“See thou hurt not the oil and the wine”

In the book of Proverbs 31:6-7 we read these words about wine: “Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.” Natural wine can only make a depressed person forget his misery for a short while. When he sobers up the problem will still be present to trouble him. So, although the above scripture says he will “remember his misery no more”, the “no more” has to be rightly understood as occurring within a short period of time. It is here that we see the limitation of what natural wine can do. It can only help man “in part”, so to speak, for a short period of time. However, “when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away” (1 Cor.13:10). We are thankful to God that the New Testament came with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the “perfect” and real wine, for the soul of man. It is for this reason that we are now admonished “not [to be] drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but [to] be filled with the Spirit” (Eph.5:18).The Holy Spirit gives the real stimulation which can heal a heavy heart just as the Lord promised saying, “Come unto me, all ye that … are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mat.11:28).

Sadly, there are people who still consume alcohol in an effort to relieve themselves of depression but only to find themselves ruining their lives into more confusion. When drunk they experience what seems like ecstasy but when reality strikes back they realise that all they had gone through was but just a temporal experience. That is the state of a person who hasn’t received THE REAL SPIRITUAL WINE!

Spiritual wine gives real enduring joy and out of that joy comes real strength that will enable a believer to stand even in moments of trial even as our Lord “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (Heb.12:2). Do you remember the disciples of Christ who were at one time all cowards and fled from their master when he fell into the hands of the authorities who mistreated Him? Peter had denied the Lord three times. However, on that day when the Holy Ghost came and “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues,” we see Peter boldly “standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Act. 2:6, 14-15). These seemingly drunk people were experiencing a new kind of “refreshment” which had been foretold by the prophet Isaiah –  “For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear” (Isa.28:11-12). The disciples of Christ had gotten drunk with the spiritual wine and that is what gave them the joy, and out of that joy came the strength (boldness) to proclaim the Word of God.

He gives wine to the heavy in heart 

After the crucifixion of Christ, the disciples were in a state of depression and confusion of thought. Remember the two who walked to Emmaus with sad faces? More trouble followed after the ascension of Christ as believers increasingly got persecuted. But thanks be to God who gives “wine” unto those that are of heavy hearts. God gave the disciples such unction and such rest in their hearts that no amount of persecution could separate them from the joy of salvation. The good news is that even unto you today the invitation is still given: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mat.11:28).

Have you ever felt discouraged at one time, and as you decided to start praising and worshiping God in the closet, then came a joy deep inside your heart that gave you strength to face whatever challenge was before you? Dearly beloved, it is in waiting upon the Lord in His presence that  your heart can receive joy and that joy in turn gives strength because “the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh.8:10). The spirit of prophecy in Isaiah proclaimed that “they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (40:31).

Oil and Wine in the Dark Ages 

During the Dark Ages believers experienced extreme trial and persecution and the hindrance to access the true Word of God. During this period the papacy ruled with tyranny. The Catholic system held people in fear and superstition. The people who were bound in the system were too afraid to confront and challenge the system. What they had was fear. This fear existed because of the absence of the truth of the Word. Without the true Word there can be no true joy, and without joy, there can be no strength.  Where the Word is absent, there will be nothing to stimulate the joy and strength of the Lord in a believer. The believer will become intimidated, fearful, and ultimately get deceived. However, the Lord who is rich in mercy always provides His protection upon  people who have ears to hear what the Spirit is speaking.During the Dark Ages God raised men who received the revelation of the Word. The prominent one was Martin Luther. He proclaimed that “the just shall live by faith” at a time when all sanity was lost and people’s minds were seared with a hot iron of superstition and traditions of the Church. But when God speaks and His voice penetrates into the heart of a man who has ears to hear THE VOICE, no amount of tradition can hinder that person from seeing the light. That is exactly what happened during the time of the Reformation.

The Revelation of the Third Seal 

When brother Branham received the revelation of the Seals in 1963 he explained that the famine of God’s Word during the Dark Ages is what constituted the Third Seal. This is not what Clarence Larkin taught! In saying this, we are not trying to raise arguments against Larkin’s teachings. He wrote and taught what he understood to the best of his knowledge. But, as is common in all fields of study, time always brings to light more truth about a matter.

Comparing what Larkin and Branham taught about the Third Seal 

This is what Clarence Larkin said about the Third Seal:

The ‘BLACK HORSE’ signifies famine, and the Rider the ‘Conserver of Food.’ When all able bodied men are drafted for war, and no one left to sow and harvest the crops, then famine is sure to follow. So great will be the famine, that it will take a ‘denarius’ a day’s wages, to buy a ‘choenix’ (2 pints) of wheat, the daily ration of a slave. What is meant by not hurting the oil and wine, may be, that as the Olive tree and grapevine do not bear their fruit until some months after the wheat and barley harvest, and grow without much attention, their crops would not be so much affected by war, and therefore the olive trees and grapevines were not to be ruthlessly destroyed by invaders for they were needed for medicinal purposes. 

Like he does to all the other seals, Larkin placed the fulfillment of this seal in the future during a  war that will occur. He explained that because able-bodied men will get involved in the war there will be no one to pay attention to agriculture and this will bring about famine. Furthermore, during the war crops will be destroyed but olive trees and grapes will be preserved because of their medicinal purposes.

Dear brothers and sisters, it is inconceivable how someone could have been reading brother Branham’s books for over three decades and then come to the conclusion that the interpretation of the Third Seal (and other seals) by William Branham is the same as that of Larkin! What the two men taught about the seals is just so plainly different. It is quite deceptive to pick on isolated words  and phrases which seem to match in the two men’s writings and then try to raise a case of plagiarism. Let us see what brother Branham taught about the Third Seal.

The revelation of the Third Seal as given to Brother Branham

The following words have been quoted verbatim from William Branham’s sermon on the Third Seal:

Now here is the mystery of the black horse, according to what it was revealed to me.  He has started riding him in the time of the dark ages. That’s what the dark horse represented, the dark ages, for it was a time of midnight to the true believers that was left. Watch now in that church age, that middle church age, the dark church age. Watch how He says, “You just have a little strength.” It was a midnight to them, for the true believer. Now watch. Practically all hope had been taken from the true Church, for this fellow controlled both church and state… Now, all hopes gone; no hope at all. Everything looked dark, for the little believers. Now, that’s the reason it’s called, represented, the dark horse. “His balances, or his scales, in his hand,” you see. Calling out, “Measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny.” See, actually, that is, wheat and barley is natural staff of life. That’s what bread and stuff is made from. But, you see, he was charging for this. What it means, that, he was charging his subjects for the kind of the hope of life that he was sending out to them, by making…

He started in that very time, of making them pay for prayers, charging for prayer. They still do it; novenas.… Now, oil typifies Spirit. And wine symbolizes stimulation of revelation… When the Truth of a promised Word of God has been truly revealed to His saints that’s filled with Oil, they all get stimulated. Wine is a stimulation. Glory! I feel it right now. Stimulated with joy, shouts! See? And, when It does, It has the same effect upon them that-that wine does upon a natural man. Because, when the revelation has been given, of a Truth of God, and the true believer filled with Oil, and the revelation is revealed, the stimulation becomes so great that He makes him behave hisself un-normally…“For with stammering lips and with other tongues will I speak to this people. And this is the refreshment.” This is the wine that’s poured out. What is wine, in the Bible? Refreshments. “This is the refreshments that comes from the Presence of the Lord.”

Surely, when God reveals himself through His Word there is a refreshment that comes upon our souls. The refreshment may make one shout “Hallelujah!” It may cause you to dance and sing before the Lord. Again, it may simply give you rest in your heart that assures you that all is well even when danger approaches. In that moment of danger, when God’s anointing is present,  faith (the revelation of God’s will) will enable you to stand and believe in God for  “greater is he that is in you than  he that is in the world”  (1 Joh. 4:4).

In the face of gross darkness, superstition, and the tyranny of papal Rome, the believers of that time could not have seen the truth and be converted had it not been God’s grace. Amidst all the deception and confusion, they were able to hear the “small still voice.” The voice spoke and they firmly stood on God’s Word.

What’s the Attraction on the Mountain? 

When a person hears the anointed Word and gets excited by it, no matter how long he may linger in trying to stay around the Word, as long as he has no firm foundation in the truth he has received, sooner or later his mind will waver away as it seeks other things that may interest it. It is important to know that usually when a spiritual revival breaks out, it always comes with phenomena that attracts different people in different ways. Some people will come to see the “fire”, and others  the “wind.” But let’s see what attracted Elijah: “And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?” ( 1 Kings 19:12-13).

