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Can you lose your healing?: Difference between revisions
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William Branham seems to be providing an excuse where people, perhaps because of excitement, adrenalin or the placebo effect, start feeling better after having been prayed for and then after a few days their disease is back. | William Branham seems to be providing an excuse where people, perhaps because of excitement, adrenalin or the placebo effect, start feeling better after having been prayed for and then after a few days their disease is back. | ||
Let's take a look at a couple of examples from the Bible where Jesus said that people were lacking in faith. | |||
The first is Peter walking on water in Matt 14:29: | |||
:Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” <ref>The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 14:29–31.</ref> | |||
Here Jesus' faith (Thus saith the Lord) overcomes Peter's fear and lack of faith, not the other way around. | |||
Try applying William Branham's explanation here: Jesus has TSTL for Peter to walk on the water, but Peter disbelieves, sinks, and drowns, "you'd die anyhow. Certainly." | |||
That explanation makes the victim's unbelief more powerful than God's Word, which shall never pass away. Clearly, Jesus faith was more powerful than Peter's doubt. Just as clear, do not blame the victim for Bro. Branham's false claim. | |||
Another example is when the man brought his son to Jesus that the disciples were unable to heal: | |||
:''When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” | |||
:“You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment. | |||
:''Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “'''Why couldn’t we drive it out?'''” | |||
:''He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”<ref>The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 17:14–20.</ref> | |||
If Bro. Branham had the faith of TSTL, then the mountain would move / the person would not die, but instead he excuses himself and blames the victims. By comparing the Bible to Bro. Branham, he again proves his unbelief in his own TSTL statements AND directly contradicts Jesus teaching. | |||
It is true that Jesus sometimes commends others for their faith, such as the Centurion in Matt 8 or the Caananite woman in Matt. 15. But I do not recall Jesus blaming victims for dying after he said they would get well. In fact, His prayers are answered in spite of others unbelief, as above or in Matt 8:26 "What are you afraid, O you of little faith? Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm." | |||
I find it much more compelling when comparing these spurious statements to the Gospel, rather than just leaving it to the reader to determine if Bro. Branham's explanation is plausible. | |||
=Conclusion= | |||
This appears to be a simple case of William Branham providing an excuse for people that were never healed by God in the first place. This was a common ploy used by healing evangelists as related by Walter Hollenweger, a noted Pentecostal historian who worked as translator for Branham in one of his campaigns in Switzerland, who wrote of William Branham: | This appears to be a simple case of William Branham providing an excuse for people that were never healed by God in the first place. This was a common ploy used by healing evangelists as related by Walter Hollenweger, a noted Pentecostal historian who worked as translator for Branham in one of his campaigns in Switzerland, who wrote of William Branham: | ||
:''He possessed an extraordinary diagnostic gift and could identify the illnesses (sometimes even the names) of persons he had never seen. Unfortunately '''his healing prognosis was accurate only in rare cases'''. '''The excuse of healing evangelists in such cases has always been: The patient did not really believe; for they were convinced that faith leads automatically to health.'''<ref>Hollenweger, Walter J. (1997). Pentecostalism: Origins and Developments Worldwide. Baker Academic. ISBN 978-0801046605.</ref> | :''He possessed an extraordinary diagnostic gift and could identify the illnesses (sometimes even the names) of persons he had never seen. Unfortunately '''his healing prognosis was accurate only in rare cases'''. '''The excuse of healing evangelists in such cases has always been: The patient did not really believe; for they were convinced that faith leads automatically to health.'''<ref>Hollenweger, Walter J. (1997). Pentecostalism: Origins and Developments Worldwide. Baker Academic. ISBN 978-0801046605.</ref> | ||
=Quotes of William Branham= | =Quotes of William Branham= | ||