Israel in Prophecy: Did Old Testament Prophecy Really Point to Modern Israel | Revival Exposed

Name: Israel in Prophecy: Did Old Testament Prophecy Really Point to Modern Israel | Revival Exposed | 735
Uploaded: 2026-10-27T08:49:26+00:00
Duration: 54 min 14 s
Channel: William Branham Historical Research

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

00:40at william-branham.org, where history proves that truth, or at least their version of it,

00:46is truly stranger than fiction. I'm going to open this podcast with a question for people who are

00:52involved or have been affected by the Pentecostal charismatic movement. Some of you may not know

00:59that you have been, so this question is going to be for the broad scope of the audience. However,

01:05the podcast itself is actually not intended for people who have been in that movement.

01:11But the question is this, did the Bible predict 1948? Most Christians who are outside of all of

01:19this mess that has developed into today's New Apostolic Reformation would say,

01:25no, the Bible did not predict 1948. Because if you look back at 1948, what was happening

01:31in the religious realm, the post-World War II healing revival was already underway

01:36when the latter rain revival broke out of North Battleford in 1948. In fact, William Branham's

01:42healing campaigns were one of the major influences on people at North Battleford, and latter rain

01:48developed within that larger environment. What I have found in my church-going experience when we left

01:55the movement that really was the heart of all of this, which was the Branham movement. William Branham

02:01was one of two catalysts for that latter rain movement, and Branham's destructive cult had broad,

02:08wide-sweeping influence across the globe. What I found was this, there were elements of Branhamism

02:15in many of the churches that we attended, even some of the mainstream churches. And I'm not going

02:22to go too deeply into the theologies and how they've been impacted, because this is not a theological

02:27debate. But I do want to talk through the history, so that people who are not influenced by the latter

02:33rain movement, or its consequences, I guess I'll call it, the things that developed after that are just,

02:40some of it is just really terrible stuff. I want to explain why the terrible stuff. Why do so many

02:47groups spin off into destructive cults? Why is there such a end-of-days theme within the movements?

02:55And why the strong focus on Israel? And the focus on Israel is the touchy subject, because it has

03:02invaded American politics. There is this strong Christian-slash-political tie together for,

03:10the nation of Israel, and all of the themes that go with this. So I'm going to walk very delicately

03:16in that area. However, it is really important to understand, because, again, there are so many

03:22elements that I have witnessed myself whenever I came into the normal, quote-unquote, normal church

03:28world. So I want to talk through that. But the question really remains, did the Bible actually

03:34predict 1948? The reason why this question is important is not because of the latter rain movement,

03:41but instead because of the modern state of Israel. And not to focus heavily on the state of Israel,

03:49because I'm going to also avoid politics in this, I want to talk a bit about the history leading up

03:56to

03:56the formation of the state of Israel. And to do that in a way that relates to the history and

04:03studies

04:03that I have been doing, this is a connecting the dots episode where I give you bits and pieces of

04:08some of my research, tie it all together, and you can see how it all works in the engine that's

04:13churning. But you have to go back to British Israelism. British Israelism was the belief that

04:19the Anglo-Saxon peoples, especially the British, were descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel.

04:25And as this expanded into America, it created a theological framework that said that the United

04:31States, and sometimes Canada, were the recipients of the promises of those modern Anglo-Saxon nations.

04:38Long before 1948, Christians had developed several different traditions that were expecting

04:44Jewish return to Palestine. And British Israelism was one stream intersecting that much broader

04:51restorationist expectation. And dispensationalism would become another eventually influential stream,

04:59especially within the Pentecostal movement. The question that I'm going to get to the heart of

05:04is really this. Did the Bible predict 1948, when Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others spoke about

05:12Israel returning to their land? What did their original audiences think they were talking about?

05:18In other words, what did the Jews think they were talking about when they said,

05:23you people who are displaced will return to your land? For those who are not impacted by British

05:29Israelism, they would say, well, they were talking about in the ancient world, whenever they were

05:34displaced, they would be returning to their land. Historically, that is really the answer.

05:40Theologically, it turns into a much bigger debate, because you're left with this question. We heard

05:46those prophecies frequently in the sermons that I listened to growing up. Were they predicting a

05:53return that is supposed to be twofold? In other words, it happened in the ancient world, and it will

06:00happen again. Much like the, what's the show, Battlestar Galacta. This has all happened before,

06:06this will all happen again. That's the Christian theme that branches this into two different

06:13theological debates. And I'm not going to get into the debate. I just want to talk about that history

06:17some. Ezekiel 36 and 37, I believe it is, is probably the best example. It's the one we had songs

06:26about it, the old dry bones. I'm certain some of you have heard these songs. But that vision of the

06:32valley of dry bones is believed by those in the British Israel camp to be connected directly to

06:39Israel in 1948. And when Ezekiel talks about the whole house of Israel that has been lost,

06:47and Israel and Judah will be reunited, the British Israel people believe reunification of peoples would

06:54be the North American content and the people of the Isles of England. So they were believing that

07:00this would join into one people. And Israel as a nation was very important to this. And so

07:08within that realm of theological difference between mainstream Christianity, it was believed that

