there waiting on personal
02:40prophecy to be fulfilled, and that's just two of the weirdest ones.
02:44I could go on for probably the next hour and a half, but needless to say, personal
02:49prophecy is the most dangerous, the most absurd, and quite frankly, the stupidest
02:54thing that I've ever encountered in religion.
02:57Well, we were talking the last time you and I got together and did a podcast, John, about
03:03personal prophecy as it related to Hobart Freeman's ministry.
03:07I think in the past weeks prior or months prior to that, we had given the history of how Hobart's
03:17charismatic ministry came to be, and that was through personal prophecy.
03:23When in June of 1966, he had traveled down to a Gordon Lindsay deliverance seminar and had
03:31been prophesied over by the prophetess, Anna Schrader.
03:37So it's very interesting to look in the next few years of Dr. Freeman's teaching ministry
03:43when he is now back in Indiana.
03:47He regularly taught against personal prophecy.
03:52I think he had enough experience and probably enough common sense to know and to have seen
04:02a few cases where person A is giving a word from the Lord.
04:08That's the way they always phrase it.
04:11I have a word from the Lord for you, brother.
04:12Do you want to receive it, man?
04:15You know, who, who, who in their right mind would say, no, I don't want a word from the
04:20Lord.
04:21So they've already got you hooked by saying, I've got a word from the Lord for you.
04:26And I think Hobart had seen maybe some problems with that.
04:32And so he frequently taught against it.
04:35And, and whenever he taught against it, I thought it was good.
04:39I mean, he would use first Corinthians 14 and verse three saying prophecy is, is generally
04:46not prediction.
04:47It's generally not to direct people's lives.
04:50It's for edification, exhortation, and comfort.
04:53So I always found it fascinating, John, that he taught against it, yet his ministry was based
05:03upon it and he himself frequently practiced it.
05:08So the only thing I could figure is, well, maybe ministers are an exception.
05:13You know, maybe rank and file members in the church are not allowed to give or receive personal
05:21prophecy, but since Anna Schrader was a prophetess, quote unquote, and Hobart was a minister,
05:28then she could prophesy to him, his future ministry, and then he could prophesy to other
05:34people.
05:36And so I know in our, in our previous talk together, we had a fairly long clip that people
05:44heard on from a message entitled ministering by the spirit.
05:48It was done in, um, the glory barn in 1973, the second half from what I can figure of 1973.
05:59And I say that the second half, because, uh, one of the, the, what we listened to and one
06:05of the highlights of that tape or that message, it really wasn't a teaching.
06:10It was Hobart giving words of knowledge, prophecies, tongues and interpretation, um, personal words
06:17to people was whenever he gave a personal word to Bruce Kinsey, who just happened to be his son-in
06:26-law
06:26married to his middle daughter, Kathy.
06:29And that word to Bruce called him into the ministry as a prophet.
06:35And I don't know how many people who are Freeman followers today.
06:39Remember that, or maybe they don't even know anything about it, but that message is available
06:44on YouTube.
06:45You can go listen to it yourself.
06:47Uh, you don't have to just hear the clip we played.
06:50You can hear the whole message or it's not a message.
06:54As I say, it's just Hobart, um, having words of knowledge and all of these things for people,
07:00according to him.
07:01Um, and as you're, as the years went by and I put the pieces of the puzzle together, I
07:08realized Bruce had just been, um, recently converted.
07:12He had just been saved.
07:14I think that year.
07:15And he was a, he was one of those so-called hard cases.
07:19Um, he had married Hobart's daughter, Kathy.
07:21Kathy was not supposed to be dating an unsaved boy.
07:25So she had to do all of this, you know, by her own admission and by Bruce's admission,
07:30he had to do all this, um, behind her, her parents back.
07:36Uh, June didn't even know they were married whenever they got married.
07:40So Kathy is out sneaking around by their own admission.
07:44You know, she met a guy at a pizza parlor.
07:46She thought he was cute.
07:47I guess, I don't know.
07:49And ended up dating and ended up marrying Bruce.
07:52And Bruce wanted nothing to do with religion, especially not this charismatic version of
07:57it in the glory barn.
07:58So for Bruce to have gotten converted, and I think Bruce was born again and saved, and
08:04now a member of the glory barn, that was a feather in Dr. Freeman's cap here.
08:09You know, my son-in-law has been converted, you know, from heathenism to Christianity.
08:15So I just think it was all in the spirit of the moment of that year that now Hobart feels
08:21like he has a prophecy to give a brand new Christian, save not less than a year that
08:27he's calling him into the ministry as a prophet.
08:30Well, we know that never realized itself, never materialized.
08:36Later on, you know, within 10 years, Bruce was actually leaving the church because he
08:42no longer agreed with all of his father-in-law stuff.
08:45But something else that I wanted just to mention in that very same YouTube message entitled
08:55Ministering by the Spirit, later on in that message, because Hobart's giving words to
09:02different people, Bruce and Kathy, Steve and Pam, somewhere around the 41-minute mark, we're
09:08not going to play this.
09:09Because people can go listen to it for themselves, and you'll see why I'm telling this particular
09:15story.
09:16Dr. Freeman just says all of a sudden, Brother Reeser, it's your teeth.
09:24Well, the reason I say that is because the Reeser couple, George and Lillian, were a very
09:32well-known couple from way back early days under Freeman's ministry at the Glory Barn.
09:40And I'm going to tell the story the way it actually happened, but I'm not going to reveal
09:47any details of Reeser, what can I say, relatives that I have talked to having done these podcasts
09:57with you.
09:58The Reesers were pretty important people, at least the parents were, and so they've children,
10:05grandchildren, other relatives.
10:07So I won't say which relatives, but I have talked to Reeser relatives, and I don't know
10:12if they're still following the podcast, but I'm really curious to know, did they realize
10:19what Hobart said to their dad, George, Brother Reeser, it's your teeth.
