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Third Pull: Difference between revisions
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|''And [Jesus] said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.'' ~ Matthew 4:19 | |''And [Jesus] said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.'' ~ Matthew 4:19 | ||
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People in [[The Message|the message]] often talk about the Third Pull as something very important. William Branham said it was the mystery of the Seventh Seal. But what is the Third Pull? | People in [[The Message|the message]] often talk about the Third Pull as something very important. William Branham said it was the mystery of the [[Seventh Seal]]. But what is the Third Pull? And why does it include the failed tent vision?[[Image:FishOK.jpg|right|thumb|400px|The vision begins with a fishing lesson...]] | ||
[[Image:FishOK.jpg|right|thumb|The vision begins with a fishing lesson...]] | |||
=Three Pulls= | |||
[[Image:TentOK.jpg|right|thumb|250px|...and ends with his second vision about a tent. (See the article on the [[Heavenly Vision]] to learn about the first tent vision.)]] | |||
In 1956, in a sermon entitled “What is a Vision”, William Branham relays a vision of an angel instructing him how to fish. This vision became a focus of his ministry in later years, and includes the following scenes: | In 1956, in a sermon entitled “What is a Vision”, William Branham relays a vision of an angel instructing him how to fish. This vision became a focus of his ministry in later years, and includes the following scenes: | ||
#The angel told him not to jerk the fishing lure (the first “slow pull” was to be his healing ministry, and the second “little tug” was his ministry of revealing the hearts), | #The angel told him not to jerk the fishing lure (the first “slow pull” was to be his healing ministry, and the second “little tug” was his ministry of revealing the hearts), | ||
#He began to explain to a group of ministers what he was doing, and jerked the lure too hard. | #He began to explain to a group of ministers what he was doing, and jerked the lure too hard. | ||
#He caught a small fish, and got his fishing line tangled. | #He caught a small fish, and got his fishing line tangled. | ||
#The angel rebuked him for trying to explain his ministry, which caused impersonations. | #The angel rebuked him for trying to explain his ministry, which caused impersonations. | ||
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#The Angel said, "I'll meet you in there, and this is the third pull, but nobody will know nothing about it." | #The Angel said, "I'll meet you in there, and this is the third pull, but nobody will know nothing about it." | ||
==Pre-1963 Fulfillment?== | |||
There appear to be only 5 times that William Branham said he experienced the "third pull", and most were before he preached on the Seven Seals in March 1963: | |||
#Squirrels created (first mentioned in 1959) | |||
#Fish coming back to life (first mentioned in 1957) | |||
#Snow storm calmed (first mentioned in 1963) | |||
#His wife's tumor is healed (first mentioned in 1963) | |||
#Salvation of Hattie Wright's sons (first mentioned in 1959) | |||
In December 29, 1963 William Branham said “The third pull is here”. However, since Hattie Mosier’s two children were supposedly converted at her word in 1959, the third pull was in operation long before the Church Ages or the Seven Seals were preached. In addition, [[Arvel Mosier]]'s version of this event is different that William Branham's version, and includes an unfulfilled promise to participate in the tent ministry. | |||
A big question is why, if the third pull relates to the revealing of the seventh seal or the revealing of the mysteries, was it in operation before the teaching years of 1960 onward? | |||
It is also strange that there were only 5 incidences and none of them were witnessed by more than a few people (and some had no witnesses at all). | |||
== | ==Fulfillment under the Seals?== | ||
By 1963, William Branham had said that the third pull was | By 1963, William Branham had said that the third pull was | ||
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*the king’s sword, and | *the king’s sword, and | ||
*the vindication of his ministry. | *the vindication of his ministry. | ||
*his own spoken word. | |||
William Branham also said that the 3rd pull could not be mimicked. [http://en.believethesign.com/index.php/Seventh_Seal#If_the_Seventh_Seal_is_the_Third_Pull.2C_what_is_the_Third_Pull.3F Read about the fulfillment of the Third Pull under the Seventh Seal.] | |||
The | =The Tent Vision Failure= | ||
Despite these stories, what is missing is the fulfillment of the Tent Vision - the final scene in the vision of the Third Pull. Until the end of his ministry William Branham was saying that the Tent ministry was coming. But it never did. | |||
=Was William Branham Disobedient?= | |||
The biggest problem with this vision is that William Branham continued to explain it, and his ministry, well into 1964. In 1962, immediately after retelling the Angel’s instruction not to explain the vision, William Branham said, ''“I feel duty bound, to my church, to say something. You draw your own conclusion.”'''''Why did he continue to do this in direct contravention to what he said was the instruction of the angel?''' | |||
