- 19 hours ago
John Collins and McKinnon discuss 1 Kings 13 and the sobering story of the prophet from Judah, the old prophet from Bethel, and the danger of allowing a claimed revelation to override the clear command of God. The discussion connects the biblical account to questions about prophecy, sincerity, obedience, spiritual authority, and the responsibility to test every claim by Scripture.
They also examine concerns about William Branham, failed prophetic claims, religious authority, half-truths, and the way followers can become dependent on a messenger’s interpretation instead of reading Scripture directly. The conversation emphasizes the need to separate truth from error, reject claims that contradict the Bible, and keep God’s Word as the final foundation.
00:00 Introduction
03:06 The Tragedy of a Deceived Prophet
05:07 Jeroboam’s False Worship and a Warning to Believers
07:39 Half-Truths, Lies, and Prophetic Authority
10:31 Accountability After the Truth Is Known
11:29 The True Prophet and the Lying Prophet
13:40 The Old Prophet’s Deception
15:15 Judgment for Following a Lying Prophet
16:33 God’s Word Above a Prophet’s Voice
18:30 Making Prophets More Than Human
20:02 When Another Voice Overrides Scripture
23:24 Verifiable Claims and Lies
28:25 Fact-Checking Prophets and Ministries
33:16 Sincere Believers Can Still Be Deceived
38:53 Truth Mixed With Falsehood
43:07 One Lie Can Bring Destruction
45:05 Test Every Prophet by Scripture
46:44 When a Prophet Replaces the Bible
50:08 Scripture Must Judge the Prophet
53:32 Closing
______________________
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
They also examine concerns about William Branham, failed prophetic claims, religious authority, half-truths, and the way followers can become dependent on a messenger’s interpretation instead of reading Scripture directly. The conversation emphasizes the need to separate truth from error, reject claims that contradict the Bible, and keep God’s Word as the final foundation.
00:00 Introduction
03:06 The Tragedy of a Deceived Prophet
05:07 Jeroboam’s False Worship and a Warning to Believers
07:39 Half-Truths, Lies, and Prophetic Authority
10:31 Accountability After the Truth Is Known
11:29 The True Prophet and the Lying Prophet
13:40 The Old Prophet’s Deception
15:15 Judgment for Following a Lying Prophet
16:33 God’s Word Above a Prophet’s Voice
18:30 Making Prophets More Than Human
20:02 When Another Voice Overrides Scripture
23:24 Verifiable Claims and Lies
28:25 Fact-Checking Prophets and Ministries
33:16 Sincere Believers Can Still Be Deceived
38:53 Truth Mixed With Falsehood
43:07 One Lie Can Bring Destruction
45:05 Test Every Prophet by Scripture
46:44 When a Prophet Replaces the Bible
50:08 Scripture Must Judge the Prophet
53:32 Closing
______________________
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
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:31Hello and welcome to another episode of the William Branham Historical Research Podcast.
00:36I'm your host, John Collins, the author and founder of William Branham Historical Research at william-branham.org.
00:42And with me, I have my co-host, researcher, and friend, John McKinnon, author of Godhead and Their Own Words,
00:48Voices of Oneness Preachers of the End-Time Message.
00:51John, it's good to be back and to talk about all things prophetic.
00:56I remember there was a point in time whenever I believed that Branham was a prophet, and I believed the
01:03whole entire thing that we were supposed to believe.
01:06And suddenly I encountered some flaws with it, very, very critical flaws.
01:10And I realized that some of the things that he said were not true, some of the biblical things that
01:16he was teaching was, actually, it was anti-biblical things he was teaching, and it was in conflict with what
01:22I was reading in the Bible.
01:23But there was this weird period of time where I believed he was a prophet, and I believed that he
01:29was leading people astray, because my mind could not reconcile those two.
01:34Fast forward, I, you know, came through different study groups and trying to learn the Bible myself, reading it over
01:42and over and over again.
01:43And I kept reading these passages, they're all throughout the New Testament, and even the Old Testament, about how if
01:50a prophet comes and speaks something that does not happen, you don't have to fear them.
01:55And it just hit me like a brick wall.
01:57I can't believe this.
01:58But suddenly I came to terms with the fact that there were many people like me who were trapped in
02:04a movement that had the so-called prophetic, and the so-called prophetic failed time and time and time again,
02:11and often had really no bearing to my salvation at all, even the prophecies they had.
02:17So I came to terms with the fact that it was difficult to leave the mindset of the prophetic.
02:23And I'm not saying by no means that prophecy is wrong or that, you know, there's this debate on modern
02:30prophets, whether they're biblical or anti-biblical.
02:33I'm not going to get into that debate.
02:35But what I'm saying is prophecy is supposed to edify the person.
02:39And if it's not for you, then why would you even care, right?
02:44Some of the prophecies that we had that failed were not even for me.
02:48They were just literally to show that the person speaking, the so-called prophet, was the one in power.
02:56And suddenly when I realized, well, wait a minute, they're not coming to pass, the power is just ripped away
03:02from them.
03:03So I'm a little bit excited to get into this one, if you can't tell.
03:07Well, hello there, John, and the listeners today.
03:09It's great to be back here again and discuss another example that I've discovered in the Bible that I'm not
03:15sure has ever been discussed with your guest.
03:18As of yet, but I came across this, you know, as you can imagine, you know, me and my wife,
03:24we discuss many things over morning coffee when we can sit out on the back porch and go back and
03:31forth about the message and our journey.
03:33But just the other day, this came out of the blue from my wife who she was thinking about trying
03:38to look for an example of a lying prophet in the scriptures.
03:41So what popped in my head was a story that I remember in the Bible, but haven't thought of it
03:46in a long time in the same manner until she said that.
03:50So I really like it when my wife and I just work as a team and come up with these
03:54things when we're not even trying.
03:56They just pop up all of a sudden and then I've got to go make another video such as what
04:01I did today.
04:02So so today I want to talk about one of the most sobering stories in the entire Bible is found
04:09in first Kings chapter 13 and story about the prophet from Judah and an old prophet from Bethel, a direct
04:17command from God and a lie spoken in the name of the Lord and a judgment.