10:27My connection to the Reesers is very interesting, John, and it goes back very early.
10:32You know, I first learned of Hobart Freeman in 1976, and I immediately that summer in August
10:39made a trip to the Glory Barn.
10:40So in my trip to the Glory Barn, I was able to meet some people, and you know, I was
10:4717 years
10:47old, but I was able to meet some people.
10:50I never met the Reesers, but I heard about this wonderful missionary couple, George and
10:57Lillian Reeser, who were missionaries to the Central American country.
11:04Back then, it was known as British Honduras.
11:07I think later in the early 1980s, it became known as Belize.
11:12And George and Lillian, about whom I have nothing but good things to say.
11:18So if Reesers' relatives are listening, don't worry, I don't have anything bad to say about
11:23George and Lillian, because I found out who they were.
11:27I was able to get their address, and I thought, how cool, you've got missionaries down in British
11:33Honduras carrying this faith message, this healing message, Freeman's message down there.
11:39And I knew they were from Cherubusco, Indiana, which is up in kind of like the northeast corner
11:46of the state.
11:47And I thought, I'm going to start supporting them financially.
11:51Now, I didn't send much, because I'm a kid, I don't have much, but I'm going to, you know,
11:55start sending them money.
11:56And so I did, and then I would receive a postcard, which was just very cool for a 17-year
12:04-old
12:04to get a postcard in the mail from British Honduras, and it was from Lillian Reeser.
12:10And she was just a lovely, very well-known part of that church, very well-known for doing
12:19a lot of cassette tapes geared towards children.
12:23So she had like a children's teaching ministry, and yet they were missionaries in a Central American
12:32country.
12:34I wonder, when Dr. Freeman said, Brother Reeser, it's your teeth, he said, God wants me to pray
12:42for your teeth.
12:43And I'm sure, you know, George was there.
12:46He was, you know, back on furlough or something from missionary duty down in Central America,
12:52and he went up for the healing of his teeth.
12:55And I don't know what that involved.
12:57Was he missing teeth?
12:58Did he have cavities?
12:59He's, I don't know, relatives, descendants, children, grandchildren may know, but I wonder
13:07what happened whenever he was prayed for.
13:10I did find out from talking to Reeser relatives that, and they are welcome to correct me if
13:18I'm wrong in my memory on what they said, but that George Reeser did unfortunately continue
13:23to remain a loyal follower of Dr. Freeman's, and if I remember correctly, did die from some
13:32disease.
13:32I don't know what it was, but it was not a happy death or a happy ending.
13:39Lillian, his widow, ended up marrying, believe it or not, Don Nye, who was the person who had
13:47allowed Faith Assembly to build, to erect their new church building on his property.
13:53This was Don Nye's third wife because his first two wives had died of illnesses.
14:01I can't say whether treatable or not.
14:04It depends on when you caught the illness.
14:07And so I guess my point in telling that story is I think George and Lillian Reeser were really
14:14good Christian people, and like so many people who have followed Dr. Freeman or NAR today or
14:22whomever, they just got hooked up with the wrong character.
14:25And here they are going through, I don't know what, you know, as a missionary in Central America.
14:30That's not the life I get to live.
14:32I live in a comfortable home in the United States of America.
14:36That was a big ordeal to go and do something like that, and especially do it under the,
14:41you know, the influence or the auspices of a message like Dr. Freeman's.
14:46And then for Dr. Freeman to say, Brother Reeser, it's your teeth.
14:51You know, I hope, I hope that he went up and got prayed for and his teeth were miraculously
14:57healed.
14:58My guess would be he went up and was prayed for, and they probably weren't.
15:03And then he had to struggle with why they weren't.
15:06Well, it's definitely not Dr. Freeman's fault.
15:09It's definitely not the message's fault that we've been taught.
15:11It must be my fault.
15:13There must be sin in my life, or I must have a lack of faith.
15:18So when I look at myself, John, here, 50 years, literally 50 years later from when I first
15:25heard of the Reesers, and then I learned how things ended up with them, and you put all
15:30these pieces together.
15:32There's just so much dysfunction and so much trauma has happened in all of these people's
15:37lives.
15:38I mentioned before that these personal prophecies can become dangerous, but I also mentioned
15:42they could be absurd.
15:43And I'll read you something that happened in the prayer lines of the ministry that Hobart
15:51Freeman was referencing whenever he said William Branham was God's prophet.
15:55Everybody who was part of this movement believed this, and even if they did not believe his
16:00doctrine, they believed that when people approached him on the stage, the power of God flowed through
16:05Branham into these people.
16:06That was widespread belief, even though that, you know, some of them didn't adhere to the
16:11doctrine.
16:11But this lady approaches him, and he's giving personal prophecy during the prayer lines.
16:17And I think that's the part that most historians miss, because they think if you are a historian
16:23sympathetic to Branham, or Branhamism, or NAR, any of this thing, you believe that that's
16:29not really personal prophecy.
16:30That is something that's for the whole people.
16:33It's for edifying the body of Christ to come through this healing line.
16:36But this lady brings her husband up to William Branham to be prayed for.
16:43And the way it worked, you would put in a prayer card, and you might write your name and your
16:47address, and he would tell you your name and your address like any of the gimmicks.
16:51But sometimes they didn't really fill out what the disease was or the affliction was in full.
16:58And so Branham had to, I guess the word is guess what it was.
17:03So the lady comes up, and he starts talking to the person, and he's trying to get a little
17:12bit to know him so that he can cold read, I think is what was happening.
17:17And he starts praying and says, and now he can hear.
17:22He can hear now.
17:23Can you hear me?
17:23And he starts talking.
17:26And the lady, you don't hear this in any of the history books, but the lady, it says
17:31in brackets, the lady says, he isn't deaf.
17:33He has a hardening of the arteries.
17:34He can't talk.