What do you think modern day Charismatics would have experienced and testified about had they been with Elijah on the mount? What would many Endtime Message believers have talked about? And, what would have the critics focussed on? I see charismatics running down the mountain all emotional and in ecstasy talking about the “Wind.” “Did you feel it?” one asks another. “Yes! Oh, what a supernatural manifestation!” they would exclaim. On the other slope of the mountain comes down another group with pictures of the pillar of “fire” and talking about how Elijah is a vindicated prophet of God. Then comes the critic with his barometer, windsock, and a group of journalists. “There is an explanation to the wind and the fire that broke out!” he exclaims. “My analysis  shows that the wind is coming from this direction and must have toppled some rock which in turn struck another one causing a spark!” Dear friends, all these differences in reaction and opinion will arise because people  were motivated by different things to go and see the ‘attraction’ on the mountain. Some went to seek for signs whilst others went to prove their skepticism. Usually only a handful would be still to hear THE VOICE OF THE WORD! Elijah’s experience went beyond witnessing the fire or the wind. He heard the voice of God and came down that mountain with a testimony that was way deep into his soul and no man could shake him away from the joy in his soul. 

The Geologist, The Zoologist, and the Believer 

There are many things in this life that you are going to learn through observation or research and God is not one of them. One wise man put it this way: a geologist learns about rocks by studying them. That’s fairly easy because the rocks will not run away from you when you see them. You can pick or dig them up and investigate them with all your liberty. All the initiative lies with you and not the rocks. For a zoologist however, it’s a different story. Animals run away when they see him and he has to be tactful to be able to capture their pictures. Although animals may use the initiative to run away when they see the zoologist, being an intelligent being, a human has more initiative to explore more ways to hide and be able to capture the images.  Now, a stage higher.  What would it take to know a human being? A human being is neither a stone nor an animal. He is a free moral agent who can choose not to reveal his mind to you even when you sit close to him. For him to disclose his heart to you, you will have to win his confidence. “In this case the initiative is equally divided” explained C.S. Lewis in the book MERE CHRISTIANITY. He explained further:

When you come to knowing God, the initiative lies  on His side. If  He does not show Himself, nothing you can do will enable you to find Him. And, in  fact, He shows much more of Himself to some people than to others – not because He has favourites, but because it  is impossible for Him to show Himself to a man whose whole mind and character are in the wrong directions.

These words are true. I would add that if you were driving East when your targeted destination was in the North, no matter how fast you would drive your car, it would not bring you any closer to the intended destination.  Sadly, many times human ego can be so deceptive. A person can crowd up his mind with all sorts of ideas which may seem interesting and persuasive. What the person may not realize is how far his mind has gone into fantasy and speculation. In life it is not safe to be over-confident about matters one has little (or no) facts about. May we always give heed to these words of  Scripture: “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Pro.16:25). Amen. 

CONTINUED IN PART V.

PDF Copy of this Message: fyeoilandwine

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Believers’ Assembly Fellowship | Lusaka – Zambia

 

King David once prayed saying to God, “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression” (Psm.19:13).

To “presume”, says one simple academic dictionary, is “to accept that something is almost certain to be correct even though there is no proof of it, on the grounds that it is extremely likely.” The dictionary further explains that to presume is “to behave so inconsiderately, disrespectfully, or over-confidently as to do something without being entitled or qualified to do it.” We will not go on giving lengthy academic explanations of the words because there is an image I came across which seems to simplify the meaning of the word, albeit in a rather extreme and absurd manner. The image is found in a book supposed to be dedicated to exposing what the authors call “Damnable Heresies.” Damnable is quite a word of emphasis. Surely no one wants to associate himself or herself with anything that is heinous and leads to death. Now, let us see one “damnable heresy” that the authors were admonishing their readers around the world to flee from: It was an image of brother Richard Gan of Singapore, a Bible teacher and missionary we have much respect for. In this image he was solemnising the wedding of his daughter and against all odds he was the one unveiling her! So odd, isn’t it? The authors admonished: “We need to ask this Heretic what is the meaning of unveiling his daughter? Is he sending a message to the world of another damnable heresy or indicating a corrupt practice?” Dear brothers and sisters, these strong words, seemingly coming from people who knew what they were talking about, were published in a book whose many copies were sent around the world without seeking clarification or at least informing the person being disparaged. The writers of the book have never met the person and had no slightest idea of what was taking place in the picture you are seeing.

The Second Picture

Thankfully there was the second picture taken at the same time and at a different angle of the same incident. What you see in the second picture is the complete opposite of what the authors of Damnable Heresies asserted. What appears in the second picture is simply a man stretching his arms towards the newly wed to pronounce a blessing upon them! That’s how far in gross presumption a human mind can go. Of-course this is a case of extreme presumption, but it doesn’t have to be extreme for it to be wrong. We have to watch our daily attitudes, perceptions of a person or situations, and most importantly what we speak about them. The Lord Jesus once said this: “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Mat.12:36). A fearful admonition, is it not? There is much trouble we can avoid in life by simply keeping quite. Keeping quiet about things we don’t have facts about or which are not necessary for us to comment about. “Even a fool”, said King Solomon, “when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise” (Pro.17:28).

Now there are times when one can sincerely make a statement which is factually wrong and then tries to amend the error. However, there is something seriously amiss when a person is being so rude and arrogant at misplacing and misinterpreting facts. Nine times out of ten trying to correct such a person can be as futile as trying to hold water in your hands. In Kolhapur, I approached brother Solomon Jacob after he was done preaching and I asked him: “In your sermon you said William Branham called himself Elohim. Is that really so? Did you give the audience words of William Branham about what he said to people who were trying to advance such an idea? He took an entire sermon – the Bruised Serpent – to denounce the wrong doctrine calling it Satanic …” Before I could finish speaking, the man interjected “Do you know that William Branham lied about the Mystery Cloud? The man lied!” he exclaimed as he walked away. At that point I realised that I had been talking to myself and it would be difficult to engage in a logical discourse with him. When I think about the ugly “picture” he had presented to the audience about William Branham’s teaching of the Seven Seals being a plagiarised work, it was nauseating to know that the second and real picture was quite the opposite of what he had told the people. But who would dare to search out facts for themselves? Many human beings are gullible at receiving whatever comes from a figure they respect and adore. Very few take interest to search out facts for themselves.

It is important to know that whilst God can use a man to awaken a people to the reality of a truth they may have never seen before, it is quite another thing for a man to tell a flock of people that he has discovered the truth, emotionally expressing his new faith but, after a long while, coming to tell them, “Guess what, all this while I have led you in a wrong way, but I have now found the real truth!” What would make you trust the man’s excited emotion this time? If such a man was my car driver driving me to some destination he claimed to have known and he had shown all the confidence of his knowledge about the destination but after driving 300 kilometres (i.e. 186 miles) exclaims that it was all a mistake and we have to go back in the opposite direction, common sense would let me doubt the credibility of the knowledge the man professes to have. To hold to a fundamental belief for some time, repent from it and come into another set of beliefs, hold on to it for thirty-some years, and u-turn again and begin to follow something completely different is simply being unstable and not knowing what you are doing. Such a person may have zeal but its zeal without a true revelation (knowledge) of God – “For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge” (Rom.10:2).

In the last message we saw how some people have zealously taken it upon themselves to denounce William Branham’s teaching of the Seven Seals, believing that it was a plagiarised work of Clarence Larkin’s book. The preacher in Kolhapur produced a document with two columns. In one column were Larkin’s words and the next column Branham’s words. He highlighted words that were similar and concluded that Branham copied from Larkin. Here is an excerpt of the document showing what was displayed about the Second Seal.

1920 Clarence Larkin	1963 William Branham
The symbolism is very clear. Red, the colour of the Horse, is a symbol of BLOOD, and the Sword is a symbol of WAR.	Now, here’s my revelation of it: This is Satan again… But you find out here that this man has a sword so he pertains to church political war.

This man happened to see the word “war” appearing in the words of both men’s teaching and therefore concluded that Branham copied his teaching from Larkin. Talk of deceptive presumption! Here is the entire explanation of what Larkin wrote about the Second Seal:

“There is no need to tarry long with this SEAL. When it was broken John heard the second, or ‘Calf-like Living Creature’ say, ‘Come,’ and a ‘RED HORSE’ appeared and went forth, whose Rider was given a ‘GREAT SWORD,’ and who had power to take peace from the earth, and cause men to kill one another. The symbolism is very clear. Red, the color of the Horse, is a symbol of BLOOD, and the Sword is a symbol of WAR. The time is clearly that prophesied by Christ—‘And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars . . . for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.’ Matt. 24:6-7. This seems to imply that the Antichrist will not have everything his own way, and that his Autocratic methods will lead to insubordination and civil wars among the nations under some great leader represented by the Rider of the Red Horse, whose ‘Great Sword’  is symbolical of the awful destruction of human life that will follow. This is a fulfillment of 1. Thess. 5:3. ‘When they shall say PEACE and SAFETY; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.’ We learn from this ‘Seal’ that wars are likely to break out at any time and that there will be no peace on the earth until the return of the ‘Prince of Peace.’ “

As many who have read Branham’s teaching on the Second Seal are aware, what Branham taught is way different from what you read in Larkin’s words. First, here are the words of the Scripture about the Second Seal:

“And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword” – Rev.6:3-4.

