The Message Dress Code

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This article is one in a series on the Message of William Branham - you are currently in the article that is in bold:

• What is the Message of William Branham?
• Is the Message a Cult?
• The Sub-Sects of the Message
• The Theology of the Message
• Are followers of William Branham Christians?
• What is the Fruit of the Message?
• The Message Dress Code

People that follow William Branham's message can be recognized by the way that their women dress - long dresses and long hair. Additionally men are not permitted to wear shorts (even though William Branham did).

This is because William Branham taught a "clothes line" religion.

William Branham's teaching

William Branham referred to Deuteronomy 22:5 as providing the scriptural basis for women not wearing pants:

The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.

What does the New Testament say?

The New Testament repeatedly warns against trying to import Old Testament laws into the Christian church:

Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”

...but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down tin his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

The apostles did not require Gentiles to follow the law. This is clearly outlined in the Book of Acts:

Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.

They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, with the following letter:

“The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of the law. But as for the Gentiles who have believed, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality.”

Arguments used by Branham's followers

Message believers state that because the Bible classifies a women wearing a man's garment as an abomination, it is something that God hates and is therefore still an abomination today.

The problem with this approach is that it require other abominations in the Old Testament to be obeyed as well:

And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you: 11 They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination.  Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.

And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, 14 And the vulture, and the kite after his kind; 15 Every raven after his kind; And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind,  And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl, 18 And the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle, 19 And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.

All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you.  Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth;  Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind.  But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto you.

You shall not eat any abomination.  These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.

A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the LORD your God.

Horoscopes are out!

There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD.

Quotes

Oh, I thought, what a thing for Christianity! Women, stop that wearing them clothes like that! Man, stop that telling them smutty jokes and all that stuff! We are sons and daughters of the King. Dress like a queen, dress like a--a lady. Act like a gentleman, don't let your hair grow down like this. The Bible said, "It's wrong (nature teaches you) for a man to have long hair. And it's a disgrace and a common thing for even a woman to pray with her hair cut." And how about these? "It's a--it's an abomination for a woman to put on a garment that pertains to a man." The great unchanging God doesn't change.

How could a bobbed-haired woman ever come through this Filter? How could a woman with shorts on ever come through It, or slacks, when the Bible says, "It's an abomination to God, for a woman to put on a garment that even pertains to a man"? And how can a man that thinks anything of himself, get out here and dress like the women, let his hair grow out like a woman, down in his eyes, with bangs, and twirled up like that? He is wearing his wife's underneath clothes. She is wearing his outer clothes. A thinking man's filter? A thinking man won't do that, or a thinking woman won't do it. God's Word won't let it pass through.

"Blessed are they that do all the commandments of God, that they might have a right to enter in." Do all God said, and It said for women to have long hair. You say... A man told me not long ago, said, "I don't preach a clothes-line religion." I said, "Then you're not preaching the Gospel." Yeah.

God laid it out there, He said what to do. And you either do it... That's your natural, reasonable thing. What little thing... what... the little insignificant. Jesus said, "Blessed are they that would take all the little thing, do the little things." And a woman to let her hair grow, that's just a... why, it's just something she can do, and she won't even do that. She won't even do that.

How could you ever draw a denomination through God's Filter? How could you do it? How could you draw a bobbed-hair woman through that Filter? Tell me. How could you ever draw a woman that wears slacks through There, when "It's an abomination for her to put on a garment pertains to a man"? See, God's Filter would catch her out there, It wouldn't let her come in. (But the church has got their own filters.) So I say that there is a thinking man's Filter, that's God's Word, and It suits a holy man's taste. That's right, a holy man; not a church man, but a holy man's taste. Because It's pure, holiness, unadulterated Word of God! There is a thinking man's Filter. And church member, I advise you to use That one. Because it brings in the world, and one lump of it is death. One lump leavens, the one little leaven leavens the whole lump. "Whosoever shall take one Word out of This, or add one word to It, his part will be taken from the Book of Life."