The Trail Of The Serpent

What you are about to read here is about the Serpent who began to interact with mankind in the Garden of Eden and what he is doing today. To be certain that you know who the Serpent was and is today, let me introduce him to you. This is nothing more or less than the devil incarnate, first taking over a beast in the Garden of Eden that God had created and today as an angel of light and the antichrist whose purpose in this day is to deceive mankind about the truth of God’s Word in the Bible. There is a long history about what the Serpent has done down through the ages since he introduced himself in the Garden, but we are going to skip all of those years and concentrate on his present and recent past exploits.

There is a lot of teaching that the antichrist is a certain man with supernatural power that is coming to take control of all the Nations in the World and perform many evil exploits in the end time, but that is not true and is not going to happen. The antichrist is nothing more than the devil in spiritual form who is taking over the churches by deceiving the church leaders into believing that their own private interpretations of scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit who they believe is leading them in their ministry.

Although all of the present day churches are being deceived and influenced by this antichrist spirit, we are going to examine just one church ministry that has evolved over the past almost one hundred years and has spread Worldwide causing believers everywhere to believe a false doctrine instead of God’s true word.

We are going to focus our attention on the Ministry of William Marrion Branham who started preaching in the 1930’s when he was about 21 years old. Even though the first major event in his ministry happened at this time, we will first examine something that occurred some thirteen years later and after that we’ll come back to the beginning with a clearer perspective of the whole picture.

William Branham testified that in May of 1946 he was visited by an angel that said he came from the presence of God. When this angel spoke to him he knew that was the same voice that he had heard speaking to him all his life, but this was the first time that he saw him as a man. I want you to hang on to that statement that he made, speaking of the same voice that he had always heard speaking to him, this is an important point. Well anyway, this angel told William Branham that he was being given a gift of divine healing. Now a gift of divine healing should mean that he could heal anyone he wanted to at anytime. But everyone who has followed his ministry should know that it didn’t happen that way. He couldn’t heal anyone. So the angel didn’t give him a gift of divine healing. If the angel actually came from the presence of God with a gift such as that, it would have worked every time that he wanted it to.

The second thing that the angel told William Branham was that he was being given two signs to help to get the people to believe him in order for them to be healed. The angel said that he was being given two signs just like Moses was given two signs to help him. But you see, that was not true. The angel was wrong because Moses was given three signs, not two. Now if this angel had come from God he wouldn’t have got that wrong. So the angel was wrong on both counts. He didn’t give him a gift of divine healing and he was wrong on the number of signs that Moses was given. Because of this I have to conclude that this angel didn’t come from the presence of God. Now there are two kinds of angels. God has his angels and the devil has his angels. So what do you think?

Remember that William Branham made the comment that he had heard that same voice speaking to him all his life. He started hearing that same voice when he was just a small lad. That voice told him then that he had a work for him to do when he got older. That same voice would speak to him in the woods later on in his life when he was told that Jehovah of the Old Testament was Jesus of the New Testament. This was in contradiction to scripture which states that Jesus was the Son of God and not God himself. Do you now see how that lying Serpent was moving down through time starting when William Branham was a small child and continued to tell him things throughout his ministry.

One other thing this angel told William Branham was that he would be with him as he ministered to the people. And for certain, the angel had to be present because William Branham’s ministry could not succeed without him. Many times in his services, William Branham said that he could do nothing unless the angel was present. He said if the angel didn’t show up, he might as well just dismiss the people and go home. You see, it was this angel that did the work of telling William Branham the intimate secrets and what knowledge Branham needed to know in order to get the people to believe in his ministry of healing. Don’t believe this? You can read all about it in the transcripts of his services. Like I told you before, the devil alias the serpent has the power to do many things including giving William Branham certain knowledge about things that were to take place making it appear that William Branham was prophesying about things.

So as you can see, if you really want to know the truth, that William Branham had no spiritual gifts other than the ability to hear the things this angel of the devil told him. So you ask, why did this all happen if you are really telling the truth? I’ll tell you why. This was all the plan of the devil, to build William Branham up to the point where the people would believe everything that he said and cause his false interpretations of scripture to be accepted. Thus causing everyone to disbelieve God’s word which is the entire plan of the devil from the very beginning.

Of course I will admit that healings did take place, but not because William Branham had any gift of healing. Healings took place during his meetings only because God honored the individual faith of the people and provided the healing of their bodies that can only be done by God Himself. Way too much emphasis has always been put on these healing services. Why is that? I’ll tell you why. Even if a person receives the healing of their body, it is only good for a short time and they will still die when their time comes. The healing is only something to draw a person to God’s Word and to eternal life if they believe His Word. In the case of William Branham’s ministry, obviously which was not God ordained, the healings and the prophecies and the signs and wonders were the devil’s method to drew the people to believing the false bible interpretations taught from the pulpit when William Branham spoke. Do you now see the trail of the Serpent?

