The Rules of the Message

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This article is one in a series of studies on William Branham and legalism - you are currently on the page that is in bold:

• Legalism
• Ministers must marry virgins
• Uncut hair
• The Rules of the Message

William Branham believed that personal holiness would produce "rapturing faith." Throughout the course of his ministry, he discussed personal habits, activities, manners of dress, entertainment, physical activities, sports and various other terrible things that he believed true Christians should not participate in.

Although William Branham stressed adherence to his code of conduct, many followers have lost sight of these requirements and would be considered, in the eyes of their prophet, to be living in a "backslidden" condition. Many message ministers also no longer hold to these religious conventions while others have made their own pronouncements, expanding on the legalism of the founder of their religion.

William Branham's rules violate scripture

The doctrine of the sifficiency of scripture reminds us that nothing is sin that is not forbidden by Scripture either explicitly or by implication.

To walk in the law of the Lord is to be “blameless” (Ps. 119:1). Therefore we are not to add prohibitions to those already stated in Scripture. From time to time there may be situations in which it would be wrong, for example, for an individual Christian to attend movie theaters, or to eat meat offered to idols (see 1 Cor. 8–10), but unless some specific teaching or some general principle of Scripture can be shown to prohibit these (or any other activities) for all believers for all time, we must insist that these activities are not in themselves sinful and they are not in all situations prohibited by God for his people.

This also is an important principle because there is always the tendency among believers to begin to neglect the regular daily searching of Scripture for guidance and to begin to live by a set of written or unwritten rules (or denominational traditions) concerning what one does or does not do in the Christian life.

Furthermore, whenever we add to the list of sins that are prohibited by Scripture itself, there will be harm to the church and to the lives of individual believers. The Holy Spirit will not empower obedience to rules that do not have God’s approval from Scripture, nor will believers generally find delight in obedience to commands that do not accord with the laws of God written on their hearts.

In some cases, Christians may repeatedly and earnestly plead with God for “victory” over supposed sins that are in fact no sins at all, yet no “victory” will be given, for the attitude or action in question is in fact not a sin and is not displeasing to God. Great discouragement in prayer and frustration in the Christian life generally may be the outcome.

In other cases, continued or even increasing disobedience to these new “sins” will result, together with a false sense of guilt and a resulting alienation from God. Often there arises an increasingly uncompromising and legalistic insistence on these new rules on the part of those who do follow them, and genuine fellowship among believers in the church will fade away. Evangelism will often be stifled, for the silent proclamation of the gospel that comes from the lives of believers will at least seem (to outsiders) to include the additional requirement that one must fit this uniform pattern of life in order to become a member of the body of Christ.

The Basic Rules of the Message (according to William Branham)

Some of the items listed bind closely to his latter description of the "Mark of the Beast":

Entertainment and Music

• No watching television
• No watching movies
• No comic books
• No rock music
• No jazz
• No classical music
• No telling jokes

Dress Code For Women

• No trousers of any kind
• No shorts
• No low cut, sheer or form fitting clothing
• Any garment that shows the knees is forbidden
• No painting fingernails
• No fake fingernails
• No "booster" bras
• No high-heeled shoes
• No open-toed shoes
• No earrings
• No cosmetics
• No haircuts, trimming, or split-end removal
• No dying your hair
• No wearing "dime store jewelry"
• No wearing the latest fashion

Dress Code For Men

• Must wear pants
• No shorts
• No suede shoes for men
• No sideburns for men
• No bangs
• No flat-top haircuts

Food Rules

• No eating hybrid food
• No eating eggs!
• No soup suppers
• No drinking alcohol

Women In General

• No washing machines
• No dishwashers
• Women are forbidden to work
• Women are forbidden to vote
• No birth control
• No loving dogs
• Must be divorced if they cut their hair -- THUS SAITH THE LORD

