William Branham
Nope, The Heresy Hunter ain't quite dead yet - just busy with seminary. Thought I'd post a few words from William Branham, who is hailed as a hero of the Word Faith Movement and the Prophetic and Apostolic movements. I'm sure that the leaders of these movements don't care one whit that what he taught was heresy, but maybe some their followers will one day open a Bible and discover that false teaching DOES matter. Here is Branham denouncing the Trinity. Full text can be found
here.
"Now all these expressions, 'Him Which Is,' and 'Him Which Was,' and 'Is To Come,' and 'Faithful Witness,' and 'Firstborn From Among the Dead,' and 'Prince of the Kings of the Earth,' and 'The Alpha .and Omega,' and 'The Almighty,' are titles and descriptions of the ONE AND THE, SAME PERSON, Who is the Lord Jesus Christ, Who washed us from our sins in His own blood.
The Spirit of God in John expresses thusly in order to set forth the Supreme Deity of Jesus Christ and to reveal the Godhead as ONE God. Today there is a gross error. It is that there are three Gods instead of one. This revelation as given to John by Jesus, Himself, corrects that error. It is not that there are three Gods, but one God with three offices. There is ONE God with three titles, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This mighty revelation IS what the early church had, and it must be restored in this last day along with the correct formula of water baptism.
Now modern theologians won't agree with me for here is what was written in a great Christian magazine. That teaching (on the Trinity) is at the very
heart and core of the Old Testament. It is every whit as much at the heart and core of the New Testament. The New Testament is just as much opposed as the Old Testament is to the thought that there are more Gods, than one. Yet the New Testament with equal clearness teaches that the Father is God, and the Son is God; and the Holy Spirit is God, and that these three are NOT three aspects of the same Person, but three persons standing in a truly personal relationship to one another. There we have the great doctrine oh the Three Persons but one God.
They also state, God, according to the Bible,. is not just one person, but He is three persons in one God. That is the great mystery of the Trinity. "It sure is. How can three persons be one God? Not only is there no Bible for it, but it shows even a lack of intelligent reasoning. Three distinct persons, though identical substance; make three gods; or language has lost its meaning entirely. Just listen to these words again, I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, saith the Lord, Which Is, and Which Was, and Which Is to Come, the Almighty. This is Deity. This is not simply a prophet, a man. This is God. And it is not a revelation of three Gods, but of ONE God, the Almighty.
They didn't believe in three Gods in the beginning of the church. You can't find that sort of belief amongst the apostles. It was after the apostolic age that this theory came in and really became an issue and a cardinal doctrine at the Nicene Council. The doctrine of Godhead caused a two-way split at Nicea. And from that split it there came two extremes. One actually, went into polytheism, believing in three Gods, and the others went into Unitarianism. Of course that was a little while in coming about, but it did, and we have it right today. But the Revelation through John by the Spirit to the churches was, I am the Lord Jesus Christ, and I am ALL of it. There isn't any other God, And He put His seal on this Revelation:
Consider this: Who was the Father of Jesus? Matt. 1:18 says, She was found with child of the Holy Ghost. But Jesus, Himself, claimed that God was His Father. God the Father and God the Holy Ghost, as we often express these terms, make the Father and the Spirit ONE. Indeed they are, or else Jesus had two Fathers. But notice that Jesus said that He and His Father were One, not two. That makes ONE God.
Since this is historically and Scripturally true, people wonder where the three came from. It became a foundational doctrine at the Nicene Council in 325 A.D. This trinity (an absolutely unscriptural word) was based upon the many gods of Rome. The Romans had many gods to whom they prayed. They also prayed to ancestors as mediators. It was just a step to give new names to old gods, so we have saints to make it more Biblical. Thus, instead of Jupiter, Venice, Mars, etc. we have Paul, Peter, Fatima, Christopher, etc., etc. They could not make their pagan religion work out with just one God, so they split Him up into three, and they made intercessors of the saints as they had made intercessors of their ancestors.
Ever since then people have failed to realize that there is just one God with three offices or manifestations. They know there is one God according to Scripture, but they try to make it the fantastic theory that God is like a bunch of grapes; three persons with the same Divinity shared equally by all. But it plainly says here in Revelation that Jesus is That Which Is, That Which. Was, and 'That Which Is to Come.. He is the Alpha and Omega, which means that He is the' A: to "Z' 'Or The All Of It, He is Everything, The Almighty." He is the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the valley, the Bright and Morning Star, the Righteous Branch, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. He is God, Almighty God. ONE GOD.
1 Tim. 3: 16 says, And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness.God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles; believed on in the world, received up into Glory. This is what the Bible says. It doesn't say a thing about a first or second or third person here. It says God was manifest in flesh. One God. The ONE GOD was manifested in flesh. That ought to settle it. God came in a human form. That didn't make Him ANOTHER GOD. HE WAS GOD, THE SAME GOD. It was a revelation then, and it is a revelation now, One God.
Labels: William Branham
Word Faith Consequences
Good article on the consequences of Word Faith theology from Time Magazine:
Maybe We Should Blame God For the Subprime Mess.Labels: Word Faith
A Final Word on the Todd Bentley Fiasco
Great article by Marsha West,
"We Have Had Enough of False Prophets."Labels: Todd Bentley
A Heresy Hunter At Concordia
Note that I have now started a new blog called
A Heresy Hunter At Concordia. Enjoy!
