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| |[[Image:Slave.jpg|right|thumb|180px|Wounds of a slave. USA, 1863.]]
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| Jesus began his ministry by reciting the following scripture from the prophet Isaiah:
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| :''The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD,'' (Isaiah 61:1,2a)
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| Jesus said to the people listening: ''"This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."'' This was a true saying, as Jesus ministry was to the meek, blind, brokenhearted, and captives.
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| However, Jesus closed the book of Isaiah before finishing the full prophecy of the Messiah. The part that Jesus omitted was as follows:
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| :''and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.'' (Isaiah 61:2b,3)
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| By closing the book, Jesus was telling the people that the "day of vengeance" was still to come, and the promise to "comfort all that mourn" was still to come. In otherwords, there would still be suffering on the earth until the Messiah declared that the "day of vengeance of our God was at hand".
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| |'' Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. ... Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: <br> Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.'' (I Peter 4:19, 5:6-7) '' | | |'' Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. ... Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: <br> Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.'' (I Peter 4:19, 5:6-7) '' |
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| | [[Image:Slave.jpg|right|thumb|180px|Wounds of a slave. USA, 1863.]] |
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| <div style="border-bottom:1px #B87333 solid; text-align:center; font-size:140%; padding:1px; margin:1px;">William Branham talks about suffering</div>
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| The following quotes are a very short sample of what [[William Branham]] had to say about suffering. For more of his teaching on this subject, it would be best to read his life story, which tells of his own sickness, the death of his wife and daughter, his search for truth, and his childhood as the son of an alcoholic.
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| '''Working together for God'''
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| :''Look at the world in the condition it's in: poor suffering humanity. Help everybody you can. Everything that helps is of God. Let's help; let's do everything we can and pray for men. The thing to do, brethren, is get our arms together, both medicine, doctors, hospitals, nurses, church, and all together, and put our faith in God and move forward. That's what we need. God's going to ask us why we didn't do it some of these days.'' (WHY_ BLOOMINGTON.IL THURSDAY_ 61-0413)
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| '''The price for rejecting God's word'''
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| :''Now, then when Moses went down to deliver them, why, they--they refused him, rejected him. And it cost them forty years more suffering.'' (MOSES_COMMISSION HOUSTON_TX 01-10-50)
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| :''God was "Long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all might come to repentance." {FOR_HIM_WILL_I_ACCEPT HAMMOND_IN 07-18-52)
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| '''Promise of freedom from a dying wife'''
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| :''I said, "Hope, Hope, honey." I said, "Speak to me once. Well, just speak one time, won't you." I was shaking her. Friends, if I will live a hundred years, I'll never forget what happened. Those two big brown eyes looked up at me. She was so weak she couldn't say nothing. She was smiling. She took her finger and she motioned. And I got down, and she said, "Why did you call me, honey?" And I said, "Well, they..." I said, "I don't know." She said, "Oh I--I was in another land." She said, "It was so peaceful. I wasn't suffering." (LIFE_STORY LITTLE_ROCK_AR 02-00-50)
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| '''Promise of freedom from sickness'''
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| :''There's a real power of the Holy Spirit that delivers the sufferer from his suffering. …It will change a cancer-eaten person, when a lovely doctor has done all he could do and burnt with radium and x-ray and everything; it'll bring that person to normal health again'' (I_WAS_NOT_DISOBEDIENT_TO_THE_HEAVENLY_VISION ZION_IL 07-18-49)
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| :''What if the express agent would come down to your house and say, "How do you do, are you Miss John Doe?” “Yes.” “Well, I have something here for you." And you looked at it, it'd be a great big box full of rattlesnakes. Well, what a present. There's your name tacked on them. "These are yours." Are they? In one sense they're yours, in another sense they're not. Now, you say, "I don't want them.”
| | '''If you read the book of Job or listen to Jesus' teachings, you will learn that suffering and sickness are not a sign of being out of the will of God.''' Job's friends never fell ill, yet were entirely wrong. Likewise, suffering is not a sign that people are being punished for their sins. Rather, suffering is a sign of our insufficiency and mortality. Suffering can be relieved by prayer, by wisdom, by the touch of a friend, and by the touch of God. The instruction of the apostle Peter is for us to follow Jesus in his suffering, bringing glory to God when we bless those who persecute us. Eventually, the love of God will eliminate suffering. |
| :''“Well, they're yours; your name's on them." Well, that's one way it's yours, but still it isn't yours till you sign for it.