07:17many passages in the old covenant that were referring to the Jews are to be interpreted as though

07:24they were applying to the Jews, those passages, but they're also applying to us. What we see in part

07:30in shadow, we see in full today. So under that theological framework, you believe that the ancient

07:38Israel and all of the passages referring to those, that was the shadow of things to come. And we're in

07:44the new era. And so we can apply those to our kingdoms and nations. In that framework, there are some

07:53historical issues, theological issues, and where I want to focus actually is the logical issues,

08:00because there are some. I had a conversation on this very subject with General Ross just yesterday,

08:06and we were talking about pretty much everything that I just said and beyond, because Hobart Freeman

08:13of the faith assembly cult, the destructive deadly cult of Hobart Freeman, his theological position on this

08:22subject came actually directly from William Branham. And I read the quotes from Branham that was in the

08:28questions and answers that is talking about this very thing. There are many different groups that

08:33built upon this. And that is not to say that it originated with Branham because British Israelism came

08:39long before Branham, but Branham and the healing revival has helped to popularize it. And that's really,

08:45I think, the point to understand in all of this. But the logical flaw is this. I asked Chino,

08:50if I were to have a prophecy that my wife and myself would visit him at his house, and we'd

08:56have a

08:57wonderful time together, and my wife would bake you the best cherry pie that you've ever had.

09:02And we came to your house, which we actually did, you know, a few weeks ago, or a few months

09:07ago,

09:08came to your house, and we had this great conversation, and then we left. You'd be wondering,

09:13well, where's the cherry pie, man? And that's really the problem here. When you read these Old

09:19Covenant prophecies, there are so many details of things that are to happen. The problem comes in

09:26whenever something happens, some modern event happens, and then it's declared to be the

09:31fulfillment of these prophecies because one or two details seem to match. While all of the remaining

09:37details are to be postponed or spiritualized or interpreted differently, that doesn't automatically

09:44make the interpretation wrong. But it raises this really good question, which rule determines

09:50which details belong to the claimed fulfillment and which ones do not? Who is the one who gets to

09:56decide this? And some people will say, well, those details are happening in the future. Or let's say,

10:01those details are happening in the spirit realm. We can't even see it. The logical flaw that exists

10:08with this is if you take that position, you can literally make them apply to anything from future

10:14political issues, future wars, to even issues that you have in your workplace. You can make it say

10:21anything that you want if you eliminate parts of what is being said. And for me, that's a logical flaw.

10:27And again, I'm not taking either side of the theological debate. I'm just pointing out what

10:32it looks like to people who aren't on either side of that debate. So this podcast is more for people

10:38who don't have a dog in the fight, like me. I don't have a dog in the fight. But I

10:42want to talk about

10:43why there is such a theological debate among the same people that have the same theological framework.

10:50So this is for the apologist who's on the outside looking in. This is for the Christian who's looking at

10:56this whole weird mess, thinking, why is there such confusion? Well, all of it comes back down to

11:02this. And this is the very heart, in my opinion, the very heart of the confusion in the movement.

11:07I'll begin by taking Ezekiel's prophecy to explain why that confusion exists. But I do want to

11:14emphasize that there are many people in the movement, including pastors, evangelists, and theologians,

11:20who have not really critically examined the context and the exact passages of Scripture

11:28that built a theological framework. I know ministers who preach it because other ministers have preached

11:34it. And there are key verses that were repeated often in the movement whenever I was growing up.

11:40And some of these come from Ezekiel, some of them from other passages that are similar.

11:45In the movement, the futuristic framework is more often mentioned than the historical framework.

11:52I want to talk right now about the historical framework. Israel and Judah were under judgment

11:58according to the context of Scripture, not just within this prophecy, but reading the entire Old Testament,

12:03you get that context. And there was a prophecy that there would be a regathering.

12:09So they're exiled, they're under judgment, and then suddenly these prophecies are coming that,

12:14I'll bring all of the people back. When I do this, I being God, according to the prophecy,

12:19there will be a spiritual revival. And I chose the word revival there specifically. In my slide,

12:27if you're watching the video presentation, I have the title, Spiritual Renewal. Revival actually is

12:33talking about a spiritual renewal. And many of the modern revival culture theologians will use these old

12:42passages talking about the actual spiritual renewal to Israel that was in the historical context.

12:49So you can change those two words out, spiritual renewal or revival, which will give you a new

12:54heart, a new spirit of cleansing from sin. In other words, you were under the old covenant law,

13:00you broke the law, and you're going to be restored. God is going to restore you. So this vision of

13:06restoration goes far beyond simply returning people geographically to a land. Israel and Judah are

13:13reunited. There is a Davidic ruler, a spiritual renewal, an everlasting covenant, and God is

13:19dwelling among them. So Christians disagree over how all of this is to be fulfilled, either through

13:26Christ and the new covenant, or through a future restoration of Israel, or through some combination of

13:32the two. If you're not in this movement, and you've not been affected by it, you read everything much

13:38differently than you do if you were in the movement. When you're in the movement, you're looking to a

13:42future covenant, a future everlasting covenant, because all of this is happening in the future.