04:22That still speaks to us today that we should take heat.
04:26So as a title to this podcast, I would say it's tragedy of a deceived prophet and why God's word
04:33must be obeyed above every man's word.
04:37You know, the story is not about a prophet who just made a mistake.
04:41It's a warning about what happens when sincere people follow a lying prophet.
04:46It's a warning about what happens when someone allows the word or voice of a man to become more authoritative
04:54than the voice of God.
04:55It's also a warning that's really relevant to anyone who's been involved in a movement centered around a prophet or
05:02a messenger or a man claiming, you know, special revelation from God.
05:06So our story begins today with the reign of Jeroboam, king of Israel.
05:12Jeroboam, he led the northern tribes into a rebellion against the house of David.
05:17He established a separate kingdom out of that, but also a false religion.
05:22He set up golden calves, created alternative places of worship so people would not return to Jerusalem to worship.
05:28But God was not silent about this false worship and judged the king for it.
05:33But there's another lesson that's clear in this passage, and it's what I want to focus today.
05:38And it's a lesson and a warning to all believers who follow the message of William Branham.
05:43You know, perhaps God's using this podcast to tell them one more time to open their minds and examine all
05:50the facts against Scripture.
05:52You know, I know people in the message and ministers, everybody at this point in time in our history, in
05:58our journey, they admit that William Branham lied.
06:01And I've been told that for the last seven years since it was first brought up, you know, since I
06:07left the message that preachers have even openly said this over the pulpit now.
06:11And they've made excuses for William Branham, such as Abraham lied to the king of King Pharaoh about his wife,
06:21Sarah.
06:22They just accept the fact, but what concerns me the most, John, and concerns me for them is that they
06:29could be under the judgment of God, you know, for not leaving and following the truth.
06:35You know, once they openly admit they know lies exist, and then they still continue to make excuses for staying
06:42in the message.
06:43You know, before God, they really have no excuse anymore to come back to, such as their ignorance, as our
06:52ignorance was years ago, because they've admitted now they're not ignorant.
06:57You know, even I remember Jesus said at one time, you know, they no longer have a cloak for their
07:02sin because they now say that they believe.
07:06There's no longer a cloak.
07:09I don't know the scripture.
07:10I have to get back to it here in a minute, but I'm really concerned about this.
07:14You know, what happened this morning between me and my wife may become real concerned again about message believers, especially.
07:22You know, maybe not for their salvation ultimately, but it's really for how God is looking at the message in
07:28general now and how God looks at these sincere people who are living, you know, way after William Branham and
07:34all the early ministries gone.
07:36And this new generation has risen up.
07:38There's so much to unpack there.
07:41I came to terms with the fact that we were living in a world of half truths.
07:46You know, all of these prophets, not just Branham, but all of them who claim that they either have the
07:50gift of prophecy or they're the greatest prophet known to mankind, as some of them have done.
07:56And they will tell you a prophecy and they'll give you all these specific details in symbolism.
08:02And then whenever those details fail, if they can find one little symbolic detail that matches the situation, let's say,
08:09see, I told you this was going to happen.
08:11And you have to sift through all the things that aren't true to find that one little single thing, that
08:17little shred of half truth.
08:19For me, that is a problem because I started thinking about just simply lying after leaving this movement.
08:26Like you said, almost every single thing that came out of the man's mouth was not true that he said
08:31about himself or his ministry, I should say.
08:33Okay, I started going through this one by one by one, and some guy in one of the support groups
08:40created a list of things that he was going to verify.
08:43I want to say it was like 200 things that the man had claimed boisterously that was either spiritual or
08:49about himself.
08:50And he was going down the list one by one, finding out which ones were true and which ones were
08:54false, having a lot of real trouble trying to find anything that was true.
09:00But I got to think about lying and half-truths, and I suddenly realized that a half-truth is actually
09:07worse than an outright lie because you're giving somebody just a seed of truth as the deceptive part, and the
09:14overall substance is a lie because you cannot take something that is false and mix a shred of truth and
09:21make it true.
09:22It's still overall it's false.
09:24So the deception is actually in the truth in that case.
09:28It's really, really hard for me to understand that.
09:30The irony of this is you mentioned Abraham and his lie about his wife Sarah.
09:37Well, the interesting part about that is the ministers of the movements flip it upside down because for Abraham, they
09:45will say he lied, so therefore it's okay if Branham lied.
09:48But they're not telling you it's actually a half-truth.
09:52Sarah was his half-sister or part-sister.
09:56She's the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother is how Abraham explained it.
10:01So it's partly true, but the ministers who are upholding the half-truths of the prophets, they'll go back to
10:09Abraham and not uphold the half-truths there.
10:12So it gets really, really odd when you think about it.
10:14It basically becomes people end up in the circular reasoning.
10:18We can have the faults in our ministry, but we're going to point to the faults of people even in
10:23the Bible who are making similar mistakes so that we can uplift the faults in our ministry.
10:29So it's this big circle that never ends.
10:31Yeah, John, that's so true, and you hit the nail on the head there.
10:36But going back to what I said about the Scripture, I just looked it up.
10:40You know, Jesus was talking to them in John 15, 22, saying,
10:44If I had not come and spoken to them, they've not had any sin, but now they have no cloak
10:49for their sin.
10:50You know, the statement occurs while he's talking to the disciples and the people,
10:55emphasizing the heightened accountability for when you hear something and you recognize the teachings to be true.
11:02Before Christ's revelation, you know, their ignorance could serve as a partial covering for the sin,
11:07but his coming exposes the truth, you know, leaving no justification for rejecting it.
11:12So the same is going to hold true today in our story, John.
11:15You know, there's a partial covering for sin, perhaps, in people's ignorance.
11:20But we're going to find out in today's podcast that there's no more ignorance any longer
11:26because people are openly admitting of the situation of what I'm going to speak about today.
11:30So it goes back to 1 Kings 13, and we're going to be speaking about a true prophet who is
11:38very sincere
11:39and an old prophet who became a liar.