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| :''And if you don't sign for it, he will have to take it back. You might see all your symptoms, the devil says, "Here it is; here's your cancer; here's your heart trouble; here's your crippled condition." Refuse to sign for anything the devil brings. He will have to take it back. Say, "I refuse to have it. I just won't have it, no, sir." He will have to take it back in the Name of the Lord. If you believe it, and confess it, and say, "I've accept Jesus Christ as my Healer," there's no affliction or disease can stay on you. Stay right with it.'' (The Second Miracle, Erie, PA, 07-29-51 evening)
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| <div style="border-bottom:1px #B87333 solid; text-align:center; font-size:140%; padding:1px; margin:1px;">Scriptures on Suffering</div>
| | =Scriptures on Suffering= |
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| *'''Revelation 21:4''' ''And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.'' | | *'''Revelation 21:4''' ''And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.'' |
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| | =William Branham talks about suffering= |
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| <div style="border-bottom:1px #B87333 solid; text-align:center; font-size:140%; padding:1px; margin:1px;">The Infidel's Question</div>
| | William Braham often taught that suffering comes as a result of not following the will of God. He also taught that God punishes others for the mistakes of important people. His doctrine on suffering is very close to the doctrine of Job's friends. |
| :''The old infidel has said, many times, “Why would a just God do a thing like that, and had all the suffering that's gone through the age?"''
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| :''God didn't do that. Man did that, himself. God wasn't willing for him to do that.''
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| :''"Well then, if God was omnipotent, why did He let it even happen? Why didn't He make man perfect?"''
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| :''Because, in the beginning there was nothing but God. And in God was attributes, His attribute to be a Saviour. We know it's so. He is a Saviour, and that was in Him. And there was nothing lost, to be saved. In Him was attributes to be Father, and there was nothing He could father. In Him was attributes to be a healer. There was nothing lost, nothing sick. So the only thing He could do was make man on the basis of free moral agency, knowing that he would do it. God didn't do it, Himself. Man done it, himself.''
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| :''And you're the same way this morning. You can accept Life or turn Life down. But God made man thus, that he'd... knowing he would do it, not willing that he should do it, but knowing he would do it, that it would display His attributes. So there's nothing out of time. Everything is ticking just exactly according to God's great timepiece. See? And this only displays His attributes, to select His children who really love Him and believe Him. And every man has an equal right.''
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| :''God being infinite, knew from the beginning what would be and what wouldn't be. So therefore He wasn't willing that any... But being infinite He'd have to know. So, therefore, He could say that He would have a Church without spot or wrinkle, because He knew He would have it. He is God.''
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| (CONFERENCES_ TUCSON.AZ SATURDAY_ 63-0608)
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| {{Portal Navigation}} | | :''And--and there, friends, is where my sorrows started. I listened to my mother-in-law in the stead of God. He was giving me the opportunity. And there this gift would've been manifested long time ago, if I'd just went ahead and done what God told me to do. But instead of that, I didn't want her to be angry, and I didn't want to hurt nobody's feelings. And so I just--just let it go like that. Just walked, I just said, "All right, we won't go." And right there, the sorrows started. Immediately after that, my father died. My brother was killed a few nights later from that. I almost lost my own... I lost my father, my brother, my wife, my baby, and my sister-in-law, and almost my own life within about six month's time. And just started going down. My church, pretty near everything went down, down, down. Hope taken sick. Just right after that, the 1937 flood come on.'' (Life Story, Phoenix, Arizona, April 15, 1951) |
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| | :'' I pulled some branches off the trees, walked back out there, where those ministers was standing. And threw it over their feet like that, and said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, if we go down, even to Klarksdorf, you'll suffer the results. You got me here. I haven't even got money to pay my way back. You--you got me here, and I can't go back, 'cause I couldn't go back. He told me to ahead to Johannesburg. You got me sewed up here." I said, "You'll see, as Paul said one day, you should've listened to me." See?'' (July 13, 1952) ...''You see, when I was over there I disobeyed God and I picked up ameba.'' (June 9, 1953) |
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| | William Branham learned this doctrine from his first pastor, [[Roy Davis]], who wrote: |
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| | :''As a direct result of my failure to listen to God on matters so deeply important to us both and to the world in general, I went through the very fires of hell.'' (Roy Davis, October 1950, The Voice of Healing, Page 14). |
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| | {{Bottom of Page}} |
| | [[Category:Doctrines]] |
| | [[Category:Critical analysis of William Branham]] |
| | [[Category:Bible study]] |