Men In General

• Naming your son "Ricky" is forbidden
• Naming your son "Elvis" is forbidden

Aging In General

• False teeth are forbidden
• Dying your hair is forbidden

Sports And Recreation

• No baseball
• No basketball
• No bowling
• No ball games in general
• No physical exercise
• No pool games
• No bingo
• No bunco
• No dice
• No cards
• No dancing
• No parties
• No sunbathing
• No hula hoops
• No swimming parties
• Men swimming in the same pool with women is forbidden

Dating Rules

• No kissing (before marriage)
• No marrying a woman who has been kissed
• Interracial marriage is forbidden
• Breaking a marriage engagement is forbidden

Household Rules

• Don't Eat Eggs!
• No Easter bunny
• No Santa Claus
• No animals in the house
• No putting fuel in your vehicle on Sunday
• No living in valleys

Rules introduced by various message ministers

• Women are not permitted to wear skirts with a fly in the front. They are only permitted to wear skirts with buttons or a fly in the back.

Quotes of William Branham

And tonight to this sinful world who's been bitten by the mad dogs of hell, with all of this modern jazz music, and dirty televisions programs cracking jokes and so forth like that, you're mad dog bit. You're trying to quench that thirst with stagnated waters of the devil. May your heart become so thirsty that you must find Christ or die.

Satan tries to make it classical, some great something, some big something, intellectual. You have to cast down that reasoning and believe what the Word says about it. Amen.

What's do? Lost their first love. Oh, you couldn't get them on a corner with a tambourine to clap their hands and praise God. Oh, no. They'd sing some kind of a classical something with a bunch of robes around them. See, they lost their first love. That's what's the matter with the first church. See? They just have to act like the world. They have to dress like the world, look like the world, act like the world, and have their favorite television star, you know; they just can't keep from seeing it. "We Love Susie" or something another, you know, they just have to see it. They'll stay home from prayer meeting and everything else to see it. And if they don't, they give their pastor a good bawling out, to let them out in time till that program comes on so they can get home to see it. The love of the world more than the love of God...

Oh, too formal, they can't say, "Amen," no more. My, goodness, it'd break some of the makeup. See? They don't have it. No, that's Pentecost. That ain't Baptists. They ain't never had it to begin with, the--the Presbyterian. I'm talking about Pentecost. That's right. I know it's awful sickening, brother, but we want a birth out of this thing now: got to bring death before you can have birth.

But when you pull out your real good teeth, because they're just not as bright as they should be, then you done wrong. If you've got red hair, and you want black, and you go down here and color it black, just because; you done wrong. Yeah, I think so. But the main thing… There's no Scripture for that.

It used to be that women was so feminish till men would go to talking to them and they'd blush. Huh. What is blushing anyhow? I haven't seen it in so long I wouldn't even know what it was if some woman blushed. They haven't got any of that dignity any more, all that there fine feminish spirit. They're just... They can... They'll wear clothes like a man, cut their hair like a man, smoke like a man, drink like a man, cuss like a man, vote like a man, work like a man, so, become rough, burly. Oh, my.

You can have all your church joining and frolics and basketball parties and everything else you want to. But for me, bury me in Christ.

And should be kept in a clean place." Not a cigarette-smoking preacher. No, sir. Not a preacher that's running around over the country, run with other women and things like that. Not a church that practice "free love" and all these ungodly things, and goes to baseball games, and has big entertainments and social dances in the church. It's to be kept, the Word of God is to be kept in a clean place (Amen.) A clean place, that when the wayward man comes by, he can come into a clean place and be sprinkled with the waters of separation.

Like I said the other night about the hog, about the sinner. You can't blame... A sinner's a sinner; don't try to reform him. Don't try to tell him this, that, or the other. He's a sinner to begin with. He's a pig to begin with. He don't know no different. If he goes to the movies, and he goes on Sunday, and he goes to ball games, and he does all these things; he's a sinner to begin with. His nature's like a hog. The old hog stick his nose down in the manure pile and eat all the grains out of it and everything. Well, that's--he is a hog. You can't blame him; he's a hog. That's the way with sinners. But when you go and call yourself a Christian and stick your nose in with him, then you're no better than he is; but you're worse, "Come out from among them." Let go of the world. Let go. Let God.

