The Testimony of James Bernard Manuel: Difference between revisions

Frank was offered a bed of his own by my granny in Salt River and with my parent’s permission he moved there. I used to collect wine bottles during the week for bus fare to get to Salt River over weekends.

My younger brother, Frank came to me one day in 1969. I was fourteen at the time. He lived with my grandmother in Salt River and attended Sunday School at a Docks Mission church nearby.

It was two months later when we were invited to sing at a Youth Service of the City Mission in Jarvis Street, Cape Town. This would be the first time for me to go to another church and I was very excited. As a young boy, I always had a lot of questions. Why are we so poor. Why do my parents drink. Why am I always sad. Some of the most pressing questions were answered in an indirect way at youth meetings and I developed a hunger to be happy like the other youth. But how do I do this?? Should I just pretend that I’m happy? Or should I speak with God? And how do I do this??

That night, the pastor preached a sermon. I cannot remember the title or even the scripture he used but at the end of his sermon he made an altar call. “If there is anyone in the audience who want to accept Jesus into their hearts and experience real happiness and joy, please come to the front”. With eyes filled with tears and a heart torn to pieces, I met my Savior that night. I remember the counselor said, “ pray after me”. I opened my heart and I do not know where the words came from, there was no need for this person to lead me to Jesus. I found Him on my knees that night. I poured my heart out to Him, and He listened as this young boy found “The More” he was searching for.

When I got up from my knees, the whole church were in tears and a happy rejoicing followed. Jesus has been my Shepherd, my Guide, my Friend since that Saturday night.

At age fifteen I was summoned to my dad’s work by his boss, Mr. O’Sullivan. Dad was so badly addicted to alcohol that he started drinking during his working hours. Mr. O’Sullivan knows me from a young child because I used to go to work with my dad when it was school holidays. I knew pretty well everything about his job because he was only a messenger, but a good one. I knew exactly what to do because I used to go on deliveries all by myself during the last school holidays.

I looked at Brother Joey, oh he was sincere, he was serious and he was very meticulous and convincing. I have never heard such things. “Brother Steve, what do you think?” I enquired from the more senior brother. “I don’t know James, I’ll have to pray over this matter. I will let you know tomorrow.”

That evening I went home and after supper, I went to my leader. “Brother Freddy Esau, I have something which bothers me.” “ What is it, James?” was his reply. “I have a brother at work who tells me God sent a prophet. He also says I’ve been baptized wrong and that we belong to the beast.” No reply from my leader. “ I came here tonight to get advice from you, what must I do?” Silence. Then I noticed my pastor’s eyes were full of tears.

This all happened during November 1972. I went Brother Freddy’s home to tell him of my decision. Instead of rebuking me, he said he decided to do the same.

From that time the brothers started having informal meetings at different brothers’ homes. We were invited. In those days they had the big eight track tape recorders and reel to reel tapes. One evening we sat till the wee hours of the morning listening to sermons of Brother William Branham. Then there was the healing and discernment portion of the message right near the end.

The brethren came to see us and explained, “Now that you are baptized and you accept Brother William Marrion Branham as the end-time prophet you cannot stay in a denomination, because the bible says you must come from out amongst them”. It took a few more months before I finally broke loose and came into the message 100%.

It was at this time that I was told by the brothers about all the wonderful signs that followed our prophet. They were now able to take me deeper into the mysteries. I was shown the halo photo and a complete explanation was given. “ You see, that is why we know this is the truth. God vindicated his messenger by taking a photo with him. Not only that, they sent it to scientific laboratories and when the scientist George J Lacy gave his findings he said it was the only supernatural being ever photographed.” Wow!! As a young boy, I was impressed. Am I that important that God chose me to be a witness of this? I was happy and rejoiced.

Next item was the Cloud. What is this? This cloud has the face of Jesus. He came down to visit his prophet while he was hunting on Sunset Mountain on February 28, 1963. Have a good look brother. Do you see His eyes? Look there, can you see His nose, and look here, there is his mouth. Can you see, brother?

When we got there I felt completely out of place. I was the only boy amongst these great men of God. Brother Steve was the nervous type and he could not really explain why he had himself re-baptized or why he was following a false prophet, as they put it. I waited patiently for my turn and when it came, I was like a raving wolve. I am blessed with a good memory so, it was easy for me to just speak what I heard and now believe. Those Elders sat in quiet amazement and listened to me attentatively. No one interrupted. When I was done, the elder named Brother Michaels nodded and said he was happy to know that God has done something for us. He told Brother Steve’s wife to go with him because they did not want division. This was my very first experience in testifying about the message of William Branham.

Fast forward to 2007 - A sister comes to me with a question. “Brother James can you tell me where to find a direct scripture in the bible and a direct quotation where Brother Branham says the Seven Thunders of Revelations 10:4 were opened and revealed.”