11:42And I want to type these two as the young prophet, the true prophet to Christians today,
11:48young people who adhere to the message of William Branham as being a type of this true prophet
11:54who was very sincere and had the word of the Lord,
11:58and against the old lying prophet who I'll type, as, say, William Branham, a type of him.
12:04And we'll see how this pans out here.
12:08So this prophet came out of Judah, and the word of the Lord gave him to go to Bethel
12:13and prophesy against Jeroboam, who was making false offerings to the Lord.
12:19So he cried out against him and talked about another Josiah was going to rise up
12:23and, you know, make offerings on you, and human bones will even be burned on you.
12:31So, you know, he was a genuine prophet that spoke judgment to this man, Jeroboam.
12:36He had a genuine commission, a genuine message.
12:39God had spoke to him and worked through him and vindicated him.
12:42But before this chapter's over, we see that this prophet's going to be dead beside of a road.
12:48Now, we wonder why that would happen.
12:50It's because having a true ministry, being a true Christian,
12:56don't exempt you from judgment, from actually requiring obedience from you.
13:02Having the true calling does not exempt you from judgment.
13:06Having genuine experiences with God don't exempt you from following God's word.
13:12And so the man of God, it says, when the king tried to attack the prophet
13:18for prophesying against him, his hand withered.
13:21So he asked the prophet, say, can you restore my hand and pray to God for me?
13:26So he did and then went on his way and said, I'm not going to accept any reward from you,
13:31not even half your kingdom, no bread, no water,
13:34because God commanded me just to go out and not come by the same way I came.
13:40So that's how he left it.
13:41And he did the right thing there by leaving Jeroboam
13:44and not accepting any reward for restoring his hand.
13:48But an old prophet was living in Bethel at the time,
13:51and his sons had told him about what had happened.
13:53And he inquired about where he went, you know, if you read 1 Kings 13 for yourself.
13:59And so he said, you know, saddle me the donkey and let me go out and meet him.
14:03And so he did, found him under an oak tree, probably resting.
14:06He said to him, the old prophet said to him, are you the man of God that came from Judah?
14:11He said, I am.
14:12Then he said to him, come home with me and eat bread.
14:15And the young prophet then said exactly what he should have.
14:19He said, I may not return with you or go in with you.
14:22Neither will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place.
14:25For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, you shall eat neither bread or drink water
14:29there,
14:30nor return by the way you came.
14:32But then the old prophet said to him, I'm also a prophet as you are.
14:37And an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, bring him back with you into your
14:42house,
14:42that he may eat bread and drink water.
14:45But he lied to him.
14:47So he went back with him and ate bread and drank water there.
14:50So that was the first issue.
14:52But while they were eating there, the old lion prophet came with the word of the Lord,
14:58saying, because you've disobeyed the word of the Lord, not kept the command, which God commanded you,
15:03you have come back and eaten bread and drunk water, of which he said to you,
15:08eat no bread, drink no water.
15:09Your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.
15:12So the judgment was pronounced on the young prophet for listening to a lying prophet.
15:18The old prophet didn't even receive judgment.
15:21That's what's so strange about this situation.
15:24So it serves as a strong warning to us who might know that a prophet is lying but still accept
15:31him.
15:31And even those who are in ignorance, who don't even know the prophet's lying to him.
15:37And we have both cases in the message, John.
15:39But he says, as he went his way, the lion met him on the road and killed him.
15:43His body was thrown in the road and the donkey stood by it.
15:46The lion also stood by the body.
15:48And men passed by and saw the body thrown in the road and the lion standing by the body.
15:53And that was also going back and told the old prophet about what had happened.
15:58But by the lion not tearing the man to pieces, it shows that it was a judgment from God.
16:02It wasn't something that was natural in nature for it to happen.
16:06The lion should have devoured him.
16:08So the old prophet had the donkey saddled again.
16:11And he went back and took the old man back and laid him in his own grave.
16:15So the man never got to go back to his homeland and be buried with his fathers.
16:20He had to be buried with the false, the old lion prophet.
16:24And it says, after he buried him, he said to his sons, when I die, bury me in the grave
16:27in which the man of God is buried, lay my bones beside his bones.
16:32So the young prophet knew exactly what God had said to him.
16:35And that's where the story becomes relevant to us today.
16:41Because we have God's word.
16:42We know what God is telling us.
16:44We have no doubt.
16:46We didn't need some special visitation to tell us what God has said.
16:50Because we have his scriptures.
16:52The prophet possessed something many people, you know, desire to have or claim to desire.
16:58And that's a direct word from the Lord.
17:00He knew exactly what God had told him to do.
17:03Yet he chose to disobey because a liar had deceived him.
17:07It's one thing to be deceived and another just to straight out disobey with God's word.
17:12You know, God's word has a warning and warning after warning that Christians should not hear
17:17a prophet who prophesies falsely because they're a false prophet to begin with.
17:23Now we see another warning which talks about those who would hear a true prophet telling a lie,
17:29which causes them to disobey the scriptures.
17:33Or the commands of God.
17:35You know, that's very relevant to message people today.
17:38William Branham's lies causes the Christians in the message to live in disobedience to God's word.
17:44Even though they have a lot of outward show to be Christians.
17:49You know, the disobedience for them comes from sometimes their pride of being declared as the only Christians to this
17:56age.
17:56Sometimes twisting the plain meaning of scriptures.
18:00That happens a lot.
18:02Even following Branham's untrue prophecies or claims.
18:05Or even repeating his own lies.
18:08Or separating themselves from all other Christians.
18:11Or turning people out of the church who don't go along fully or have questions.
18:16And even ruining people's marriages.
18:19Ruining their lives.
18:20Causing psychological dependence on the group.
18:24You know, many other things we could go through that, you know, the message has caused in people's lives.
18:29You hit the nail on the head.
18:31Because for me, that is a widespread problem.
18:34We have made these people more than human.
18:36Whenever we were in Branhamism, we made Branham more than human.
18:39When I left and I began working with other groups, other groups made their prophets more than human.
18:45And suddenly I began to realize that we were treating these people, and they're humans,
18:50we're treating them as though they're better than us.
18:54And we're using Bible verses out of context to do it.
