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| | {{Allistair Francis}} |
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| On January 16, 2026, Allistair Francis, a message preacher in South Africa, published a YouTube video titled ''Discouraged by the Message and the Prophet: The Message on Trial''.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2doctzIpqvU</ref>
| | =PART I: The Initial Defence= |
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| The following is a critical analysis and point-by-point logical deconstruction of his arguments.
| | This article is a response to Allistair Francis' video - ''"Discouraged by the Message and the Prophet — The Message on Trial P1"''<ref>This document references the transcript of Allistair Francis's video "Discouraged by the Message and the Prophet — The Message on Trial P1," available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2doctzIpqvU . The trasncript is also available at the bottom of this article. Direct quotes are from the video audio transcription.</ref> |
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| =PART I: VIDEO SUMMARY=
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| ==Overview== | | ==Overview== |
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| =Video Transcript= | | =Video Transcript= |
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| [0:06] Amen. We'd like to greet you in the
| | Amen |
| [0:08] precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ
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| [0:10] once again and certainly thankful to be
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| [0:13] back here on Wednesday nights and um
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| [0:17] back to work and we appreciate the time
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| [0:20] that God gives us to share his word. So
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| [0:23] without much ado because I think we have
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| [0:25] quite a bit to get to. I would like to
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| [0:29] begin and um we are going to speak on uh
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| [0:36] discouraged with the prophet and the
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| [0:39] message. That's our subject as I spoke
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| [0:41] to you about on the group. Um that's
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| [0:44] what the focus is and I'm going to
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| [0:47] introduce that to you. And for a title,
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| [0:49] it's going to be the message on trial.
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| [0:54] Amen. So,
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| [0:56] in the past months, since August last
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| [0:59] year, I've been questioned by young
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| [1:02] people who feel confused about the
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| [1:05] message based on things they have heard
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| [1:08] online or seen. And uh parents of young
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| [1:13] people who are just not interested in
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| [1:15] coming to church anymore. and some who
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| [1:18] have denounced the message.
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| [1:21] And um the concern of these parents is
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| [1:24] that churches dismiss those who leave as
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| [1:31] they are never been seed to begin with
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| [1:34] and are soon forgotten. While the
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| [1:37] parents are pining for their children
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| [1:39] and uh suffer in silence,
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| [1:42] the questions are all based on things
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| [1:45] they have heard or watched from material
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| [1:50] produced by Believe the Sign or Seek the
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| [1:53] Truth. And these are just the two that
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| [1:56] I've heard of. And um some would say
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| [1:59] there are other videos or testimonies or
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| [2:03] uh scandals that have been posted online
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| [2:06] that are anti- William Branom, anti-
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| [2:08] message, anti- message churches.
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| [2:12] So most young people want to know the
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| [2:15] truth about these accusations and um
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| [2:19] just some of them just want a chance to
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| [2:22] argue. You get those everywhere. But
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| [2:25] most of those that I have heard that is
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| [2:27] the young people um genuinely want an
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| [2:30] answer to remove their confusion. One of
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| [2:34] the main concerns of the parents was
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| [2:39] what answers do message ministers have
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| [2:42] to the accusations that are made against
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| [2:45] the prophet.
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| [2:47] So, first I want to say I haven't taken
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| [2:51] the time like I would like to and and I
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| [2:54] wish I had the time to go to the website
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| [2:58] of Believe the Sign or Seek You the
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| [3:01] Truth and and look at all the material
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| [3:04] that they have to put out and try to
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| [3:07] refute some of the things. I just
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| [3:10] haven't and I haven't had the time and I
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| [3:14] all I've done is respond to things that
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| [3:17] young people or people have asked me
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| [3:20] about what was said and um I wish I had
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| [3:24] the time to uh go and see what they put
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| [3:28] out and you know uh along with scores of
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| [3:31] others who have left what they call the
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| [3:34] message you know um and I say it that
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| [3:36] way because I believe that a lot of
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| [3:40] people who left the message, they kind
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| [3:43] of left churches that claim to believe
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| [3:46] the message uh many have left it even
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| [3:50] being in good churches, but their their
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| [3:53] perception of of the message was
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| [3:55] actually wrong. So really what they left
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| [3:58] was branomism and not really the
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| [4:01] message. In my experience of speaking to
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| [4:04] these people and it's been quite a few
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| [4:08] uh or quite a lot rather saying it
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| [4:10] correctly is that they just don't know
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| [4:14] the message. Right? So I can only
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| [4:17] respond to things that are sent to me
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| [4:19] because I don't spend a lot of time
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| [4:22] online.
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| [4:24] Now, I've spent years responding to
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| [4:28] confused young people who brought me
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| [4:30] questions, but I was ignorant of where
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| [4:34] they were getting a lot of the stuff
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| [4:36] from until they told me of these two
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| [4:39] sources. And uh one young man emailed me
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| [4:43] an ebook a very long time ago which I
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| [4:47] read through but I had no idea that a
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| [4:49] website was made and all these things
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| [4:52] were were being posted and so I only
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| [4:56] became aware of these things as time
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| [4:59] went on but still did not have the
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| [5:01] desire to go in there and research
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| [5:04] everything. Um, so
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| [5:07] I still don't feel the need to uh and
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| [5:12] fortunately for for our church, I we've
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| [5:16] never had someone yet, you know, be
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| [5:19] discouraged by these websites to the
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| [5:22] point of leaving the message.