Both men interpreted red and the sword to symbolise bloodshed and war respectively. It is ridiculous to conclude and raise a case of plagiarism at this point as we all know that those are simple symbols to interpret as evident by what Jehovah Witnesses, Adventists, and many others have explained about the matter. In prophetic-Bible study what separates one interpretation from another is not merely the interpretation of symbols, otherwise we will have to say Adventists, Catholics, and Pentecostals believe the same thing. But that is not so. The difference of interpretation mainly lies in the “when-question.” So, to get a complete picture of what Larkin and Branham said about the Second Seal and how similar or different their teachings are, we should compare the following two things:

• What kind of war is the Second Seal about?
• In what time-span will it be (or was) fulfilled?

WHAT LARKIN TAUGHT ABOUT THE SECOND SEAL

We are looking at what Larkin taught not based on the deceit of hiding certain words he said and try to make them correlate with what Branham said. We have produced all his words about the Second Seal to give you a chance to see the full-context of what he meant when he said the sword represents “war.”

1. What kind of war is the Second Seal?

As was seen in the words of Larkin, his interpretation speaks of “insubordination and civil wars among the nations under some great leader represented by the Rider of the Red Horse.” He speaks about “nation shall rise against nation.”

2. In what time-span will it be fulfilled?

Larkin’s interpretation is ‘future-oriented’. He points the fulfilment of the prophecy to the time of the Day of the Lord spoken of in 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 saying:

“This is a fulfillment of 1. Thess. 5:3. ‘When they shall say PEACE and SAFETY; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.’” 

“the Antichrist will not have everything his own way, and that his Autocratic methods will lead to insubordination and civil wars among the nations under some great leader represented by the Rider of the Red Horse.”

About how long these wars will go on, he left it open ended until the coming of Christ, the Prince of Peace:

“We learn from this ‘Seal’ that wars are likely to break out at any time and that there will be no peace on the earth until the return of the ‘Prince of Peace.’ ”

Let us now look at how William Branham interpreted the Second Seal.

WHAT BRANHAM TAUGHT ABOUT THE SECOND SEAL

Like the First Seal, Branham went back in time to a period when the church system killed a lot of people who opposed its doctrines. These are his words:

“Let us now consider what John saw, then, of these things what he saw. ‘A red horse; and his rider goes forth, power given to him to slay with a great sword.’ Now here is my revelation of it. This is Satan, again. It’s the devil, again, in another form…. Notice the change of color of these horses…The same system riding on another color, power, from the innocent white to a bloody red… Now listen. I’m quoting from the martyrology, ‘From the time of_of Saint Augustine of Hippo, until 1586,’ on the Roman martyrology, ‘the Roman Catholic church put sixty-eight million Protestants to death.’ Was his sword red? Was he riding a red horse? What was it? The same power; the same rider. There is the Seal. They admit, ‘sixty-eight million,’ on the martyrology, besides all those put to death outside of that. Oh, mercy! During the dark ages, there were millions fed to lions, and slaughtered in every way, because they wouldn’t bow down to that Catholic dogma”.

In these words of brother Branham we notice three things:

1. The war he mentions is a religious-political war by the Catholic system against what they perceived to be heretics.
2. This seal was already fulfilled during the Dark Ages when many people were killed by the Catholic system.

Notice that brother Branham’s interpretation has a specific time-context of the Dark Ages and also tells a related story of events – “His bow had no arrows, at first, but his ‘great sword’ did. He done his killing, later, and changed from white horse to red horse; the same, exactly, devil, with his sword” he explained.

“Let them not have dominion over me”

The sin of presumption if not guarded against can become a habit and hence take dominion over a person’s mind. Presuming is not all about a man speaking false words about another person as in the cases we have looked at in this message. It can also come in form of wanting to do a service for God when it is not His will for you to do so. The feeling of wanting to start a ministry may many times seem so innocent as a person testifies of his burden to do the work of the Lord. However, God who weighs our spirits and intentions knows better. It’s only a matter of time when you see that the seemingly innocent desire turns out to be a source of contention and confusion among people. With time what manifests is not something edifying people to perfection but a show of human flesh and all its egoistic inclinations. However, we are thankful to God that there have been men in the Message who heard what William Branham said and have been sober and have given us something solid to stand on.

PDF Copy of Message: fyepresumptous

THE LARKIN-BRANHAM CONTROVERSY

If a person is sick and the doctor says, “Your body lacks iron. You need to eat iron”, going out to look for some metal iron cores will not be a good idea. That will be a shameful story that will end up in tragic. The iron metal in its state is too hard and incompatible with the cell structure of a living thing. In His wisdom God designed a plant like spinach to take in the iron elements from the soil and provide it into an edible form for consumption.  Now, just as we have physical food for the nourishment of our bodies, we also have God’s Word for the health of our spiritual lives – “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” says the Scripture (Mat. 4:4). Furthermore, like Iron which in one state can be edible and in another state not edible, God’s Word also exists in letter form as well as in spoken-word form. In letter form the Word does not impart Life for “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life” (2 Cor. 3:6). For the letter to give life it has to come through the avenue of an anointed vessel to expound it. It is for this reason that the Ethiopian eunuch in the book of Acts could read the Scripture but fail to grasp its meaning. It took Philip to speak and expound the Word to him. The eunuch heard the voice of the Word, his heart was convicted, he believed Christ and was baptised (Read Act. 8:26-39).  In all this, however, it is important to be aware that the eunuch received salvation not simply because his natural ears were capable of receiving the sound coming from the vocal cords of Philip. Receiving the Life of the Word is also much a matter of HOW one hears – does the person have spiritual ears to grasp what the Spirit of God is speaking through a human vessel?

Much of the confusion in religion revolves around how people hear and interpret things. Two people can listen to same words but yet have understandings which are as the East is far from the West. What causes this is mainly because of the complex nature of the mind – it can sieve words through what it assumes, what it has heard, and what it has been exposed to. Confusion and danger arises when the “sieve” of the mind consists of false assumptions. Some false assumptions are way out of touch with reality that it makes you wonder how people could afford to reach certain conclusions over some matters. I had an experience of this in Kolhapur in India.

In Kolhapur

One well known minister in India by the name of brother  Solomon Jacob took to the pulpit to denounce the teachings of William Branham. This man has been in the Message for quite a long period but now has gone into what he believes is now the truth. Before an audience of scores of people he declared that the Seven Seals sermon of William Branham is a copied (plagiarised) work of Dr Clarence Larkin’s book. The man was so bold in asserting that Branham’s teaching of the seals in the year 1963 consisted of word-for-word statements taken from Larkin’s book which was published 43 years earlier in 1919. The objective was ofcourse to show that Branham lied when he presented himself to have received a special revelation concerning the seals.

Space does not permit me to narrate the whole episode of the strange drama that surprised ministers and congregants in Kolhapur. However, suffice to say that what this man did is not new to people who are up-to-date with what anti-Branham preachers have been propagating about the matter. Here is what is stated on one anti-Branham website which gives a good summary of what Solomon Jacob in Kolhapur was trying to proclaim to the audience (when I looked at the notes the man compiled which he photocopied and distributed to the audience as he preached, I had no doubt that he had spent a good time on Google – a ‘place’ where modern ministers seem to compile their sermons from):

Rev. Clarence Larkin (1850–1924) was a Baptist Bible teacher and author. His book ‘The Book of Revelation’ was published in 1919. William Branham mentioned that he had read Clarence Larkin’s work, and he appears to have relied heavily on Clarence Larkin’s material to form the core teachings of his supposed ‘End Time Message’. William Branham claimed that his teachings on the seven seals in the book of revelation were given to him by his angel, but in fact, those teachings were Clarence Larkin’s work published 44 years before, in 1919.

Most branhamites believe that William Branham is the only Bible teacher to teach that the first horse rider was the anti-Christ. Also, William Branham gives credit to his angel for the teaching that the souls under the alter in the fifth seal were the Jews (Rev 6:9-11). Both of these are Clarence Larkin’s teachings published in 1919.[1]

For purposes of focusing on the subject matter at hand I will not respond to all the misleading statements in the above two paragraphs. Even so, this is a serious matter that leads me to say this: If it is true that what William Branham taught concerning the Seals was word-for-word what Larkin wrote then Branham lied about having received a direct revelation from God about the subject. Then we ought to give heed to what anti-Branham preachers say concerning this matter. If their new convert, Solomon Jacob, is right about what he boldly preached in Kolhapur,  then Message Believers are a people most miserable! However, if I will be able to show that what Branham taught is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from what Larkin wrote, then someone has gone into vain jangling and his conscience has been seared with a hot iron.