17:36And he says, can't talk?
17:38Well, he's sure doing a good job of it now.
17:40And the lady says, well, there are a lot of words that he can't say.
17:43He can say some words, but not all words.
17:45In other words, he is afflicted.
17:48He's struggling.
17:49And they actually got an argument.
17:51And she finally says, look, it's not his hearing.
17:53In fact, it was his hearing and his speech.
17:56And so the conversation shifts where he's trying to, now he's trying to walk back what
18:02he said, that it's not the healing.
18:04Well, that was a personal prophecy.
18:05And that's one of the absurd ones, because it really does nobody any good.
18:10The guy left more confused about, well, does God not know what I have?
18:14This is kind of silly.
18:16And I wonder if when George Reeser walked out of the prayer line, he was more confused
18:23than when he went up.
18:24I mean, you know, he's expecting his teeth to be healed.
18:27And whether they were or not, I don't know.
18:29But speaking of William Branham, we've got a wonderful clip we will listen to here in a
18:35moment.
18:36It was on a message entitled, The Gift of Faith, which Hobart taught in the glory barn the
18:41same year that he had that ministering by the Spirit, by the Holy Spirit.
18:46This was in 1973.
18:48Dr. Freeman was heavily influenced by William Branham.
18:51And to this day, we have people pushing back saying, no, he wasn't influenced by Branham.
18:58Um, and I guess they're just, I mean, they're just denying the obvious and the obvious isn't,
19:04isn't, you know, my opinion versus their opinion.
19:08It's just go listen to the, any of the cassettes from the, any of the messages from the late
19:12sixties through the, you know, I don't know, the first half of the 1970s.
19:17Hobart continued to believe in Branham, but he began post 1975, trying to distance himself
19:23a little bit, um, not because Branham was now teaching weird things.
19:28Branham had been dead for 10 years.
19:30It's probably Hobart was becoming a little more, um, concerned about his own reputation.
19:35So I better, I better still stay with him as God's prophet.
19:39He always said his famous statement was, I don't care what anybody says.
19:45I believe William Branham was God's prophet, but then he would distance himself from some
19:51of the teachings that he had heard from Branham cassette tapes because Hobart was trying to
19:57refine his own theology.
19:59But in this, in this message, uh, entitled the gift of faith, he's going to talk about
20:06William Branham, um, which we'll listen to here in just a moment.
20:10I'll just kind of introduce it with what I'm saying now.
20:13And he's going to tell one of these famous, uh, Colorado hunting stories.
20:18And what's interesting is this is just one of maybe, I don't know, six or eight or maybe
20:2710 different stories on this same message, the gift of faith, where Hobart always did
20:34very little Bible teaching.
20:36It was use a verse and then tell just incredible stories.
20:42And I'm sure I was, this was one of the early tapes I heard because when I was first began
20:49listening to Dr.
20:50Freeman in 1976, he didn't have just a whole lot of tapes.
20:55He didn't have the tape list that he ended up with when he died in December of 1984.
21:01So the gift of faith from 1973 would have been one that I listened to.
21:06And it was simply fascinating.
21:08So he tells that William Branham, this great man of God, and he said he had hundreds of
21:15thousands, those are his words of people healed in his prayer lines, hundreds of thousands
21:22of the gift of the word of knowledge.
21:26And Gordon Lindsay was his crusade director.
21:29And Gordon Lindsay said, William Branham never missed it, never made a mistake.
21:37So this is what we are being told.
21:40This is the buildup to hearing stories of this famous prophet, William Branham.
21:48And we have played an earlier clip.
21:51It's not on this tape where Hobart Freeman said, William Branham, William Marion Branham had
21:59the greatest ministry in the history of the Christian church since the time of the Apostle Paul.
22:08So that's what he thought of him.
22:11So if we can, John, let's hear this.
22:13It is from 35 minute, 30 second mark through 38 minute and 47 second mark.
22:22And William Branham said when that anointing was there, the gift of faith was always operating
22:27in his ministry, and he couldn't doubt.
22:29He said when the anointing was not there, he said, I'm like a baby.
22:34He says, I can't do anything.
22:36You know, as far as those tremendous miracles and things that took place in his ministry.
22:42Literally hundreds of thousands of people healed and hundreds of thousands of manifestations
22:50of the word of knowledge.
22:51And Gordon Lindsay, who was his crusade director in all those early years, in fact, most of the
22:56time up until, say, in the middle 50s, our late 50s, I suppose, said that he's seen it
23:05operate tens of thousands of times.
23:07He never once ever made a mistake in diagnosing a disease or casting out a demon or anything
23:14he said always came to pass when he was under that anointing.
23:17So he said one time the Lord taught him how this gift of faith operated, and he was up
23:21in Colorado.
23:22He would take a month off.
23:24He'd minister, you know, very hard, and then he wouldn't take a week's vacation.
23:28He'd take a month or two and go up there, get him a horse, and he was quite a hunter.
23:36A woodsman, and he said he was one day in the woods, wherever he was in this particular
23:40area, and I think it was Colorado.
23:42That doesn't matter, this particular time.
23:44But he said he was out squirrel hunting in the season when there were no squirrels.
23:48You know, they're just seasons, they don't even come out.
23:51But he was just out, you know, in case he might see one, because he liked to be out in
23:55the woods, and he said the voice of the Lord came to him.
23:57He said this anointing first came on him.
23:59He couldn't figure out what it was for, because he was out by himself, miles from anybody.
24:03He said, the voice of the Lord came and said, whatever you speak, I will do.
24:11Well, what do you do?
24:14Claim all the people in the First Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, be saved, or that
24:22the moon will turn to blood, or what?
24:24You know, he said, anything you speak.
24:27Now, friends, he didn't say anything but.
24:33That happened once before when he spoke the word about somebody to be saved, and they
24:38just, I think it was one or two, William Branham tells them, he said, just as he spoke it, they
24:42just, they fell on their knees and repented, and they didn't even know what was happening.