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| [5:24] And uh so maybe that's the reason I
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| [5:27] haven't had that feeling to do that.
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| [5:31] However, some of the material that is
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| [5:33] sent to me like in a clip or uh an
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| [5:37] excerpt
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| [5:39] um some of the material that I read
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| [5:41] which was sent that came from believe
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| [5:44] the sign I must say I agreed with
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| [5:49] some of the things they said I agreed
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| [5:51] with because it has always been my beef
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| [5:54] with message people who idolize brother
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| [5:57] Brandham and overspiritualized
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| [6:00] everything to the point of losing
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| [6:02] important parts of just being human. And
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| [6:06] my church knows and people who have
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| [6:09] heard me preach that I am the hardest on
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| [6:12] message people. I don't even speak
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| [6:14] against denominational people or other
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| [6:17] religions as much as I go against people
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| [6:21] in the message who I feel are stepping
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| [6:24] out of line or you you know abusing the
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| [6:27] message or uh promoting brandism instead
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| [6:30] of promoting what the word is. So um the
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| [6:35] people in our church can attest to that.
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| [6:38] So um that's been my beef over the years
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| [6:42] since um I started in the ministry and I
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| [6:46] haven't made many friends because of
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| [6:48] those things. And so um I I believe that
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| [6:53] to the point where people obsess over
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| [6:56] something till they lose the feeling of
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| [6:59] being human to one another. And the
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| [7:02] important aspects of just being a normal
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| [7:05] person has escaped them. And there were
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| [7:08] others in the message who to this day
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| [7:11] over sensationalize
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| [7:13] everything to the point of defeating the
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| [7:16] very ends of the core of the message
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| [7:20] even to the point of going against
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| [7:22] things that the prophet even said like
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| [7:25] that we should not do the way we should
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| [7:27] act things like that. So that being
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| [7:31] said, I didn't grow up in a church that
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| [7:33] obsessed about William Brandham and uh
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| [7:37] that uh you know,
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| [7:40] we didn't disrespect and cast aside
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| [7:43] denominational people. I didn't grow up
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| [7:46] under a ministry that spewed vitriol and
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| [7:49] hate toward others. We grew up in a
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| [7:53] community at peace with religions and
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| [7:55] churches. I'm I'm just saying this as a
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| [7:57] personal thing because maybe we were
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| [7:59] fortunate growing up in a small country
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| [8:01] town where we were known by everybody
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| [8:04] and we uh you know we were at peace with
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| [8:08] everybody. We we didn't spend our time
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| [8:10] going around and spewing hate towards
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| [8:12] people. We didn't care much for online
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| [8:15] presence and you know things like that.
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| [8:18] We we we didn't feel the need to be
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| [8:21] unpleasant to other people and our home
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| [8:24] would be filled with with message
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| [8:26] believers and Hindus and Muslims and
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| [8:28] denominational Christians. So I didn't
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| [8:32] grow up with the things that I'm hearing
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| [8:35] as accusations against me people. You
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| [8:38] can imagine why some of it was so
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| [8:40] confusing. And um our pastor, my dad,
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| [8:44] counseledled people of all kinds and was
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| [8:49] basically the pastor of the community,
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| [8:51] never even refusing help to any person
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| [8:54] who wasn't even in our church. um to the
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| [8:58] point where
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| [8:59] when uh he passed away, I think if it
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| [9:03] were not co time
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| [9:06] um the majority of people who would
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| [9:09] would have been at his funeral would
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| [9:11] have been people not even in our church.
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| [9:15] So I'm just giving you an example of
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| [9:17] where I came from and the reason why I'm
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| [9:19] going to respond the way I am going to
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| [9:22] in today's segment.
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| [9:24] So this is why it was confusing when I
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| [9:27] would visit other message churches in
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| [9:30] our travels where the legalism was so
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| [9:33] off the charts where I would see them
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| [9:37] wrap cloth or shaws around women who
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| [9:40] were inappropriate inappropriately
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| [9:42] dressed. Uh if they came to the doors of
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| [9:45] the church, the deacons wouldn't allow
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| [9:46] them in unless they were covered up. And
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| [9:49] this would just chase people away and
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| [9:52] they would people would be denied entry
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| [9:54] into the church service or in other
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| [9:56] places where gifts of the Holy Ghost was
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| [10:00] so totally out of control to the point
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| [10:02] of creating rampant unrighteousness for
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| [10:06] decades. And it's because they were
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| [10:08] trying to emulate
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| [10:10] um things that occurred on the tapes in
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| [10:13] the prophet's life. and they shouldn't
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| [10:15] have been trying to do that because that
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| [10:17] was his ministry and not ours. So I
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| [10:22] don't know the people who started
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| [10:24] believe the sign.
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