THE LARKIN-BRANHAM CONTROVERSY

What says the facts?

Here is what the Scripture says about the First Seal:

“And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer” (Revelation 6:1-2).

Both Larkin and Branham interpreted the first horse rider to be an Antichrist. Now, is it true that by this and other similar statements we should conclude that Branham copied his teaching from Larkin? To do so, without revealing to the audience the full contexts of the two men’s messages and show how they actually taught very different things, will amount to not only intellectual dishonesty but deceit. Having read both books, THE BOOK OF REVELATION by Clarence Larkin and THE REVELATION OF THE SEVEN SEALS by William Branham, I have to say this:  A person who would say Branham taught what Larkin wrote about the Seals has either only briskly skimmed through the two books to prove a preconceived opinion or he simply hasn’t even read the books of the two men!

The two men’s interpretation of the Seals is as different as black and white. You have one man applying the events of the Seals way into the future when the Seventieth Week of Daniel and the Great Tribulation will start, and the other man is giving a different interpretation, pointing back to historical events as the fulfillment of the visions. Larkin for example takes the “famine” of the Third Seal as a literal depravation of food that is yet to fulfill during a time of distress and war in the world. He also calls the Third Seal’s horse rider as the “preserver of food.” Branham, on the other hand said this rider was the same Antichrist spirit that rode the first horse in the First Seal. He pointed the fulfillment of the Third Seal not to the future but back to the Dark Ages as a period of spiritual famine when the true Word of Life was deprived from people as they got subjected to religious dogma and superstition. And what about the statement “See thou hurt not the oil and the wine” in the Third Seal? Larkin took these words, looked to some future war and famine to take place on earth and said:

“what is meant by not hurting the oil and wine, may be, that as the Olive tree and grapevine do not bear their fruit until some months after the wheat and barley harvest, and grow without much attention, their crops would not be so much affected by war, and therefore the Olive trees and grapevines were not to be ruthlessly destroyed by invaders for they were needed for medicinal purposes.”

This is not what Branham said about the “oil” and “wine.” Again he  pointed back to historical events of the Dark Ages explaining that the oil spoke of the “anointing” and the wine as “the stimulation of revelation” upon the few elect whom God had protected from the religious traditions and falsehoods of that time.

Surely, in the light of these glaringly diametrically opposed interpretations, for someone to pull isolated similar words and statements in the words of the two men and conclude that Branham copied from the other man is not just a matter of misinterpretation but more a case of either determined dishonesty or simply a lack of simple logical reasoning . What I will do in this teaching is not what the man in Kolhapur did –  picking catchy statements (many of which were quoted out of context) to try to dress up an opinion so that it makes a stronger appeal to a person who has never read Clarence Larkin’s book. As I said earlier that would amount to intellectual dishonesty and deceit. When I heard the man vigorously exclaim in accusing William Branham to have called himself Elohim, what puzzled me the most was this: How possible is it that a man could have been so many years in the Message and end up with such a warped view of William Branham and the Message he preached? It would have been more understandable for a man coming from a background of Bible School training where his mind was already fed with preconceived notions of anti-Branham views. Well, crazy things do happen sometimes. In this study we will endeavour to bring out whole paragraphs of what Larkin wrote, and then compare it to what Branham actually taught on the matter. In this study we shall begin with the First Seal.

The First Seal – Comparing what Larkin said with what Branham taught

In this message, we shall compare what the two men said about the following three things of the First Seal:

• Who the white-horse rider is.
• When the white-horse rider would be crowned.
• What manner of conquering would be accomplished by the white-horse rider.
• Around what period of time would the vision of the First Seal be fulfilled.

These three things should determine whether the two men taught the same thing or not. Please take note of the word we are using  – “taught”; we are here not looking for similar words or phrases because that is expected to appear in Branham’s words if he read Larkin’s book. What we shall compare here are the overall interpretations the two men gave to the First Seal.  We shall approach this part of the message in two stages; first we shall look at what Larkin taught and next what Branham taught.

1. WHO IS THE WHITE-HORSE RIDER?

• What Clarence Larkin taught:

Larkin wrote:

“Who is the ‘Rider’ upon this White Horse? He is not Christ, as some claim, for Christ, as the LAMB, is holding the ‘Seven Sealed Book’ and breaking its ‘Seals.’ Christ does not appear as a White Horse Rider until chapter 19:11-16, when He comes with the armies of Heaven to engage in the Battle of Armageddon… this White Horse Rider is the ANTICHRIST.”

Surely, this seems striking as both Larkin and Branham here spoke the same thing. And it is actually more likely that when Bro Branham in his sermon of the First Seal said that he had read different books on the subject, Larkin’s book must have been one of the books –  “I have read every book on it I could find….I got Smith’s book on Daniel , of revelations…and others, I read two or three” (The First Seal, page 139.Paragraph 265). Ofcourse this is not surprising as every good minister studies different writings in order to compare and study a subject matter at hand. Even when God promises that he will reveal something to you about a verse in the Bible it is not wrong to research about the matter. Daniel the prophet tells us that he “understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem” (Dan.9:2).

Larkin continues:

“This ‘Rider’ has a ‘bow’, no arrow is mentioned, and he is not crowned at first, but a crown will be given to him later, the ‘Stephanos’ or ‘Victor’s Crown,’ as a reward for his victories which are prolonged and bloodless.

These exact words again come out in Branham’s Seals book. There is no doubt but that he read Larkin’s book.  However, as you move on in his explanation of how the Seal was fulfilled, what you get are two different interpretations by the two men. The most important thing to note here is that Larkin places emphasis on the rider being a person:

“This ‘White Horse Rider’ will be Satan’s ‘SUPERMAN.’ The Scriptures clearly teach that there is some day to arise a human being who shall be the embodiment of all Satanic power. He will be known as the ‘WILFUL KING’ because he shall do according to his own will”

• What William Branham taught:

Although William Branham used Larkin’s words to describe the white-horse rider as an “Antichrist” and “Superman”, what he interpreted about who the rider actually is and when the fulfillment of the Seal would be is completely different. In Branham’s teaching the rider is not a person but a spirit. He is not coming in the future at the time of the Great tribulation but started riding his horse way back in the early church age of Ephesus. Here is what Branham interpreted and emphasised (find these words in his Seals Book):

“‘A white horse rider went out’. See? Who is he? He is mighty in his conquering power. He is a great power in his conquering power. You want me to tell you who he is? He is the antichrist” (Paragraph 295).

“When he starts off, as a Nicolaitane spirit in the church he is a spirit. You can’t crown a spirit. But three hundred years later, he become a pope, and then they crowned him. He had no crown , to start with. But he got a crown, later, see, when that spirit become incarnate …Nicolaitane doctrine become a man, then they could crown him” (Paragraph 301).

2.WHEN WILL THE HORSE-RIDER BE CROWNED?

• What Clarence Larkin taught:

Speaking about the “crown” Larkin explained that this pointed to the time when the Antichrist, in the future, at the beginning of Daniel’s Seventieth week, will be made “Head of the Ten Federated Kingdoms of the revived Roman Empire.” Here are the full words of Dr Larkin:

“This is the picture of a brilliant, strategical, and irresistible conqueror, whose victories will dazzle the world, and elevate him to a leadership that will place him at the Head of the Ten Federated Kingdoms of the revived Roman Empire. As a subaltern, like Napoleon I, he will rise from the ranks until a crown will be given him. His triumphs will be due to his skilful diplomacy….In other words this White Horse Rider is the ANTICHRIST. He is the “PRINCE WHO IS TO COME” of Daniel’s Vision of the “Seventy Weeks,” and who will confirm the Covenant for “ONE WEEK,” the last or “Seventieth Week,” with Daniel’s people the Jews. Dan. 9:27.”

• What William Branham taught:

William Branham does not point to the future, to the Seventieth Week of Daniel, as the time when the White Horse rider will be crowned. He taught that the crowning occurred through the establishment of the papacy in the fourth century. This is what he taught throughout his ministry. Here is what he said when preaching the First Seal:

“He had no crown, to start with, but a crown was given him. Notice later he was given a crown…that was three hundred years later, at the Nicaea Council…When he started out, a spirit of Nicolaitane, to form an organisation among the people. And then it kept going on, going on, going on, become ‘a saying’, then it become ‘a doctrine.’” (Paragraph 297).

3.WHAT MANNER OF CONQUERING WILL THE WHITE-HORSE RIDER ACCOMPLISH?

• What Clarence Larkin taught:

“His triumphs will be due to his skilful diplomacy” explained Larkin. He saw this person’s conquering as a political and diplomatic accomplishment. On the converse, what Branham said about the conquering  is as day is different from night.

