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William Branham and False Doctrine: Difference between revisions
→Characteristics of False Doctrine
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Consider the ingredients in rat poison. When you read the label on a package of rat poison, it reveals that less than 1% is poison, and the more than 99% is tasty, nutritious food for the rat. However that 1% is enough poison to kill the rat if he eats it for a short period of time. Most of the rat killing food must be real food and appealing to the rat in order to get him to accept and eat the part that is poison. | Consider the ingredients in rat poison. When you read the label on a package of rat poison, it reveals that less than 1% is poison, and the more than 99% is tasty, nutritious food for the rat. However that 1% is enough poison to kill the rat if he eats it for a short period of time. Most of the rat killing food must be real food and appealing to the rat in order to get him to accept and eat the part that is poison. | ||
False doctrine must have enough biblical truth to sound biblical in order to entice a Christian to accept the false part. It can be 99% accurate Biblical truth, but the one percent false can be enough to kill the spiritual life of the person who believes it and begins to practice it. | False doctrine must have enough biblical truth to sound biblical in order to entice a Christian to accept the false part. It can be 99% accurate Biblical truth, but the one percent false can be enough to kill the spiritual life of the person who believes it and begins to practice it. | ||
False doctrine is: | |||
#Plausible. If false doctrines didn't hold together at all, they would never be accepted. | |||
#Based on scripture. No one would follow a false doctrine, if it didn't have some basis in the Bible. The problem is that false doctrine is only partly correct, it is not wholly correct. | |||
#Divisive, creating disunity. <ref>R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Paul’s First and Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1963), 752.</ref> | |||
#Self-centred and self-serving. False teachers boast much about love to God, but they wholly fail under the test of love to men.<ref>Robert Tuck, I & II Peter, I, II & III John, Jude, Revelation, The Preacher’s Complete Homiletic Commentary (New York; London; Toronto: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1892), 315.</ref> | |||
#usually reductionist in nature. The greatest heresies do not come about by straightforward denial. They happen when an element which may even be important, but isn’t central, looms so large that people can’t help talking about it, fixating on it, debating different views of it as though this were the only thing that mattered. They mistake part of the truth for the whole truth.<ref>Tom Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part 2: Chapters 13-28 (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2008), 137–138.</ref> | |||
::Reductionism leads to a preoccupation with one thing — the monomaniac or fanatic is the result. The fanatic is a person with little empathy, humility, or humanity. Consider the suicide bombers of our day as the exemplary fanatics. Such people are “radicalized” by over-focusing on a reductionist Jihadist ideology by which all else is subsequently measured. They become radical sectarians, losing all meaningful relationship and perspective. <ref>Hirsch, Alan; Nelson, Mark. Reframation: Seeing God, People, and Mission Through Reenchanted Frames (pp. 49-50). 100 Movements Publishing. Kindle Edition.</ref> | |||
:''May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, superficial relationships, so that you will live deep within your heart. (Author Unknown)<ref>Ken Gnanakan, Biblical Ethics: Ecological Responsibility (Bangalore, India: Theological Book Trust, 2004), 102.</ref> | |||
=William Branham’s message as an example= | =William Branham’s message as an example= | ||
Message preachers may seem to teach the same as an evangelical would on being born again, baptized in water, living a sanctified life, second coming of Christ, and the resurrection of the dead. They believe they are a successor to the Pentecostal Movement in early 1900s, so they include the baptism of the Holy Spirit in their teaching. | Message preachers may seem to teach the same as an evangelical would on being born again, baptized in water, living a sanctified life, second coming of Christ, and the resurrection of the dead. They believe they are a successor to the Pentecostal Movement in early 1900s, so they include the baptism of the Holy Spirit in their teaching. | ||
But they add | But they add false teaching; that believing that William Branham is the messenger to the last church age is essential for being in the “Bride of Christ” and that accepting the “message of the hour” is the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. After believing and following this doctrine for a while, believers of William Branham’s message start trusting in their belief in William Branham as their guarantee of heaven instead of whatever amount of Biblical truth is included with the false teaching. Jesus no longer becomes the central truth and salvation but the belief that “God sent a prophet”. | ||
False teachings can also be compared to counterfeit money. It has to look and feel like the real government printed money in order for people to accept it as real money. The counterfeit is made up of the same things as the real—a certain type of paper, colors and designs, etc. It looks and feels so much like the real that it takes those trained to recognize the counterfeit to realize that it is not genuine. There can be no counterfeit unless there is the real in existence. For example, no one would accept a thirteen dollar bill because there is no government produced thirteen dollar bills. There cannot be false Christ’s unless there is a real Christ, false prophets unless there are real prophets alive and active in the world. | False teachings can also be compared to counterfeit money. It has to look and feel like the real government printed money in order for people to accept it as real money. The counterfeit is made up of the same things as the real—a certain type of paper, colors and designs, etc. It looks and feels so much like the real thing that it takes those trained to recognize the counterfeit to realize that it is not genuine. There can be no counterfeit unless there is the real in existence. For example, no one would accept a thirteen dollar bill because there is no government produced thirteen dollar bills. There cannot be false Christ’s unless there is a real Christ, false prophets unless there are real prophets alive and active in the world. | ||
How many errors does it take on a counterfeit bill to make a bill fake? How many “message” doctrines have to be | How many errors does it take on a counterfeit bill to make a bill fake? How many non-biblical “message” doctrines have to be added to the Bible to make it a cult? | ||
Jesus told His disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees … then the apostles understood that Jesus was talking about their doctrine.” Mt. 16:6–12. Jesus used the illustration of leaven (yeast) to show how one false doctrine can affect the whole of the rest of the doctrines of a person, local church or denomination. It only takes a minute amount of yeast to permeate an entire loaf of bread. | Jesus told His disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees … then the apostles understood that Jesus was talking about their doctrine.” Mt. 16:6–12. Jesus used the illustration of leaven (yeast) to show how one false doctrine can affect the whole of the rest of the doctrines of a person, local church or denomination. It only takes a minute amount of yeast to permeate an entire loaf of bread. | ||
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We can see from all of these scriptures that one sin or one false doctrine can affect the whole assembly just as Achan’s one sin affected the whole nation of Israel. | We can see from all of these scriptures that one sin or one false doctrine can affect the whole assembly just as Achan’s one sin affected the whole nation of Israel. | ||
The spirit of error in a church is like the minute amount of yeast that invades the dough for the loaf of bread. It is like the cancer cell undetected and unchecked that brings death to the rest of the members of the body.<ref> Bill Hamon, How Can These Things Be?: A Preacher and a Miracle Worker but Denied Heaven!, (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image® Publishers, Inc., 2014), 169–170.</ref> | The spirit of error in a church is like the minute amount of yeast that invades the dough for the loaf of bread. It is like the cancer cell undetected and unchecked that brings death to the rest of the members of the body.<ref>This section was based on Bill Hamon, How Can These Things Be?: A Preacher and a Miracle Worker but Denied Heaven!, (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image® Publishers, Inc., 2014), 169–170.</ref> | ||
=Strange doctrine and false doctrine= | =Strange doctrine and false doctrine= | ||