The Doctrine of the Seven Church Ages

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William Branham preached a series of meetings that went from Sunday morning, December 4 to Sunday evening, December 11, 1960 in which he outlined his teaching on the seven church ages. This sermon series was later transcribed and edited by Lee Vayle and pubulhed in book form, An Exposition of the Seven church Ages, shortly after William Branham's death.

A Jehovah's Witness Doctrine?

The preface to the book, "The Finished Mystery", published by the International Bible Students Association and said to be the posthumous work of Charles Taze Russell, states the following:

Through St. John the Lord Jesus revealed the fact that the Church would be developed during seven distinct periods, or epochs; and that for each of these epochs Ho would have a special angel, or messenger, to serve the other members of the Body. It follows, then, that the messenger to the last, or Laodicean, epoch would declare the Presence of the Lord and the time of the Harvest of the Gospel Age. The great Master laid special emphasis on the importance of the messenger to the seventh, or Laodicean, period of the Church, saying that such an one would be "a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord would make ruler over all His Household, to give them meat in due season."

Those consecrated Christians who have read and fully appreciated the Truth as contained in the preceding six volumes of STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES readily sea and agree that Charles Taze Russell was the messenger of the Church of Laodicea. In the mind of every one who believes the Bible the evidence set forth in this volume will establish that fact beyond the question of a doubt.

Quotes of William Branham

And if that Angel of the Lord, that Light, didn’t come right in before three hundred people, moved Itself right over on the wall, and drawed with that round Light (just the way I drawed the churches), and showed exactly the same depths and everything, as it went through; while three hundred people screaming, and crying, and looking at It on the side of the wall. Why, It stood out here, and reflected Itself on the wall and made that same thing.

And we took each church age, each time, each thing that happened, each star, each messenger, their nature, what they done, and brought it right down through history until the very last one, drawed right there on the picture, on the side of the wall. And when we got finished, the Holy Spirit come in and made a circle of the same thing on the wall, and revealed it by Himself right here to all of us.

And, by the way, has anybody ever heard them tapes on the church ages? On the last time I had those ages drawed out there on the blackboard, and the Heavenly Father knows this is true, when I completed it with the best I could, under the inspiration that God would give me, that Angel of the Lord that you see in the picture (many have seen that picture, haven’t you, that Light?), It came right down in the room, before about three hundred or four hundred people, went right over on the side of the wall (as a Light like that) and drawed those church ages by Itself. We all stood there looking at It, watched It draw the first church age, the second, third, and fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh.

Now, there’s people sitting here that’s a witness of that. Raise up your hand if that’s so. The Bible said, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses.”

Everyone sitting there, screaming and everything else, I said, “There! Now, you’ve wanted to see It, everybody can look right at It.” Eleven o’clock in the day, standing right there on the wall, and drawed off those church ages, just which much Spirit, and then the darkness to show that the Spirit was smothered out and went through the Dark Age and come right back down again, just the way I had it drawed. And we got it, pictures of it, and everything drawed, hanging on the wall. And there it was just exactly. It must have been that the Spirit of the Lord was satisfied that that was completed, ’cause He come back and vindicated that that was right.

Now, last evening, as we always like, in teaching on the—on the Seals, we teach it the same way you do on the—on the—the church ages. And when we got finished with teaching the church age, the last time when I drawed them out here on the—on the pulpit, on a board, how many remembers what took place? He came right down, went right back on the wall, in a Light, and drawed it off, Himself, right there on the wall, before us all. The Angel of the Lord stood right here before several hundred people.

Did any of you see the paper where they took the pictures of the moon? I have it here. If it ain’t a perfect image, leaving out the seventh age which is not yet, exactly the way I drawed by the Holy Spirit, the Church Ages. There’s the six of them, the seventh is not finished yet. The six conditions of the moon, how in its brightness in the first church age; dark in the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth; just the way the Holy Spirit let me draw them on the board, and then identified them with Hisself on the wall of the tabernacle, two years ago. The moon reflects itself, and science again picks up the picture of the, Church Ages, just as they picked up that Light yonder and put it in Life Magazine, of the opening of the Seals, of the revealing in the age of the seventh angel. In the days of his ministry, the seventh messenger, the mysteries of God, which all the mysteries has been along the ages, should be revealed, made manifest, it should be at that time. And He did it! His words don’t fail. Isn’t that a mysterious thing? God drawing in the heavens the same thing that they hold, same God let me draw on the blackboard, and then by Himself. That’s three times He’s perfectly identified it, and just before the pope goes into Jerusalem.

You have astounding picture there, tonight, that’s going in that book, of three years, how the Lord has let me draw it out on a blackboard, and show just how the Church Ages would fail, and when and how they would go up-and-down. And as soon as that was finished, that great Angel of the Lord, that Light, before practically as many people sitting here, come right on the side of the wall, standing there. And people fainting. And drawed it right out, with Itself, on the wall. Three years later, the moon darkened and went right out, just exactly, in the day…just before the pope, first pope, went to Rome.

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