• What William Branham taught:

Brother Branham interpreted the conquering to refer to a religious doctrine that enabled the clergy to rule over people instead of the Holy Spirit. Again he pointed back to the early stages of church history as a point when this practice began. He did not teach about this conquering being a diplomatic strategy of the Antichrist or that it will take place around the time of the Seventieth Week. Here is what he said:

“Remember, in the church ages…the Holy Spirit was against a certain thing they got started in that church age, and that was called ‘the deeds of the Nicolaitanes’…Nikao means ‘to conquer’. Laity means ‘the church’, the laity. Nico-laitane, ‘to conquer the laity.’ Take the Holy Spirit out of the church and give it all to one holy man” (paragraph 295).

4. WHEN IS THE FULFILMENT OF THE FIRST SEAL?

• What Clarence Larkin taught:

Now here is an important question to ask: In what proximity of time did Larkin place the fulfilment of the rise of the White Horse Rider? This is what he said:

“The rise of this White Horse Rider necessarily antedates the beginning of the ‘Seventieth Week,’ or the ‘SEVEN YEARS’ of his reign, for he must have reached a position of power to make a Covenant with the Jews at the beginning of the ‘WEEK,’ but he does not become ‘THE BEAST,’ as described in chapter 13:1-8, until the ‘Middle’ of the WEEK, that is, until after Satan is cast out of the Heavenlies and incarnates himself in him. His rise to power and the rebuilding of Babylon will take time, so the Rapture of the Church will doubtless antedate the beginning of the WEEK by some years. But while the establishment of the Antichrist’s power will be comparatively peaceful, that peace will be short-lived as is evident from the breaking of the ‘Second Seal.’”

Note that although Larkin states that “[the rise of the Antichrist] to power and the rebuilding of Babylon will take time”, he explains this with reference to (and in proximity of) the rapture of believers and the beginning of the seventieth week of Daniel.

• What William Branhan taught:

As has been seen in all the quotations of William Branham, he taught that the First Seal began its fulfilment way back in the first century when a wrong spirit that masqueraded as the work of God began to infiltrate among the saints. Note that although Clarence Larkin when teaching about Revelation Chapter 2 and 3 taught about the deeds of the Nicolaitane in the first church age, a thing William Branham read and also taught, he did not take that as the interpretation of the First Seal.

Dear brothers and sisters, what we have seen in this message is an attempt by men who are skillful at creating straw men and who then take  great pleasure to dismantle it with great relish. As we move on to the other seals, what you will see are completely different interpretations of what the two men taught. We will talk about the other Seals in the next message. From there we shall approach the matter of the Mystery Cloud of 1963 and the various controversies which have risen about the matter. One thing is certain as we go through these matters – there are people who simply have a very poor way of hearing and critiquing something.  Some are really standing on ‘thin ice’ but yet being very sanguine in emotionally expressing themselves on matters they have little understanding. Prudence requires that if you don’t agree with someone about something, be sure to get facts right before raising a finger. That is just a decent thing for any gentleman to do.

….CONTINUED IN PART III.

PDF copy of this message: fye_hearingavoice2

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[1] http://www.branhamism.org/clarence-larkin/

There has been so much word and electronic messages reaching us, appreciating the Word that was taught during the recent visit to India. It is encouraging to know that many were edified and strengthened in their Faith. The India-visit report and messages preached have been incorporated in this three-series publication titled – Hearing A voice and THE voice. To receive the printed version of these articles send your request to voiceoftheword@live.com. Or write to: Believers’ Assembly PO Box 37919, Lusaka, 10101, Zambia.

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PART I – The Yeshua – Jesus Controversy

One time, when I was a small boy, I was walking around with my Bible from house to house in a residential area of Lusaka. I was telling people about the need of the Saviour in their lives. I approached one man who was sitting by the roadside and asked him the question: Are you a Christian? “Yes” he answered with surprise as he obviously wondered what the small boy was up to. Next I asked him: “Why are you a Christian and not a Muslim or Hindu?” “Well” he responded, “If I was born in Saudi Arabia I would have been a Muslim, but my family is Christian and lives in a Christian nation and so it follows that I am a Christian.”

What this man answered holds true for many religious people – they believe what they believe as a result of the customs and traditions that characterise the environment they found themselves in. And for other people, what they believe in now would change if they were to relocate and live among a people of a different custom and faith. That is how far religion can go. However, the Truth and Power of God is not so. When it finds a person, regardless of which place he or she may be, it will reach out to the heart and shake whatever traditional foundation the person may have been established on. This is what happened to one man called Paul. He was so zealous and enthusiastic about his religious beliefs that he began to war against a people he was convinced were a cult, following a false prophet called Jesus. Like many other religious people of that day, it was believed that this cult’s doctrines were contrary to the tenets of the mainstream religion of Judaism.

It so happened one day that as Paul and his companions journeyed on a crusade against ‘heretics’, something strange happened on the way. The man lost control of his horse as he fell to the ground. A bright light had shone and a voice spoke. Concerning this incident the book of Acts states that “the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man” (Acts 9:7). What did the voice speak, and is it everyone with Paul who heard what it uttered? The voice spoke to Paul saying, “go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do” (v.6). From that time onwards the life of this man completely changed. He realised the Truth of the Gospel not because someone took him on a word-study through Greek and Hebrew dictionaries and lexicons, but because a supernatural power came on him and in a moment a veil of darkness was lifted off his face (cf. Galatians 1:12).

The men with Paul became aware of some sound of a voice of a person speaking but could not grasp what it was saying distinctly. This is exactly what Paul meant when he once narrated his testimony to an audience: “And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me” (Acts 22:9). Notice that  some people who feed on ‘letters’ and  ‘grammar’ have denounced the Bible to be self-contradictory because, like other similar incidences they like to cite, Paul in one place is recorded to have said  that the people with him heard a voice and yet in another place reported that they did not hear the voice. This will always be the result of reading or hearing words without grasping the ‘mind’ behind them. This is similar to what happened when the Lord Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). Critics heard that and found something to accuse him of. They reported the matter to the authorities. As far as hearing the words with their ears was concerned, they were witnesses. But Matthew called them  false witnesses – “At the last came two false witnesses, And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days” (Matthew 26:60-61). Surely, these witnesses tried to say what Jesus said but were false because they missed what he meant!

Take heed how you hear

In Mark 4:24 the Lord Jesus admonished, “Take heed WHAT ye hear”, and again in Luke 8:18 we read that he said, “Take heed therefore HOW ye hear.” Yes, it is very important that we be careful of both what we hear, and how we hear.

When a person is speaking, it is more important that you understand what thoughts he is trying to express than giving attention to the grammar he is using to speak. The mind behind the words is more important than the words themselves. Just think of this: why do we have so many religious denominations but which are all using one Bible? Simply because although you can all use one book, the letters of the words in that book will not be so helpful when the mind of the author hasn’t been grasped. It goes without saying that we cannot understand God’s Word until His mind is revealed to us – “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus”, says the Scripture (Philippians 2:5). And, until the mind of Christ has been revealed to a person, no matter how long he can subscribe to a doctrine – whether a true or a false one – there will be a time when something that is more interesting will itch his or her ears and his faith will take a different direction. This reminds me of a recent incident when I was in Maharashtra State of India, travelling from a place called Kholapur to Pune. I was sitting in the rear seat of a car when I asked a brother who was on the passenger seat to connect my phone to the car’s mobile phone charger. I didn’t inform him of the problem my phone has; it has a faulty socket and so there is always a difficulty for it to charge properly. After about three hours, I got my phone only to find it had not charged! It is interesting to note that there was nothing wrong with the charging system. The problem was with the phone and the way it had been connected. Think of it, just how many times have we heard of believers who after so many years of being in the Faith later fell away? Others even took an extreme U-turn of denouncing doctrines they once enthusiastically promoted. It doesn’t matter how long someone has been ‘in the faith’ – 10 years? 30 years? 50 years? – as long as they merely got transferred from one place (the world or one kind of religious system) to another, instead of being transformed, one day their true nature will manifest and they will fall away. They are ‘phones’ which seemed connected to the source of power but alas had no experience of the power come into their hearts. When they heard the message of “Elijah”, instead of their hearts turning, it was their heads which turned – they had new knowledge of Church Ages, Seals, Serpent Seed in their heads but no Holy Ghost transformation of the heart![1] “They went out from us” admonished saint John, “but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” (1 John 2:19). This is exactly what I encountered during my recent visit to India. I travelled to three places – Mumbai, Kholapur and Pune. We had fine meetings in Mumbai and Pune, but quite a strange and confused drama in Kholapur where one man boldly proclaimed that the Seals book of William Branham was not a result of revelation from God but is a result of plagiarising Dr. Clarence Larkin’s The Book of Revelation book. This man has been in the Message for so many years. A few years back he started living in Israel and that is where his view about the Message began to change. Seeing the weakness of arguments he gathered against the Faith he once upheld,  I have no doubt that if he were to stay another many years in Israel, living and conversing with rabbis, he will throw away the New Testament of the Bible on the premise that it has many translational errors and is inconsistent with the Old Testament. We shall deal with the man’s claims, especially about the Clarence Larkin’s controversy, later in the message [See Part II of this Message].  When I saw the man emotionally express himself with vigour but yet distorting facts and taking Branham’s statements out of context, I thought to myself, “How could a man have been so many years holding on to something he had no basic understanding of? And how can he be so confident of matters he has very little understanding of?”