13:49Or there is sometimes a blend of this. If you're outside of the movement, you say, well, there was already

13:55a new covenant. Jesus came and he gave us a new covenant. So when two people who are of different

14:01opinions, because they're not part of that movement, one person's outside of the movement,

14:06one person has been influenced by it, you can have a conversation and you fully do not understand each

14:11other. Because one person is saying, wait, we've already had the new covenant, Jesus came, what else

14:16is there? And that was the everlasting covenant. And then you've got the other people who are looking

14:21to make these prophecies futuristic. So there is a significant difference between the understanding of

14:27these passages. By the time that the modern state of Israel was established, Christians had already

14:33been discussing a future Jewish restoration for centuries. What really changed in 1948 was that

14:40the expectation that had already long existed now suddenly received this dramatic confirmation

14:47in world events. Suddenly with the British Israel themes and the nation of Israel being formed,

14:54you have this now in time framework, because if you take those old covenant passages and you read

15:02all of their descriptions of what can happen with the end result of failure to uphold the law,

15:10you have doomsday. And that's how it gets interpreted. And that's why if you're in the movement,

15:15you have a doomsday focus. If you're outside of the movement, you're thinking, well, why are you

15:20worrying about this? Jesus came, he conquered sin, he's going to return, we don't have to worry about

15:25this. So you have two polar opposite schools of thought. And it all comes back to this interpretation.

15:31And I want to remind people that not all Pentecostals were aligned. There were those who joined in the

15:36Lateran movement, but Lateran created this great schism, and there were those who were opposed to it.

15:42So among the Pentecostals, you had really two restorations happening at the same time. On the one hand,

15:48you had Israel being restored. The state of Israel was established May 14th, 1948. When the Jews were

15:56restored, many Pentecostals and many who were in the restorationist mindset believed that this was of

16:03prophetic significance. And then on the Lateran side, you have the, what was developing into the Lateran

16:11revival at North Battleford. So 1948, they believed that they had the second outpouring of the Lateran

16:17Spirit. The church was being restored. So suddenly we're seeing the gifts, the prophecy, the laying on of

16:23hands. And because of this, if you apply the themes that were flowing out of that movement, with the

16:31British Israel themes, with the restoration themes, suddenly you have this preparation for an end time

16:36harvest. And that is really the key to understanding how all of this began to develop in the way that

16:42it did in the

16:44new apostolic reformation. I can already tell what some of you who were never impacted by this movement

16:48are saying. If they reshaped the context of scripture for the restoration, well, what about all of the

16:56passages that were prophetic talking about the desolation that was coming? And we must touch on

17:02that just a bit to fully understand this. So I'm going to go back to Daniel chapter 9. Daniel 9

17:08is one of the

17:09most significant passages of scripture. In fact, the entire book of Daniel, as it relates to the themes

17:16that were flowing through what happened in the Lateran movement. We heard sermon after sermon of

17:22Daniel 70 weeks. And this became a very popular theme because it's talking about imminent destruction

17:28and desolation. And whenever you're thinking of all of this in the context of the world wars,

17:33it would be very easy to apply what Daniel is predicting to the desolation that's happening

17:39in one of the world wars. But historically, let's take a step back and see what Daniel is actually

17:46saying. Daniel describes 70 weeks or 77s, which have traditionally been understood as a 490 year

17:55framework. And that passage is connecting Jerusalem to the transgression, the righteousness, an anointed

18:01figure, a covenant, a sacrifice, sanctuary, desolation. Exactly how all of those 70 weeks should be

18:09calculated and fulfilled has literally been debated for centuries. And different Christian groups have

18:15arrived at very different conclusions based on the theology that is driving that particular movement.

18:23The problem is there were people like John Nelson Darby and others who were dispensationalists

18:30and they injected a large chronological gap by inserting this idea that the prophetic clock just

18:40stopped and the church age basically was 2,000 years. That was a very popular theme. It was very popular

18:47among Pentecostals especially. And this dispensational idea began to spread like wildfire, especially among

18:53the Schofield carrying Bible holders. So as this picture of Daniel 70 weeks turns into thousands of

19:00years. Well, now think about all of that context mixed with the previous thing that I said talking about

19:08the restoration and Israel is restored as a nation. Suddenly, it's very easy to apply everything that you

19:16see to the world geopolitical landscape, especially when you consider, again, the world wars. We just

19:23had this massive desolation. We had several people die and now Israel's being restored. So it's very,

19:30very easy to interpret this as a reapplication of that prophecy. So it wasn't just that they were applying

19:38the prophecies talking about restoration. They were also going back and they were changing the context of

19:45those predicting the judgment that was coming for failure to uphold the Mosaic law. And for those

19:52who are unfamiliar with the Mosaic law who are listening to this, according to the old covenant,

19:58there were a number of curses that would come upon Israel and a number of blessings depending on whether

20:06they upheld the law or they rejected or failed in the law. And what happened is you can read through

20:13the book of Kings and you can see a king rises up and falls into idolatry. When this happens,

20:19there are these prophets who rise up and they prophesy, you have not withheld, you have not upheld the law

20:26and this judgment is coming upon you. So Old Testament prophets are quite different than what modern

20:33NAR Pentecostal charismatic prophets claim to be. They weren't really predicting future events as a

20:42uh, uh, prophecy looking back at a failure to do something. In other words, God is using them as a

20:52mouthpiece to say, okay, you failed, you messed up. Now this is the curse that I promised you. So it

20:58was

20:58a promise that was being presented to the people under the context of the Old Testament. When you look at

21:05the prophecies like Daniel and you have this prophecy of desolation, well, to apply it into the modern

21:12terms, you have to take bits and pieces of it, much like the prophecies that are from the restoration

21:19side. And you have to say, well, this piece fits, I can see it happening with whatever country, whatever

21:25war, this one piece fits, we're going to use it, but you also have to exclude all of the others.