This question stunned me. I could not give her a scripture or a quotation but yet I believed and preached it. I went to my pastor, instead of answering me, he treated it as a threat and warned his church board not to let me preach because I don’t believe the Thunders. I knew, after I heard this that there is something not quite right with this message. I realized there were more than meet the eye.  I would not rest until I get to the bottom of this.

At this time, I was completely computer illiterate. I did not own a computer and I was not interested. I was from the old message school. Civilization is from the devil. So, I bought the Table message computer search program and I took all my spoken Words and whatever reading material I could get and started researching. I listened on a MP3 player day and night. I listened when I was at home, when I went with the family or we went shopping. I read as much as I could.

In 2011, I finally bought a laptop and it took me another six months to be able to browse the net. I went to many message church sites and listened. I was suspicious but I still trusted the prophet. His voice was a comfort to me. When I heard that voice, all my doubts just vanished. It was the only thing that made sense to me. I did not want to hear other preachers because they were responsible for my dilemma.

One Sunday morning during one of those days when I was so hungry and desperate, I decided to listen to a message. I thought I typed in Voice of God but for some unknown reason, I landed on a site where I saw the book Legend of the Fall, written by Peter Duyzer. I started reading and stopped. Did I just see this man saying William Branham was not telling the truth when he said he was hunting when the cloud appeared? How rude, how dare this man say such nasty things.

I came across a site that pushed me over the edge. It was a site managed by believers in Tuscon, Arizona. And what I saw made me realize that this message is just fraud and corruption, lies and deception and that nobody is prepared to tell the truth.

I phoned Pastor Stephen Delo and told him what I learned and he promised to get back to me so that we could talk about it. To this day, I’m still waiting for the call. I then phoned Pastor Harold Beckett and spoke with him. He was not willing at all to talk about this and told me it’s an individual matter. It is every man for him self. I eventually got some confession out of him that he knew about the discrepancy with the date of the cloud since 1992. He was not prepared to say more.

The South African Pastors have not bothered to reply or return any phone calls.

I went back and checked every sermon where Brother Branham spoke about the cloud and every story is different.

Yet, when Gene Norman showed the magazine article to brother Branham he did what he do so well. He sowed a seed of discrepancy in the mind of Gene Norman. “ Have you noticed the shape of the pyramid?” That is enough to know that this is something big.

On June 23, 1963, William Branham becomes more daring. He says: “I was standing right under the cloud when they took the photo.” Really, did so much change in 23 days?

I am absolutely amazed that the same mysterious cloud is supposed to prove the message true, is the same cloud which proves the message is FALSE.

I made a final decision to leave the message in 2012 after I came across the Seek the Truth (STT) website. I could not believe my eyes when I saw how people all over the world were discovering the same lies and deception. Finding this website was like cool water in the middle of the desert Suddenly I did not feel alone any longer. It was not only me and there was nothing wrong with me.

I have since learned the words to describe this: [[Cognitive Dissonance]]. When two opposing views are presented the recipient will dig his/her heels into the sand and believe his/her view more.

I have spent 40 years of my life in the message. I believed it, I lived it, I preached it. The message is all my wife knew, it is all my children knew, it is all I knew.

Did it happen like that??  NO.  What do you say when you listen to the prophet saying: “It did??”  What do you do when the pastors make all kind of excuses and you can see they are lying, but you still believe???  What is wrong with you??? You don’t need a revelation to see when someone is lying!!!

I challenge any pastor, deacon, elder, trustee, treasurer, usher, believer of the End-Time Message of William Branham to disprove what I said. I am willing to publicly repent, recant and return to the message if you can convince me with hard evidence that my claims are false. Likewise, if you fail to disprove what I claim, are you willing to turn your back on the message and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

The past few months have been challenging. I have had a few threats on my life because of my stand against the message. I receive constant messages in my inbox warning me of imminent danger. I have never taken these threats seriously. I believe that God is in control of my life and I want to do whatever His will is for my life.

However, a few days ago, I received a serious death threat on my telephone at home. The person did not identify himself (I could hear by the voice it was a male). The message was brief, “ we know your movements, we know where you live, we know where you go to church, we are making plans to take you out. Stop spreading the lies about our prophet”

I have decided after much prayer and advise from my friends, to go public. I want you all to see what is really happening around you. If the message is 100% correct and 100% in line with the Word why is it so difficult to give answers to simple questions?? It is time that you check what you believe against the Word of God the bible.

Atheists and Muslims claim there are contradictions in the bible. Message believers from the headquarters at Voice of God to the pastors and preachers to the laity are now agreeing with these people and try and point to what they perceive as discrepancies, as justification that the lies and deception of William Branham is acceptable.

I humbly ask, have you got a tape recording of the voice of Jesus? Or a tape recording of the voice of Paul?? But I have almost 1200 taped messages of Brother Branham. So, it is easy to verify what he said. It is either the truth or it is not. The stories are all beautiful and touching but on close examination after you compare the stories, it is not hard to tell that it was only stories.

My prayer for you, dear reader is that your eyes may be opened. Run to the Christ of Calvary. That is our only hope and our only salvation.