Speaking about the Jesus-Yeshua controversy in Mumbai

I arrived in Mumbai on 28^th October and I was scheduled to teach for the next four days. It was a refreshing moment of worshipping the Lord as we took a series of sermons about the life of King David and what we can learn from it. In the course of one sermon attention was given to the act of David telling Goliath that “I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts” (1 Samuel 17:45). This verse provided an opportunity to address a false doctrine which started in the  1930s within the Church of God movement. The doctrine has now found its way among Endtime Message believers in India. The doctrine among other things asserts that believers ought to use the Hebrew name of Yeshua, not Jesus. It is assumed that because a name of a person is a proper noun it cannot change when spoken in another language. Furthermore the letter “J” or the sound it represents never existed at the time of the Lord, and so no one could have called him by the pronunciation with a “J” sound. Extremists further claim that Iesous, the Greek rendition of the name Yeshua from which the English word Jesus was derived,  is a compound word consisting of names of pagan deities –  IEU and SUS (Zeus).

First, is it true that a proper name should always be translated unchanged into another language? And, did Bible translators really have a conspiracy to make people worship pagan gods when they translated Yeshua to Iesous or to Jesus? This is simply not true. It is mainly a result of pseudo-scholars who are too sanguine and quick at rubbishing work which is a result of many years of pain-staking efforts of scholars.

The work of translating scriptures was not an easy undertaking. Like other works of linguistics, there were challenges of translating names. It is important to know that the aim of a translation is to ‘transfer’ the meaning of words from one language to another one. Here the trouble rises when there is an objective to let the words be pronounced correctly in the target language. This is achieved by what is known as transliteration.  Transliteration involves changing the letters of a word in one language into the letters of the alphabet of  the other language which have similar sounds of pronunciation. This may seem to be a simple process when you are dealing with sentences and what they mean. However, trouble begins when you encounter words that are known as proper nouns. Proper nouns are words used to refer to a particular thing. They are different from general names of places or things. For example, “person” is a general term but “Peter” is specific and hence is called a proper noun (or proper name). Different scholars have different strategies for translating proper nouns. One strategy regards names as labels for persons or objects and hence should not be translated.[2] Another strategy considers the need for proper pronunciation and hence asserts that proper names “can be transcribed or transliterated or adapted on the level of spelling, phonology.”[3]Again another strategy believes in translating the meaning of words so that a person named “Blessing” in English will be called “Daliso” in my Zambian language. In this way meaning has been preserved in the target language of translation but pronunciation of its original source has been lost.

In the light of what has been explained, it is important to know that Yeshua was transliterated as Iesous in Greek and then into English as Jesus. How did this happen? Let us look at the explanation in form of the following sequence:

1. The name “Yeshua” is a Hebrew transliteration which begins with the sound of “Y” as in the word “Yes”

• The New Testament was written in Greek. In this language the “Y” sound is represented by the letter “I”. So, in order to convey the same pronunciation in Greek Yeshua would be transliterated starting with the letter I.

2. In the name “Yeshua”, after the “Y” sound comes the “e” sound, as in “Yes.” There was no problem in transliterating this sound as there was an equivalent letter in Greek to represent it.

• Note that the “e” in Yeshua is pronounced as in the word “Yes” not as in “See” However, when the name was transliterated into Iesous and then into Jesus, English speakers pronounced the “e” as in “See” not “Yes”, hence the modern mispronunciation of Jesus, speaking the “e” sound the way we say it in the word “See.”

3. Next we come to the “sh” sound in Yeshua This is where translators encountered a problem because whilst this sound exists in Hebrew it does not exist in Greek. So, translators went for the letter in the Greek alphabet which is close to the “sh” sound and that was the sigma which gives an “s” sound as in “Sad.”

• Note that had the English Bible translators transliterated the name Jesus straight from Hebrew, the name would have maintained the “sh” sound found in Yeshua because English language has the “sh” sound. However, they transliterated Jesus from the Greek Iesous and hence the disappearance of the “sh” sound in English.

4. The “u” sound in Yeshua is the same as in “rule” or “true”

• The English language provides two ways of pronouncing the sound of letter “u”: it can be pronounced as in “cut” or as in “true”. In Iesous it is correctly pronounced with the “u” sound as in “true”. But English speakers mispronounced it as in “cut.”

It is not our intention to look into all the details of how the pronunciation of Jesus came about. There are so many works of experts you can consult which are available on the Internet. The purpose of bringing out these facts in this message is to point out that the problem of transliterating Yeshua to Iesous then to Jesus was not a result of some evil-minded people holding clandestine meetings to cleverly play around words of the Bible so as to make its readers blaspheme God. That is simply a bed-time fairy tale!  Before we move on to another matter it may interest you to know the story behind the letter J.

Letter J at one time was just another way of writing I.  These letters were pronounced with the “Y” sound as in “Yes” so that a Hebrew name with the “Y” sound like Yeshua became Iesous in Greek and Iesus in English. It was an Italian scholar Gian Trissino who first distinguished the two letters to represent two different sounds. This was in the year 1524.  It is important here to note that early Bible translators like William Tyndale would spell Jesus as Iesous to  maintain the “Y” sound. For example this is a verse taken from the Tyndale Version (Matthew 1:25).

“She had brought forth hir first sonne and called hys name Iesus”

However, as the English language evolved, “I” and “J” became different so that “J” now had a sound as we know it today. Over  the decades and a century people were used with reading and pronouncing “J” as in “Jam” . However, words in the English Bible which had been transliterated with I or J had not been updated to retain the “Y” sound. Thus, instead of saying Yerusalem people now read it as Jerusalem, and instead of Yonah they read and said Jonah. Thus, everyone read “J” according to its modern rendition. To speak it with the correct pronunciation of the “Y” sound was not common. Thus, in the year 1611 a new version of the Bible – the King James Version – was introduced which updated words with vulgar (i.e. common) pronunciations. These were pronunciations people were accustomed with. As correctly noted in the Britannica Encyclopedia:

An elaborate set of rules was contrived to curb individual proclivities and to ensure the translation’s scholarly and nonpartisan character. In contrast to earlier practice, the new version was to use vulgar[4] forms of proper names (e.g., “Jonas” or “Jonah” for the Hebrew “Yonah”). [5]

Thus was the “Y” sound lost and people pronounced the name of the Lord with the “J” sound as we use it today. The question which arises now is, does it matter to God if we use the pronunciation of what is commonly known today, or we seek for the original form of pronunciation?

Does  pronunciation of the name matter?

In a remote region of Uganda called Karamoja lived a man called John Mark Louse. His testimony has gone around the world because of how such an uneducated and primitive man saw a vision of the Lord Jesus and was commissioned to take the Gospel to the natives of the region. This man’s faith and knowledge of Truth was not something he received from man. Through this humble and simple man great signs and wonders took place in the region converting hundreds of souls. God not only gave him salvation but the ability to read and speak English. As he read the Bible he was puzzled about the subject of the Original Sin and how sons of God took daughters of men for wives in the story of Genesis 6. He tried to inquire about his questions from a Pentecostal Christian but was not satisfied with the answers he was told. Then one day  the voice of God spoke saying:

Those Pentecostal elders don’t have the answer to those scriptures you are asking. Wait, in the near future you will get the answer to those scriptures because there was a man I have used and the answer is within his books and that man, I have already taken him.

Later on John Mark came across the Spoken Word books of William Branham and his questions were answered. Now, here is a man who had a direct call from God. When the Lord appeared to him, he did not say, “Now John Mark, people call me Jesus but I am actually Yeshua.” When I invited Brother John Mark to Zambia, standing in a prayer line was a young lady who could hardly walk. Her legs were swollen and she was having a hard time to breathe. She had a damaged liver which had swollen. “In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ…receive your healing!…Lord Jesus take over!” were the words that kept coming of this apostle of faith as he kept praying for people. We were all surprised when the following day the girl had been totally healed. It is now about two years when this testimony occurred, and the girl is still healed.[6]

It’s too late for Vain Jangling

In the book of Acts we read about how a group of young men once saw apostle Paul cast out demons and they admired that. They soon put up a ‘deliverance ministry’ and thought of using the Jesus-Name formula. This is typical of many young people today who have enthused themselves into starting ministries which the Lord has not commissioned them. They began to pray over people “in the Name of Jesus”. One day things didn’t go well when an evil spirit spoke from a man asking, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?” (Acts 19:15). Now, whether this demon pronounced the name of Jesus in Hebrew as Yeshua or in Greek as Iesous, one thing we do know is that it was able to speak the name. That tells you and I that the power of the name of the Lord does not lie in speaking or mentioning it as is commonly believed among Charismatics. Demons are able to speak the name. It is important to know that the name Yeshua was not unique in the Old and New Testaments. Many other people had that name. The name occurs about 27 times in the Old Testament (Zechariah 3:3 and Ezra 3:2). However, unlike the sons of Sceva who were challenged by the evil spirit, there was something different when Paul mentioned “in the Name of Jesus.” Demons trembled. Simply put, Paul was sent of the Lord and what he did was commissioned by the Lord, and hence he could proclaim to the evil spirits that what he was doing was not on his own accord but by the authority of the Lord. God sent him and His presence accompanied him and that was what evil spirits feared. To do things in the name of the Lord is to perform them in accordance with his will and power. When you pray to God, he does not sit still to hear if your vowels and consonants are coming out right.  What God is able to do when we pray is not a question of whether we pronounce the name of Jesus Christ correctly but whether we have the power of Christ inside our hearts – “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Ephesians 3:20).

