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William Branham and the Atonement: Difference between revisions
→“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
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:''About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).<ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 27:46.</ref> | :''About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).<ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 27:46.</ref> | ||
William Branham, as seen in the quotes below, explains Jesus crying out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” as a man forsaken by God. But is this what Jesus was doing? Why didn't Jesus cry, "My Father, My Father..."? If this was simply cry of personal distress, why did Jesus not use Abba as he did in the Gethsemane?<ref>David E. Garland, Mark, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 601.</ref> | |||
In biblical times, one way that Jews referred to the Psalms was by the first line of a particular psalm. So when Jesus cried out in Aramaic - “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?”<ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mk 15:34.</ref> - he was simply quoting the first line of Psalm 22. | |||
In citing the first line of Psalm 22, Jesus has the whole of the psalm in view, which ends with the righteous sufferer’s vindication and restoration (Psalm 22:22–31). He is telling Mary and that disciples that are watching him in wonder that God is to be praised, since he “has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help” (Psalm 22:24). This is not, then, a cry of despair, but rather an assurance of victory.<ref>Mark L. Strauss, Mark, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), 702.</ref> | |||
Mark tells us that when Jesus cried out, it was the ninth hour, the Jewish hour of prayer (Acts 3:1), and Jesus prayed the prayer of the righteous sufferer, who trusts fully in God’s protection. Psalm 22 tells us that Messiah was to be mocked (Ps. 22:7–9), his strength dried up (22:15–16), his hands and feet pierced (22:16), and his garments divided (22:18). Jesus therefore did not simply let out an anguished wail of pain but deliberately quoted this lament, which moves from an expression of pain to confidence in God’s deliverance. Why would Jesus cry out to an absent God unless he believed that God was indeed there to hear and able to deliver him? Senior argues: | |||
These words are, in effect, the final version of the prayer in Gethsemane where, also in a “lament,” Jesus affirmed his unbroken trust in his Father while feeling the full horror of approaching death (Mark 14:32–42). | |||
Jews in Jesus’ day were immersed in the Scripture the way moderns are immersed in television and the movies, and they would know that Psalm 22 begins with despair but ends on a triumphant note. | |||
In other words, by using Psalm 22, Jesus chose to complain stridently about his suffering and tragedy but to look beyond it to express his faith in the God who vindicates the righteous. He identifies himself with the righteous sufferer, who feels the pain of his testing but whose intimacy with God allows him to voice his complaint bluntly and to demand rescue. He accepts his suffering, trusting that God’s intervention will come in his death. If one understands this cry as a prayer, God immediately answers it. The darkness lasting from the sixth to the ninth hour lifts, and the following events reveal in overwhelming fashion that his confident hope in God’s vindication has not been misplaced. “For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help” (Ps. 22:24).<ref>David E. Garland, Mark, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 601–602.>/ref> | |||
The real question is - Why didn't William Branham understand this? | |||
=Quotes of William Branham= | =Quotes of William Branham= | ||