24:46Just as he spoke it, they just, they fell on their knees and repented, and they didn't
24:49even know what was happening.
24:52He just decreed two people would be saved, and they fell on their knees and repented.
24:58And he, I mean, they didn't hear this.
25:00He was doing it under this anointing.
25:02And so, what do you ask for?
25:03Well, he said, Lord, he said, then I decree that three, and this is out of the squirrel
25:08season, three gray squirrels come out on that limb, and that I hit everyone with the first
25:12shot with this rifle.
25:13Did you ever shoot squirrels with a rifle?
25:16That's a pretty good trick, even without the anointing.
25:21If you don't think it is, go ahead and try it.
25:24Now, there are no squirrels, and he said he had no sooner spoken the word until a gray
25:29squirrel came out on the limb.
25:32Plunk, plunk, plunk, three of them.
25:35So, you know, when you carefully listen to this story, it's a hunting story, a squirrel
25:39hunting story with William Branham out in Colorado.
25:44And you carefully listen to it, there are just so many red flags.
25:49You know, Freeman wasn't a hunter.
25:51I am a hunter.
25:53I was raised in the woods.
25:55My father was a hunter.
25:56He was a fisherman.
25:58I've spent my whole life since I was old enough to hold a gun or carry a fishing pole, either
26:04on the water or in the woods.
26:07And you can tell when a story is being told by somebody who has never hunted and doesn't
26:13know anything about hunting or guns.
26:15And by the way, let me just parenthetically, I'm getting ahead of myself, but say this.
26:19Remember that at one of the last two messages Hobart Freeman ever preached, he came out with
26:25this new great revelation that overcomers are not allowed to hunt.
26:31They're not allowed to have or use weapons of death, weapons of death, weapons of destruction.
26:37And that's one of the reasons that Bruce left, Bruce Kinsey left, and just caused a lot of
26:42problems.
26:43So I find this interesting, Dr. Freeman, that this is a truth that Christians can't use
26:49guns.
26:49And yet, William Branham was the greatest minister since the Apostle Paul.
26:55But man, he was sinning in his life all the time because he was always going hunting somewhere.
27:01So, you know, stuff like that, John, never made any sense to me in Hobart's life.
27:05He was so contradictory.
27:07He'd say one thing one year and contradict himself, you know, five years later, and you
27:12could never make heads or tails of it.
27:15But he said that William Branham is out, he'd take a month off, and he'd go to Colorado.
27:20He'd get a horse, and then he'd go squirrel hunting in the woods.
27:24And then he'd say, now this, you know, when you hear the story, you just laugh.
27:28This was the time of year when there were no squirrels.
27:31Well, then why is a guy hunting then, you know?
27:33So, an experienced hunter like Branham would know this is not the time.
27:38There's always squirrels.
27:39Squirrels were always in the woods.
27:41Now, there might not have been hunting seasons back in those days.
27:44Today, we have seasons.
27:46This is when fall squirrel season opens.
27:49This is when summer squirrel season opens here in Kentucky.
27:53But Hobart said, because he's trying to make this story be as dramatic as possible.
27:58So, he said, so he goes, he's got his rifle, he's in the woods, and this is not the time
28:04when you'll normally see any squirrels.
28:08And so, God tells him that whatever he says will come to pass.
28:15So, this is the gift of faith operating.
28:18You can just say whatever you want to say, and it will come to pass.
28:23And so, what William Branham said is, I want three squirrels to come out on that limb,
28:29and I want to hit each one of them with the first shot, plunk, plunk, plunk, I think is
28:35what Dr. Freeman says.
28:37And then Dr. Freeman says, and with a rifle.
28:40And now, if any of you know, that's really hard to do.
28:43No, that is easy to do.
28:44That's the way most people go squirrel.
28:47Now, you can shoot them with a 20-gauge shotgun, but a lot of people love to go to the
28:52squirrel
28:52woods with a rifle.
28:53So, Hobart telling the story is very telling to me as a lifelong hunter.
28:59I can tell he doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.
29:02But anyway, here comes three squirrels out on the limb, and plunk, plunk, plunk, he gets
29:09all three.
29:10And so, this is Hobart's background to gifts of the spirit.
29:14This is the way gifts of the spirit are supposed to operate.
29:18This is the way God speaks to people.
29:21This is the way, you know, the gift of faith operates, you know, in this bizarre way for
29:27a man who, I think William Brandon probably was an experienced hunter.
29:31I don't know.
29:32If he wasn't, you can contradict me here in a minute, John.
29:35But you don't, I mean, you don't need God to tell you, and you don't need any help killing
29:40squirrels.
29:40You just go out and go squirrel hunting.
29:42You know, it's not the gifts that we see in the Bible that are for the church's benefit
29:48and that are to actually help people.
29:51So, I don't know.
29:53It's just totally amazing to me in looking back that an adult male, a seminary professor
30:01with an earned doctor's degree in theology, fell for stuff like this.
30:07It simply amazes me.
30:09I don't know if you've ever been squirrel hunting, but there's a point in time when
30:13you're sitting there waiting for the squirrel.
30:15And yes, you do hunt it with a rifle.
30:17You can't hit the dang things with a pistol unless they're really close to you.
30:21But you're sitting there and you're waiting and you're seeing nothing because those things
30:25sit on the other side of the tree.
30:26And so, you're sitting there hoping that they don't notice you.
30:30And you may sit there and there comes a point when you say, okay, I'm going to give it like
30:3510 more seconds and then I'm going to get out of here.
30:37And you count the 10 and then you say, well, I'm going to give it another 10.
30:40And those like me who are impatient, you just can't sit there forever.
30:45It's boring, right?
30:46I have a strong suspicion that he was the boring type of person.
30:50He liked the big game hunts where he would go out and pay an excursion team and they would
30:55take him and you can find photos of him doing this though.
