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The Brown Bear Vision: Difference between revisions
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There are a few problems with these explanations: | There are a few problems with these explanations: | ||
===Returned Ministry=== | |||
William Branham died in 1965, and a large stone pyramid now sits on top of his grave in Indiana. He is not raising from the dead just to travel to British Columbia to shoot a bear. | |||
===The Jonah Excuse=== | |||
''“God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon”'' the people of Nineveh (Jonah 3:10) because they repented. Applying this scripture to William Branham’s life might make sense in the context of the vision of the destruction of Los Angeles (although there was no mass-repentance in L.A. as there was in Nineveh). However, this scripture does not work in the context of the hunting vision, as it would mean that the brown bear repented of its evil ways. | |||
Years before the Jonah went to Nineveh, the prophet Jeremiah said that God would withhold his judgement to a Nation that would repent. ''"The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it."'' (Jeremiah 18:7-8) There is no scriptural precident that says God will relent of a vision that involves the destruction of a brown bear. | Years before the Jonah went to Nineveh, the prophet Jeremiah said that God would withhold his judgement to a Nation that would repent. ''"The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it."'' (Jeremiah 18:7-8) There is no scriptural precident that says God will relent of a vision that involves the destruction of a brown bear. | ||
===William Branham's Disobedience Resulted in the Failure of the Vision=== | |||
A minister who accompanied William Branham on several of his hunting trips stated publicly that William Branham discussed his disobedience and the resultant failure of this vision in this quote: | |||
:''So I, in these thirty--going on thirty-two years of ministry, I have tried to stay true to the Word. I don't know of one thing I've ever had to alter on, because I just read it out of the Bible, said just what the Bible said, and let it go like that. And so I haven't had to take back or rearrange, because I just said it the way that the Bible says it. And I find out, if God has spoken anything, then we must go with that Word in order to make It be fulfilled. We seen that, as I told you last night, of a vision just recently (See?), that it... I had to be there, and warning to be there, and telling me six months before to be on that spot, and stand there, and saying, "Go down there (three times) with them." And I just walked on with the other men. And the vision passed right through exactly, God's part; and I was left standing. So we want to remember; you've got to stay on the Word, just stay right with the Word. And where the Word leads, you go right with the Word, then It'll bring you out all right. I'm sure.<ref>COUNTDOWN_ JEFF.IN V-11 N-3 SUNDAY_ 62-0909M</ref> | |||
While this explanation will meet the requirements of dissonance reduction (see [[Cognitive Dissonance]]), it fails on a number of levels: | |||
:1. The quote above is vague and does not specifically address the issue. William Branham stated publicly that he would shoot the brown bear and that it could not fail because it was "Thus Saith The Lord". Why would he not have stated publicly that this related to | |||
:2. The minister referred to above quotes William Branham as stating that: | |||
::''"I am the Jonah in this group. This is only the second time in my life that I know that I have disobeyed a vision."'' By this, the minister stated that prophets like Moses failed God and disobeyed direct commands of God but were still prophets. However, this statement does not adequately deal with the fact that William Branham said something would take place in the name of the Lord and it did not. | |||
:3. Deuteronomy 18:20-22 is very clear: | |||
::''But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him. <ref>The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Dt 18:20–22 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009).</ref> | |||
::''“But any prophet who fakes it, who claims to speak in my name something I haven’t commanded him to say, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.” You may be wondering among yourselves, “How can we tell the difference, whether it was GOD who spoke or not?” Here’s how: If what the prophet spoke in GOD’s name doesn’t happen, then obviously GOD wasn’t behind it; the prophet made it up. '''Forget about him.''' <ref>Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language, Dt 18:20–22 (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005).</ref> | |||
Excuses for disobedience are not permitted. | |||
:3. The minister who is publicly testifying of his personal experiences relating to William Branham's disobedience has a serious credibility problem. The majority of his congregation, including almost the entirety of the church leadership, left the church because of his personal moral failures. As a result, anything that this minister states must be view as highly suspect. | |||
:4. '''''“Thus Saith The Lord”''''' should be stronger than an individual’s lack of obedience. Does God permit a prophet to say, ''"I did something wrong personally and that is why the vision did not come to pass"''? | |||
:We can find '''no example in scripture''' that suggests this is the case. There is only one exception for a prophesy not to be fulfilled – and this involves repentance by the person (or nation) being judged. If it was acceptable for one prophet to say "Oops! I made a personal mistake, and that’s why the vision was not fulfilled," then every false prophet would claim this as an easy-out excuse. For this reason, the Word of God only permits one explanation for a failed vision, because repentance satisfies the wrath of God. That is why Ezekiel says, ''“Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.”'' (Ezekiel 18:30) | |||
We also looked in the scripture for the spiritual significance of shooting a bear, and could not find one. This vision was only to promote William Branham’s own ministry, and it failed. | :5. We also looked in the scripture for the spiritual significance of shooting a bear, and could not find one. This vision was only to promote William Branham’s own ministry, and it failed. | ||
So what will you do with this failed vision? Will you succumb to [[Cognitive Dissonance|cognitive dissonance]] and trivialize an obvious wrong? | So what will you do with this failed vision? Will you succumb to [[Cognitive Dissonance|cognitive dissonance]] and trivialize an obvious wrong? | ||