Now, it ain't paint, and scissors that cuts your hair that bothers you. It's that spirit in you that makes you go get it. That's what it is. Max Factor could make all of it he wanted to and lay it over there, and if you was a Christian you'd never touch it. I mean if you was baptized with the Holy Ghost and living where you ought to live (That's right.), and your pastor preach the truth and let you know about it. You wouldn't even care a bit. How could you sell old button shoes down on the street today, them high laced up shoes which have got more leather in them than a dozen pair of these little things that you pay twenty five dollars for? A little strap across the toe and a big old red painted toenail sticking out like that, and the heels flopping around through the rain, and you go down the street like that. That's right. That's right. But you couldn't sell that old fashion shoe because you don't want it; you done seen Martha Susianna out yonder wear some other kind. See? You want to dress like her. You don't want that dress that hangs loose. You want that one's like you're poured into it, because that you seen Susie on the television and the radio and in the magazine.

Why don't a man kiss a man, woman kiss a woman, in the lips? Because it don't cross the glands. Children is born by crossing glands. So it's almost a public adultery again, everywhere. Look on the screens and everything you see, a--a slobbering and a--a carrying on. No wonder immorality is on the--is on the incline! How can they do it, and spurring themselves all up by kissing those women in the mouth, knowing that that's adultery! God won't forgive it unless you repent.

Devil took it from the picture show and put it right in your home, uncensored programs on television; all kinds of worldlism; and weak pulpits; and pastors compromising with the things of the world, loving their position and a meal ticket more than they would to stand and tell the truth about God's Word: and in that, it's brought the church into a chaos, and it's separated us and divided us, and so much world that you hardly know one from the other. And our sermons are no more based upon the Word: Usually in a modern pulpit, it's about who's the next president; or some lovely roses somewhere; or some program; let the church out early so they can go see a certain program; preach over twenty minutes and they'll excommunicate you. What we need is an old-fashion, all-night's prayer meeting, and back to God again; and dismiss such as that from the pulpit, that belongs to the world. I never did condemn a sinner from the way he does. He's a sinner. He can't help it. But those people who claim to be Christians, and then live in sin, that's the one we got to target on.

And this fellow with his wine bottle up, drinking, having a big time, he said, "Just a minute. All you all, listen to me. Turn your radios on now." The vulgar, dirty, filthy things that's permitted, uncensored programs... When did it start? Look back through the history. It started back there in the days of Clara Bow. And with this scheming, ungodly Texan, went out there and made these women's underneath clothes that made them look sexy... And this begin the first vulgar song, they let pass, was about the ladies rolling down their stockings and showing their pretty knees. They've got by with that. And now it's uncensored: they can say and do what they want to. The devil's took the thing without firing a shot. That's right. What do you think them Hollywood prostitutes in hell today would do if they could return? They'd make it different. But their influence upon the world, has set the world in a flame of corruption.

And you women, putting on these little old pants and things, and wearing them out here, little old (What is it you call them?) knickerbockers... Or what is it? What is that, sisters? No, no, it's not shorts, it's that--got the long legs in them: pedal pushers and overalls, dungarees... Go and they said, "This is for the ladies." I said, "No, you're mistaken. Ladies don't wear them things: women might, but ladies don't." That's right. The Bible said it's an abomination for a woman to put on a garment... And for a man to put on a garment that pertains to a woman... And men is becoming more sissified every day, and women is becoming more masculine. What's the matter? (We're going to find out in a few minutes by the Bible.) Women ain't women no more.