30:58They're taking these Jeeps and they say, all right, right.
31:01There's a whole herd you can't miss.
31:03And he's getting these big game, right?
31:05Well, he goes squirrel hunting.
31:06And what's funny about it is the story grows over time.
31:10He tells the story and like anybody, he's sitting there and he says, oh, Lord, I can't
31:15find a squirrel today.
31:17Please show up, have a squirrel show up for me.
31:20And maybe one showed, maybe one didn't.
31:23I don't know.
31:23I've made the same prayer when I was out hunting because you're sitting there just waiting
31:27forever.
31:28But the funny part is he embellished the story and it kind of grew over time.
31:32And oddly, it grew into the Word of Faith movement.
31:36If you really trace the roots of this, he's saying, I can speak squirrels into existence.
31:41And he tells the whole movement, well, now everybody is, well, we should all speak.
31:45What can we speak next?
31:47And they start doing it.
31:48And then Hobart embellishes it even further.
31:51And the things that you say are just crazy.
31:54I'm sitting here.
31:55We have pear trees out in my front yard and the squirrels just demolish the pears by the
32:00time the crop is ready.
32:01So I would give anything to find a place where there isn't a squirrel year round.
32:05There isn't, I've lived from coast to coast.
32:08There really isn't a place like this.
32:09But if it exists, that's where I'll plant my pear trees.
32:14Have you ever wondered how the Pentecostal movement started or how the progression of modern
32:19Pentecostalism transitioned through the latter reign, charismatic, and other fringe movements
32:25into the new apostolic reformation?
32:27You can learn this and more on William Branham Historical Research's website, william-branham.org.
32:34On the books page of the website, you can find the compiled research of John Collins, Charles
32:40Paisley, Stephen Montgomery, John McKinnon, and others with links to the paper, audio, and
32:47digital versions of each book.
32:48You can also find resources and documentation on various people and topics related to those
32:54movements.
32:55If you want to contribute to the cause, you can support the podcast by clicking the contribute
33:01button at the top.
33:02And as always, be sure to like and subscribe to the audio or video version that you're
33:07listening to or watching.
33:08On behalf of William Branham Historical Research, we want to thank you for your support.
33:13We need to listen, John, to stories with discernment, right?
33:17I mean, so, and when I was 17, you know, I'm just, I'm not listening with any discernment.
33:22I don't possess any discernment yet.
33:24I'm just fascinated with, I'm trying to learn the Bible.
33:27You know, I want to know what God's word said.
33:29And so I see one of the gifts of the spirit in 1 Corinthians 12 is a gift of faith.
33:33Well, what is that?
33:34Oh, well, here's what it is.
33:35You can just name it and claim it.
33:37If you want three squirrels to come out, just do it.
33:40I don't know that I ever tried it.
33:41I'm sure if I did, it didn't work because that's not how you use the gifts of the Holy
33:46Spirit.
33:46That's not what they're for.
33:48And anyway, I was an experienced squirrel hunter.
33:51I normally didn't sit, John.
33:53I'd walk.
33:53I'd love to walk through the woods.
33:54And if you can find a good shag bark hickory tree, that's where you hunt in the fall because,
34:00you know, they're going to be up in the top cutting those nuts and you can, you're sitting
34:04underneath the tree and literally the pieces are falling down like rain all around you.
34:10And because there's still a lot of leaves on the trees, when they're cutting those hickory
34:14nuts, you've got to be patient until you can get a sight of them.
34:19But speaking of when they're on the other side of the tree, when they go on the other
34:22side of the tree, I just had several limbs or, you know, rocks or something beside me
34:27and I would pitch them over on their side of the tree.
34:30And that would scare the squirrel to come around on my side of the tree.
34:33And they were easy picking, but in listening to that, yeah, I know it's just, it's just
34:41amazing.
34:42You know, how did someone, it, it, it, it tells me a lot about Hobart Freeman.
34:48There was something not right about the man.
34:51We've already kind of documented that regarding healing and money.
34:56He was very poor and he was very sick and afflicted.
34:58So that's why he desperately needed to believe the word of faith movement.
35:04I mean, he desperately needed it and held on to his belief to the day he died.
35:10And what have we seen in earlier podcasts?
35:13He was not healed of a single solitary thing that he had claimed, confessed, professed for
35:20years, for 18 years he had professed.
35:23And he was not healed of a single thing.
35:26There's something else in the man's mind though, when you consider the level of education that
35:35he had to fall so quickly for stuff like this.
35:39I mean, I had to give myself some latitude.
35:43I was 17 years old when I heard these stories and I'm not listening to these stories delivered
35:50from a hillbilly from Birksville, Kentucky.
35:53I'm listening to these stories delivered from someone with an earned doctor's degree in
35:58theology that you would, as a 17-year-old, think, surely this man knows what he's talking
36:04about.
36:05And I think that was such a sell for Dr. Freeman's ministry to not have been a hillbilly, to have
36:14this education, and then still to believe all the hillbilly stories.
36:19Because you're saying, wow, if this guy who has all of this training believes this, then
36:26surely there must be something to it.
36:29And that's what was attractive to me.
36:33Because what Hobart was coming along doing, he was saying, you have been raised in your
36:39denominational churches hearing what God is not doing anymore.
36:43Therefore, I'm here to tell you what God is doing.
36:47He's healing the sick.
36:48He's raising the dead.
36:50He's opening blind eyes.
36:51And he's bringing three squirrels out on a limb for your hunting pleasures.
36:57This is what God is doing today.
37:00So it was very appealing.
37:02And I guess I probably would think, John, I have the feel that people in our audience
37:10are maybe sometimes hearing us say what God is not doing today.
37:17And I don't mean to come across with what God is not doing, but I surely don't want to
37:22tell people God is doing something when he isn't.