21:31All of this leads back to the question that I originally asked was 1948 predicted in the Old

21:37Testament. It gets really interesting when you bring dispensationalism into this picture,

21:43because while it's not the only theological system that would allow this prophetic significance to

21:501948 within classical dispensationalism, 1948 opens the door because of this gap between Daniel's 69th

21:59week and the 70th week. You have this huge gap that actually allows a framework in which national

22:06Israel can return to their homeland, and it injects them into the prophetic timetable that is within the

22:14church ages. The reason why this exists is because there are two prophetic streams. You had those who

22:21believe the Israel prophecy, that prophecy stream, so they saw the dispensational expectation,

22:27the future Israel, the future 70th week, the end times anticipation. And this is outside of the latter rain

22:34movement. So it was influencing churches who were not influenced by latter rain. But on the latter rain side, you

22:41came to the same

22:41conclusion. So they had one shared conclusion. You had the 1948 revival, which was the latter rain. You had the

22:49restored

22:50gifts. You had the mature restored church, while all of the other churches were apostate or were corrupt. And then

22:58suddenly we're going to have this

23:00final harvest. This billion soul harvest is how they would frame it sometimes in both latter rain and today in

23:07the charismatic

23:07movement. But the interesting thing for me is that you have these different prophetic systems that could actually arrive at

23:15similar

23:15conclusions without actually sharing the same theology. Dispensationalists could see restored national

23:21Israel as the prophetic clock that's beginning to move again, while latter rain restorationists could see 1948 as

23:29evidence that God is simultaneously restoring Israel and restoring the church. So they arrived at the same

23:35end time urgency, but they both went through different pathways. For me, it really changes the

23:42landscape of what happened. 1948 was the state of Israel being established. You cannot argue that. The Jewish state does

23:49exist.

23:50But the question becomes, was a future Israel centered prophecy

23:56predicted in the Bible in the way that it is being taught? And if not,

24:01why the focus on Israel that we have today? Why is Israel the milestone for every single thing prophetic in

24:07the church today?

24:09You have to go back to everything that I'm talking about here to understand why that is.

24:14And one of the logical issues that exists for me, which I'll get into in a bit, if you go

24:20down that road,

24:20you can't just take pieces of it. In other words, like I mentioned before, you can't predict that you're going

24:27to come

24:28with your wife and she's going to bring you this wonderful cherry pie and then come and leave and you're

24:33in

24:33in anticipation of that cherry pie. That was part of the prediction. So either it's all true or it's all

24:39false or you have a reinterpretation that's invalid. Well, in this way of interpreting the Bible, you

24:46really have to do that because when you apply all of the prophetic things that were included in that

24:54overall vision, not just Daniel's prophecy, but everything else that is said about this event,

24:59well, you have to think about Daniel's people. You have to think about Jerusalem. You have to think

25:05about the sanctuary. You have to think about the covenant, the sacrifice, the temple. All of these

25:10things are part of that prophecy and that prophecy is spanning multiple prophets because it's part of

25:17the old covenant. These prophets are speaking as a mouthpiece from God and God is talking about the

25:23same event to Israel if you are to understand that context. So it really comes down for me to a

25:30contextual issue. Do you believe the context of the Bible? Do you believe that to be complete? Or can you

25:36take bits and pieces of that context and try to fit it into today's world? And the only question that

25:43I would ask with that, again, I won't get into that debate. If you do this, what prevents somebody else

25:48from doing it to a future event? Say there's a future world war. What makes the people not create

25:54a new ladder rain? In other words, ladder rain, you could say there was the original ladder rain with

25:59Pentecost, ladder rain with the ladder rain movement. It's arguably a consistent theme if you understand

26:07the context of it that International House of Prayer in Kansas City was an attempt for another ladder rain.

26:13So this would actually be yet another ladder rain on top of all of those if you try to go

26:18down that

26:19pathway. And to believe that at all, that there's a coming ladder rain, you have to reinterpret Joel's

26:26prophecy and try to say that parts of it were for days gone by in the ancient world and it's

26:32to be

26:32repeated again today. In other words, you can take a prophecy and you can repeat it in any way that

26:38you

26:38want. The problem is they have done it continually and each time it turns out to be demonstrably false.