The Heresy Hunter Retires
After 20 years involvement with, and 13 years employment with the Christian Research Institute (CRI), at the age of 59 I am moving on to my third career.
My first was 22 years as a plant operator at a power generating station in Toronto. The second was my time with CRI as a researcher for the Bible Answer Man show and writer for the
Christian Research Journal.
In September I will be starting classes at Concordia Theological Seminary (CTS) in Fort Wayne, Indiana where I will be studying to become a pastor in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. This was definitely
not my idea - when my wife would suggest that I'd make a good pastor I would shrug it off. However, after asking a few questions I saw doors opening and others closing and it became obvious that God wanted me to go into the pastoral ministry. Additionally, others I respected thought I'd make a great pastor as well - again, much to my surprise - and the staff of CRI has been behind me and has wished me well.
My plan is to preach and write for the next 30 years or so and then move on to my fourth career - possibly as a 90 year old rock singer - after all, the Rolling Stones will probably still be performing!
Since I've got to immerse myself in my studies for the next few years and will undoubtedly lose touch with all the current heresies in Christianity today, posts to this blog will be few and far between. I may start another blog relating my time at CTS but that remains to be seen. If I do I'll post a link here. Once I'm ordained, in addition to serving my parishioners I plan to continue writing on today's aberrant movements. The Heresy Hunter may ride again, but this time greatly improved!
In the meantime my wife and I will be living mostly off of student loans and donations. If your church would like to adopt me as a student it would be greatly appreciated - just contact Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne for details!Labels: Heresy Hunters
Deception in the Church? Blame Iraq!!!
This is so unbelievable that I'll just post this with no further comment necessary. Dutch Sheets writes the following on
Elijah List and the Streams of Revival e-mail letter:
The level of deception and confusion I have seen over America the last two years, both in the church and out, has been unlike anything I have ever witnessed. The level of it, especially in the body of Christ, has truly been shocking to me. 
The list of areas in which it has manifested is broad: presidential candidate endorsements and prophecies; doctrinal error; relational breakups; disagreements over what is true and false revival; and so on. Add to this list a general weariness, complacency (one well-known leader told me he doesn’t think it matters anymore who is elected president—so much for shifting the Supreme Court!), disillusionment, disorientation and so on, and it all equals incredible deception and confusion.
I believe [the deception] is linked to our war in Iraq, which is ancient Babylon. Babylon, of course, means “confusion.” It was not difficult for us to defeat Iraq’s physical army, but the principality—the spirit of Babylon—has been another story altogether.
Just a couple of weeks ago, however, I heard the Holy Spirit very clearly say to me, “I’m about to unravel the cords of confusion.” When I heard this I had the sense that He would begin to do it in September. In 2 Chronicles 20, [we read that] God used the Israelite’s worship to “ambush” their enemies. The result was that these enemies destroyed one another! Expect the confusion to break off the church this fall and God’s enemies to be ambushed.
Labels: Dutch Sheets, Prophets, Revival
Life After Bentley
Now that Todd Bentley is headed for the divorce courts J. Lee Grady is finally confident enough to state what many of us have known since Todd Bentley showed up on the scene. From today's
Charisma News:
Here are few of my many, many questions about this fiasco:
Why did so many people flock to Lakeland from around the world to rally behind an evangelist who had serious credibility issues from the beginning?
To put it bluntly, we’re just plain gullible.
...
Why didn’t anyone in Lakeland denounce the favorable comment
s Bentley made about William Branham?
This one baffles me. Branham embraced horrible deception near the end of his ministry, before he died in 1965. He claimed that he was the reincarnation of Elijah—and his strange doctrines are still embraced by a cultlike following today. When Bentley announced to the world that the same angel that ushered in the 1950s healing revival had come to Lakeland, the entire audience should have run for the exits.
Why didn’t anyone correct this error from the pulpit? Godly leaders are supposed to protect the sheep from heresy, not spoon feed deception to them.
...Why did God TV tell people that “any criticism of Todd Bentley is demonic”?
This ridiculous statement was actually made on one of God TV’s pre-shows. In fact, the network’s hosts also warned listeners that if they listened to criticism of Bentley, they could lose their healings.
This is cultic manipulation at its worst. The Bible tells us that the Bereans were noble believers because they studied the Scriptures daily “to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11, NASB). Yet in the case of Lakeland, honest intellectual inquiry was viewed as a sign of weakness. People were expected to jump first and then open their eyes.
Just because we believe in the power of the Holy Spirit does not mean we check our brains at the church door. We are commanded to test the spirits. Jesus wants us to love Him with our hearts and our minds.
...Why did a group of respected ministers lay hands on Bentley on June 23 and publicly ordain him? Did they know of his personal problems?
This controversial ceremony was organized by Peter Wagner, who felt that one of Bentley’s greatest needs was proper spiritual covering. He asked California pastors Che Ahn and Bill Johnson, along with Canadian pastor John Arnott, to lay hands on Bentley and bring him under their care.
Eventually another "move of God" is going to hit the scene. People are going to flock to the "revival" and unquestioningly embrace it. It happened at Azusa, it happened in Toronto, it happened in Brownsville, and it happened in Lakeland. It will happen again and people will not learn from the past.
Labels: Todd Bentley