Unfortunately, the Jesus-Yeshua strange “wind of doctrine” has deceived some people into “doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife [and] railings”. Such people are trying to make the Gospel of Christ become complex as though it is Greek and Hebrew lexicons that will save us. Surely the ‘fear of Paul’ has befallen them as they have moved away from the simplicity that is in Christ – “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3). Dear saints, looking at the lateness of the hour we are living in, we do not have the luxury of time to entertain being “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14). It is simply too late to go into “vain jangling” (1 Timothy 1:6).

CONTINUED IN PART II

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[1] Malachi 4:5-6.

[2] You can read a detailed explanation about this strategy in the Journal of Language and Translation in a paper by Saeideh Ahanizadeh titled Translation of Proper Names in Children’s Literature (2012). The  272 page-book is also available on Amazon.

[3]  Franco Aixela cited by Rouholla Zarei [Online] in the article Proper Nouns in Translation: Should they be Translated. Available online: http://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/4666.pdf [Accessed: 15^th November, 2016].

[4] Vulgar here means “lacking sophistication” or “Characteristic of or belonging to ordinary people.”

[5] Britannica Encyclopaedia (2016). King James Version Sacred Text.[Online] Available from: https://www.britannica.com/topic/King-James-Version [Accessed 17th November, 2016].

[6] Read the testimony of the life and call of John Mark Louse on this link: http://www.propheticrevelation.net/richard_gan/johnmarklouse.htm

In Matthew 7:24-27 we read the parable of two house-builders. As we read let us have this question in mind, Why was one builder called wise and the other foolish?

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

A closer look at this parable will reveal to us that one man was foolish because he did not mind about the life-span-value of his investment. All his efforts were directed at simply having some form of shelter. How long that shelter would stand, or thinking seriously about what might happen in case of a heavy downfall rain, did not bother him. He was only concerned about his present need of comfort. Well, he finished his project, and certainly had happiness. I once heard a presenter explain what this word “happiness” means in the Chinese language. It means “fast joy”! That’s interesting.That’s exactly what the foolish man had – fast joy.  But the problem with ‘fast things’ is that they don’t last, and this is what happened to the foolish man: when the rains descended and boisterous winds blew, his fragile house was destroyed. Quite a sad ending. In this world the value of something is often determined by how long it will live. For example, a pure leather shoe often costs more than one which was made out of a simpler and cheaper material. And many times, a simpler material may look more attractive and better polished but yet with a short life-span. Now, we don’t want to spend our hard-earned money on such things. What we want is not “fast joy” but what the Chinese call “eternal joy.” This joy may take longer to achieve, but once achieved, will stay longer. That is what made the other man in the parable to be wise.

The parable of the two builders has never had such a wonderful meaning and importance to me like this time around when I am now engaged in a project to build a house for my family. This is not an easy undertaking– there are all sort of builders, good ones and bad ones. There are those who steal your building materials and those who are faithful. The strange thing is how most of the constructors, when you ask for advice about what needs to be done will almost always advise you to compromise with standards and quality. I told the constructor we hired: “Sir, kindly advise on the proper standards and materials that need to go into the house. My concern is not money but quality. I am not rich but if it takes me a number of months to save money for just a simple construction task, then so so be it.” Three months down the line the building works began to take shape. My pockets were empty but I had this constant joy of knowing that the money is going into a long term investment. However, one day thoughts began going through my mind: “Suppose I live to see this structure completed and it becomes a good house. So beautiful that our church won’t need to hire hotels for visiting ministers who come from overseas. How would I feel if an earthquake was to occur and tore this structure apart?” If this were to happen, then no matter how long the structure would live, whether 50 or a 100 years, the joy which would have been earlier experienced would have been a temporal one. It would be a loss. However, not so if we follow the other way of determining value.

Eternal Value

We live in a busy world. Every day human beings rise early in the morning. Rush for work. Work hard. Earn money and then spend it. Before one realizes, he or she is old and remains with a few years to live –  “our life lasts for seventy years, eighty with good health, but they all add up to anxiety and trouble – over in a trice and then we are gone” (Psa. 90:9-10, The Jerusalem Bible). When death arrives, all that one had accumulated is left behind. Now, if all what that person had lived for were earthly objectives, the story ends there and he would have lost the value of whatever he had pursued! His properties may remain with his children, siblings or other people, but he himself will no longer feel any attachment to the earthly things when his soul would get into that dimension were the value of physical matter ceases to affect him. The rich and wise King Solomon of Israel had once pondered over these matters and felt discouraged. “I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me” he said. “And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have showed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity” (Ecc.2:18-19). But friends, with the blessed hope of eternal life that humanity has received in Christ, there is another way of determining value: it is  by considering what value our work, assets, or activities contribute to the eternal purposes of God. The Lord Jesus put it this way:  “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:20-21). Think of it: this is not a value based on a lifespan of 3 years, 10, 20 or a 100 years but  eternity! This is what we are admonished in Proverbs 3:5-10:

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.

How wonderful to know that we can trust in God and stop to worry about this problem and that problem, and in the process blame this circumstance and that person for our misfortunes. That moment when one receives the revelation of resting our cares in Him, he or she shall realise how often it is futile to fight the various things that come to distract our faith with our might. “They that wait upon the LORD” says the Word, “shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isa. 40:31). This strength of our spirits will come from the true joy that abides within our hearts. But how shall a believer have the joy when he or she is never in the presence of God? In God’s presence we commune with the one who made us. The one who knows our needs that no other person will understand or see. Yes, God is the one who heal whatever deeply hurts within your life. In His presence you shall experience the joy of spirit, and that joy is what will give you strength to live each day as it comes – “the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). Amen.

Rest in the promises of God!

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joy of life

As we see end-time prophecies being fulfilled, one cannot help but think that we are living in borrowed time. What is going on around the world, especially in the United States of America, brings to mind the seven visions William Branham had in 1933. These visions, he said, would be fulfilled before the coming of the Lord Jesus:

The first vision was that Mussolini would invade Ethiopia and that the nation would “fall at his steps”…

The next vision foretold that an Austrian by the name of Adolph Hitler would rise up as dictator over Germany, and that he would draw the world into war. It showed the Siegfried line and how our troops would have a terrible time to overcome it. Then it showed that Hitler would come to a mysterious end.

The third vision was in the realm of world politics for it showed me that there would be three great ISMS – Fascism, Nazism, Communism, but that the first two would be swallowed up into the third. The voice admonished, “WATCH RUSSIA, WATCH RUSSIA. Keep your eye on the King of the North.”

The fourth vision showed the great advances in science that would come after the second world war. It was headed up in the vision of a plastic bubble-topped car that was running down beautiful highways under remote control so that people appeared seated in this car without a steering wheel and they were playing some sort of a game to amuse themselves.

The fifth vision had to do with the moral problem of our age, centering mostly around women. God showed me that women began to be out of their place with the granting of the vote. Then they cut off their hair, which signified that they were no longer under the authority of a man but insisted on either equal rights, or in most cases, more than equal rights. She adopted men’s clothing and went into a state of undress, until the last picture I saw was a woman naked except for a little fig leaf type apron. With this vision I saw the terrible perversion and moral plight of the whole world.

In the sixth vision there arose up in America a most beautiful, but cruel woman. She held the people in her complete power…

The last and seventh vision was wherein I heard a most terrible explosion. As I turned to look I saw nothing but debris, craters, and smoke all over the land of America.[1]

When you read about what happened to Ethiopia at the hands of Mussolini, the advent of Hitler and the second war, and the recent inventions of egg-shaped bubble automatic vehicles which made headlines on news around the world, you and I should know that William Branham’s prophecies were not a “Made in Nigeria” charismatic drama. Among those who have followed his ministry and the messages he preached, there is an excitement of talking about current events in the light of the seven visions, especially concerning the sixth and seventh visions. On the other hand, there is a world of Pentecostals who know next to nothing concerning things that are to be. Their “watchmen” are busy entertaining them with sermons about ‘getting rich’ and ‘positive thinking’ when they are supposed to be in tears of repentance and introspection.

