Leaving the Message? Now What?
Message believers believe they are true Christians. The problem is, the Message does not represent Christianity or biblically sound Christian teaching. In fact, the Message is actually an attack on historic biblical Christianity. It cuts any sense of continuity between Christian believers of the past and those who follow William Branham's unorthodox "revelations".
Hank Hanegraaff was right when he said that virutally every theological heresy begins with a misconception of the nature of God. In the Garden of Eden, Satan’s first strategy in his war against God was an attack on God Himself—an attack on His integrity and the trustworthiness of His Word. He did this when, contradicting God's word, he said, “Ye shall not surely die,” indicating that God was a liar. Satan’s second line of attack was to suggest that God was holding back something that Eve should know; a secret that would make her better than she was: She could be like God!
Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon "Church" said that God was a created being who later became one of an infinite number of gods. Charles Taze Russel of the Jehovah's Witnesses denied that Jesus was even God. And so too did WMB have his own distorted view of God. A view that retained the vestages of many false views of so many heretics in church history who preceded him.
William Branham taught “mysteries” he said the Church once knew centuries ago and must now relearn to know God's Word in its fulness. He said that the Church hadn’t known the truth for 2000 years, starting with a redefinition of God’s nature (which wasn’t new at all, but a conglomeration of historical heresies taught by false teachers from the earliest days of Christianity). He taught that God didn’t really say what Christians believed from the Bible, but that Christians, by his guidance, should read between the lines of Scripture to obtain a true understanding of God’s mind.
Then came the clincher: The serpent said to Eve, “Ye shall be like God.” WMB said that his followers, “the Bride,” were an actual part of God, little gods, as it were, who were part of God before the world began. That isn't in the Bible. It is a lie.
Now you're out of the Message. By God’s grace, you have seen through WMB’s rouse. Now what do you do? What are you to believe now that you realize your mistake of having believed the false prophet, William Branham, and his God-dishonoring Message?
Know that you have sinned against God in believing the Message. Know that William Branham taught a different Jesus, and that you believed in his Jesus, not Jesus Christ Who is revealed in the Bible.
Know that since you believed in a false Jesus, you need to repent of that and turn to the true Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Finally, please know that just turning your back on the Message is not the same as being born again. Being a Christian is not simply living a Christian life without the burden of the Message. It is not loving everyone and being non-judgmental against those who are still in the Message. Being a Christian means being a disciple of Jesus Christ. It means knowing Jesus Christ and His Father (John 17:3), and learning as much about Him as His Word reveals. It means forsaking (not tolerating) false doctrine—especially the false teaching of the “Jesus” you learned about in the Message. It means striving with great passion to learn true Christian doctrine from God’s Word.
Don't believe others who say that Message believers are Christians that have been victimized by false teaching. Don't believe those who say they were Christians while they followed WMB's Message which is by definition a cult which follows a false view of Jesus Christ--an idol, as it were. Message believers willingly accepted the Message and it is their belief in the many serious false teachings that define the Message that separates Message believers from biblical Christianity. Their god tells them that our Triune God is a figment of Satan's imagination. No, Message believers are not deceived Christians. They are deceived people who are in rebellion against the true and living God and follow a kind of god that makes sense to them. They need Christ's salvation as much as anyone in any other unchristian cults such as the Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses. One does not leave the Message to "continue" a walk in Christ since they weren't really following the real Jesus to begin with. Following the Message is not just a lapse in good theology. It is a sign that one has not been born again.
Leaving the Message is a step in the right direction, but they still need to be born again by faith in the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. So how do you take that first step that leads to the forgiveness of your sins? How do you find new life in Christ?
- Repent of your sins, including having believed a false prophet, a false gospel, and a false Jesus (for more on William Branham's false view of Jesus, see Jesus According to William Branham).
- Believe in the true Jesus and His Gospel (see The Gospel).
- Believe in God’s only written source of Divine revelation, the Bible. It is God's own inspired, infallible and inerrant Word—listen to those God has given the Church “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:11-12).
- Find a good, Bible-believing church to attend. If you don't where to start, please contact me and I'll try to help.
If you would like help or have questions in any of these areas, please let me know and I will be happy to talk about these things with you. Please contact me at JohnK63@comcast.net, and in the “subject” box, include the word, “Ex-Message”. And please let me know how I can pray for you.
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