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Taking a person out from under the blood: Difference between revisions
Taking a person out from under the blood (view source)
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Some message churches are known to "take people out from under the blood" if they have left the church or have done something that warrants excommunication. We have been asked whether this practice has any basis in scripture. | Some message churches are known to "take people out from under the blood" if they have left the church or have done something that warrants excommunication. We have been asked whether this practice has any basis in scripture. | ||
=Is this scriptural?= | |||
The phrase "under the blood" is found nowhere in the Bible. We believe it is a general reference to the blood of the Passover Lamb in Exodus 12:23: | |||
:''When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. <ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Ex 12:23.</ref> | |||
Those that participated in the Passover were "under the blood", so to speak, and were therefore protected from death. | |||
In the New Testament, "sprinkling by his blood" reflects the language of Numbers 19 and the red heifer purification rites (Exod. 24:4–8; Heb. 9:13–21; 10:22, 29). For Christians, the blood of Christ on the cross covers our sins and brings us salvation.<ref>David Walls and Max Anders, I & II Peter, I, II & III John, Jude, vol. 11, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 7.</ref> | |||
There is no passage in the New Testament that talks about taking a person out from under the blood, and so we must conclude that the concept is not Biblical. | |||
=So what are they talking about?= | |||
William Branham equated being "born again" with being "under the blood". But he also went beyond that when he stated: | |||
:''Believers stays under the Blood.''' That's right. It's the only place to stay of safety. <ref>William Branham, 62-0728 - God Has A Provided Way, para. 48</ref> | |||
This seems to infer that a Christian could take themselves "out from under the blood" which also has no basis in scripture. | |||
William Branham also stated that being under the blood required a person to be in William Branham's message: | |||
:''We are come together to get in the Message.''' And the Message is Christ, He is the Word. That's right. We're to get into It, get beneath It. Yes, sir. That's what we're supposed to do. '''He was not responsible for any persons out from under the blood...''' | |||
This is clearly false teaching. When we are "sprinkled by the blood", the Bible is referring to the blood of Christ. | |||
==The Bible as an idol== | |||
William Branham stated that the Bible was "''God in print form. You're no more than your word. God is no more than His Word.''"<ref>William Branham, 64-0318 - Sir, We Would See Jesus, para. 16</ref>. He also referred to it as "''the dripping, Bloody Word... the Word of God bleeding Blood.''"<ref>William Branham, 65-1205 - Things That Are To Be, para. 62</ref> | |||
But this is an incorrect view of the Bible. What does the Bible say about itself? | |||
:1 Tim. 3:16-17 - ''All Scripture is God-breathed and is '''useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,''' so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.''</ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 2 Ti 3:16–17. | |||
:1 Cor. 2:13 - ''This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.<ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 1 Co 2:13.</ref> | |||
:Rom. 15:4 - ''For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide '''we might have hope'''.<ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Ro 15:4.</ref> | |||
"Bibliolatry", literally means making the Bible an idol. Many argue that bibliolatry takes place whenever faith in the Bible is placed over faith in Christ.<ref>Gregory A. Boyd and Paul R. Eddy, Across the Spectrum: Understanding Issues in Evangelical Theology, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009), 328.</ref> | |||
Charles Spurgeon acknowledged this when he said: | |||
:''...you can make an idol of your Bible by using the mere words as a substitute for God’s voice to you. The book is to help you to remember God, but if you stick in the mere letter, and get not to God at all, you misuse the sacred word.<ref>C. H. Spurgeon, “The Fair Portrait of a Saint,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 26 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1880), 154.</ref> | |||
We may make the house of God an idol temple. We may make the Bible itself a mere idol. We may dispossess the heart of love by almost welcoming the spirit of fear.<ref>Joseph Parker, The People’s Bible: Discourses upon Holy Scripture, Joshua–Judges 5, vol. V (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, Publishers, 1887), 188.</ref> And the message of William Branham is filled with fear. | |||
William Branham's view of the Bible was not correct. When the Bible says in John 1:1 that "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God<ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Jn 1:1.</ref>," it is not stating that the Bible was in the beginning. | |||
You cannot limit God to what he has revealed to us about himself in the Bible. | |||
The Bible did not bleed for me. Jesus did. The Bible is not "God in print" but it is the revelation to me of who God is. | |||
