Three holy words
Q: Can you help me with the three holy words Bro Branham uses when healing as told him by the angel. He narrated in the message Experience. We searched for the quote you mentioned, and I must say it was very unique. William Branham often repeats ideas and stories in his messages, but it is very different to hear him say something out of the blue at the start of his ministry and never repeat it. In 1948 William Branham said:
Speaking in Tongues?Was William Branham referring to speaking in tongues?
William Branham's comment is extremely confusing as no one really knows what he is talking about, which then only proves the following scripture:
However, it does not appear that he is speaking in tounges as he states that these three words were "the three high words of the Bible". So what are the secret words?William Branham states that " No mortal on earth know it". So it appears that he is the only one on earth that knows these "secret" words. He also appears to indicate that if he doesn't say these secret words, people will not be healed. We had never heard of "high words" before reading this quote so we did some research and the results are very surprising. In 1945, a collection of ancient papyrus codices were found near Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt. The papyri are dated to the period between the 3rd and 5th century, AD, and contain in various degrees of preservation over 40 (mainly Gnostic) works, nearly all previously unknown. One of these documents, was the gnostic Gospel of Thomas, which professes to contain the ‘secret words’ spoken by Jesus to Judas Thomas and written down by St Matthias:
Another passage from the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas states the following:
This strange passage represents the type of secret knowledge that the Gnostic Jesus supposedly imparted to his disciples when he thought they were ready for it. According to Hippolytus, the heretics Basilides and his son Isidore claimed to have learned “secret words” from Matthias, which he had received in private teaching directly from the Savior. The Roman Catholic church also had "secret words" referred to by Martin Luther
What does this all mean?Isn't it completely out of character for Jesus to behave as outlined in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas? Jesus freely gave His wisdom to all who would listen and hoped that they in turn would pass on the lessons to others. Jesus states in John 18:20:
That seems pretty plain. Jesus did not teach secret words. In 1948, shortly after saying he would repeat three high words to initiate a healing, William Branham prays for a long line of people. The text (somewhat condensed) goes like this:
From these quotes, the only words that are repeated in prayer are "Father", "Lord", "Jesus"and "Christ". At the end of the day, William Branham was a man of a contrite and humble spirit, and full of charity. It is that love that gave his words (Angelic or English) an audience before God.
So what is William Branham referring to? Honestly, we don't have a clue. We have heard people claim that William Branham read gnostic texts and that some of his teachings came from gnostic sources but to date we couldn't see that being true. However, his statement about "three high words" provides support to those people claiming that he was exposed to and practiced gnostic teachings. This should make us all take a very close look at what he taught to ensur it matches with the Bible. Those teachings that do should be accepted, and those that do not (or are gnostic) should be rejected. ReferencesTozer, A. W. 1995. Of God and men (99). WingSpread: Camp Hill, PA Cross, F. L., & Livingstone, E. A. 2005. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed. rev.) (1136). Oxford University Press: Oxford; New York Daniels, J. B. 1992. Matthias, Traditions of. In D. N. Freedman (Ed.), The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (D. N. Freedman, Ed.). Vol. 4 (644). Doubleday: New York Luther, M. 1999. Luther's works, vol. 35: Word and Sacrament I (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Vol. 35 (90). Fortress Press: Philadelphia Guelich, R. A. 1998. Mark 1–8:26. Word Biblical Commentary. Vol. 34A (xxi). Word, Incorporated: Dallas LaHaye, T. 2009. Jesus. David C. Cook: Colorado Springs, CO |