18:57Touch not God's anointed.
18:59They say that left and right.
19:01Touch not God's anointed and do God's prophets no harm.
19:05Though rip this out of context to say that no matter what this prophet does,
19:09no matter what he says, no matter who he prays upon,
19:13we would give him respect that is undue to this person.
19:18Yet we would not do that to a single other person in the congregation.
19:22If anybody else were to lie to us, we wouldn't trust a word they said.
19:26If anybody else were to do some of the horrific predatorial things that some of these guys do,
19:32we'd want to lock them up.
19:33We'd want to get them out of our face.
19:34But if anybody in the congregation came up to me and said,
19:37John, I had a prophecy and X, Y, and Z is about to happen.
19:42Well, X and Y didn't happen.
19:43I'm not going to listen to him about Z.
19:46The guy lied to me.
19:47I know he lied to me.
19:48But we make these people more than human, and it's really – it puts us into a prison of our
19:55own making.
19:56I'll just say it like that.
19:57And my family, we decided we're no longer in prison.
20:01We have to leave this thing.
20:02Yeah, John, that's exactly right.
20:05And we're going to go further with this.
20:07And in this story, you know, as I said before, I'm typing the good prophet, the young prophet as the
20:13message believer and the Christian,
20:15along with the old lying prophet who I'm going to keep the type as William Branham.
20:21You know, the problem with the believer or the young prophet was that he allowed another voice to override the
20:28voice of God that was given to him.
20:30So, we see we can't let other people's words override what God has said in his scripture already.
20:37His mistake was listening to an old lying prophet.
20:41Now, God is clearly placing his warning to all his people that we must avoid any other voice other than
20:48his written word today.
20:50And clearly avoid lying prophets, even if they have some things that are true, because judgment is coming to you
20:57if you follow them.
20:59Even if they claim that an angel visited him.
21:02You know, the old prophet invited him home to eat and then repeated the command God had given him, the
21:09young prophet did,
21:10saying, I can't go with you, I can't eat, I can't drink.
21:13God's spoken that.
21:14And the matter really should have ended there.
21:16And that's where the matter should end with us, too, when we see what is written in scripture.
21:22And we hear other voices trying to speak contrary to what scripture has said,
21:26even though they say an angel visited them, even though they say, I have thus saith the Lord.
21:32If it's contrary to the written word, you know, we must avoid it like the plague, John.
21:38But then comes the most dangerous statement in scripture here.
21:41The old prophet, the lying prophet said, I'm a prophet as thou art.
21:45And an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, bring him back with thee, that he
21:51may eat bread and drink water.
21:53And then the scripture adds these words, which tells us the whole story here.
21:57But he lied unto him.
21:59The old prophet, the lying prophet was claiming divine authority.
22:02He was claiming supernatural revelation.
22:06He was claiming angelic confirmations.
22:09He was claiming prophetic status.
22:12And the whole time he was lying.
22:14And, you know, this old prophet was probably a true prophet in the day.
22:20But this one lie causes devastation.
22:23So not only is just one little lie problematic, but when you've got a multitude of lies in the ministry,
22:31that ought to be a huge red flag to us.
22:34So notice also something that the young prophet already had the word of God.
22:39He didn't need another revelation to supersede that, not another interpretation.
22:44He didn't need a correction because he already knew exactly what God has said.
22:49The lie was not effective, really, because God's command to him was unclear.
22:54The lie was effective to him because the prophet, the young prophet, trusted a man more than the word of
23:02God that he already received.
23:03So that's the heart of the story here.
23:06The issue is not merely that a prophet lied.
23:09You know, the issue becomes that another person believed that lie.
23:14The issue is that someone abandoned what God had clearly said in his word because another religious authority had claimed
23:21to have newer information.
23:23Now, I'm going to go through just a few of known and verifiable lies of William Branham that are known.
23:32One is claiming to raise a dead person from a morgue in Jeffersonville.
23:37One was when he said he raised a little boy from the dead in Finland after being hit by a
23:42car.
23:43We know that story was totally fabricated.
23:46One was visiting Muhammad's grave, which we know he never could have.
23:51One was seeing Vicarious Filii Dei over the Pope's throne in Rome, when we know that's not even written over
23:59his throne.
24:01And it's not even there.
24:03Another is seeing 16 men fall from the municipal bridge during construction.
24:07We know that totally didn't happen.
24:10One was claiming to be dirt poor, and yet owning a 1926 Ford car, which was brand new, that he
24:19drove west to Arizona when he left Jeffersonville for the first time.
24:25Others were events surrounding the 1933 tent meetings and the baptism which followed, which he claimed there was a light
24:32and a voice, and it was all in the newspapers.
24:34There's absolutely no newspaper that will even describe what he's talking about, other than his small tent meeting where he
24:43had 14 people converted.
24:47False statements concerning his pulpit that rose up and came down in the flood in his tabernacle when there was
24:54directly a newspaper article that said that happened in another church,
24:58which was, I think, a Methodist church, other than his.
25:02His didn't even get mentioned if that really happened in his church.
25:06False statements about his proposal to his wife and, I would say, many other events in his life story that
25:12are not verifiable, and some were even proven to be false.
25:16False statements and deception in the 1950 halo picture and the healing debate.
25:22False statements about Congressman Upshaw and his healing in the meetings in 1951 and how all that took place.
25:30Also claiming he never even heard of Upshaw until the 1951 meetings.
25:35But I say this is highly unlikely when Upshaw was running for president in 1932,
25:41and at the time he visited Brenham's hometown, or somewhere very close to that, and campaigned openly.
25:46He also worked with his pastor, Roy Davis, throughout his life, when Davis was in Georgia in the 1920s,
25:55all the way when he moved into Jeffersonville in the 30s.
25:59And also working with Upshaw in 1944 while starting an orphanage, just before the 1951 meetings.
26:08And also knowing that Davis was the one that sent Upshaw to the meetings, and William Branham knew this fact
26:15as well.
26:17False statements about the praying for King George and claiming he was healed when he actually died.
26:23False statements about Donnie Morton's recovery when he also died.
