World Council of Churches
William Branham preached strongly against religious systems. The Catholic Church, as the first and strongest Christian denomination, is identified by William Branham as the Beast. The World Council of Churches, in the spirit of ecumenism (inter-denominational unity in worship), is identified as the Image to the Beast. William Branham's advice to Catholics and Protestants about their respective denominations and the worldwide ecumenical movement is "Stay away from it! Get out of it!" William Branham's made the following very specific prophecies:
The Prophecies
Unity in CommunionThat's the only thing...that stops the Catholicism and Protestantism from uniting, is the order of communion. The Catholic church says, "It is the body," and the Protestant church says, "It represents the body." ...They call it a mass; we call it a communion. A mass is hoping it's so. A communion is knowing it's so and thank Him for it. See? And there's the only thing that they cannot get together on. They'll do it.
Birth of the AntichristYou young people, remember that you heard a minister say that. That'll finally wind up. And that is the mark of the beast, when she forms that World Council of Churches. And she'll give birth to her son, the antichrist.
Bundles to be burnedThey're getting bundled, all these organizations. Big bundles is coming to one big bundle. That's right. What is that bundle? You know what it is. World Council of Churches, forming the image of the beast. Truly. And you people that's scared of communism, I want you to show me one place in the Bible where communism will rule the world. Well, I'll tell you the Bible says that Romanism will rule the world. Exactly right.
Call to leave denominationsI am duty bound to a Message; not to be different, but because of love. Love is corrective. Come back! Stay away from that thing! You ministering brothers, I don't care what your groups does, stay away from it! Stay out of it! It's the mark of the beast, stay away from it! See, Jesus is knocking in this Laodicea age. See where they put Him out?
Union without the Holy SpiritWe tried to make everybody become a--a Lutheran; and couldn't do it. Try to make them all become a Baptist; we couldn't do it. All become a Methodist, or all a Pentecostal; they couldn't do it. So, to order to do this, the time is so short, they have formed a council, a head, a image to the beast. That's exactly what they've done. And what is it? The crucifixion of the Word, again, is at hand. It's on trial and will soon come to the floor.
Now, let me say something, brethren. There's something fixing to happen, and all these big old ecclesiastical walls are going to collapse and go right back over yonder and agree, 'cause they are going to do it as certain as I'm standing here. There's an image to that beast just as certain as I'm standing here, and this nation took it according to the Word of the Lord.” Listen, when you feel that little funny feeling, you get away from them walls. Get away; you'll die in there. Don't do it. Come out of it. Get away from all this stuff. Flee to safety as quick as you can. Ask God for mercy...you flee to Jesus Christ just as quick as you can, and stay there until God fills you with His Holy Spirit, for the hour's going to come when you're going to hunt for it and it won't be there.
Return to PersecutionWhen the little old church is still down yonder being borned again in a mess like any birth is, still paying the price, still getting down and dying out, acting the same way they did when they first got born at the day of Pentecost, same kind of a church down there... They'll be closed and shut out under the Federation of Churches. It'll be a boycott like a union or something. You'll either come in or you'll go out.
It choked the Spirit right out of them, when they began to take wisdom instead of faith in the Word...And soon they're to form up a confederation of church, which will be the image to the beast. And he will have the same power in this nation (Revelations 13:11) that they had over there, and will cause a persecution upon the saints, just like they did at the beginning of the--the Roman church.
Fulfillment
William Branham did not state whether the Catholic and Christian denominations would reach full-communion or partial-communion. If he meant partial-communion, then regardless of official church policy this prophecy has in many ways already been fulfilled as some churches already offer interdenominational worship and communion, and many individuals no longer give any thought to crossing interdenominational barriers in worship and communion. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued the following statement on October 1, 1967:
In 1999, a "Joint Declaration on the doctrine of Justification" [2] was issued between the Lutheran and the Catholic Church. Justification was one of the significant doctrinal issues that gave rise to the Protestant Reformation, so an this issue is significant, and opens the doors to further dialogue. Time Magazine Reports: In an interfaith age, Protestant and Roman Catholic clergy pray together and picket together, and hardly a church exists that has not been preached to by a minister of another faith. But there is a point where ardent advocates of ecumenism draw the line: interCommunion. Time, The Inter-Communion Barrier, Friday, Feb. 25, 1966 In 2007 the Catholic "Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith" (which, incidentally, is the successor of the "Holy Office of the Inquisition") issued a statement that:
The World council of Churches responded to this statement with the following paragraph:
One Catholic Priest's interpretation (Jonathan Morris) of this Catholic document is that it is "an attempt to lay the foundations for eventual unity by clearly expressing the theological disagreements that currently divide Christian communities.[and]...the Pope is not saying only registered, baptized Catholics can be saved," [3] One of the goals of the World Council of churches, which represents over 550 million Christians, includes "most of the world's Orthodox churches, scores of denominations from such historic traditions of the Protestant Reformation as Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist and Reformed, as well as many united and independent churches", is to acheive "the goal of visible unity in one faith and one eucharistic fellowship." [4] That William Branham has prophecied that the Catholic Church will acheive communion with the denominations represented by the World Council of Churches may be encouraging to both Catholics and members of the WCC. What he prophecied about the result of this union, which is a far cry from encouraging, will probably be ignored until it is fulfilled.
The Mark of the Beast Identified
And remember, that we found without one mistake, that the mark of the beast is a mark of apostasy, that is, church members hanging to their church instead of walking in the Light. They reject Light, and there's nothing left by darkness (That's right.), both Catholic and Protestant. There is "a beast," and a whore," and she had "harlot" daughters. And these harlot daughters, when they broke forth, they were virgins from the Light of that day, and they organized and bringing people down here, back into here, making them the same kind of a thing that Rome was in the beginning. The Bible said so: the beast, and an image to the beast, the letter of his name, and so forth.
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