#If William Branham was directly on target with his explanation of the 3rd pull, then he was out of line with the Angel's instruction not to explain the vision. | #If William Branham was directly on target with his explanation of the 3rd pull, then he was out of line with the Angel's instruction not to explain the vision. | ||
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#If the fishing line was tangled, then the purpose of the third pull was frustrated, i.e. he was no longer catching fish as he was with the first and second pulls. | #If the fishing line was tangled, then the purpose of the third pull was frustrated, i.e. he was no longer catching fish as he was with the first and second pulls. | ||
=The First Temptation= | |||
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|''And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.'' ~ Matthew 4:3 | |||
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William Branham stated that he spoke squirrels into existence at the command of a voice that spoke to him. In referring to the voice he heard, he described it as "something said". Was this God speaking to him, an angel or something else? | |||
When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, Satan asked him to turn stones into bread. Jesus was hungry and was tempted to do what Satan asked him to. In the case of William Branham, he was hunting for squirrels. So why was this different from Jesus' first temptation? | |||
One common interpretation among message believers is that the Third Pull will manifest among believers as the ability to speak things into existence. This interpretation is primarily based on William Branham's testimony that he created squirrels into existence by his own spoken word, through the instruction of an angelic voice. | |||
The danger with this expectation is that it forgets Jesus' first temptation in the wilderness: when the Devil tempted Jesus to use his supernatural powers to create bread from stones in order to satisfy his own hunger. '''Sadly, this temptation is exactly what message believers are expecting to yield to in the future. If the tempter came to a message believer with instructions to create bread or squirrels from stones, they would likely give in to the devil instantly - because they would follow William Branham's example and not the example left to them by Jesus Christ, who alone had dominion over the devil's temptations.''' | |||
Some Message Believers feel that William Branham will resurrect to fulfill the Tent Vision. Others feel this had a spiritual interpretation. But both groups agree that the Tent Ministry did not materialize physically while claiming that the Third Pull was fulfilled. | |||
If you are confused about this, it may be because William Branham got his lines tangled while pulling your leg. | |||
==What happened to the "third pull" squirrels?== | |||
We have been asked whether the squirrels that William Branham said were created had navels. One would think if they were spoken into existence, they wouldn't have any belly buttons. | |||
So what happened to these "created" squirrels? | |||
:''I said, "That same God…" Hallelujah! That Jehovah-jireh, He's just as much Jehovah-jireh today as He was on the mountain with Abraham. He can still produce an animal to His glory. These squirrels was not a vision. I shot them; blood came out of them. '''I dressed them and eat them.''' They wasn't visions; they were squirrels.<ref>William Branham, 59-1115 - My New Ministry, para.175</ref> | |||
If they didn't have a belly button, William Branham never noticed it. | |||
=Quotes of William Branham= | |||
''And at that, the Angel of the Lord taken me out then, and He taken me to a real bright stream of water. It was the most beautiful blue water; and great fish were swimming around in it. He said, "I will make you a fisher." And He said, "Now, cast your lure into the water; and when you do, pull it slow, first time; and the next time, just give it a little jerk, not too hard; and the next time, set your hook for the catch." | ''And at that, the Angel of the Lord taken me out then, and He taken me to a real bright stream of water. It was the most beautiful blue water; and great fish were swimming around in it. He said, "I will make you a fisher." And He said, "Now, cast your lure into the water; and when you do, pull it slow, first time; and the next time, just give it a little jerk, not too hard; and the next time, set your hook for the catch." | ||
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''Now, Christian friends, that'll--when I leave this world, that'll still be in my bosom. When I... But you mark my words what's going to take place when that...<ref>56-0408A WHAT.IS.A.VISION_ CHICAGO.IL</ref> | ''Now, Christian friends, that'll--when I leave this world, that'll still be in my bosom. When I... But you mark my words what's going to take place when that...<ref>56-0408A WHAT.IS.A.VISION_ CHICAGO.IL</ref> | ||
'''''Something said''', "Say to it. Speak the three squirrels, and you'll have it." I said, "That's happened once." | |||
''So I stood by the side of a little tree, late in the afternoon on a side of a ridge. And that Anointing come so great till I could hardly stand on the ground, and said, "Speak! What you say, don't doubt and you can have what you've said." | |||
