Seven Seals
Links to other articles in the series
This article is one in a series of studies on the Seven Seals - you are currently on the topic that is in bold:
- Introduction
- First Seal
- Second Seal
- Third Seal
- Fourth Seal
- Fifth Seal
- Sixth Seal
- Seventh Seal
- Videos
- An Analysis of William Branham's Plagiarism
| And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. (Revelation 5:1) |
William Branham preached a series of sermons in March 1963 on the Seven Seals of the book of Revelation. He had told his congregation on December 23, 1962 of a major vision that was coming. In his sermon on the Seventh Seal, he tells the story of how this vision was fulfilled while hunting in Arizona, and how he received an angelic commission to preach about the Seven Seals. During his sermons on the Seven Seals, William Branham refers to a few special topics repeatedly as “loose ends” that his ministry tied up in preparation for the coming rapture:
- Water Baptism
- The Godhead
- The progression of Justification, Sanctification, and the Holy Spirit
- The ministry of Elijah
- The Serpent's Seed
- The identity of the Catholic Church and the ministry of the Antichrist
- Amos 3:3 and separation from Denominations
- The end of mercy.
Other topics of continuity between the seals include:
- Amos 3:7
- Noah and Enoch on the earth at the same time
- Prophets are Eagles
- Romans 11:29, how the gifts and callings of God are without repentance, and mentions that speaking in tongues is as spiritual as witchcraft.
- Branham ends in “HAM” vs Pope’s number of “666”.
- References to the Seven Church Ages and Daniel’s Seventy Weeks.
- The four beasts – the Lion, Ox, Man and Eagle – are angels that give an anointing to each seal-age. These beasts are the just as much a part of the first four seals as the horse riders.
William Braham also brought confusion to a number of scriptures with these incompatible doctrines:
- The importance of Signs & Wonders
- Judas had power to perform miracles and cast out devils.
- Mark 16 says that “These signs shall follow them that believe.“
- Jesus’ secret public coming:
- Jesus second coming will be universal sign, and not in private.
- There will be a secret rapture of the church
William Branham spent a significant part of the Seven Seals teaching on his own ministry as Elijah:
- Revelation 10:7
- The Fulfillment of Malachi 4:5
- Revelation 22:9 which says that the angel is a man (KJV only).
- No two prophets on earth at the same time.
- Jesus Christ was the creator
- Acts 2 says that Jesus was approved of God by miracles.
- John 6:63 says, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” William Branham taught that God gave certain men (such as Moses) a creative word as a spiritual sign.
- John 10:27 says, “My sheep hear my voice.” A Voice is a spiritual sign.
- The Kinsman redeemer, and how Christ had to be a man.
- Elijah is the Spirit of Christ (“When the supernatural comes in, that’s the mind of Christ.”)
- The Houston Photograph as proof of his ministry
- The gift of discernment shows who the messiah is. The woman at the well knew this.
- William Branham has no false prophecies
- Elijah’s fifth-time ministry. Malachi 4 & the restoration ministry.
- God opened the seals to Elijah when he told him that 700 had not bowed their knees to Baal.
- People did not recognize John the Baptist.
- If you reject Elijah, you will end up like Jezebel, eaten by the wild beasts.
These doctrines culminated in a few radical statements that have created the “Christ Branham” movement.
Fred Sothmann, who hunted with William Branham when he said he received his commission to preach the Seals, also believed that William Branham was greater than Jesus Christ. Fred listened closely to William Branham’s Seventh Seal, and understood that since only God the Father knew the contents of this Seal (remember that even Jesus did not know the hour or day) then William Branham must be God the Father because he alone knew the contents of the Seventh Seal.
William Branham also plagiarized large portions of his sermon on the Seven Seals from the works of Clarence Larkin, a Baptist Theologian. During these sermons he also admitted to reading the works of the Adventist Church, acknowledged the visions of the Mormon Church, and disclosed that he was a Mason.