26:30Dropping his 1933 prophecies that he had written down into the cornerstone of the tabernacle.
26:37When the tabernacle cornerstone was hit more than once, it was hit twice, and people examined it and never found
26:43anything.
26:45All statements made about the cloud in 1963 are false, basically.
26:51All statements surrounding the teaching of the seven seals and how his inspiration came.
26:57Falsely claiming Billy Paul would not be old and still living when Los Angeles would fall into the ocean.
27:04Falsely claiming God gave him a vision, he would shoot a brown bear and then blame it on his failure
27:09of not being in the right place at the right time when that vision was supposed to be, thus saith
27:14the Lord.
27:16Also falsely claiming a tent ministry.
27:18And John, we could go on and on.
27:19This is just a few.
27:21But we could go on and on.
27:22I think there's probably over a hundred things we could mention.
27:26Have you ever wondered how the Pentecostal movement started, or how the progression of modern Pentecostalism transitioned through the latter
27:34reign, charismatic, and other fringe movements into the New Apostolic Reformation?
27:39You can learn this and more on William Branham Historical Research's website, william-branham.org.
27:47On the books page of the website, you can find the compiled research of John Collins, Charles Paisley, Stephen Montgomery,
27:55John McKinnon, and others, with links to the paper, audio, and digital versions of each book.
28:01You can also find resources and documentation on various people and topics related to those movements.
28:07If you want to contribute to the cause, you can support the podcast by clicking the Contribute button at the
28:13top.
28:14And as always, be sure to like and subscribe to the audio or video version that you're listening to or
28:20watching.
28:20On behalf of William Branham Historical Research, we want to thank you for your support.
28:26I mentioned before that this guy had started creating lists, and there were lists of things that just simply were
28:32not true that the man said.
28:33And that's part of what led me out of Branhamism, but I'll be honest, the lying isn't what fully made
28:40my brain to disconnect from it and realize that the whole movement was false.
28:44It was just one attribute of the falsehood.
28:47Since then, I've mentioned this list, and I've mentioned various things that were not true that was said.
28:53And people will contact me and say, do you have a page on this?
28:56Do you have a resource page or a book that talks about this?
29:00And the problem is there are so many things that are not true that you could make websites and books
29:06dedicated, like with volumes of books dedicated to explaining the lie and why he would lie about it and how
29:14it pointed to himself.
29:16And you can find some of them if you go to my website and type in the search.
29:22But I actually point people directly to table.branham.org.
29:26For everything that the man said, you can look it up for yourself.
29:29You can see how he's saying he's making these wild claims that are just simply not true.
29:36There were things I was going through some of the lists myself, and some of the things he was saying
29:42is that the sex glands are in the lips, for example.
29:45And that's why children should not kiss.
29:47Well, that scares every kid out of kissing, yes, but is it true?
29:51It's not really true.
29:53And he had to have known it was true because the man had kids, and I guarantee you he did
29:57not think that they came into this earth because he kissed his wife.
30:01I guarantee you this.
30:02But that's one of the things the man said.
30:05And you can go right down the line of I was going sermon by sermon by sermon at whenever I
30:11first started my original website and original YouTube site.
30:14And I would just pick a sermon at random and look for a lie in it.
30:18And every single one, you'd find not just one, but many.
30:22The problem is this.
30:24So I conduct business through my corporation.
30:29I meet new clients.
30:30I talk to new people, and I have the power to accept or reject somebody that I engage in business
30:37with.
30:38And a lot of times what will happen is they will start telling me about their business and what they
30:43do and give me some details.
30:45Well, you would not be a good business owner if you didn't go check those out.
30:49And so what happens is I will go check out what they said and see is it true?
30:54Is the guy being truthful with me or female?
30:58Is she being truthful with me or not?
31:00And if they're not, I want to know why.
31:02And so I'll dig a little bit deeper.
31:05And that's really how you should apply your fact-checking, your critical thinking to ministry, to basically everything in life.
31:14You should engage critical thought.
31:16God gave us a brain for a reason.
31:17And so once I was able to deprogram and come out of this, I used that to my advantage.
31:25If I went to a new church, I would listen very closely to what the man said.
31:30And if it was true, I would believe it.
31:33And if it wasn't, I would ask why.
31:35Why would he say it?
31:36And usually it came to, it was something trivial, and the guy said something that was just slightly off mark,
31:43but it further emphasized his point.
31:45That's usually what happened.
31:46But there were cases that I did come across that it was just outright not true, and I realized that
31:52that's really not a ministry that I want to sit under.
31:55The problem is, the way that this movement has been structured, where you're seeking to find a superior authority, a
32:03five-fold ministry leader, they call it,
32:05you're seeking to find these people who are up here in status while you're down here below them in status.
32:12And because they're up here, you don't apply your critical thinking.
32:15Every aspect of life you do, except for in the religion.
32:20And for me, that's a problem.
32:22They have trained and manipulated the crowds not to critically think about the people.
32:26And in doing so, they make exactly what you're talking about.
32:31They make you trust people who may have been good at one time.
32:35Maybe they even were a prophet at one time.
32:37I'm not going to say they weren't.
32:39But the things that they're saying now are not true.
32:41Why would I look backwards?
32:43Go back to my clients.
32:44Why would I go backwards and say, well, 10 years ago, this person that I'm about to engage business with,
32:5210 years ago, they were truthful, and they had this thing.
32:54But today, they don't.
32:56Well, I might engage in business, and I might totally lose my business over it.
33:01It might be a monumental mistake that I made.
33:04Well, think of how much greater a mistake it would be if you invested all of your life and your
33:10family's life into a ministry and the guy's lying to you.
33:14John, that's so true in how you elaborate on that.
33:16It just matches perfectly, and you're really speaking the truth there.
33:22But I hope people can see this, what we're talking about today, as God's warning and admonishment to them, because
33:30I'm really very concerned about message people.
33:33It happens constantly with people in groups like the message.
33:37It don't even have to be the same as the message, but it's very much like that.
33:41People are very sincere.
33:43They don't want to do wrong.
33:45They want to be Christians.
33:46But then they're swept up into something that's very opposite of what they really want.