26:46Have you ever wondered how the Pentecostal movement started or how the progression of modern

26:51Pentecostalism transitioned through the ladder rain, charismatic, and other fringe movements

26:57into the new apostolic reformation? You can learn this and more on William Branham Historical Research's

27:03website, william-branham.org. On the books page of the website, you can find the compiled research of

27:11John Collins, Charles Paisley, Stephen Montgomery, John McKinnon, and others, with links to the paper,

27:18audio, and digital versions of each book. You can also find resources and documentation on various people

27:25and topics related to those movements. If you want to contribute to the cause, you can support the

27:31podcast by clicking the contribute button at the top. And as always, be sure to like and subscribe

27:36to the audio or video version that you're listening to or watching. On behalf of William Branham Historical

27:42Research, we want to thank you for your support. If you're like me and you have an analytical mind,

27:48and you understand that there are two different branches of people who have two different sets of

27:54theologies based on 1948 that both develop into the same conclusion. On the outside looking in,

28:01you can see why there would be confusion and why misalignment of doctrine, because two groups of

28:07people are coming to the same conclusion, but in very, very different ways. I want to add to this

28:13one of the strangest wrenches that can possibly be thrown into this mix, and that is Christian identity.

28:21It's something that I talk about frequently, because it is significant to understanding this

28:26whole ball of mess, but a lot of people kind of glaze over and they tune it out for this

28:32reason,

28:33which complicates the system. In the Christian identity movement, most of the leaders are anti,

28:40all of the leaders are anti-Jew, and meaning that they believe that the Jews that are in Israel are

28:46the false Jews. And many people who view the latter rain movement, or Branhamism, or any of the branches

28:54that develop from latter rain, or charismatic movement, they believe them to be different

28:59than Christian identity, and that those are not anti-Semitic movements. I have people who are

29:06Branham followers who will argue with me to no end that William Branham was not anti-Semitic,

29:12overlooking large, glaring statements that he said that was actually anti-Semitic.

29:18So I want to talk about that just a bit, because it is one of the most complicated pieces,

29:24because, as you see, we have these two different streams of people with two differing theologies.

29:29We'll now multiply that by another two, because each one of those has a British Israel thought,

29:36or a Christian identity thought. And I want to separate those two just a bit.

29:41So to remind you from the earlier part of this, British Israelism was the idea that the United States

29:48and Canada were part of the descendants of the lost 10 tribes of Israel. And the British Isles were also

29:56this. As such, they are the inheritance of all of the blessings to Israel. The new Israel, the new

30:05modern Israel is how they framed it. When this idea came to be, the Jews, the actual Jews, moving back

30:12into

30:12Israel was a good thing. They saw this as a movement towards fulfilling of Bible prophecy. And they

30:19viewed the Jews very favorably. They're moving into their homeland. Now we can rejoice.

30:26Now in the United States, it's slightly different because of the racism that flowed through the entire

30:32nation. At one point, the Ku Klux Klan was a very popular organization. And think of this, one of the

30:40two

30:40leaders of the people who spearheaded the whole healing revival, one of two catalysts for the

30:47Lateran movement itself, was mentored by and admitted to having learned the Christian identity doctrine by

30:55the second in command of the Ku Klux Klan. William Branham's mentor was the second in command and was an

31:01official spokesperson for William Joseph Simmons, who spearheaded the 1914 Klan. Branham himself admitted

31:09that in Davis's church, he learned the Christian identity to see doctrine. He was marketed by, led by,

31:19organized campaigns by Gordon Lindsay, who would later found Christ for the Nations Institute.

31:24Gordon Lindsay was a frequent speaker at Christian identity conferences. We've talked about in the

31:31past. I won't rehash that history. You can look it up on my website. I have the newspaper articles and

31:37more talking about this, but Christian identity was a significant distraction to the overall agenda

31:44of this 1948 prophecy. Because now with the two streams of doctrines leading to the 1948,

31:54you have the complicated effect of, yes, we see it as fulfillment of prophecy, but now we have a

32:00question, are those people who are going into Israel, the actual Jews, or are they the false Jews?

32:06Because Christian identity believed that they were the false Jews. It was turning very anti-Semitic,

32:12and the point of time in which Gordon Lindsay is speaking at the Anglo-Saxon Federation

32:17is the time at which it had already turned anti-Semitic. This was one of the most racist and anti

32:24-Semitic

32:24organizations in Christian identity. So we see the history tells us that there were people who were

32:32aligned with that school of thought who were helping to lead the revivals. And that is probably one of

32:38the most significant things that you can understand from all of this confusion. But let's go deeper and

32:44understand what that actually means. Because British Israelism laid that theological foundation. The Anglo-Saxons

32:51were the descendants of the Ten Tribes of Israel. But Christian identity made the problem

32:58racialized, and in the 1930s through the 1960s started to develop doctrines that were increasingly

33:07argumentative that Israel is being inhabited by somebody that we need to kick out. We need to

33:12eject these people. Because this is our kingdom, we're going to take it over. Why? Because all of the

33:19passages of Scripture that I mentioned in the previous part of this were applying to the modern-day

33:25church. The kingdoms, the kings, the monarchy, all of that is to be established. Well, how do you

33:32establish it if the region is filled with these false Jews? And I'm laughing at the absurdity,

