Latest revision as of 03:16, 27 August 2015

Present Truth Ministries ("PTM") is a group that advertises itself "as non-denominational ministry dedicated to bringing the gospel to Muslims and supporting the persecuted church in the Middle East. PTM was founded in order to spread the message throughout the world."

But are they who they say they are?

Who are the personalities?

Jason Demars is a pastor of a Branhamite church near Minneapolis, MN (Grace Ministries Hopkins, MN)

What they really believe

When PTM uses the words "the message", these are really code words for "the message of William Branham" (see our article on the subject by clicking here). As such, PTM and Jason DeMars believe a number of unusual doctrines, including:

Modalism
Christians that believe the doctrine of the Trinity are lost
The Serpent had sex with Eve
Women were designed by Satan
People in demoninations are "foolish virgins"
Jesus Christ is Michael the Archangel
William Branham was the fulfillment of:

In reality, they hold the message of William Branham above the Bible. This can be clearly seen from an affiliated website that they operate called "contendingforthemessage.com".

By referencing various comments from the "Contending for the Message" website (CTFM) it is apparent that they believe William Branham to be a prophet that must be listened to if one is to understand the Bible:

Our intention is to respond to the critics who are stating the message contradicts itself or that brother William Branham was an outright liar. We will show step by step that his prophecies are accurate and that he is not a liar, but instead a man of God that should be listened to and we should take his words back to the Bible to ensure proper understanding.

By this they mean that in order to truly understand the Bible, you must believe the teachings of William Branham. They also believe in the doctrine of the Serpent's Seed:

The Serpent, under the influence of Satan, deceived Eve into a sexual act resulting in the conception of Cain and later that day she had a relationship with Adam resulting in the conception of Abel. (from Contendingforthemessage.com)

This is also clear from the testimony of Jason DeMars on the the propheticrevelation.net website:

The teaching on Revelation 10:7 really blessed my soul, that the mystery of God is the dispensation of grace wherein God is dealing with the Gentiles, grafting them into the olive tree. That in the days of the voice or message of bro. Branham the mystery of God should be completed...

What was written on the Serpent’s Seed and the Original Sin really answered some questions for me too. (Jason DeMars, Mn., USA)

Churches that do not follow William Branham are not true churches

In a Facebook post in the "Message Believers" group on August 20, 2014, Jason Demars stated the following:

Matthew 28:19 says we should go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Bro. Branham emphasized that we should continue to do this and this was the main purpose for the church. What about here in North America? Are we still busy doing outreach and planting churches in cities that have never heard the truth? For example, in Oregon there are 2 churches, in Minnesota there are 3, all in the Twin Cities. In North Dakota and South Dakota I know of only one church. Why shouldn't we, under the leadership of the Spirit, go to other towns and cities and plant churches here?

Let's put our money and our time towards things eternal. Get your guitars out, head to the streets and get on your soap boxes, preach this word in another city and get a little building and reach out to the community with the living Word!

This is the desire in my heart, even as we do missions in the Middle East, while I am home I desire to put my hand to the plow and do the same work here that we are doing in Turkey. Pray for me and I pray God raises up laborers for the harvest.

This post clearly demonstrates their belief that churches that do not follow William Branham are not true followers of Christ.

In reality, even if you exclude lukewarm or cold liberal churches, there are hundreds of churches that are preaching the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

But this is a prime example of them dismissing the Gospel of Christ if preached by anyone outside of the message. While they state that they want to work with other churches, any gesture of goodwill towards other denominations are literally just empty words and insulting flattery. In truth - they do not recognize any denomination or non-denominational church as bringing the gospel of salvation. Clearly, "salvation = the message". Otherwise, they would not use this kind of rhetoric.

Who are the people behind Present Truth Ministries?

Both the Present Truth Ministries and the Contending For the Message websites are run by Jason DeMars and Benjamin Wheeldon.

What they say they believe

PTM is not forthright about their own beliefs. They attempt to come across as an innocuous non-denomination ministry that is only interested in spreading the Gospel and in freeing Christian ministers that have been imprisoned for the faith in Muslim countries.

So we agree with PTM in their efforts to free anyone who has been imprisoned for their faith. We earnestly hope they succeed.