=Biblical references= | =Biblical references= | ||
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==What do these passages mean?== | ==What do these passages mean?== | ||
Gordon Fee states the following: | Gordon Fee states the following in respect of 1 Cor. 5:5: | ||
:Most likely, the language means to turn the person back out into Satan’s sphere. In contrast to the gathered community of believers who experience the Spirit and power of the Lord Jesus in edifying gifts and loving concern for one another, this man is to be put back out into the world, where Satan and his “principalities and powers” still hold sway over people’s lives to destroy them. | :Most likely, the language means to turn the person back out into Satan’s sphere. In contrast to the gathered community of believers who experience the Spirit and power of the Lord Jesus in edifying gifts and loving concern for one another, this man is to be put back out into the world, where Satan and his “principalities and powers” still hold sway over people’s lives to destroy them. | ||
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''I don't believe in this here Baptist teaching of—of Eternal security. I believe it in a way, but '''I believe you're secure as long as you're in the Church'''. '''But you get out of the… out from under the Blood of Jesus Christ, you're not secure.''' I'm secure from the rain as long as I'm in here.<ref>William Branham, 63-0116 - The Evening Messenger, para. 234</ref> | ''I don't believe in this here Baptist teaching of—of Eternal security. I believe it in a way, but '''I believe you're secure as long as you're in the Church'''. '''But you get out of the… out from under the Blood of Jesus Christ, you're not secure.''' I'm secure from the rain as long as I'm in here.<ref>William Branham, 63-0116 - The Evening Messenger, para. 234</ref> | ||
''And you wait, if the Lord willing, tomorrow night, I want to show you a mystery that's been going all the time right here in this meeting. I doubt very much whether you've ever seen it or not (See?), what's—what's took place. It's been something that's laid right here before you, and I've watched each night for us—for it to rise, or somebody to say, "I see it." See? Don't turn it away, please. I ask you if you're not a Christian, if you're—you're not under the Blood, if you're not borned again, filled with the Holy Spirit, if you've never made a public confession of—of Jesus Christ by being baptized in His Name to witness His death, burial, and resurrection, that you have accepted, the water's ready. <ref>William Branham, 63-0323 - The Sixth Seal, para. 373</ref> | ''And you wait, if the Lord willing, tomorrow night, I want to show you a mystery that's been going all the time right here in this meeting. I doubt very much whether you've ever seen it or not (See?), what's—what's took place. It's been something that's laid right here before you, and I've watched each night for us—for it to rise, or somebody to say, "I see it." See? Don't turn it away, please. I ask you if you're not a Christian, '''if you're—you're not under the Blood, if you're not borned again''', filled with the Holy Spirit, if you've never made a public confession of—of Jesus Christ by being baptized in His Name to witness His death, burial, and resurrection, that you have accepted, the water's ready. <ref>William Branham, 63-0323 - The Sixth Seal, para. 373</ref> | ||
'''''We're not to come together to talk about the Message. We are come together to get in the Message.''' And the Message is Christ, He is the Word. That's right. We're to get into It, get beneath It. Yes, sir. That's what we're supposed to do. '''He was not responsible for any persons out from under the blood''', not one; no matter who he was, he was not responsible. All had to take not only himself, but his whole family. They're only safe when the—the token was displayed. <ref>William Branham, 63-1128E - The Token, para. 119-120</ref> | '''''We're not to come together to talk about the Message. We are come together to get in the Message.''' And the Message is Christ, He is the Word. That's right. We're to get into It, get beneath It. Yes, sir. That's what we're supposed to do. '''He was not responsible for any persons out from under the blood''', not one; no matter who he was, he was not responsible. All had to take not only himself, but his whole family. They're only safe when the—the token was displayed. <ref>William Branham, 63-1128E - The Token, para. 119-120</ref> | ||
''Now, we know that, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." Therefore, God and His Word is the selfsame thing. It's '''God in print form'''. You're no more than your word. God is no more than His Word.<ref>William Branham, 64-0318 - Sir, We Would See Jesus, para. 16</ref> | |||
''Because, you have to stand and be married to a perfect Son of God, and you must be a perfect Bride. So how can you do it through anything else but the perfect Word of God, which is, "The Waters of separation, that washes us from our sins"? Amen. That's right. The Blood of Jesus Christ, think of It, the dripping, '''Bloody Word'''. Amen. The Blood, the—'''the Word of God bleeding Blood''', to wash the Bride in. Amen. Yes, sir. She stands perfect, virgin, unadulterated. She never sinned, in the first place. Amen. She was trapped into it. See?<ref>William Branham, 65-1205 - Things That Are To Be, para. 62</ref> | |||