37:24I don't want to say he's raising the dead left and right and people are turning water into
37:29wine like the people down in Indonesia claim they were in Miltari's book, Like a Mighty
37:35Wind, when I don't think those things are happening at all.
37:38It's just not been verified.
37:40If there is a resurrection of the dead, you know, it's probably an occasional thing.
37:44It's not something that every Tom, Dick, and Harry can just go do.
37:48And yet that's the way it is being presented today.
37:52And so this business of personal prophecy, I can even share some more of how it affected
37:59me and the church that I was in.
38:04I was in Memphis, Tennessee when Hobart first, I first heard of Hobart.
38:10He came there in the spring of 1976.
38:14And then we just happened, my little band of fellow teenage, charismatic, former Presbyterian
38:22church member believers.
38:24We were just, we just happened to find a church there in Memphis.
38:29It was on Sweeney Road, sat right beside Memphis International Airport.
38:34And it was pastored by a man.
38:36I don't think he's even alive anymore.
38:37Pastored by a man named Ken Hall.
38:39So, and maybe we will talk in the future when we can have time to talk about the ministers
38:46that came out of Faith Assembly, the satellite outreaches that church had, and then what
38:52happened post Dr. Freeman's death.
38:55But this was somewhat of a satellite church.
38:58I would put satellite in quotation marks because he did not carry Dr. Freeman's tapes on his table
39:05in the back of the church or anything like that.
39:07But he was a pastor there.
39:10If I remember correctly, he had at least a master's degree from a Southern Baptist seminary,
39:17I think down in New Orleans, a Baptist seminary in Louisiana.
39:21Poor guy couldn't teach a lick.
39:25He would go to passages in the Bible that were miracle stories.
39:29He loved to talk about David and the mulberry trees.
39:31When you hear the rustling and the mulberry trees, the Lord is with you.
39:36And, you know, we're trying to figure out, yeah, that's a wonderful biblical story and
39:43miraculous biblical story.
39:45But how do I fit that into my life?
39:48You know, what does that mean?
39:50So you're literally thinking, do I need to hear?
39:52I don't, first of all, I don't have any mulberry trees in my yard.
39:56But secondly, am I supposed to listen to the rustling in any leaves?
40:00I don't even know why you would continue to teach on that, because he wasn't trying to
40:04show a miraculous thing that happened in the life of David.
40:07He's trying, you know, to teach us that we need to have miracles in our life.
40:12And so the reason I bring this man in his church up is because he had, I'll never forget,
40:19two particular ministers come to his church.
40:24And I was a member of that church at that time.
40:26I was probably 18 or maybe 19 years old.
40:30One man's name was Roger Thiel.
40:33He was a prophet from England.
40:36And I've never been able to discover any other things about Roger Thiel since then.
40:42But the other person is someone you can easily go online.
40:47I don't think he's alive anymore.
40:49And read all about him.
40:51His name was Stanley Rankin, R-A-N-K-I-N.
40:55And he was a prophet.
40:57Both of these are prophets, you know, personal prophecy.
41:00Remember, he was a prophet from San Antonio, Texas.
41:04And what both of these men did in a satellite faith assembly influence, Hobart Freeman influence church,
41:14what both of these men would do is they didn't teach, they didn't preach because they're prophets.
41:21And what do prophets do?
41:23Prophets don't teach.
41:23They don't preach.
41:24Not according to them anyway.
41:26They prophesy.
41:28So a long line would form up in the front of the church and you would go through Roger Thiel,
41:35then Stanley Rankin at another date.
41:37They were not connected at all.
41:38Would lay hands on your head and prophesy and do what?
41:43And give you a personal prophecy.
41:46What they always said is a word from the Lord.
41:50And so the minister, Ken Hall, who was a pastor of this church, he would advertise on Christian radio.
41:56There was a Christian radio station out in Colliersville because I believe the manager of that Christian radio station,
42:03he and his wife were members of Ken Hall's church here in Memphis.
42:06So you put out all this advertisement and our little church, which was really small.
42:12I mean, it was less than, I don't know, 40 people, maybe less than 30 people.
42:17Our little church would swell because of this advertisement.
42:21So you've got people from all kinds of, you know, Assembly of God churches, people that would normally go to
42:28your full gospel businessmen's fellowship, international meetings.
42:32They would see, oh, Prophet Stanley Rankin from San Antonio is going to be at this church.
42:37So the population inside the four church walls would swell, and all of these people are there to stand in
42:49line and to get a word from the Lord.
42:53And I went through the line myself.
42:56I don't remember being in Stanley's line, but I probably was.
42:59But I remember being in Roger Teal.
43:02He was this tall, skinny.
43:04He reminds me in thinking back of Ichabod Crane in The Headless Horseman.
43:13He just reminds me of that kind of, he was bent over, long, crooked nose, tall, slender fellow.
43:21But he was a British prophet.
43:23So he laid hands on.
43:25And I don't remember all of what he said to me.
43:27I remember some of it.
43:30The reason I'm mentioning this is I think these things, John, probably still occur today.
43:39And they can influence you if you don't watch out, not only then and the decisions you make in your
43:46life, but sometimes these little episodes can influence you for the rest of your life.
43:52And it's not the way it should be.
43:54We should have our Bible in our hands.
43:56We should be sitting before ministers who are teaching us exegetically.
44:03They're expounding expositionally on what God's word says, what the author meant, what the original recipients, how they took the
44:12message.
44:13That's the meaning of the text.
44:15Whatever the author meant and whatever the original recipients understood it to mean, that's the meaning.
44:22That's never the meaning today.
44:23The meaning is something personal for us.
44:27And so I look at Hobart influenced by by Anna Schrader prophesying to him.
44:34He goes on to give personal prophecies to others that tells everyone that this is OK.
44:40So then I'm a part of a church who has a minister who's influenced by Hobart, who invites in two
44:47prophets who don't teach or preach, but who run people like a herd of cattle through a personal prophecy line.
44:55And then we all receive these personal prophecies.
44:58And then what are we supposed to do with these words that we have received?
45:02You know, usually I focus on the minister during the podcast because they're usually the one who is manipulating the
45:09crowd.
45:09And that is the case with personal prophecy.
45:12But I want to focus a bit on the people because there's another issue here that not many people think
45:18about.
45:19And that is the people who get involved with this kind of thing, these personal prophecies.
45:24There is a concept in business called monopoly.
45:27And years ago, there used to be one phone company.
45:30And as the rates increased, increased, increased, eventually the government stepped in and said, OK, you need some friendly competition
45:37to keep prices low.
45:39We all need the telephone, right?
45:41So there there is this situation where you have to have business enterprises that are in competition to keep everybody
45:48happy.
45:49But the government tries to separate itself from religion.
45:53And in religion, it's kind of weird because the types of people that get so caught up in this and
46:00go continuously to hear their personal prophecies are the same types of people that would also go continuously.
46:07To the fortune teller down the street and see what the crystal ball says about their future.
46:13They get so caught up in, is my business going to succeed?
46:16Is my marriage going to succeed?
46:18Will this boyfriend work out or should I ditch him and go to this other boyfriend?
46:21And they get so caught up in it that their mind is more focused on the unknown future than it
46:27is the Bible.
46:29And at the same time, the ministers are telling them, you're not allowed to go to that fortune teller.
46:34That fortune teller is bringing Satan into your mind and your body, your soul.
46:39They rob your souls.
46:40Come to our fortune telling instead.
46:43That's really what they're doing.
46:45Because these personal prophecies, there's yes, there are some that are probably not fortune telling.
46:51But I would say the vast majority of them are people who are coming because they want to know their
46:55future.
46:56And what good fortune teller who is standing behind a pulpit and talks to you in private is not going
47:01to tell you your future if that's what they paid to come see.
47:04So they end up doing it.
47:05And here's the problem.
47:07None of them are prophets.
47:08And so what they say fails, they pick the wrong card or their crystal ball was just a little bit
47:15smoky when they were up there and it fails.
47:19So what happens is the person comes back.
47:21That prophecy wasn't right.
47:23Oh, but sister, you have sin in your life, don't you?
47:26You did the wrong thing.
47:28And God took it back.
47:31They will do whatever it takes to reinterpret the meaning of whatever it was that they said that they pulled
47:36straight out of their butt.
47:38I've used that phrase too much now, I think, straight out of their butt.
47:40But that's really what these people are doing.
47:43And they're calling it God.
47:45So whenever I hear these personal prophecies, I think about the minister, but I also think about the people.
47:51Because I was in the same movement, and I never wanted to know my future.
47:55I felt like if I knew my future, and I'd read enough science fiction books to know that that's a
48:00bad idea.
48:01But if you know your future, you're going to make decisions that you wouldn't otherwise make to try to enhance
48:08or avoid some of that future.
48:11So it changes your life leading up to that future, and it can destroy your life.
48:16And time and time again, you read books or watch movies about this.
48:19So I never wanted it, but I had friends who did.
48:22And now you can listen to the Our Stories podcast that I do, the series on Friday.
48:28You can hear person after person after person with personal prophecies that failed.
48:33And the minister just put it back on their shoulders and said, this is your fault.
48:37And we can end right there.
48:38You stole every bit of my thunder.
48:42But I love it.
48:43And I was going to say, John, it's the minister's fault for being the clowns on stage.
48:48And it's our fault.
48:50It's the people's fault for, you know, wanting to submit to this, to participate in it.
48:57Again, I was 18 or 19 years old.
49:00And you just don't have the critical thinking skills.
49:05Then, you know, my minister was not that good of a minister, Ken Hall.
49:10But I couldn't move to Indiana, so I knew he had gotten the message, quote, unquote, from Hobart.
49:16So, you know, secondhand, good enough for me.
49:19But, yeah, I mean, I would never go through any line for a personal prophecy now.
49:26But, yeah, I went, you know, right up to the line, you know, and uncertain, you know, you know enough
49:32about the Bible to know I don't see any of these kinds of situations in the Bible.
49:38You know, I don't see prayer lines, number one, where you just line up and the minister slaps his sweaty
49:44hand on your sweaty forehead.
49:46But even worse than that, I don't see people lining up for personal prophecy.
49:51It's just not in the Bible.
49:53But you just don't think.
49:55You just go ahead and participate in it.
49:58But, yes, what I was going to say is just what you said.
50:01The reason that the membership in the church would swell when these people would come is people are seeking not
50:09knowledge of the Bible.
50:10Well, they're seeking a word from a fortune teller.
50:14Absolutely.
50:15There is no difference, none, except one calls himself a minister and the other calls herself a medium.
50:23But there is no difference.
50:25You are trying to predict something about this person.
50:29So, there is no difference, in my mind, in going to a fortune teller, going to have your tarot cards
50:38read, going to some little smoky, dark room place where someone's going to read a crystal ball for you.
50:47And these clowns on stage will oblige the people who are coming through the line.
50:56So, it does remind me of what Jesus said, not in this context, but when he said, it is the
51:03blind who are leaders of the blind.
51:09And I'm sure, even though I'm not immersed in NAR at all, I know very little about it because I
51:16have no interest in that.
51:17I would much rather study serious biblical literature and the Bible itself than be a part of that.
51:25But I'm sure that this is a big deal still out there today where you go for a personal prophecy
51:33and direction for your life is given.
51:38Advice is followed, oftentimes with disastrous results.
51:43I mean, you can make life-altering decisions through personal prophecy.
51:48And it's not always a minister.
51:51You know, I've seen and heard of too many cases where some brother or some sister in the body, the
52:00Lord's given them a word for you.
52:02And they'll say, I mean, it's always baptized in this terminology.