People say, "Yes, I'm a Christian. I believe in Divine healing," and then act different. Say, "I'm a Christian," go out and put on them kind of clothes. Say, "I'm a Christian," and act--go out and smoke cigarettes, and shoot dice, and do all these other kind of things. Shame on you. That's a... I--I--I'm not a... I love you. But, brother, I'd rather give you just a little correction now, than when I come to the judgment, you say, "Brother Branham, I'm so glad you done it." It's too late then. What we need is a love and respect for God and for His people. No matter what they belong to, the denomination, as long as they're brothers they're brothers. We need a love for one another. And love will contact when nothing else will do it.

And you've neglected it for the washtub, for a job out yonder in a factory somewhere. Some of you women that ought to be home with your kids, reading the Bible to them. You got a job out yonder to make a extra dollar. Shame on you. God gave you a job; that's raise them children. Teach them the things of God. It's the truth. Think on your ways, woman. What will them dollars do? They'll ring like Judas Iscariot's did. Think on your ways and turn your foot to His testimonies, unto His Blood, unto His grace, unto His offer. "As I thought on my ways," said David, "I turned my feet to thy testimony." Sure. Think on your ways as you go.

Brother Branham, I think television is a curse to the world. What do you think about it? Well, ever who wrote it, I'm going to agree with you. They have made it a curse to the world. It could be a blessing to the world, but they've made it a curse. Anything like that, my dear people, is what you look at yourself. If television is a curse, then the newspaper is a curse, then the radio is a curse, and many time the telephone is. See, see, see, see? It's what you make out of it. But being that the brother said the other night, that there's hardly any programs on the television any more; that's too much money. A poor preachers that preaches the Full Gospel can't afford a program on the television.

Then she started on her way. She heard good news of her cousin, Elisabeth, an old woman, around sixty-five, seventy years old, her husband the same age, around seventy or seventy-five years old. And she'd conceived in her old age, because she had believed God would give her a child. It was a honor then to have a baby; it's a dishonor now. They'd rather buy a little dog, give it the love of a child. No wonder we got juvenile delinquency; we got dog-loving mothers. That's... Oh, it's a shame. But it was a honor then, and a dishonor for a woman not to have a baby.

And He don't want a man with great big sideburns hanging down like this, and then, like a duck setting on the back of his head like that. He wants him to look like a man.

Like they got women on the police forces, out on the streets. That's a disgrace to the American flag, to put them mothers out there on the street. And tens of thousands of men without a job! Why, it's a woman's nation, it's a woman's place, a woman will take over. It's woman-worship. It's that Catholic dogmatic spirit, worshipping a woman for a god. Here's that just... It's just sitting right, don't you see the setup? There's nothing that God could have give a man any sweeter than a wife, a real wife. But when she gets anything beyond that, she's--she's out. That's exactly right. God never intend women to work in any of these places and to do them kind of things like that. These women, you're... they're to have children and raise their children. They're all little preachers, every one of them, but they have their own pastoral at home with their kiddies, bringing up their children.

That's the spirit of this nation: big times, somebody, a TV program, a lot of jokes to be cracked. Why, that makes a real Christian sick at his stomach to hear of such things. A man or a woman can look at that kind of stuff that we have on TV today, some of them programs and--and enjoy it, it shows that it's Ichabod wrote over the top of your heart. The glory of the Lord has departed. And when the church lose its attraction, when it comes to a time that you have to sign cards and things to come to church, I think it's time for a prayer meeting or something to take place in the church.

They have to raise them on a bottle with cow's milk. They take the nicotine, and if they do they become a neurotic like Ricky and Elvises out here, you know, running up and down, just neurotic. That's exactly the way the... Your kids named that, change his name. See? Now, it spiritually speaking means Judas.

Oh, how you just go to the modern home today. Look what it is. Papa, he has to hurry down to the pool room. The boys are playing pool or they're bowling or something, him and ma. Sister's at the canteen, somewhere, or out some rock-and-roll party. Junior's got the hot rod, out seeing how many he can run down. And that's about home life. And the Bible? Oh, it's a great Book, but It's put in a drawer somewhere until pastor comes in or somebody. And we just don't have the home life we used to have. It's a... Home life is so uncertain.

Now, I can expect these sinful people like now, that call themselves sports, out here in the bowling game. One of my kids would start towards a bowling alley, I'd run him out of the country (uh-huh). Call that sport; that's not sports. What's this... If you want to be right, get right with God.

And why? That's the kind of a spirit that's in people desiring that. How could you sell a woman an old pair of button shoeslike mother used to wear? Why, yet, they got more leather in them than a dozen pair that they wear today, better leather. But you couldn't get fifty cents a pair for them. They'd rather have a little split, or something, that they paid twenty-five dollars a pair for 'cause it looks like the neighbors', or some Hollywood star. Christians do that too. What a shame. We're not supposed to pattern after Hollywood. Hollywood shines with brightness. But while Hollywood shines in--in brightness and glamour, the Gospel glows with humility. There's a difference between shining and glowing. And the church is beginning to shine with polished scholars, and education, biggest church, and So-and-so. And our full Gospel people's getting right in that same trend. It's a shame. Glowing with humility, and Christ.

I met a man here not long ago... I don't say this to be sacrilegious, please forgive me if I'm a-thinking it's making it sacrilegious. I was at a tent meeting and, the minister, a Pentecostal minister brought his wife over to play the piano. And when he introduced me to his wife, honestly, I almost fainted. The woman had real short hair, curled up, and she had great, big earrings, and enough manicure on her lips, or whatever the stuff is, fingernails painted. Looked like she was a... It was horrible-looking; great, big long claws, and like that. And sexy-looking; little, bitty, short dress on, she couldn't even put it over her knees when she set down. Well, I stood there a little bit, and I said, "Brother, will I hurt your feelings if I say something?"

Now listen, this is my afternoon to be with the Lord here in the--in the services. I just say what He tells me to say. But it's a sad day, when they created wash machines and dishwashers and everything, they give the women all this time to lay around barrooms and things, and drink, and smoke cigarettes, and run out over the country. That's right. Come busybody, idlers, plenty of time, nothing to do. It'd be better if you had the scrub brush and back in the wash with these kind of wash machines, the way my mother used to do it. That's right.

There seems to be something among man. Man don't seem to be, have that masculine touch that he used to have. Women don't have that feminish touch she used to have. You take man today, man don't seem to be burly like they used to be. It's all some sort of a... They want to wear suede shoes with purple, and--and they want to act like women. Now that is true. It seems to be, more or less, like a perversion.

You'll lay in these pool rooms, playing cards, social drinking, all this nonsense that you do, and stay home on Wednesday night watching the television instead of going to church. What are you doing? You're trying to quench that holy thirst. You got to quench it some way. And you reject Christ, and the devil pours his slop into you. Right. And you think that you're right, but the Bible said, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is the ways of death." Death is total annihilation, separation. Don't you never try to quench that blessed thirst with something the devil put into you.

Now, I believe that the Holy Spirit would come to me and say in a vision, "Go tell certain-certain person that they are not--they're trying to overcome a certain thing, and they cannot do it. (And they're smoking; they're drinking; they're lying, stealing, or committing adultery, whatever it might be; or they got lustful spirit.)

I have more honor for a woman like that than I do some of these women that put a little old strap under them to throw theirself out: don't even look like a human being. They got a purpose in doing that; that's sexy, ungodly. A woman wear ever so many clothes and try to make herself look like something she isn't... I... Why, women ain't--ain't actually that way; it's some kind of Hollywood stuff. And the devil spirit get on them women to make them try to attract attention of men through sex. A woman's breast was given her for the baby to nurse. That's exactly right. The woman's right in the primitive line, but she's lined right. I have more respect for that, for that woman like that, 'cause she... That's the way her mother raised her; that's the way... They--they never--don't pay any attention to it. The baby nursed right out like the Madonna picture that you'd see. And if people would only get their minds set like that, it would be different.

Brother Branham, what do you think about our... (Oh, oh, I remember reading this one. I wasn't... I was going to keep it back late, but I guess I might as well read it. Some woman's handwrite. She must be from Kentucky, 'cause she's got a--a Kosmos Portland Cement ticket here.) Brother Branham, what do you think about our sisters in the church wearing such short dresses? Doesn't it mar our testimony and set the wrong example for our young people in this our church? It seems so i-n... to see a--a young--to see a grown woman wearing a dress so short that it shows her knees when she walks. Ever who you are, sister or brother, whoever it is, I agree with you one hundred percent. It's a disgrace, but tell me what to do about it. See? I preach it just as hard as I know how to preach it; they do it the same. So it's their judgment, 'cause the Word's went forth. Yes, I'm certainly against them little old skin-tight dresses that look like... I constantly fuss at my kids, Becky and Sarah. I don't care how little they are, I... that... I just fuss at them all the time. I think they even wear their dresses... Meda takes Becky apart every day about it. See? Dresses plumb up... 'Cause kids, you can expect that in kids, and you have to correct them; but when it comes to a woman, there's something wrong there. See?

A few years ago, look where man has got to, in his body. Look where he's got to, by the things he's done. Science is constantly trying to make a better food, hybrid corn, and--and hybrid tomatoes, hybrid beef, when the stuff's no good at all. It's killing the people, and they don't realize it. Why, in a few more years, they'll be nothing but just a--a bunch like a jellyfish.

Now she has got her Adam to wearing her underneath clothes. A man put on them little old sissy-looking shorts, and get out here, I don't think there is much man to him. He is the biggest sissy I know of. See? See, she has got her perverted Adam to act like she, see, wearing her underneath clothes. She seen what she could do out yonder when she took off all of her clothes but her underneath ones. That's the shorts. Course, that's the woman's underneath clothes, and here her Adam is wearing them now. Which, according to God's original Word, "Is an abomination for a woman to put on a garment that pertains to a man, and a man to put on a garment pertains to a woman," from the original Word. Think of it!

Now what about all this carrying on they done today, in the name of the church; practicing square dancing in the church, bunco, bingo, parties, teenagers rock-and-roll, twists, all these stuff! Look at this Elvis Presley, a devil standing in shoes! Pat Boone, Ricky Nelson, the biggest indebtment this nation has ever had! That's right. They say, "Oh, they are very religious, they sang Christian songs." It oughtn't to, the church oughtn't to even permit a thing like that! Some of these guys go out here, and--and tonight they're in a--a roadhouse out here, dancing and playing music and everything, and the next night they come to the altar and weep, and the next night they're playing music on the platform. Oh, goodness, gracious! How far can filth, how far could filth go, anyhow? Yes, sir. Prove himself first to be a man of God, not all this stuff just because he can beat an old guitar or something. By your desire, you can tell who is on the throne of your heart. By what you love, that's what tells. You, you say, "Well, I think them things are all right, Brother Branham." Well, just remember now, in your heart, you know what's there. Yes, sir. By what is feeding your soul, what your soul is thirsting for, and you can see it satisfies that; if it isn't this Word, then there is something wrong, because the Holy Spirit lives on the Word only.

You have a choice of your conduct. I'm going to hurt just a little bit here. See? You can go out and let your hair grow down and be a beatle or some of these ignoramuses. Or you women, you can look like a--a decent human being or you can be one of these weird creatures that we have out there, them blued eyes. And water-head haircuts and things, they're completely against the Word of God, which is absolutely contrary; not even offer... couldn't offer a prayer to be accepted. That's the Truth. Exactly right. That's what the Bible said. But what's happened to you, church? You've seen so much television, so much things of the world, it's so easy for your old Adam nature to drift into that, to act like the rest of them.

"I ask for mercy for us being so dilatory concerning the things of the Kingdom. I ask that You'll pardon us of our sins and take away our--our--our transgressions. And forgive us for being so stupid of the...?... How we have come short. How we have taken bodily exercise. How we have done things that we ought not to have done. How we have sinned before You"

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