33:39not that it's funny. This is horrific that they were teaching this. But that was something that was

33:44significant. Remember, William Branham is spearheading the revival. He's, by many historians, the leader

33:52of the post-World War II healing revival. The leader was being led and managed by Gordon Lindsay,

33:58who's speaking at these conferences. And William Branham is saying things like this. Stay away from

34:05Israel. Stay away from it, all you people talking about converting the Jews. Before the message is over,

34:11meaning this movement, you'll see it's, thus saith the Lord, by word and spirit, Israel will be

34:16converted one nation overnight. The Bible said so, but the gospel is not even to them. There's a group

34:25of renegades out there and so forth that will come in outside of the main body of Jews. Those will

34:30come

34:31in and get saved. So, breaking down what he's saying, he is saying that the gospel is not to these

34:38people. Yet, at the same time, William Branham frequently talked about the gospel written to

34:43the Jews and the Gentiles. So, he's making a distinction. The people in Israel are not the

34:48ones that the gospel are to. There are some renegades outside of this that will come in and get saved.

34:53He's declaring, basically, the Anglo-Saxon Federation's views on who is in the Kingdom of

35:00the Jews. And he frequently, you can look it up, just type in anti-Semitism on my website. You can

35:06see many of the things that he's saying that is in full alignment with the anti-Semitic views

35:11of the Anglo-Saxon Federation. But this is a movement that's being led by people who believe

35:18that the nation of Israel is formed and it's prophetic, which I'll get into that just a little

35:23bit. It's prophetic, but we have the false Jews in. And those people, the gospel is not even to them.

35:30So, don't try to go witness the gospel to them. We're waiting for the time whenever all of Israel

35:35will be saved, but not the renegades, not the people who are there. The renegades to those people will be

35:41saved. That was the theme that was flowing through the latter rain movement through William Branham.

35:47Did everybody adopt it? Absolutely not. There were people who thought him to be a crazy wacko.

35:54And he mentions this often, and interestingly enough, he mentions that during the time that

36:01Jim Jones became a leader in his movement, and Branham's views were so extremist that even Jim Jones

36:08broke away from Branham and said, I'm not dealing with this. And Jones prophesied his death,

36:13as did many of the other evangelists, over what Branham called his serpent seed doctrine,

36:19which was the Christian identity doctrine. So, there was a schism, and there were multiple

36:24levels of schisms based on this. But the fact still remains that even among all of the schisms,

36:31you had people on both sides, and you had multiple divisions over Israel in 1948 that also had two

36:41sides. So, for every split that happens, you have another split within a split over the views of

36:47what's happening in Israel. So, to the mainstream churches who are on the outside looking in,

36:53they're thinking, this is nothing but mass confusion. They don't even know what Israel is,

36:57yet they say that Israel is part of their prophecy, and yet they can't even agree what the prophecy is.

37:03That's what mainstream would say. Among the Pentecostals, they would say, we have the better

37:09interpretation because we have, thus saith the Lord, or the spoken word, or the rhema,

37:14whatever they wanted to choose, our version is better than the next guy's. And so, we cause a split,

37:20and then the split would develop into its own destructive movement. That's how this thing began

37:26to spiderweb in the way that it did. The next logical flaw that I want to get into comes from

37:31Joel 2,

37:32and this is the basis for modern Pentecostalism, the basis for the latter rain movement, and

37:39interestingly enough, the basis for the New Apostolic Reformation. This prophecy of Joel

37:44begins with this catastrophic invasion, infestation of locusts, caterpillars, canker worms, and it's

37:52coming with this Day of the Lord imagery using a language that is a terrifying invading army of bugs,

37:59basically. And there's some debate over what exactly this literal locust infestation means,

38:06but the context is unmistakably one of judgment, of devastation, repentance, and eventual restoration.

38:15Here's where it gets interesting. The interpretation of that scripture, like I said, was twofold. It was

38:21written to the ancient Jews, but the movement tried to interpret it such that it is also applied to

38:26us today. And the logical fallacy is that this terrible thing, where the harvest is completely

38:32demolished by these bugs, it says, the day of the Lord is great. It is dreadful. Who can endure it?

38:40So the day of the Lord in Joel, it's described as great and terrible, or in today's language,

38:46it would be awesome and fearsome. The important question really comes as to how can you take something

38:51that is terrible and turn it into something positive? In other words, how can you have a

38:57passage that is describing divine judgment and calling people to repentance through that divine

39:03judgment, eventually becoming the source of this triumphant Joel's army theology, where we're coming

39:10out to invade nations because we are the army of caterpillars, or however you want to twist that.

39:15And remember that if you read in Acts 2, Peter says, this is that which was spoken of by the

39:21prophet Joel. So he's connecting Joel with Pentecost, not something that would be years later in the

39:27latter rain movement. That same mistake was made with the book of Malachi, where it says that,

39:33behold, before the great and terrible day of the Lord, I will send you Elijah the prophet

39:36to the Pentecostal movement. And those basically who developed their theologies from John Dowie and Frank

39:45Sanford interpreted such that this great and terrible day means the end times. And I will send

39:50you Elijah before the end times and I'm it. I'm the big guy. Well, modern Pentecostalism, not everybody

39:57subscribed to that level of destructive thought, but they did take the that word great and terrible

40:04and they tried to interpret it in many different ways that applies to the ancient Jews and to us today.