52:07The Lord has given me a word for you.
52:11Do you want to receive it?
52:13And as I said earlier in this podcast, who would say, no, I don't want any word from God.
52:19I don't want to hear from God.
52:20I reject all words from God.
52:23No, no one would say that.
52:25So they've already couched it in such a way.
52:27What are you supposed to say?
52:29You know, no, I don't want to hear from God.
52:31So the person says, yes.
52:33I mean, what you should say is, look, I don't trust you as having a word from God.
52:38And I'll listen to the Lord myself.
52:40So no, thank you.
52:42I will pass on that word from the Lord.
52:45Look at according to what has been published and it's all over the Internet.
52:51What happened with the fall of Mike Bickle and the Kansas City situation there, according to what I have heard?
52:59I'm not privy to any of this information firsthand.
53:02But the women that Mike Bickle allegedly prayed on, they have come out and done their own interviews.
53:12And Mike Bickle, and this is just standard fare, John, just is just run of the mill.
53:17This is the way you do it.
53:19He would have a word.
53:20And so I think a word to one of these women was my the Lord has shown me that my
53:26wife, I believe his wife's name is Diane.
53:29And this is all public knowledge.
53:30It's on other YouTube videos.
53:33The Lord has shown me that my wife, Diane, is going to die.
53:38And you are going to be my new wife.
53:42Well, what woman, probably half Diane's age, what young woman would not want to hear that if you're a part
53:51of this intercessory prayer movement that's going to reshape and redefine the whole globe?
54:01Mike Bickle is at the head of that, and you will get to be Mike Bickle's wife.
54:07Who wouldn't want to hear that?
54:08Now, that's an extreme example for sure, but still, that is an example of how these people will manipulate.
54:16And you're so right, John.
54:17Once a word has been given, then the person for the next few weeks, months, maybe years, tries to figure
54:24out what they need to do to make that come to pass or why it simply failed and it didn't
54:32come to pass.
54:33And then you are also exactly right.
54:35If you ever go back to the minister, well, I didn't tell you that it had 17 conditions on it
54:42here.
54:42I just gave you the word and here are the 17 conditions.
54:45He waits to see whether it ever happens.
54:47And sometimes the word is kind of vague.
54:50You know, it's kind of like going to Panda Express and getting a fortune cookie and cracking it open and
54:55reading the little thing.
54:56It says probably one day next week, something good will happen to you.
55:00Well, it probably will.
55:01Or it might say something bad will happen.
55:04And that will probably happen, too, because that's just the way life is.
55:07Some weeks have some good things and some bad things.
55:10It's no different than that.
55:11It's no different than reading something from a fortune cookie.
55:17And I would just caution people, not caution them, just tell them flat out, throw all of that stuff away.
55:24Every single bit of that is garbage.
55:27Don't go get personal prophecies from anyone and don't give personal prophecies to anyone.
55:35Just read your own Bible and point other people to the Bible.
55:40I was thinking as you were talking, I used to go out to eat with this guy and we'd go
55:44to a Chinese restaurant and he'd open up his fortune cookie.
55:47And he'd always make a joke.
55:48And his funniest one, I think, was he said, may the flies of a thousand cattle infest your armpits.
55:54And we went to this one Chinese restaurant and I opened up my fortune.
55:58And I kid you not, it said, you are going to have a really bad day.
56:03And it was the worst day.
56:06When I left there, from the moment I left that restaurant for the whole rest of the day, every single
56:11thing that I touched went wrong.
56:12Everything that I did went wrong.
56:15And I've thought about that over the years.
56:17The fortune teller, the fortune cookie that I got is more accurate than most of these people who are fortune
56:23telling from behind a pulpit.
56:25And I got it.
56:26It didn't cost me but $7.
56:28It was a lunch rate fee at the Chinese restaurant.
56:31If you want something that's more accurate, you might can go to the Chinese restaurant and get a fortune cookie.
56:36But these guys that are using it for manipulation, like you mentioned the example, there are other people.
56:42And you listen to the story on Fridays.
56:44You can hear person after person after person.
56:47They're all saying the same thing.
56:49They're either falling into depression after all of this comes to pass that they realize that the guy on the
56:55stage was just manipulating them.
56:57Nothing that they said was real.
56:58And it suddenly hit me, oh, my gosh, none of this is real.
57:02They lose their faith.
57:03They have maybe they were given a quote-unquote word of the Lord that told them to go invest or
57:10told them to do this, that, or the other.
57:12And they suddenly found themselves in financial hardships, broken relationships.
57:18I will say this.
57:20The moment any minister, I don't care who it is, what they're talking about, the moment they get into a
57:25relationship between a young man and a young woman, they have crossed a boundary into, I will never set foot
57:31in that church again.
57:32And I've always been that way.
57:33If you do that, you are so wrong.
57:35But there are people who will do that, and they'll get with the wrong person, and suddenly the course of
57:41their entire life has been ruined just because one guy wanted a little bit more money in his pocket.
57:46So in the end, this is a harmful thing.
57:49This is not a good thing.
57:50And I think that if you want fortune telling, you probably instead need to get counseling and get out of
57:58that mindset because none of it works.
58:00Even the fortune cookie that I mentioned, it's not a good thing.
58:03So thank you so much for doing this.
58:05Thanks for having me, John.
58:07Well, if you've enjoyed our show and you want more information, you can check us out on the web.
58:11You can find us at william-branham.org.
58:13For more about the dark side of the New Apostolic Reformation, you can read Weaponized Religion from Christian Identity to
58:19the NAR.
58:20Available on Amazon, Kindle, and Audible.
58:44For more information, you can conscients and oil 먹ers.
58:46Well, as I know we want to see you as a gift card for us.
59:02In this process quiero, it's very, very pretty good.
59:04It's a great bet to hear when you're going to keep me, while you're going to get Allison.
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