Going back to when the angel visited William Branham, there was something else that the angel told him. The angel said that it was necessary for the people to believe him in order for them to receive their healing. He also said that if the individuals didn’t receive their healing then he should just pray for them and walk away. Does this sound like someone having a gift of healing ordained by God? I don’t think so. Well, it became very plain that William Branham did everything that he could think of in order to get the people to believe him. He obviously believed that the end would justify the means, but I can’t believe that was in the plan of God. Deceiving tactics to obtain an end result is not the way almighty God would approve of.

I saw many, many times in the beginning of his healing services, before the angel showed up, that William Branham would refer to the picture of himself with the light above his head in order to convince the people that he was what he was promoted to be, a man with a gift of healing. Then when his angel did show up he would immediately make the statement that he was taking control of everyone’s spirit that was there. Since when does a man need to take control of a person’s spirit? This doesn’t sound like the way God would operate and it isn’t. But it does sound like something a spiritualist or an evil spirit would operate. Do you really think that it would be necessary for God to take control of a person’s spirit in order to heal a person’s body?

Now we will turn back to an event that happened near the start of William Branham’s ministry. In June of 1933 after having a successful tent meeting in Jeffersonville, William Branham was baptizing new converts in the Ohio River when a strange thing happened. According to William Branham, a bright light came down from above the baptismal scene and William Branham said that he heard a voice speaking to him from above. He said that he heard the voice tell him that just as John the Baptist was the forerunner of the first coming of Jesus, his message would forerun His second coming. Here was the first mention about William Branham’s message that would be the theme for his followers for all the years of his ministry. For this to be such a notable event, according to my investigation William Branham never mentioned this in public until some 19 years later. Well it turned out that this so called message of his has been adopted by those who have followed his ministry as being everything that he preached about. This was the beginning of the deception planned by the devil that he had groomed William Branham for since he was a young boy when he first spoke to him. Over 1200 sermons that this man preached over his lifetime that culminated in interpreting the scriptures to mean something other than what was written.

Throughout his ministry William Branham had been promoted to be associated with many bible characters and events in order to establish his authenticity as a God sent prophet, teacher and healer. He was associated with Moses in regard to the supernatural signs he was supposedly given, with his name change to a last name with seven letters in it, which was untrue, with the prophet Elijah, the messenger to the seventh church age and many other things, all of which was designed by the voice of the angel which led him all the way. The same angel which had spoken to him all his life.

But the devil needed just one more thing to insure that his legacy as a prophet healer would remain long after he would die and provide the incentive for future generations to accept his teaching as the true interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. So during a meeting in Houston Texas in 1950 a photographer developed some pictures that were taken during the meeting and found that one picture on his roll of film was of William Branham with a light over his head like a halo. Now I’m certain that God could have caused that to happen and even caused the light to appear above his head in the presence of all who were in the auditorium, but I don’t believe that anyone witnessed it. One thing that I do believe because of all that has become apparent to me is that it certainly served the devil by giving the people something for them to idolize and that certainly doesn’t serve God’s purpose.

Now this title that I have given to this article “The Trail of the Serpent” was the title of a message that William Branham had intended to give when he returned to Jeffersonville. Unfortunately he didn’t quite make it. It was said that this message he intended to preach was to expose some things that were wrong in his ministry and its organization. I believe that he had recognized the same trail of the serpent that I have described. I also believe that the devil didn’t want him to preach that message and arranged for that drunk driver to be on the road that had a head-on collision with him. Well no matter why it happened, it didn’t prevent the serpent from continuing on in his mission to try and pervert the truth of God’s Word because it is continuing on even today. Now the torch has been passed on to William Branham’s sons who are diligently spreading the false teaching of their father to those parts of the World where the people are more gullible and accepting because of the signs they are told about. One thing that I am certain of is that God is certainly not pleased with the fact of the Branham family promoting this false bible teaching as “the Voice of God”. So that should certainly make the devil to be pleased that they are accepting this false doctrine as “the Voice of God”.

God’s people need to open their eyes to the fact that “signs” mean nothing unless they are followed by sound, true bible teaching just as it is written. It is written in scripture that even the devil can produce signs and wonders for the purpose of deceiving the people into believing a lie. Our only standard must be the written Word of God. That is why God inspired the Holy men of past times to write the scriptures for us to read and believe and not for some man to interpret for us.

It is my honest belief that William Branham was an honorable God fearing man who was truly trying to do his best to serve God, but he was no match for the devil who set out to deceive him for all of his life. If Brother Branham would have just opened his eyes to the false things this angel of the serpent was telling him, things that were not true according to the scriptures, his ministry could have passed the scrutiny it has faced for all of these years and would have been pure and without spot or blemish.

The trail of the serpent has traveled from the Garden of Eden to the “Voice of God Publications” in Jeffersonville and because of the efforts of Brother Branham’s sons, they have enabled the devil to publish his lies around the World.