40:10An example of this, like I said, is Joel 2. This army, this Joel's army manifested sons of God

40:17theme that flowed through the latter rain. It was basically the basis for what would happen at IHOP KC

40:23and would develop into the new apostolic reformation. So it is significant. But I want to take a step back

40:30before this and talk about how that developed. Because Ernst Baxter's secretary, Ernst Baxter,

40:37who was William Branham's mentor and later he was one of the heads of the shepherding movement,

40:43his secretary wrote this book called The Feast of Tabernacles. So the movement, like I said, interprets

40:50part of the passage, part of the prophetic passage, picking and choosing details that we say

40:55happened to us today and then taking the rest of it and putting it off somewhere else. Either it's in

41:00the

41:00future or it's spiritual, etc. The Feast of Tabernacles did the same kind of thing by turning this

41:08biblical feast into a church age timetable without the text actually saying so. If you read what is

41:16being said in this, it's assuming that there's a Passover, then Pentecost, then Tabernacles, and it's

41:23essentially dividing the church history into three eras. And it's saying that basically these

41:29tabernacles will be fulfilled again. We're seeing it happen in Israel and we're going to restore these

41:36feasts. The problem logically or historically I should say with this is that the feasts were talking

41:43about actual feasts where people would come and they would eat and they would celebrate in the ancient

41:48world. They tried to take the feasts because they were to the people of the ancient world and they're

41:55part of this prophecy. They tried to spiritualize it into an era. And that's really where when you do

42:02this, you go into grave error because literally this happened. Literally there were feasts and now we're

42:08saying, well, the feasts are now spiritual. It's talking about something that is something that is not of

42:14our earthly realm. So the feast itself basically becomes church maturity. And that's really the

42:20point of the book, if you understand it, and the point of the movement. We're part of a restoration

42:26movement. God is coming to restore the church because the church is in this apostate condition.

42:32We disagree with God's handling of every one of the denominations until now. They were in spiritual

42:38blindness. We are the elite. We're the ones who have the maturity. All other churches,

42:44are immature. That's one of the fundamental elements of a destructive cult when you see

42:50an us versus them mentality. But essentially what it did was it took the restoration and tried to

42:58present it in such a way that anything that was referring to Israel's restoration, whether it was a

43:04tabernacle or a feast or any of the blessings that God gave in the old covenant, those blessings can be

43:13spiritualized into either eras or events or modern prophecy or modern predictions. And modern prophecies

43:21and predictions can be on top of these. That's the part that gets scary. What they were trying to say

43:28is

43:28we today have what is called the spoken word or the rhema. We take these predictions. We don't understand

43:35them at all, but combine them with a new prophecy. And now we have a key that unlocks this mystery.

43:42So the movement itself turned into a mystery cult. We have these new modern keys. Branham claimed to be

43:49one of them. His prophecies would unlock a mystery of the Bible. And now the mystery is revealed to the

43:55people. So people were coming to these meetings, trying to understand the mystery. And it became like a

44:01find your own adventure game. Because as you're finding these adventures, well, one prophecy is

44:07coming from one direction of theology that doesn't match the other guy's prophecy coming from his

44:13direction of theology. And so both prophecies are playing tug of war. And for that reason, the movement

44:19never really got to be cohesive. Instead, what you had were break off cults, some of which would go their

44:26own direction and each one being just violently opposed to some of the theology by the other guys,

44:33yet both people saying, God spoke to me. So you're faced with the question, well, if God is speaking

44:39to this guy, whose doctrine is polar opposite from this other guy, can we say that God is speaking to

44:46both? Obviously, the answer is no. So they started fighting to say whose one was actually God and whose

44:52one was actually the man being full of it or being mistaken, whatever. So restoration did not look

44:59much like you would expect from a church standpoint. From the outside looking in, you're looking at this

45:05mess and you're thinking, I don't see God in any of it because it's mass confusion. To the people on

45:11the outside, it's mass confusion. But to the people in a mystery cult, they have the secret that nobody else

45:17has. The other guy who's wrong, he's only partly right. His secret is not in full. He needs to come

45:25into our understanding and he can understand it better. So the movement was creating divisions

45:29based on mysteries. Fast forward to the Six-Day War, which happened in 1967. Israel, Egypt, Syria,

45:38Jordan, all began fighting and Israel eventually occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem from

45:45Jordan, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria.

45:51So this turned into very quickly a war of biblical proportions for those who were in the biblical

45:58school of thought that Israel was the fulfillment of end-time prophecy from the Old and New Testament,

46:05especially the Old Testament. So every single aspect of the Old Testament that is referring to wars,

46:13to famine, to conquering, to invasions, etc. We're starting to be framed in such a way that it

46:21happened to the ancient world. Now we're seeing Israel is in their homeland, 1948, and we're starting

46:28to see 1967, this big movement. So it began to intensify into what would be a strong recurring theme

46:37within the charismatic renewal as it starts to break out. 1967, if you look at the way these dates align,

46:44it all revolves around Israel. Israel is the key linchpin that ties it all together. And to tie it all

46:51together, you have to understand the interpretation by those using those theological themes about Israel.