33:50You know, people know what the Scripture says.
33:53Then comes along somebody claiming special revelation.
33:57They claim that angels have appeared to them.
33:59They claim visions and dreams and claims God showed them something that's very hidden from the rest of Christianity.
34:06Or claiming to be the special messenger for the time.
34:09And all of a sudden, people begin following that and reinterpreting Scripture, contrary to what its plain meaning is, into
34:17the lens of this messenger.
34:20That's happened in the message, and that's exactly what happened in 1 Kings 13 that we're talking about today.
34:25The prophet abandoned the certainty of the Word of God that he had for some novel idea that the old
34:31lying prophet gave him.
34:33He abandoned God's clear commands for a man's claim.
34:36He abandoned what he knew because another prophet had come claiming something otherwise, which was contrary to the Word of
34:44God.
34:45Now, the result of that young prophet, which represents Christians today, is catastrophic.
34:52Because the man of God disobeyed the commandment of the Lord, he died, and he could not be buried with
34:58his fathers.
34:59Now, that will be the worst ultimate judgment to a Christian today that's following the message,
35:04is that they will not die and go to be with the people in heaven, which represents being buried with
35:12the fathers.
35:13They'll actually be separated from that.
35:15That's the worst catastrophic thing that could happen.
35:17John, I pray it doesn't happen.
35:19But there could be something else happen to them while they're on earth.
35:24There could be a judgment because, especially once they have knowledge of it,
35:30then they have no cloak, you know, for the sin.
35:33So, that's why I'm very concerned about that.
35:35And that's what prompted me, you know, to really bring this out today.
35:40So, another important question we can ask, you know, was the prophet sincere?
35:46You know, this is the young prophet we're talking about,
35:49in which I would say the young believer of the message today.
35:52Are they sincere?
35:54Absolutely, they're sincere.
35:55So, I believe they are.
35:57Do they intend to rebel against God?
36:00No.
36:01No.
36:02But what's wrong?
36:03They're deceived.
36:05This young prophet was deceived.
36:07Message people are, in effect, deceived.
36:11Do they think they were doing the right thing?
36:13Does the young prophet thought he was doing the right thing because he now obeyed the voice of the lying
36:17prophet?
36:18Yeah, he did.
36:19Apparently, he did.
36:20Or, otherwise, he wouldn't have gone into his house.
36:22Do message believers think they're doing the right thing by following the message of William Branham?
36:27Absolutely.
36:29They trust in someone they believe is a prophet.
36:33They trust in someone or they believe in him because he claims divine authority.
36:38And it sounds spiritual because he was visited by angels.
36:42But, you know, in all their sincerity, in all this young prophet's sincerity to serve God,
36:47and in all message believers and others like them and their sincerity to serve God,
36:52that does not protect them.
36:55It did not protect this young prophet from being killed and from having this judgment upon him.
37:00And that's one of the hardest truths for modern Christianity to accept.
37:05You know, sincerity does not make the error harmless.
37:09There is great harm that comes to them.
37:12There's great harm that comes to others from continuing in the error, especially once it's exposed.
37:18A person can be sincerely wrong, sincerely deceived, sincerely following a false teaching,
37:25and trusting in the wrong voice sincerely.
37:29But that does not transform.
37:32Sincerity does not transform disobedience into obedience.
37:36God does not recognize it as obedience to him.
37:40In fact, he recognized it as disobedience, especially as Jesus said,
37:44now you have no cloak for your sin because it's known.
37:47Now that you know William Branham lied, and lying is not permissible,
37:53and now you're openly admitting it from the pulpit,
37:56now whatever happens, there's no cloak for that.
37:59There's no coming to God and saying, well, I was in ignorance of that.
38:02And now there's even an example in Scripture that pronounces judgment upon someone that would believe a lying prophet.
38:12So the question never is whether or not you're sincere.
38:15The question is whether are you obeying God's word or not.
38:18And let's bring this closer to our day.
38:21You know, followers of William Branham are sincere.
38:24They're kind.
38:25They genuinely love God.
38:26They desire to please Christ.
38:28They've sacrificed greatly and given up everything for what they believe.
38:32So the issue is not their sincerity.
38:35The issue is whether the teachings they follow are agreeing with the word of God or Scripture.
38:40The issue is whether they're listening to God's word or just to a man's interpretation and bent on Scripture.
38:48The issue is whether the Scripture is remaining the final authority or not.
38:52You know, some people argue that because William Branham did say some true things, we should overlook things that were
38:59false.
39:00But, John, this story today in 1 Kings 13 teaches us the very opposite lesson.
39:06I had a friend one time who made the mistake of getting snookered into one of these multi-level marketing
39:12schemes.
39:13And he had this – I'm laughing now.
39:16I shouldn't laugh because it's kind of sad.
39:17But he had this gimmick that he was trying to sell me where there were these bracelets that you put
39:23around your wrist.
39:24And on one side of the bracelet, there was a magnet.
39:26And what he said was the most of the blood flows through your wrist.
39:30And because most of the blood flows through your wrist, it's a great access point where you can cleanse your
39:36blood.
39:36And so this bracelet, it puts a magnet right there at your wrist where most of the blood flows.
39:42And as it flows through, that magnet will purify your blood.
39:46And I looked at him like, are you crazy, man?
39:49That's the stupidest thing I ever heard.
39:51Now, think about what he just said.
39:53He did give a pretty accurate assessment.
39:57He was saying that most of the blood flows through your wrist.
40:00And it is true.
40:02A lot of blood flows through your wrist.
40:04That part of what he said was true.
40:05But then he followed up with, put this magnet on it and your blood will be clean, which is false.
40:11Now, he started with the true thing and then injected the false thing.
40:15So your mind goes towards the truth and your mind is thinking, oh, this guy is, okay, I understand this.
40:21I realize that there's a lot of blood.
40:23If you cut your wrist, you'll bleed out and you'll die.
40:26I know there's a lot of blood that flows through there.
40:28So you're thinking truth.
40:29And then he tries to slide in the false thing.
40:31And that's how he was sadly manipulated to believe this thing that he got involved with.