My prayer to God has been for a number of years to not be passive in nature and allow me to write what I have written, but to be very active and stop me in whatever way He would if what I am writing is not true. When I started this article, I pleaded with God to prevent my publishing of it if it was not completely true because it was my wish that I would not be permitted to bring any harm to His Kingdom. So it must conclude that God is pleased with the work I have done and all that I have presented is the truth. If it wasn’t the truth, does anyone really believe that God would permit me to say what I have said and allow me to cause a reproach on those that I write about? I for one do not believe that Almighty God, the Creator of the Universe who has the power to do anything He wills would allow me to without stopping me. So it must conclude that God is pleased with my work and what I have said is the complete and honest truth.

Now in regard to all the churches who are guilty of allowing the people to be subjected to false teaching of bible doctrine and the “Voice of God Recordings” who are misleading all of those who regard William Branham as a Prophet Healer and his teachings as being a true revelation of God’s Word, they will all fall and be laid waste when the Day of the Lord arrives at the time of the end.

The following is a brief summary of why I have concluded that the devil, the same serpent that appeared to the woman in the Garden of Eden has planned and executed his work in Brother Branham’s ministry for the purpose of deceiving God’s people to believe something other than the truth of the Holy Scriptures.

1.    The result in the end was that God’s people have been taught that William Branham’s interpretation of scripture, which was in violation of scripture, has been revealed to him by God for those who are elected to receive it.

2.    The angel that visited Brother Branham in 1946 told him that he came from the presence of God, but lied to him about being given a gift of healing and being given two signs just as Moses was given two signs in his ministry.

3.    The angel visitor impressed upon him that he must get the people to believe him in order for his ministry to be successful. Because of this mandate he did everything he could to accomplish this by allowing the people to believe he was a prophet and the fulfillment of many bible prophecies.

4.    He believed and fashioned his teaching on the premise that he was the fulfillment of the return of Elijah because of the testimony of his wife who said that was shown to her by God.

5.    He admitted that he was unable to minister to the people in the meetings unless the angel was present to anoint him.

6.    He depended upon the angel to teach him the meaning of scripture including the revelation of the Seals. Both of these things were against scripture. According to scripture it is the Holy Spirit who is to be our teacher and the opening of the seals is written to be by Christ and in Heaven, not on the Earth.

7.    He believed the voice of the angel when he was told that Jesus was God which is in opposition to the testimony of Jesus in scripture.

8.    Then there were a lot of misleading things that he said during his services in order to comply with what the angel said about the necessity of getting the people to believe him. One was when he would ask the people before prayer for them, he would say: “do you to believe me to be God’s prophet”, knowing this was wrong he would immediately follow with: “I mean God’s servant”. Then he would ask the people a question saying: ‘ have I ever said anything in the name of the Lord that didn’t come to pass?” Now you know that no one is going to contradict him during the service, so all you would hear was amen’s. The record shows that there were many things that he said in the name of the Lord that did not come to pass.

9.    Then one of the worst things that he did was to meet with some men in a motel room the day after preaching his message on the seventh seal for the purpose of changing a part of the message he had preached so what he said would not get out to the masses of people. I wonder if the angel spoke to him and advised him to do that?

 

Well, that is enough of that because I believe that you should get the picture by now that our Brother was being used and probably believed that it was by an angel of God. I believe with all my heart that Brother Branham was convinced that he was doing God’s will through all of this and that an angel of God was with him. His Worldwide ministry and the effect of it on so many people was absolutely extraordinary because of the signs that followed. This ministry could only have been what it was because of a supernatural power behind it, but since it consisted of teaching that deviated from bible scripture, it had to have been a power other than God, because God would not contradict His own word.

 

The trail of the serpent has traveled down through the ages and has corrupted all of the churches along the way by making men think they are smarter than God. The only way to put a stop to his deception of mankind is to flee from the false teaching of man’s interpretation of scripture and let the Holy Spirit reveal the truth of His Word to you just as it was written in the Bible by God’s Prophets and the Apostles of Christ.

 

A Footnote

I felt a need to include these additional comments relating to what I have written just to state to the reader that I have not written this article for my own benefit. I have agonized over the posting of this for some time because I wanted to be certain that what I have written is the truth and not some theory that I have developed on my own. I made a vow to the Lord that I would not post this unless I was certain of the truth of it and asked God to do one of two things so that I could be sure of its veracity.

So I begged the Lord to prevent my posting of this article by whatever means He desired and keep me from doing harm to Himself, Brother Branham or God’s people. I also vowed to Him that I would not post this without receiving some kind of vindication of the truthfulness of what I have written and assurance that it was His perfect will for me to publish it.

From this point on I will refrain to call this entity that visited Brother Branham an angel and give him any credibility by doing so and will in the future refer to him as the messenger of satan which is what he was. Now with all respect to our Heavenly Father, I call on God to rid this World of all things that are contributing to the deceiving of His people including the picture, the Voice of God Recordings and all other things that the devil is using to cause harm to true believers who are being fed with the rotten manna of false doctrine instead of His true Word.

 

Written by Ron Cox of Jeffersonville, Indiana

The Bibleman

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