We also earnestly hope that those behind Present Truth Ministries will find their own freedom from the non-Biblical message of a false prophet, William Branham.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Present Truth Ministries is a group that advertises itself "''as non-denominational ministry dedicated to bringing the gospel to Muslims and supporting the persecuted church in the Middle East.  PTM was founded in order to spread [[The Message|the message]] throughout the world.''"
+Present Truth Ministries ("PTM") is a group that advertises itself "''as non-denominational ministry dedicated to bringing the gospel to Muslims and supporting the persecuted church in the Middle East.  PTM was founded in order to spread [[The Message|the message]] throughout the world.''"
 But are they who they say they are?
+=Who are the personalities?=
+Jason Demars is a pastor of a [[The Message|Branhamite]] church near Minneapolis, MN (Grace Ministries Hopkins, MN)
 =What they really believe=
-The term "the message" is a code word for "the message of William Branham" (see our article on the subject by [[The Message|clicking here]]).
+When PTM uses the words "the message", these are really code words for "the message of William Branham" (see our article on the subject by [[The Message|clicking here]]).  As such, PTM and Jason DeMars believe a number of unusual doctrines, including:
-In reality, they hold the message of William Branham above the Bible and so must be considered members of a cult.  This can be clearly seen from an affiliated website that they run - contendingforthemessage.com
+*[[Oneness|Modalism]]
+*[[Plum and Apple Trees#Trinitarian Christians|Christians that believe the doctrine of the Trinity are lost]]
+*[[Serpent's Seed|The Serpent had sex with Eve]]
+*[[Women were designed by Satan]]
+*[[The Body of Christ|People in demoninations are "foolish virgins"]]
+*[[Michael the Archangel|Jesus Christ is Michael the Archangel]]
+*William Branham was the fulfillment of:
+**[[The Fulfillment of Malachi 4:5|Malachi 4:5]]
+**[[Revelation 10:7]]
+**[[Luke 17:30]]
+**[[Matthew 24:28]]
-By referencing various comments from the "Contending for the Message" website it is apparent that they believe William Branham to be a prophet that must be listened to if one is to understand the Bible:
+In reality, [[The Message#William Branham's message > the Bible|they hold the message of William Branham above the Bible]].  This can be clearly seen from an affiliated website that they operate called "contendingforthemessage.com".
-:Our intention is to respond to the critics who are stating the message contradicts itself or that brother '''William Branham''' was an outright liar. We will show step by step that '''his prophecies are accurate''' and that he is not a liar, but instead a man of God that should be listened to and we should take his words back to the Bible to ensure proper understanding.
+By referencing various comments from the "Contending for the Message" website (CTFM) it is apparent that they believe William Branham to be a prophet that must be listened to if one is to understand the Bible:
-The also believe in the doctrine of the [[Serpent's Seed]]:
+:''Our intention is to respond to the critics who are stating the message contradicts itself or that brother '''William Branham''' was an outright liar. We will show step by step that '''his prophecies are accurate''' and that he is not a liar, but instead a man of God that should be listened to and '''we should take his words back to the Bible to ensure proper understanding'''.
-:The Serpent, under the influence of Satan, deceived Eve into a sexual act resulting in the conception of Cain and later that day she had a relationship with Adam resulting in the conception of Abel.
+By this they mean that in order to truly understand the Bible, you must believe the teachings of William Branham.  They also believe in the doctrine of the [[Serpent's Seed]]:
+:'''''The Serpent, under the influence of Satan, deceived Eve into a sexual act resulting in the conception of Cain''' and later that day she had a relationship with Adam resulting in the conception of Abel. (from Contendingforthemessage.com)
 This is also clear from the testimony of Jason DeMars on the the propheticrevelation.net website:
-:The teaching on Revelation 10:7 really blessed my soul, that the mystery of God is the dispensation of grace wherein God is dealing with the Gentiles, grafting them into the olive tree.  That in the days of the voice or message of bro. Branham the mystery of God should be completed...  What was written on the Serpent’s Seed and the Original Sin really answered some questions for me too.  (Jason DeMars, Mn., USA)
+:''The teaching on '''Revelation 10:7''' really blessed my soul, that the mystery of God is the dispensation of grace wherein God is dealing with the Gentiles, grafting them into the olive tree.  '''That in the days of the voice or message of bro. Branham the mystery of God should be completed'''...
+:What was written on the '''Serpent’s Seed and the Original Sin''' really answered some questions for me too.  (Jason DeMars, Mn., USA)
+==Churches that do not follow William Branham are not true churches==
+In a Facebook post in the "Message Believers" group on August 20, 2014, Jason Demars stated the following:
+:''Matthew 28:19 says we should go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Bro. Branham emphasized that we should continue to do this and this was the main purpose for the church. What about here in North America? Are we still busy doing outreach and planting churches in cities that have never heard the truth? For example, '''in Oregon there are 2 churches, in Minnesota there are 3, all in the Twin Cities. In North Dakota and South Dakota I know of only one church.''' Why shouldn't we, under the leadership of the Spirit, go to other towns and cities and plant churches here?
+:''Let's put our money and our time towards things eternal. Get your guitars out, head to the streets and get on your soap boxes, preach this word in another city and get a little building and reach out to the community with the living Word!
+:''This is the desire in my heart, even as we do missions in the Middle East, while I am home I desire to put my hand to the plow and do the same work here that we are doing in Turkey. Pray for me and I pray God raises up laborers for the harvest.
+This post clearly demonstrates their belief that churches that do not follow William Branham are not true followers of Christ.
+In reality, even if you exclude lukewarm or cold liberal churches, there are hundreds of churches that are preaching the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
+But this is a prime example of them dismissing the Gospel of Christ if preached by anyone outside of [[The Message|the message]].  While they state that they want to work with other churches, any gesture of goodwill towards other denominations are literally just empty words and insulting flattery.  In truth - they do not recognize any denomination or non-denominational church as bringing the gospel of salvation. Clearly, "salvation = the message". Otherwise, they would not use this kind of rhetoric.
 =Who are the people behind Present Truth Ministries?=
-Both the Present Truth Ministries and the Contending For the Message websites are run by Jason DeMars and Benjamin Wheeldon.  Jason DeMars has preached at many message churches including [[Cloverdale Bibleway]].
+Both the Present Truth Ministries and the Contending For the Message websites are run by Jason DeMars and Benjamin Wheeldon.
 =What they say they believe=
-As with many cults, '''PTM tries to hide itself through deceptive means'''.  They attempt to come across as an innocuous non-denomination ministry that is only interested in spreading the Gospel and in freeing Christian ministers that have been imprisoned for the faith in Muslim countries.  Their web page entitled "Non-Trinitarian “Cult”??" states
+'''PTM''' is not forthright about their own beliefs.  They attempt to come across as an innocuous non-denomination ministry that is only interested in spreading the Gospel and in freeing Christian ministers that have been imprisoned for the faith in Muslim countries.
-:We are not Branhamites or strictly followers of William Branham, but we are Christian’s that are following in a line of many leaders who have brought more Light on the Scriptures. In each period of time throughout church history various leaders arose starting at the day of Pentecost. There was Paul, Peter, Timothy, Iranaeus, Colomba, Martin of Tours, John Wyclif, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, William Tyndale, John Wesley, Charles Finney, Charles Parham, William Seymour, Charles Price, Billy Graham, Oral Roberts '''and William Branham'''.   The Reformation period was an important part of bringing the Church out of a period of the dark ages, a time when the true Gospel was not widely known or published. We believe in the Reformation doctrine called “''Ecclesia semper reformanda est''.” This means that the church must always go through the process of examination and reformation. As time goes on God gives more Light on the Scriptures. This is a process called progressive revelation. Just as God progressively wrote the Scriptures he also gradually restores the correct understanding of those Scriptures.
+So we agree with PTM in their efforts to free anyone who has been imprisoned for their faith.  We earnestly hope they succeed.
-From their web page "What is [[The Message|the Message of the Hour?]]"
+We also earnestly hope that those behind Present Truth Ministries will find their own freedom from the non-Biblical message of a false prophet, William Branham.
-:I would like to give a little background to those who charge us with being a non-Christian cult. Some have said that we are not Trinitarian’s. '''That is true''', in the classic sense of the term, but in fact, do you know the background of our belief? '''We hold to a view that is very much the same as the viewpoint of the apologists of the 2nd and 3rd Century.''' There are many theologians in the 20th and 21st Century that have acknowledged that persons is not an adequate expression for the distinctions within God.  Trinitarian Theologians Karl Barth and Eberhard Jungel preferred to use the terms “modes of being” in contrast to persons. John S. Whale regarded the Trinity as a “personal unity existing eternally in three eternal modes or functions.”
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+[[Category:The Message]]
+[[Category:Message churches]]