40:37Well, it's the same thing with ministry.
40:40They'll try to slide in with this true thing and they'll give you something to make your mind focus on
40:44the truth.
40:45Something that you can recognize, realize, something that you're familiar with, something that's comforting to you.
40:52There's always these charismatic gimmicks of doing this.
40:54They'll give you something true, focus on that, distract you with it, and then slide in the false.
41:00And the false usually is something that uplifts themselves.
41:03In this guy's case, he was going to get some money out of me.
41:06And sadly, the people above him were going to get even more money out of him because everyone that he
41:11sold, they got a piece of it.
41:13So in the end, what I learned from this lesson of this guy trying to sell me these crazy magnets,
41:19I learned from this lesson that people can sincerely tell you things that are false.
41:24They can sincerely be duped and they may preach it until they're blue in the face believing it.
41:30It doesn't mean that they're a bad person.
41:32It means that they, too, are deceived, yet at the same time, they're spreading the deception and they're part of
41:38the deception.
41:39So what this guy was doing, in my opinion, this was wrong.
41:43This guy was doing something clearly wrong.
41:45He was trying to take advantage of me, but he himself had no idea that he was doing it.
41:50The people that came before him, they might have even been dead.
41:53Maybe the guy that signed him up died, but that guy manipulated him until he believed it.
41:59And so he was believing the false thing, and he's trained and manipulated to wedge the truth in with the
42:05false, basically.
42:06So I came to realize that I look at people differently now.
42:11People, even in the ministry that I came out of, some of them truly believed what they said.
42:17They really did, and they were genuinely good people.
42:21But, at the same time, they were genuinely false.
42:24And I have to separate the two, the truth and the false.
42:28I have to weigh them in the balance and see, well, if they're saying this true thing, I can believe
42:35it.
42:35But if they're saying this false thing to make an overall statement, I have to reject the overall statement.
42:41Because you can't mix a little bit of truth with something false and make it all true.
42:46It just doesn't work.
42:48That's how we need to apply every aspect of life, in my opinion.
42:52You need to weigh in the balance.
42:53It's what you're being told true.
42:56Because if there's a statement that comes after this that is a broader statement that includes the true and the
43:02false,
43:03you have to reject the broader statement.
43:06So, John, that's so true, and it's a very scary proposition here for message believers today.
43:13And as time moves on, it's going to even get worse.
43:16And so what I fear today, if they're not taking heed to the fact of this lesson we're learning in
43:211 Kings 13,
43:23I fear for what is coming later.
43:26But the old prophet here, we see the old lying prophet.
43:29He was a real prophet.
43:30You know, the issue don't have to be whether William Branham was a real prophet or not.
43:36But at the end of the chapter, God had used him to pronounce a true prophecy,
43:41but his lie brought destruction.
43:45So even if William Branham had any true prophecies at all, the lies are bringing destruction.
43:51Think about that.
43:52That old lying prophet was not entirely false.
43:55He probably, in his day, had true prophecies.
43:58He was not a pagan priest.
44:00He was not an atheist.
44:02He was not some sorcerer.
44:04But he was a prophet.
44:06The Bible says he was, and has no reason to believe he wasn't a prophet.
44:09Yet one lie was enough to bring judgment upon the man who followed him.
44:15One lie.
44:16So what would that do in this day for us to be following a man we know that lied?
44:22What is that going to bring upon us to continue with that?
44:25How much more careful should we be when dealing with someone whose record contains false prophecies
44:33and knowing that many of the things that he said are verifiable just lies?
44:39So the lesson of 1 Kings 13 is not that a prophet has to be completely false before we have
44:44to
44:45reject him.
44:46The lesson is that any message contrary to God's revealed word in Scripture must be rejected,
44:52even if it comes from someone who has spoken the truth before or someone who is highly respected
44:57or someone with a reputation for spiritual experiences or claims angelic visitations.
45:04You know, the standard never changes.
45:06God's word remains above every prophet.
45:09That's exactly why Scripture repeatedly warns believers to test everything.
45:15You know, the Bereans, we can go back to them.
45:17They were commended in Scripture because they searched the Scriptures.
45:21They didn't just listen to Paul.
45:23They searched them to find out for themselves are these things we hear are true.
45:29Apostle Paul was tested by Scripture.
45:31So if Brother Branham is relating himself to the Apostle Paul and say he preached the same
45:39gospel, should not William Branham be tested with Scripture the same as the Apostle Paul?
45:47The Bereans did not say, Paul's an apostle, therefore we've got to accept everything he says
45:52because he's had all these visitations of God and he's gone up into the third heaven.
45:57You know, they examined the Scriptures.
46:00You know, the word of God was the only standard they took.
46:04Also, Paul even warns us in Galatians not to accept any message contrary to the Scriptures
46:11or the gospel that I've preached, even if an angel from heaven were to come down and preach
46:16it to you.
46:18So, but Scripture tells us to look at one thing, what has God actually said, not what
46:24someone claims God has said, not what someone claims an angel has said, not what someone
46:31says was revealed to him in a vision, and especially if the visions are not even true, but what has
46:38God actually said in his word?
46:40That remains the true foundation, John.
46:42You know, it's really odd.
46:43When I left Branhamism, I started noticing something that was troubling to me.
46:49I started listening to other ministers who are in the movement, and I'm not talking about
46:55the ones that play the recordings.
46:56We had a large number of people that they would just simply say, I'm going to preach today
47:00by playing William Branham sermons, and they go press the play button.
47:05I'm talking about the ones that actually did preach.
47:08I was starting to hear them talking about things that would be very relevant to me, about
47:13Bible passages that are relevant to the thing that is relevant to me today.
47:19But instead of saying, the Bible says X, Y, and Z, and therefore it's relevant to you today,
47:24they would say, our leader said that the Bible says that this is relevant to you today.
47:29So you're a step removed from the Bible.
47:33And then the things that were being said weren't quite all true.
47:38Even the quoting of the Bible sometimes.
47:41Sometimes Branham would take a verse from this chapter in this book and another verse here
47:45and combine them and say, the Bible said, and he would invent a new Bible verse.