46:58So in other words, if you're part of this movement in 1967, and you're starting to say that this is

47:05fulfillment of end-of-days prophecy, you also have to believe that 1948 was prophetic, and that the

47:13Old Testament prophecies talking about Israel, the restoration, etc., you must believe that those are

47:20to be applied to today, as well as it was applied to the ancient world. So Israel basically strengthened

47:27the pattern in 1967 with that capture of these territories, and the Six-Day War became enormously

47:34important to Christian Zionism, which is another element of ideology that's coming into this movement.

47:42So you had charismatic people interpreting, this is the end time coming, we must have the billion-soul

47:48harvest, we must have the revival. So if you go back to those different themes of movements leading to

47:55the same conclusion, now add to this the 1967 war, and you have even more themes of different theologies

48:04that are also coming into the movement with Israel being the linchpin. So Israel becomes this hub for

48:10theology, sometimes opposing theology. The charismatic movement carried that restoration theme from

48:18classical Pentecostal denominations, from non-Pentecostal denominations, all of the gifts of the

48:26Spirit, healing, etc. They carried that theme forward and started to eventually create large churches and

48:33large international ministries and inter-denominational ministries to push those themes and agendas forward.

48:41So what happened was, suddenly there's this mass cross-pollination of ideas that are getting into mainstream

48:48Christianity. So you can talk to a mainstream Christian, and they will believe much like the charismatic or Pentecostal

48:55world, Israel is the fulfillment of end-of-day prophecy. And not many of the people, like I said, not

49:02many of the

49:02people who are of that mindset go back to look at the prophecies that they're referring to and try to

49:07identify what parts were for Israel and what parts were for 1947. But you must do that exercise if you're

49:15going to build on top of that theology. Now bring it past the charismatic movement into the New Apostolic

49:22Reformation. International House of Prayer in Kansas City is one of the key examples of exactly what I'm

49:29talking about in this podcast. Mike Bickle, his Israel mandate was tied specifically to Israel and

49:36Messianic believers to Israel's end-time destiny. Ezekiel 16, the outpouring of the Spirit, all of these

49:43themes that I've mentioned for the latter rain movement is now coming into modern charismatic

49:48movement through Mike Bickle and his Israel mandate. But it's coming in a new modern way where

49:54the Joel's army focus has a heavier presence in the prophetic than it did even in the latter rain

50:02movement. Mike Bickle is quoted by some of his followers as saying, we're going to see bloodshed.

50:07And he seems to be very happy that they will engage in this battle. So Joel's army is not only

50:13militant,

50:13it is eager to become more militant, if that makes any sense. And combine that with everything leading up

50:22to Mike Bickle and the Kansas City International House of Prayer, such as the spiritual warfare,

50:28the intercession. Israel is no longer just simply a prophecy to observe. It's more of a focus of the

50:36prayer and fasting spiritual warfare. If we can all come together and do this, we will see Israel

50:42blossom into the end of days. And how this occurs and how this end of days looks differs depending on

50:50which new apostolic reformation leader you're talking about. And some of them, if you follow

50:56out their paths of prophecy to its conclusion, some of them kind of contradict each other.

51:02If you look at, for example, Mike Bickle, his his fulfillment of Joel's army, Paul Cain was saying,

51:08you'll see in Kansas City and Arrowhead Stadium, Joel's army and training, and you'll see all of these

51:14people and all the news media will be coming here. Well, what about the Christians across

51:19the ocean? Are they are they all going to come to Kansas City? And can the stadium even hold the

51:26number of Christians we're talking about? There are some logical flaws with that type of interpretation.

51:31But the point I'm trying to make here is the logical flaws don't stop there. To believe that,

51:37you have to also believe 1948 was was spoken about in biblical prophecy. Then you have to go back to

51:44the biblical prophecy and you have to pick and choose which details of those original prophecies

51:50you're going to say is coming to pass and which ones we're going to say are not part of the

51:56fulfillment of that prophecy. The question that I have that I'm building up to, if you can't tell already,

52:01who gets to decide which ones we're going to include and which details coming from God, by the way,

52:08we're going to exclude. It really comes down to the level of authority that is given to the ministers,

52:15the apostles and prophets of this movement. They actually have the authority to decide for God

52:21what God will do and what God promised to do that we're going to ignore and let that sink in.

52:28We're going to let these people decide what God said that we're going to ignore. So if that's not

52:35confusing enough, I'll leave you with this final question. If a messenger from God tells you to

52:42ignore God, is it truly a messenger from God? And with that, I'll let you think about that. So if

52:50you've

52:50enjoyed our show and you want more information, you can check us out on the web. You can find us

52:54at

52:54william-branham.org. For more about the dark side of the new apostolic reformation,

52:59you can read Weaponized Religion from Christian Identity to the NAR. Available on Amazon, Kindle,

53:05and Audible.

Israel in Prophecy: Did Old Testament Prophecy Really Point to Modern Israel | Revival Exposed | 735

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