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Seventh Seal: Difference between revisions
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== | =Examination of the Seventh Seal= | ||
William Branham’s | |||
There is debate by followers of William Branham on whether he actually had the revelation of the seventh seal. He did preach a sermon on the subject, but at the time he claimed the interpretation of the seal was not divinely revealed to him. Interestingly, what he did say on the seventh seal was also copied from the writing of Charles Taze Russel. | |||
Branham’s essential interpretation of the seventh seal was that its mystery was contained in the seven thunders and that it would be revealed through the angel of Revelation 10:7: | |||
:''I’m only telling you what I seen and what has been told to me. And now you—you do whatever you want to. I don’t know who is going to…what’s going to take place. I do not know. '''I just know that those Seven Thunders holds that mystery.''' The Heavens was quiet. Everybody understand? | |||
:''But we are promised, in the last day, that to return to the Church again, for the benefit of straightening up all that has been misled, missed, undone, left undone. For, '''it’s predicted here that the seventh angel’s Message would finish the mysteries of God.'''<ref>William Branham, 63-0324E - The Seventh Seal, para. 326, 87</ref> | |||
==Comparing William Branham to Charles Taze Russell== | |||
It appears that William Branham was setting up the future revelation of the seventh seal and the seven thunders following the exact same pattern used by Charles Taze Russel. | |||
Compare William Branham’s statements to Charles Taze Russel to see for yourself: | |||
:''Had opened the '''seventh seal'''.—“The seal of the living God.” (Rev. 7:2.) The opening of the seventh seal is _progressive_. The opening and unfolding of the Truth goes on as the saints are sealed. By the time the saints are all sealed in their hearts and minds with the Present Truth, the deepest features of the Truth itself will have been disclosed. “The time will undoubtedly come in the near future when the number of the Elect will be complete. Then only such vacancies as might still occur by some falling out would remain.” (Z. ’14‐68.) “God’s people down through this Gospel age have been privileged to know something of the ‘Secret of the Lord’—the Divine Plan. But not until the last seal is broken, does the scroll fly wide open, '''permitting the ‘Mystery of God’ to be fully disclosed; as it is written: ‘In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the Mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the Prophets.'''’ (Rev. 5:1; '''10:7'''.)”—Z. ’97‐257. | |||
:''10:4. And [when] WHATSOEVER the '''seven thunders''' had uttered [their voices], I.—Pastor Russell as a representative of the John class. | |||
:''10:7. But in the days of the voice of the '''seventh ange'''l.—Pastor Russell was the seventh angel.—'''Rev. 3:14.''' | |||
Charles Taze Russel went on to explain that a series of seven subjects he published between 1880 and 1910 were the seven thunders that fully revealed the mystery of God, which completed the unrolling of the seventh seal. | |||
==Additional Plagiarism== | |||
In addition to following the basic thought that was brought by Charles Tax Russell, William Branham also added in some of the teaching of [[Plagiarism|Clarence Larkin]]. Here is a comparison of what William Branham said to direct quotes from Larkin's ''The Book of Revelation: A Study of the Last Prophetic Book of Holy Scripture'', published in 1919: | |||
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