47:49And that's really problematic for me because if you're going to make the Bible relevant
47:55today, you have to point to the Bible.
47:58If you're going to be preaching from the Bible, I don't care what the other guy says that it
48:02says.
48:02I want to read it for myself.
48:04But in today's world, what we're doing today matches exactly what you're describing in the
48:10ancient world.
48:12They care more that the guy is a prophet than they do whether or not the prophet has the
48:16truth.
48:17And maybe he did in the past.
48:18I'm not going to say that he did or he didn't in this podcast.
48:21I've examined it a few times in other podcasts.
48:24But let's say that he did.
48:26Say that back in 1933, say that there was actually these seven prophecies that he claimed
48:32and ignore all of the things that are stacked up against them actually being true.
48:38Ignore all of that and say they were true.
48:40So that was way back in 1933.
48:43Well, what about 1965 when he's saying things that aren't true about the Bible, about himself,
48:48about the prophecies?
48:50So what you're talking about, this is not just an ancient story in the Bible.
48:54This is very relevant today.
48:56This started a broad movement.
48:59That is, you look at everything from the White House to all of the weirdness that's happening
49:04in the churches today.
49:05All of this stems from Branhamism.
49:08Branham had a significant impact on the world.
49:11And sadly, the things of today that we see that are so extreme, that are edging closer and
49:18closer to extremism, they came from many of the statements that were just slightly off the
49:23mark.
49:23And for me, that makes it a huge problem because it starts at the core.
49:29It starts with the message believers stepping up and saying, okay, Branham said this.
49:33Maybe I believe Branham.
49:34Maybe I believe he was a prophet.
49:35But this thing that he said is not true.
49:38So therefore, I'm going to go towards the truth.
49:41Or this thing that he said is anti-biblical.
49:44I'm going to choose the Bible over the anti-biblical thing that he said.
49:50It's not going to, nothing is going to change until people make that distinction.
49:55If the man said something's false, we have to admit that it's false and move on.
49:59If you don't, you're stuck in the false.
50:02And what happens is you spin off into extremism.
50:05That's exactly the mess that is being caused today.
50:08John, that's so true again.
50:10And, you know, we can go over this.
50:13I'm so glad we're having this conversation today because, you know, I feel very strongly
50:18about this in my heart.
50:20And I feel very concerned about all message believers today because of just what popped
50:26up today in my wife's discussion.
50:28You know, it's amazing how God can use just informal discussions to bring things to light
50:34and bring them to the forefront.
50:36So I hope that we're bringing this once again to the forefront in maybe a different way,
50:41but with some verifiable scripture to back us up here.
50:44We're not just speaking in the wind.
50:46And we actually have a verifiable example now of a lying prophet and what it did to
50:51somebody that was sincerely following him.
50:54So the tragedy, you know, to sum all this up, you know, the tragedy of religious movements
50:58that follow followers begin with scripture, but eventually filter that scripture through
51:04what the prophet says.
51:06You know, whatever William Branham says has to be filtered, you know, through the scripture,
51:10not that the scripture has got to be brought through William Branham's words because the
51:15scripture gets left behind.
51:17You know, instead of judging the prophet by scripture, they judge scripture by the prophet.
51:22That reversal is spiritually dangerous to them.
51:26You know, once a man becomes the lens through which the Bible is interpreted, then the authority
51:32of scripture is totally replaced.
51:34It's no longer the rule.
51:37The believer no longer starts with what the Bible, what did the Bible say?
51:42Instead, all these believers in the message ask, what did the prophet say the Bible meant?
51:48That's how the deception grows.
51:49And that's what, that's exactly what it is today, John, is, is what did the prophet say
51:54about the Bible?
51:55That's what I'm going to believe.
51:56And whether it's right or wrong, they stay with the prophet.
51:59But the safest place for the Christian today, John, is not under some prophet.
52:04Even if there are prophets today, we don't need to stay under some prophet.
52:08The safest place for us is under the authority of God's word.
52:12The lessons of 1 Kings 13 is not that lying prophets are dangerous, and they are.
52:18The lesson is that believers must refuse to abandon God's clear word for any competing
52:24authority.
52:25God's word must be heard rightly and proclaimed accurately and obeyed fully.
52:31The prophet died.
52:33Judgment came to him because he listened to another voice.
52:37But the path of safety is to remain anchored to the word of God as revealed in scripture.
52:43When scripture speaks, every other voice has to be subordinate to that.
52:48No prophet may override it.
52:51When the scripture is spoken, no vision can contradict it.
52:54No dream can replace it.
52:56And no messenger, of course, can alter it.
52:59This is a warning.
53:02It goes across the centuries.
53:04But even today, it's a strong warning to us.
53:07Don't follow a man because he claims special revelation.
53:11You know, follow Christ and his word as revealed in scripture.
53:15So, John, that's where we'll end today, and I appreciate the time.
53:19And like I say, this is just something that popped up all of a sudden, but I think it's
53:23very and highly important to everyone, especially message believers today.
53:28And I hope they will take heed, you know, to what we've said today.
53:32Absolutely.
53:33Well, if you've enjoyed our show and you want more information, you can check us out on the
53:36web.
53:36You can find us at william-brannum.org.
53:39For more information about the message teaching on the Godhead, you can read Godhead in their
53:43own words, voices of oneness preachers in the end time message.
53:46And for more about the dark side of the new apostolic reformation, you can read Weaponized
53:50Religion from Christian Identity to the NAR, available on Amazon, Kindle, and Audible.
54:24Weaponized Religion from Christian Identity to the NAR.
54:54Weaponized Religion from Christian Identity to the NAR.
55:00Weaponized Religion from Christian Identity to the NAR.
55:00Weaponized Religion from Christian Identity to the NAR.
55:01Weaponized Religion from Christian Identity to the NAR.
55:01Weaponized Religion from Christian Identity to the NAR.
55:02Weaponized Religion from Christian Identity to the NAR.
55:03Weaponized Religion from Christian Identity to the NAR.
55:03Weaponized Religion from Christian Identity to the NAR.
55:03Weaponized Religion from Christian Identity to the NAR.