The Message

The Message or the Message of the Hour is how followers of William Branham refer to his teachings. It is also how they refer to themselves generally as a movement. If you are "in the message" then you consider yourself a true follower of William Branham and a true follower of God.

The real status of followers of William Branham

Later in this article, we will look at what message believers think of themselves. But the question is what is their actual status? Are message believers special? Are they the true Bride of Christ? Or are they members of a cult?

Is the message a cult?

Some people refer to the followers of William Branham as "Branhamites" or members of the Branham cult. But are they?

What is a cult?

A “cult” has been defined as a religious group founded by and built upon the teachings of a religious leader whose authority is viewed as being equal to or greater than the Bible and whose teachings are in opposition to the doctrines of biblical and historic Christianity.

The crucial part of the above definition of the word cult is, “whose authority is viewed as being equal to or greater than the Bible.” The founder of the cult is viewed as being a “prophet” or “prophetess” of God. Since he or she is the “voice of God,” the person’s teachings are authoritative. Thus the cult is based solely upon the religious authority of the founder. Everything depends on the validity of that authority.

The issue of religious authority is the most basic problem one encounters when witnessing to a cultist. While the child of God looks to the Scriptures as the ultimate standard by which to decide religious truth, the cultist looks to his leader to decide the truth for him. As long as the Christian and the cultist are looking to different religious authorities, there is no common ground between them where they can begin.

Do message believers put William Branham's teachings on par with the Bible?

It is clear that some followers of William Branham believe that he was Jesus Christ. Many followers of William Branham do put his sermons on equal standing with the Bible because they believe that he was infallible. These groups would include most of the followers of Joseph Branham.

But some message believers say:

...I have never put Brother Branham's teachings above the Bible! That is not what I believe.

While such people may think that they place the Bible above William Branham's teaching, this is in fact not the case. Why? Because here is what they actually believe:

1. William Branham was one of the greatest prophets of all time. Exactly how great he was may vary between message believers BUT, at the very least, they will state that William Branham was one of the seven church age messengers and therefore at least the equal of Paul the Apostle. In addition, they generally believe that his ministry as the Seventh Angel puts him in a league above all the other church age messengers.
2. As the seventh angel, William Branham could not make any significant doctrinal errors because the purpose of his ministry was to reveal all of the hidden mysteries of God. As a result of this, a message believer does not have the option of disagreeing with William Branham, except in respect of relatively small issues.
3. To the extent that William Branham did make a significant error, they believe that God would have corrected him. This has resulted in the doctrine of Progressive Revelation, which basically states that if William Branham taught different things about a subject, one should rely on his last teaching on the issue.
4. Message believers hold that the only true evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is believing the Word for your hour. This means the teachings of William Branham. As a result, if you think that William Branham's message has any significant errors, to a message believer it proves that you don't have the Holy Spirit.

So the answer is "YES", the followers of William Branham hold his teachings on par with, or above, the Bible.

Are William Branham's teaching in opposition to Biblical Christianity?

We believe that some message believers are Christians. This is because some message churches do believe in and teach the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ as the only means for the forgiveness of sins. However, that does not mean that the message represents true or restored Christianity.

To the extent that William Branham preached doctrines that agreed with the Bible, his teachings are acceptable. However, he did disagree with true Biblical Christianity in a number of significant areas.

Many of these false doctrines actually were solely designed to point to himself as being God's supreme prophet for the end time:

• Matthew 17:11
• The Fulfillment of Malachi 4:5
• Enoch being the seventh from Adam
• Reading between the lines
• God only deals with one prophet at a time
• The Importance of a Seven-Lettered Name

Other doctrines were simply incorrect if a person reads the Bible in an honest fashion:

• The Serpent's Seed
• Michael the Archangel
• His Lazy Theology
• Enoch was a type of the wise virgin, and Noah was a type of the foolish virgin
• Illegitimate children cannot be part of the rapture.
• Christians that were required to believe Satanic doctrine
• If your wife cuts her hair, you can divorce her.
• A man can remarry after divorce but a woman can't
• Capernaum is under the sea
• John never wept because there was no one worthy to open the book- he was weeping for joy.
• Three holy words of the Bible
• His reasons for rejecting of Eternal Sonship
• The difference in meaning of Eternal vs. Everlasting

Finally, William Branham's teaching on the Godhead were very strange:

• In some ways, his teachings were most similar to those of Emmanual Swedenborg
• In some of his teachings, his view of the Godhead seems to be a form of modalistic monarchianism. As a result, many message churches effectively espouse the "oneness" view of the Godhead.
• But some of his teaching also leans toward an Adoptionist view of the Godhead. Followers of Lee Vayle's have essentially espoused this view (which some refer to derisively as the "Twinity" doctrine).

Again the answer is "YES", William Branham's teachings contain significant Biblical errors.

As a result of the above, it is clear that "message believers" are members of a cult.

What do followers of William Branham think that the message is?

When you ask a follower of William Branham what the message is, you may get an answer that is difficult to follow. They themselves admit that it is difficult to define, primarily because they specifically try avoid describing it as what it actually is - the teachings and doctrines of William Branham. So they tend to describe it in more nebulous terms:

Has anybody ever asked you what the Message is? I have had it asked me, "You call yourselves 'Message Believers' but what is the message?" I tried to explain it to the person, but they couldn't catch it.