''I said, "I shall get three squirrels." He said, "Where will they come from?" | |||
''I said, "One will come from that way, one from that way, and one back this a way." Make it radical. God don't care how radical that it seems. He's God of circumstance. | |||
''And while I stood there for about a few minutes, I could hear no shooting around from the rest of the boys around anywhere. I happened to look to my back. Way up in the woods, about ninety yards, I thought something was on a stump. I watched it. After a while, it jumped off; and it was a gray squirrel. So far. All the way across the hollow upon top of the ridge. When it come along by the side of the tree, I shot it. It was about ninety yards, and it killed it. I said, "There's one. I might as well turn and look this other way for the others, 'cause they're coming." | |||
''See, God has a way of bringing things to you, making you sure what you're talking about. That anointing I... was off of me then. Well, I waited and watched this a way for about a hour. Nothing happened. I was getting cold. I thought, "Surely, if that is the Holy Spirit that's telling me those things, it will be just exactly; because when the anointing was on me I spoke that word, and it'll have to be that way." | |||
''Now, listen real close to this. And this is going to be a tape recording that'll go all over the world. | |||
Now, and then to my left, I kept watching. After while, I looked upon a tree. Coming around a beech tree, there come a gray squirrel. I said, "Just exactly that way. That's right, Lord." | |||
I turned down, raised up to shoot him, and there come another squirrel. I said, "There's two. Just exactly. Make my three." And I raised down, shot the first squirrel. | |||
''The other one run under a log. I could see him cutting on a--a hickory nut or something, under the log. The log was about that high at the end, raised up about a foot. I could see the squirrel. I killed the first one. I said, "Now, I'll get the other one." | |||
''And I leveled down, put those cross hairs right over his ear, not over forty, fifty yards away, and shot and hit the log. And the squirrel never even got excited. And I put another bullet in it. And he turned around and went down the log, and went to the other end. Well, I leveled down and took the best aim I could. And I'd only missed five shots all year. So then, I leveled down, right perfect shot, and touched the trigger again, and I hit about four inches above him. I said, "I must have knocked my scope out."<ref>MY.NEW.MINISTRY JEFF.IN 59-1115</ref> | |||
''And I said, "Well, oh, all...?..." I said, "I--I don't know." I said, "I've understand fishing." I--I said, "Now, the first thing you do... Here's the way it's done. You see all the fish around; you got to jerk the lure." (Well, that's exactly the tactics of fishing.) So I said, "Jerk the lure." Now, you see when I jerked the lure the first time, now the fish takes out after it, but they were little ones. That's just like they were catching. So then I--I said, "Then you'll--you'll set..." and I jerked it out on the bank and I had a fish, but it looked like a skin over the lure; it just--he was so little. And then I was standing there and something said, "I told you not to do that." And I started crying. | ''And I said, "Well, oh, all...?..." I said, "I--I don't know." I said, "I've understand fishing." I--I said, "Now, the first thing you do... Here's the way it's done. You see all the fish around; you got to jerk the lure." (Well, that's exactly the tactics of fishing.) So I said, "Jerk the lure." Now, you see when I jerked the lure the first time, now the fish takes out after it, but they were little ones. That's just like they were catching. So then I--I said, "Then you'll--you'll set..." and I jerked it out on the bank and I had a fish, but it looked like a skin over the lure; it just--he was so little. And then I was standing there and something said, "I told you not to do that." And I started crying. | ||
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''And in Sabino Canyon, He said, "This is the third pull." And there's three great things that goes with it, and one unfolded today, or yesterday, the other one unfolded today, and there's one thing that I cannot interpret, because it's in an unknown language. But I was standing right there and looked right straight at it, and this is the third pull coming up. And the Holy Spirit of God... Oh, my. That's the reason all heaven was silent.<ref>63-0324E THE.SEVENTH.SEAL_ JEFFERSONVILLE.IN</ref> | ''And in Sabino Canyon, He said, "This is the third pull." And there's three great things that goes with it, and one unfolded today, or yesterday, the other one unfolded today, and there's one thing that I cannot interpret, because it's in an unknown language. But I was standing right there and looked right straight at it, and this is the third pull coming up. And the Holy Spirit of God... Oh, my. That's the reason all heaven was silent.<ref>63-0324E THE.SEVENTH.SEAL_ JEFFERSONVILLE.IN</ref> | ||
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[[Category:Prophecies and Visions]] | |||
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