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Can we judge William Branham?: Difference between revisions
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|''In order to thoroughly deceive others, it is necessary to also deceive oneself. The actor playing Hamlet must indeed believe in the moment that he is the Prince of Denmark, though when he leaves the stage he will usually remember who he really is. On the other hand, when someone's entire life is based on such pretense, they seldom if ever return to reality. That is the secret of many successful politicians, evangelists and confidence tricksters alike–they believe they are telling the truth, even when it seems sure they must have known that they faked the evidence. Sincerity, my dear Julia, is a quality not to be trusted.'' | |||
::Sarah Caudwell ''The Sibyl in Her Grave'' | |||
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Followers of William Branham tell us that the Bible commands us not to judge and that, as a result, we should not judge William Branham or his message. Is this what the Bible truly teaches? | Followers of William Branham tell us that the Bible commands us not to judge and that, as a result, we should not judge William Branham or his message. Is this what the Bible truly teaches? | ||
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:''Do not judge by appearances, but '''judge with right judgment'''.”<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Jn 7:24.</ref> | :''Do not judge by appearances, but '''judge with right judgment'''.”<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Jn 7:24.</ref> | ||
::Jesus asks nothing more or less than that people judge with simple fairness, without partiality or favoritism, as he himself judges (see John 5:30, “Just as I hear I judge, and my judgment is right, because I am not seeking my will but the will of the One who sent me”). This the Pharisees have not done and will not do. In one sense, “by appearance” is simply equivalent to “according to the flesh” (see John 8:15).<ref>J. Ramsey Michaels, The Gospel of John, The New International Commentary on the Old and New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), 448.</ref> | |||
::In an age when Matthew 7:1 (‘Do not judge, or you too will be judged’) has displaced John 3:16 as the only verse in the Bible the man in the street is likely to know, it is worth adding that Matthew 7:1 forbids judgmentalism, not moral discernment. By contrast, John 7:24 demands moral and theological discernment in the context of obedient faith (John 7:17), while warning against self-righteous legalism but not stopping proper judgement of Biblical heresy.<ref>D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 317.</ref> | |||
:''The '''spiritual person judges all things''', but is himself to be judged by no one.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Co 2:15.</ref> | :''The '''spiritual person judges all things''', but is himself to be judged by no one.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Co 2:15.</ref> | ||
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:''Is it not those inside the church '''whom you are to judge?''' God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Co 5:12–13.</ref> | :''Is it not those inside the church '''whom you are to judge?''' God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Co 5:12–13.</ref> | ||
::Christians are not to pass sentence on the people of the world in their present existence. The reason for that is simple: “God will judge those outside”; and God’s judgment is still future, a judgment in which the church will also participate (1 Cor 6:2). But for now, the church takes the world as they find it. As God’s temple in the “world,” they are to offer a striking alternative to the world, and in that sense the church must always be “judging” the world. But it is not ours to bring sentence against those who belong to another worldview, to another age altogether. The time for that judgment is coming. | |||
::Exactly the opposite, however, must prevail within the Christian community itself. “Are you not to judge those inside?” The believing community must act responsibly, and boasting is not responsible. For their own sake, as well as for his, the Corinthian church is to put the incestuous man outside. | |||
How does one reconcile this passage with the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 7:1–6? Paul's principle is simple: Free association outside the church, precisely because God, not the church, judges those on the outside; but strict discipline within the church, because in its free association with the world it may not take on the character of the world in which it freely lives. | |||
Paul is not dealing with the kind of “judging” disallowed by Jesus, where the person with a beam in their own eye condemns the one with merely a mote. Jesus was dealing with personal criticism of one’s brother or sister, which is always disallowed, even by Paul. In this passage, Paul is dealing with persistent wrongdoing of a kind wherein someone wants to have it both ways, to belong to the Christian community without leaving their sin behind. Such persistence demands discipline for the sake of both the person involved and the community.<ref>Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, ed. Ned B. Stonehouse et al., Revised Edition, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014), 248–250.</ref> | |||
:''Do you not know that we are to '''judge''' angels? '''How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!'''<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Co 6:3.</ref> | :''Do you not know that we are to '''judge''' angels? '''How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!'''<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Co 6:3.</ref> | ||
::“In light of our existence in Christ and our participation in the judgment at the end of time, how can one care about such trifling matters in the first place, and in any case, how can one bring them before those who have no standing in the church and therefore will not have a share in those judgments?<ref>Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, ed. Ned B. Stonehouse et al., Revised Edition, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014), 260.</ref> | |||
:'' I speak as to sensible people; '''judge for yourselves what I say'''.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Co 10:15.</ref> | :'' I speak as to sensible people; '''judge for yourselves what I say'''.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Co 10:15.</ref> | ||