Morality

Male and female swimsuits in the United States, circa 1916. William Branham told about a series of eight prophetic visions he experienced in June 1933. In the sixth vision, William Branham saw women cutting their hair, acting and dressing like men, and finally almost completely abandoning their garments. 1964 retelling of 1933 prophesy The fifth vision had to do with the moral problem of our age, centering mostly around women. God showed me that women began to be out of their place with the granting of the vote. Then they cut off their hair, which signified that they were no longer under the authority of a man but insisted on either equal rights, or in most cases, more than equal rights. She adopted men's clothing and went into a state of undress, until the last picture I saw was a woman naked except for a little fig leaf type apron. With this vision I saw the terrible perversion and moral plight of the whole world. (Church Age Book, Chapter 9, by William Branham) Problems with the prophecy In the Laodicean Church Age book, William Branham says, “Now let me say this. Can anyone prove any of those visions wrong? Were they not all fulfilled?” Almost 80 years after 1933, we now have the benefit of hindsight in our ability to confirm the accuracy of these prophecies. 1933 vs 1964 William Branham mentions that these visions that he received in 1933 were “Thus Saith the Lord”. The prophecy was written down, so each retelling of it should have been consistent. However, William Branham only mentions this part of the 1993 vision in 1964, when he refers to an article published in Life Magazine that included a photograph of a woman in a transparent gown with a small lower covering. The fig leaf covering The morals of the human race have never been that great, and Americans are no different. The fig-leaf analogy is sensational, but people have been wearing immoral clothing of this type since, well, Adam and Eve. The bikini itself was invented by fashion designer Jacques Heim in Paris in 1946, and was popularized in America long before William Branham mentioned the immorality of American clothing as part of the 1933 prophecy. Changes in the story The Church Age Book includes "women cutting their hair" as part of this prophecy - which is absent from the recorded sermons. pre-1964: Nothing. 1964: Women would wear fig-leaf type transparent skirts, and garments like a man. 1964: Women would wear man’s garments, and put on fig leaves. 1964: Women will never go completely nude, but will wear underneath clothes and something like a fig leaf. Church Age Book: Women everywhere would cut their hair, adopt men’s clothing, and undress down to a fig-leaf style apron. Moral Decay of the Modern Woman The cigarette advertisement of the 1970's “You’ve come a long way, Baby” suggests that women have gained greater freedom and liberty than that posessed by their grandmothers. Being chaste and modest were seen as positive character traits at the start of the 20th century, while the young 21st century woman is typically independant and sexually active. Women have indeed come a long way - but not necessarily in the right direction. 1930's: The great depression File:278px-Moden1936.jpg During the depression of the 1930's, most skirts were fashioned to the ankles. In Hollywood, the self-regulating Hays Office began censoring movies so that content-controlling federal laws would not be implemented. Hollywood's influence continued to impact fashion (in 1932 Macy's in New York sold 500,000 replicas of the dress Joan Crawford wore in the movie "Letty Lynton"), and photographs of actresses Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn in trousers helped make pants acceptable for women. New fabrics were developed during this time, and women's underwear changed from corsets and bindings, to form-fitting garments. These garments and designs would become the fasionable outwear of later generations. World War II As war raged across the world, women were encouraged to help their country by working full-time in the factories. With this change of lifestyle, many children were sent to daycares, and trousers for women (promoted by Hollywood in the 1930s) were integrated into the working woman's wardrobe. Pin-ups became popular for enlisted men, showing an overall acceptance by the male population of the glorification of the female body. 1950s The typical 1950s American girl wore a wide mid-calf length skirt, and a modest top. In 1957, Brigitte Bardot (who attempted suicide numerous times) wore a bikini in the movie "And God Created Woman" and created a market for the bikini as swimwear in the United States. The popularity of wide skirts continued, while the same women now wore bikinis on the beach. Meanwhile, Hollywood introduced the miniskirt in cinemas (Anne Francis, 1956, Forbidden Planet). 1960s & 1970s The 1950s had produced a comfortable living for many families, and some of children grew up to hate the materialistic ways of their parents. The popular response to the Vietnam War, with protests and draft-dodging, marked a widespread rebellion of the youth from the "call of duty" that their parents had. Music became the largest influence in the pop culture, with John Lennon saying that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus". All taboos and restraints of the past were erased, and another sexual revolution began that stretched the moral fibers of America with free sex, drugs, and Rock'n'roll. In 1965 miniskirts became popular. In 1970 abortion was legalized. In 1972, as a result of Eisenstadt v. Baird, (Supereme Court), minor girls now had the right to seek birth control and anything else that related to their bodies without their parents' consent. Germaine Greer, a prominent and provocative feminist, wrote in 1969 that The women kept on dancing while their long skirts crept up, and their girdles dissolved...and their clothes withered away to the mere wisps and ghosts of draperies to adorn and glorify... 1980s - 1990s Girls of the 80s and 90s tended to know more about sex than even their mothers. "At this moment in our history, young women develop physically earlier than ever before, but they do so within a society that does not protect or nurture them in ways that were once a hallmark of American life." As capitalism and the economy were doing well, many parents had little time for their families as they pursued the elusive dream of wealth and prestige. Celebrity-obsessed magazines showed society's pre-occupation with the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Multiple partners were considered normal for teenage girls. Birth control was widely used and easily available. In 1992 an Appeals court in the state of New York ruled that women have the same right as men to go topless. Islamic Worldview A Muslim father comments on his daughter's tank top: Father: You look like a Protestant. Daughter: Don't you mean prostitute? Father: No, I meant a Protestant, Scene from Little Mosque on the Prairie, a 2007 Canadian sitcom by Zarqa Nawaz. 21st Century America has become desensitized to sex and exposure, and nothing seems to shock. Hemline tattoos are popular for young women, along with low-rise jeans, vulgar slogans, body piercings and self-mutilation. Virginity is seen as a sign of weakness, and homosexuality is accepted among teenagers. In the past centuries, Christian peoples were often noted for their modesty, and heathen peoples for their immodesty. Today, the line between the professing Christian and the savage tribesman has become increasingly blurred, as more and more "Christian" people resort not only to the pagan practice of scarification, tattoos and body mutilation, but have thrown off the "restraints of modest dress in favor of the trendy and the physically revealing. In 2007 a woman was awarded a $29,000 settlement from the City of New York for being arrested (and being subject to 12 hours in custody and a psychiatric evaluation) after walking topless in New York City in 2005. In 2008, Oprah Winfrey introducted the world to Thomas Beatie and his wife. "Mr." Beatie, formerly a Hawaiian model named Ms. Tracy Lagondin, was artificially inseminated through an anonymous donor, and gave birth naturally to a baby girl. If Biblical language were used to discribe this situation, it would be a mix of "sodomy" and "prostitution". However, this new-age family was presented as the new "normal" by the media. You wouldn't expect a child raised in the area around Chernobyl (Russia) to grow into a healthy adult, free from the side effects of nuclear radiation. Likewise, you wouldn't expect a child raised in front of an American television to grow into a mentally healthy adult, free from the side effects of murder, lust and lies. The "inconvenient truth" of the 21st century is the fallout from the moral pollution of America. Footnotes     Roosevelt     Mussolini     Hitler     3 Isms     Driverless Cars     Morality     America     Ashes