Now, for those who have received the end-time prophetic word, excitement shouldn’t be about the knowledge of the prophecies. It is important to know that during the first coming of Jesus Christ, the chief priests and scribes knew about the prophecy of Christ and where he was to be born but that didn’t amount to making them partakers of its fulfillment. The word was only manifested to those whose lives were worthy of God’s promises: Remember the shepherds? Remember Anne the Prophetess who served God with prayer and fasting? Remember Simeon, a devout believer who earnestly waited for the coming of the Lord? The lives of these people are examples for us to know that only those with a personal relationship with God shall experience the power that shall transform and translate the believers. It is one thing to find yourself gathered among believers but quite another to be sure of your place in His calling.

Called to the ‘Wedding’

Our calling in Christ is like an invitation to a wedding where every person has to dress up accordingly for the occasion. In this wedding ceremony we feast on God’s Word. We feed on that Word not to get puffed up with knowledge about this and that mystery, but that our lives be transformed to manifest the life of Christ. The question each one of us should ask is: since the Lord called me and revealed His Word to me, what manner of life have I lived? Have I lived a fruitful Christian life or I have been ever learning but never coming to spiritual maturity? See, what will take us into the Rapture is not knowing that there is a certain prophecy about to be fulfilled, but having a life that manifests the life of God’s Word. The Lord Jesus once spoke a parable (in Matthew 22:9-13) that strikes a chord with this sharing:

So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Surely, different people have come into the fellowship of saints in different ways. For some it’s been through a true conviction of Truth, and for others, they are in church to practice a social norm. There are many believers who found themselves in a church simply because they were born and raised in a family of believers. However, a true believer is one who has received the revelation of God’s Word. It is God’s Word which is our right clothing. Any other dressing – social norm, tradition, religious opinions – are not the right garments.

Your dressing testifies of your life

Physically speaking, what we dress can exhibit our life and our beliefs. “God doesn’t mind about what I dress outwardly because it’s my heart which matters” has become a common sentiment by women who dress inappropriately and yet want to call themselves Christians. If dressing really never matters, we should ask ourselves why it mattered to saints of old in the Bible. In Genesis 35:1-4, the household of Jacob, upon being called by God, had to change their garments and they also removed their earrings.

And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments… And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

In the New Testament we also see an emphasis on modest dressing:

In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array (1 Timothy 2:9).

It is surprising to note that here in my country of Zambia, when it is at a funeral gathering, women want to dress modestly. Those with short skirts or trousers carry a piece of cloth called Chitenge which they use to wrap around themselves to cover up their immodest outfits. Why is there this foolishness of revering the dead with proper dressing but yet dishonoring oneself’s body to the living public? I gather there are some who dress immodestly on purpose to cause men’s heads to turn and others who are simply taken with the wind of what is trending. It is important to be aware that in this life you are following somebody. Yes, there is someone who influences your beliefs and manner of life. This happens whether you aware of it or not. Sadly many people are following after some Hollywood models without knowing it.

Now, speaking about dressing and how it can express who is leading you in life, or what you believe in, I am reminded of Nelson Mandela.

Mandela’s Kaross at the Rivonia Trial

Nelson Mandela once gave a dramatic expression of what dressing entails and this angered and threatened the Apartheid-whites. This was at the famous Rivonia trial when he was sentenced to imprisonment. In his autobiography he recounted: I entered the court that Monday morning wearing a traditional Xhosa leopard-skin kaross instead of  a suit and tie. The crowd of supporters rose as one and with raised clenched fists shouted “Amandla!” and “Ngawethu!” The kaross electrified the spectators…I had chosen traditional dress to emphasise the symbolism that I was  a black African walking into a white man’s court. I was literally carrying on my back the history, culture, and heritage of my people… When I was on my way back to the cell, a very nervous white warder said that the commanding officer, Colonel Jacobs, had ordered me to hand over the kaross. I said, “You can tell him that he is not going to have it.

Mandela addressed the court, saying:

This case is a trial of the aspirations of the African people, and because of that I thought it proper to conduct my own defense…Why is it that in this courtroom I am facing a white magistrate, confronted by a white prosecutor, escorted by white orderlies? Can anybody honestly and seriously suggest that in this type of atmosphere the scales of justice are evenly balanced?[2]

Believers need to know that through the ages, true God-called people have only had one kind of dressing – the revelation of God’s Word. To borrow Mandela’s words, our dressing should bear “the history, culture, and heritage” of God’s people over the ages. Anytime we try to adopt some new fashion of the compromised ecclesiastical world we should remember that we are going back to a system that imprisoned us into tradition and dogma. And is it not the case that many believers who were delivered from Babylon came out of the system only to turn around and end up in a more serious ‘Babel’ of confusion? When you look at their spiritual dressing, it certainly is not the required one and one day someone will have to answer the question, “how camest thou in hither?” There is ONLY ONE WAY to enter God’s fold and that is through the revelation of His Word. Any other religious method is false.

On Mandela again

Nelson Mandela gave his life completely to the struggle for the freedom of South Africans. The struggle became his obsession. Other people who felt a responsibility to fight against the Apartheid system found themselves living the same kind of life. They went in and out of jail but that did not matter to them. Something – a great cause – kept the frames of their spirits lit. At one moment, recounts Mandela, they were imprisoned and discouraged. But someone started to sing a song and a revival began:

We sang at the top of our lungs, and it kept our spirits high. One time, Masabalala Yengwe…the son of a Zulu labourer…draped himself with a blanket, rolled up a newspaper to imitate an assegai, and began to stride back and forth reciting the lines  from the praise song [this was a song in praise of Shaka, the legendary Zulu warrior and king – Ed]. All of us, even those who did not understand Zulu were entranced. Then he paused dramatically and called out the lines “Inyon’ edl’ ezinye! Yath’ isadl’ ezinye, yadl’ ezinye!” The lines liken Shaka to a great bird of prey that relentlessly slays its enemies. At the conclusion of these words, pandemonium broke out. Chief Luthuli, who until then had remained quite, sprang to his feet, and bellowed, “Ngu Shaka lowo!” (That is Shaka!), and then began to dance and chant. His movements electrified us, and we all took to our feet…Some moved gracefully, others resembled frozen mountaineers trying to shake off the cold, but all danced with enthusiasm and emotion. Suddenly there were no Xhosas or Zulus, no Indians or Africans, no rightists or leftists, no religious or political leaders; we were all nationalists and patriots bound together by a love of our common history, our culture, our country, and our people. In that moment, something stirred deep inside all of us, something strong and intimate, that bound us to one another. In that moment we felt the hand of the great past that made us what we were and the power of the great cause that linked us all together (p.277-278).

When I read these words, I started to think about what happens when someone receives a true conviction of the Holy Spirit. The conviction in his heart becomes his life and he gets free from tradition. And it seems to happen naturally that when people are confronted with reality, their false traditions crumble and fall apart. This reminds me of one time when a Jehovah Witness once approached me asking me about why in my church everyone prays together in a Pentecostal way. “Prayer should be quite and orderly” he chided. “How can God hear you when you are all making noise?” I opened my Bible and read to him Ezra 3:11-13 which says that the people “sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout…But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers…wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy: So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off”. I asked the gentleman, “Do you think these were Jehovah Witnesses?”

Religion makes people have two ‘faces’ or lives – one they exhibit when they are in church and another when they are truly themselves elsewhere. When at home watching soccer, for example, some people will scream and yell and dance in expressing their emotion. Now, that’s the real them! That’s their life. It is filled with the ‘spirit of football.’ That’s what they enjoy! Well, it goes without saying that a person whose mind has become obsessed with the Spirit of the Gospel also lives to the full expression of its joy. It is interesting to know that when reality strikes even the most traditional people discard their norms and yield to the emotion and cry of their spirits. This reminds me of one time when some students at a college I once worked were trying to come up the building using an elevator. They were about five of them on their way to the eighth floor when suddenly the elevator stopped and smoke started to sip inside the small cell. Panic and confusion set in. One student tried to dial my number as others started to scream. Then the Jehovah Witness, the Catholic, and the Seventh Day Adventist began to pray the pentecostal way of shouting and calling on the name of Jesus. I remarked to them, “Now, that was the real you praying. In that moment even a Catholic realizes that going through the beads of the rosary may not be helpful.”

Dear saints, God has called us to sincerity. The Word that we have received inside our hearts should be our clothing outwardly. Whoever comes into the fold of God through the one door of Revelation understands this – “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10). 

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[1] William Branham in Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, 1960. Voice of God Recordings, Jeffersonville Indiana.

[2] Nelson Mandela in  Long Walk to Freedom, 1994. Backbay Books, New York.