Question:

Shalom Bro. Phiri. How do you understand the below quote, especially the part in bold

THE WORD THAT FELL ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST WILL NOT WORK THIS DAY . No, sir. That was for Pentecost. This is for the Bride, going Home of the Bride. WE GOT SOMETHING DIFFERENT. The Pentecostals represented that, again. We’re in the Bride age. No more than the Word of Noah would work in the days of Moses; no more than Moses’ law would have worked in the time of Paul here. He tried to tell them, “You are dead to that, and you cannot have that.”

(Rev. William Marrion Branham, 65-1125, THE INVISIBLE UNION OF THE BRIDE OF CHRIST)

Is it Scriptural?

God bless you.

Reply:

Shalom dear Brother,

When the above words of William Branham are analysed separate from the whole text where they are drawn from, one can easily dismiss them to be wrong and misleading. In this way many people (Branhamites and Anti-Branhamites alike) have mispresented William Branham’s words.

It is important to know that Brother Branham was uneducated and often misused words in trying to convey his thoughts. Many times it would take ears that can hear the Spirit to correctly understand what the humble man tried to speak.

William Branham was aware of his limitation of vocabulary and grammar. Here is what he said one day during preaching:

I hope you get it. I haven’t got no education. I know what I’m talking about, but maybe I can’t explain – explain it, to make sense to you. But I hope that God takes the words that’s mixed up, and divides them out right, and lets you know what it is. (p.496, REVELATION OF THE SEVEN SEALS).

It is God who saw it fit to use a man with limited vocabulary to express his Word and Works. Often,  in order to understand what William Branham said or meant, you may have to hear or read a whole portion of a message he  was preaching. For example, before he spoke the words you quoted in your question, William Branham was explaining the history of church revivals from the time of Luther, Wesley and then through the Pentecost revival which occurred at the beginning of the 20^th century. He likened the various stages the church went through to what a grain of wheat goes through when growing. As growth progresses what remains behind (such as the husk) is lifeless and drops off. This continues until the seed comes forth. Brother Branham referred to the dying off remains as denominations. He also denounced the Pentecostal movement to have died as it couldn’t move on to receive the Present Truth that God was revealing. This is what he said:

Now, you take a grain of wheat, when the wheat is first coming forth…You look at it. You say, ‘We got a grain of wheat’. Be careful. It’s just exactly like the grain, but there’s not a bit of grain in it. It’s the shuck…Then what happens? When the grain begins to grow, and to get bigger … the denomination pulls away from it…God has separated us from all the dead religions…Separated us, and opened to us a new land, a new message for this day. Pentecost dried up and died, like Luther, Wesley, and the rest of them. It’s no more than a bunch of churches pulled together.

Notice that when he said “Pentecost dried up and died”! he was clearly referring to the Pentecostal blessing which had began in the early twentieth century and was a successor to Luther’s reformation and Wesley’s revival. This should be clear to see if you hear or read the whole sermon. All who are acquainted with William Branham’s sermons know that he placed the history of the revival in the endtime as follows: (1) Luther’s reformation and message of Justification, (2) Wesley’s message of Sanctification, (3) Pentecostal blessing or restoration of gifts, and (4) The ‘restoration’ of the Word in the Endtime. It is for this reason that in the above quote he said, “God has separated us from all the dead religions…Separated us, and opened to us a new land, a new message for this day. Pentecost dried up and died, like Luther, Wesley, and the rest of them”. Throughout this sermon Brother Branham kept talking about the fall of pentecostals from the true spiritual experience to being a denomination. It is in this context that one should read and understand these words – “THE WORD THAT FELL ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST WILL NOT WORK THIS DAY”. The meaning of his words become quite evident in the sermons he preached that same week:

Now it’s begin to pull away, the wheat’s begin to be seen. This is not a Pentecostal age, this is the Latter-day age, this is the Bride Age, this is the Evening Light, this is when Malachi 4 must be fulfilled to follow God’s pattern, this is Luke 17:30 to be fulfilled, this is the book of Jeremiah and all the rest of them, that Joel has spoke of these days. This is that day! “I have heard, Lord, and It was coming, but now I see It with my eye!”

We’re not living in a Pentecostal age, we’re living in another age. See, we’re not living in a Methodist age, we’re living in another age. We’re living on up here to the Bride age, the calling out of the Church and getting It together for the Rapture. That’s the age that we’re now living. To my honest opinion that’s exactly the Truth.

(I HAVE HEARD BUT NOW I SEE: 65-1127, MODERN EVENTS MADE CLEAR BY PROPHECY: 65-1206, LEADERSHIP: 65-1207)

Many times Brother Branham proclaimed that the true church of God has to be restored to the Pentecost of the book of Acts. This is what he said during his preaching on the Seventy Weeks of Daniel:

Aren’t you glad ? back to the Message brother! Back to the Original! Back to Pentecost! Back to the real blessing! Back to the Name of Jesus Christ! Back to the Baptism of the Holy Ghost! Back to signs and wonders! Back to Pentecost! Away with your organisations! (SEVENTY WEEKS OF DANIEL)

Preaching on “Pentecost” was among the highlights of William Branham’s message and there is thus no way he could have dismissed it. So, “were his words in the quote scriptural?” No, if we just focus on the letters or grammar of what he said. But, Yes if one is acquainted with his language and mind.

I hope this helps.

A Phiri