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Theological Trespassing: Difference between revisions

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William Branham believed that he was commissioned to reveal mysteries that had been hidden by God.  But what does the Bible say about revealing the mysteries of God?
William Branham believed that he was commissioned to reveal mysteries that had been hidden by God.  But what does the Bible say about revealing the mysteries of God?
Or did William Branham ignore the big "No Tresapassing" sign that God put up on certain mysteries?


==What the Bible says==
==What the Bible says==
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:''The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Dt 29:29.</ref>
:''The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Dt 29:29.</ref>


We are cautioned in such inquiry by an important distinction between the “secret things” and the “revealed things.” '''We must leave some things alone''', as belonging to God, and put our primary attention to the task of doing “all the words of this Torah,” which are revealed “to us and to our children” in plain language. God has revealed the things that are beneficial to us; and our attention should focus on these discoveries, and end with them.
This seems to be a caution against inquiring into the “secret things”.  We should stick to the “revealed things and leaving other things alone as belonging to God. God has revealed the things that are beneficial to us; and our attention should focus on these discoveries, and end with them.


Thomas Scott said this in 1823:
Thomas Scott said this in 1823:


:''Almost all the heresies and controversies, which have corrupted the purity, or disturbed the peace of the church in every age, have originated from disregard to this distinction; from vain attempts, by human reasonings and authority, to fill up supposed chasms in revelation, and to make it more apparently consistent and systematical, than it has pleased God to make it; from deducing disputable consequences from revelation; or from tracing back its sacred mysteries to some unrevealed antecedent causes.<ref>Scott, T. The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments. 5 vols. Boston: Samuel T. Armstrong, 1823. 1:488–585.</ref>
:'''''Almost all the heresies and controversies''', which have corrupted the purity, or disturbed the peace of the church in every age, have originated from disregard to this distinction; from vain attempts, by human reasonings and authority, to fill up supposed chasms in revelation, and to make it more apparently consistent and systematical, than it has pleased God to make it; from deducing disputable consequences from revelation; or from tracing back its sacred mysteries to some unrevealed antecedent causes.<ref>Scott, T. The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments. 5 vols. Boston: Samuel T. Armstrong, 1823. 1:488–585.</ref>


Duane Christensen commented on this passage as follows:
Duane Christensen commented on this passage as follows: