What should we believe?

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This article is one in a series on "Leaving the Message" - you are currently in the article that is in bold:

• Why are Ministers are leaving the Message?
• Testimonies of Ex-Message Believers
• How should I leave?
• What should we believe?
• Mistakes to avoid when leaving the message
• What have we learned?
• Biblical resources that have helped us
• The Theological Consequences of Leaving the Message
• Leaving The Message
• Research Sources for William Branham and His Message
• Invitation to Eternal Life

Many people have asked us, both those in the message and those that have left off following William Branham: "What do you think we should believe?"

Those inside the message expect that we are looking for followers (we're not) and those who have left are simply looking for guidance.

Don't follow any man

We are not pointing to ourselves, to any man, or to any church. Paul said that we are to follow the teachings that he laid out in scripture (2 Tim 1:13). Peter said the same thing:

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

A minister of the Gospel only speaks authoritatively to the extent that what he says agrees with scripture. But we don't follow these men, we follow Christ. We examine their lives and if they are worthy of being examples of the Gospel, then we may want to imitate them. But we must judge their teaching and their lives by the Gospel as the writer of the Hebrews stated:

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.

We are not to follow a single man but those leaders (plural) that provide a godly example of a Christian life in word and deed. And we are to judge their teachings based on scripture.

Believe what the church has always believed

Think about the giants of the Christian faith over the past 500 years "of whom the world was not worthy". People like:

• John Wycliffe (1331–1384), English philosopher, theologian, Bible translator and reformer
• Martin Luther (1483–1546), German priest and professor of theology who was a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation
• Menno Simons (1496–1561), Anabaptist religious leader from the Friesland region of the Netherlands
• William Tyndale (c. 1494–1536), English scholar and translator, convicted of heresy and executed by strangulation (majority of the King James version of the Bible was derived from his work)
• John Bunyan (1628–1688), persecuted English Puritan Baptist preacher and author of Pilgrim's Progress
• Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), American Puritan theologian and preacher in the First Great Awakening
• John Wesley (1703–1791), English clergyman; founder of Methodism
• Charles Wesley (1707–1788), English clergyman; brother of John Wesley, hymnwriter of Methodism
• George Whitefield (1714–1770), English clergyman; early Methodist preacher and associate of John Wesley
• C. T. Studd (1860–1931, British missionary
• John Newton (1725–1807), Scottish clergyman, author of Amazing Grace
• William Cowper (1731–1800), English poet/author of numerous hymns, including "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood"
• William Wilberforce (1759–1833), worked to abolish slavery in the British Empire
• Charles Grandison Finney (1792–1875), preacher in the Second Great Awakening, advocate of "New Measures"
• Fanny Crosby (1820–1915), blind American writer of many famous hymns including "Blessed Assurance"
• Robert Pearsall Smith (1827–1899) and Hannah Whitall Smith (1832–1911), leaders in the Holiness movement
• James Hudson Taylor (1832–1905), British missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission
• Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892), English Baptist preacher and advocate of Calvinism
• Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899), American evangelist, pastor and educator
• William Carey (1761-1834), A self-taught English cobbler who is considered to be the father of modern Protestant missions.
• John Bunyan (1628–1688), author of Pilgrim's Progress
• Oswald Chambers (1874–1917), author of My Utmost for His Highest
• Billy Sunday (1862–1935), American evangelist and proponent of Prohibition
• Adoniram Judson (1788–1850) – American missionary to Burma
• George Müller (1805–1898), Christian evangelist and Director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England
• Eric Liddell (1902–1945), Scottish athlete and missionary, who was forced to choose between his religious beliefs and competing in an Olympic race.

Were these giants of the Christian faith all wrong in their basic beliefs or were they Christians that were required to believe Satanic doctrine as William Branham taught?

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Find out what the church has always believed

To followers of William Branham, "theology" is a dirty word. Theology simply means “the study of God,” and doctrine means “teaching.” Since the main message of Scripture is the unfolding mystery of Christ, who reveals his Father and reconciles us to him, theology is a central concern of every believer.

Since God is the author of reality, it is his interpretation that we must pursue. The gospel is good news, not good instructions, good ideas, or good techniques. It announces the “new thing” that God has accomplished in history for us and for our salvation. As an effective communicator, God tells us what he is going to do, does it, and then tells us what he did. Doctrine summarizes these divine accomplishments.

By questioning and testing our interpretation of God’s Word, we come to know what we believe and why we believe it, so that the grammar of faith becomes our own language of worship through which we interpret all of reality and live in the world. Theology is the concern of every believer because it is the grammar of the Christian faith. Learning God’s Word—including its doctrine—is a nonnegotiable responsibility of our new citizenship as Christians. The baptized are privileged and obligated to learn the language of Zion.

Our English word disciple, in fact, comes from the Latin noun discipulus, meaning “student.” Thus, Paul writes,

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Ro 12:1–2)

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