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From the book:
GREAT TRAGEDY book, pg
23. Written by Rev. E.Frank
Witnesses in our
Time
As the writer of this booklet I know many time witnesses who
have experienced this unique ministry since its early phase
right from its beginning. Not only once, but through the years
they were witnesses of what God did in our generation. Among
these are Rev. Gordon Lindsay, Demas Shakarian, David
DuPlessis and many others of the North-American evangelists.
To a number of them I served as an interpreter. Most certainly
many who are still alive could be called upon. I decided to
choose the world-renowned evangelist Rev. T. L. Osborn to give
witness. What he said on January 26th, 1966, at the memorial
service held after the going home of William Branham, follows. |
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“This was the closing
generation. Something had to happen. It couldn’t go as past
generations had gone. This one is IT! Therefore, in God’s
divine mercy, somehow
stepping beyond the bounds of ordinary measure, He had
foreordained at this hour to send again this prophet.
Some are going to think I am sacrilegious or off doctrinally
(and it doesn’t really
matter), but God came again in human flesh and said,
“Apparently I must show them again. I must remind them again.
They must see one more time. Once again they must know what
God is like.” And He stepped down and sent a little man, a
prophet, but more than a prophet this time, A Jesus-man this
time!
Elijah was not that. This is more than that which we have
beheld! Moses was not
that, for because of the different dispensation in which he
lived, it couldn’t be what
we have seen. More than that! A Jesus-man, a man full of God,
but sent as a special sign to a generation — this generation.
A supernatural sign, an extra-ordinary measure.
Why? It was done before, why do it again? To arouse this last
generation! Once more to be the forerunner; once more, to be
sure the record is clear , to be sure there is no excuse, and
to be sure that God has demonstrated afresh; to be sure there
can be no mistake, and to be sure that we are reminded afresh
of what God is like, how Jesus was, and of what God does in
the flesh. To be sure that this generation, charged with
bringing back the King, would know without question what it
must be like, what the work must be to do, and what the
minister must be. So we would know what our mission is to
perform, what our witness is, how we are to perform and
execute it, what we are to do, and how we are to act. Once
more to be without excuse, beyond measure. To be the
forerunner of His second coming.
The first night I ever heard and saw Brother Branham minister,
I didn’t hear a voice, I didn’t know that it had been said of
him, and I didn’t know that the voice from heaven had spoken
these words. I knew nothing of that. I had not been with any
of the ministers that believed in him, for most of those that
I was with did not believe in him. But like a voice, and yet
not like a voice, I heard it. I knew it. It came to me! “As
John the Baptist was sent as a forerunner of His first coming,
William Branham is sent as a forerunner of His second coming.”
I knew that.
I was an inexperienced young preacher. I was not a theologian.
I did not know the
Scripture. Why I knew this, I do not know; but I knew it. I
said, “Thank God, he
crossed my path. Thank God, I learned. Thank God, I caught
on.” It did not take ten nights, only one night.
This generation seeks a sign, another sign, another one, and
still another one! One is enough! One is ample! God willing,
to be sure, that we don’t fail in the knowledge of the
immutability of His covenant, did it again in the twentieth
century, the generation destined to bring Him
back. This generation must know. This generation must be
without excuse, for unto this generation is committed the task
to do this. So, He sent forth a particular human vessel,
surrounded by supernatural signs to attract attention and to
make this wayward generation look up, ponder, search, and
think.
Thus, the halo of light that appeared at his birth, the star,
the angel, the discernment, the gifts — all of these were
given for that purpose. For what? TO SHOW US GOD AGAIN! To
repeat what He showed us in Jesus Christ, when He came in the
form of flesh; and to remind us one final time. Like Jesus,
Brother Branham redemonstrated the very thing which made men
believe that the true Messiah had come.
He was a seer; he saw. He lived in both worlds, the seen and
the unseen at the same time, and transcended both of them
practically all the time. Jesus said, “My Father worketh
hitherto, and I work. The Son can do nothing of Himself but
what He seeth the Father do.”
Here comes Brother Branham along in the twentieth century and
does exactly the same way. GOD IN THE FLESH, again crossing
our paths; and many did not know. THEY WOULD NOT HAVE KNOWN
HIM IF THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN HERE WHEN GOD CROSSED THEIR PATH
IN THE BODY THEY CALLED JESUS CHRIST! People have not changed.
Those who questioned then, would question now. Those who
didn’t believe then, would not believe now. “The Son can do
nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing. For
what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son
likewise. For the Father loveth the Son and showeth Him all
things.”
He saw the miracles before they happened. Jesus saw the
crippled man who 38 times had been to the pool but never could
get into the water. Jesus saw all this before He went in,
stood there, and told him to stand up.
He saw Lazarus raised before it came to pass. He had already
settled it with the
Father. It had already been rehearsed.
He saw Nathanael before Philip ever called him, when he was
over under the fig tree, before they were even converted.
He foretold exactly how the disciples would go down the
streets and meet a man
carrying a pitcher of water. He said that they should follow
him and would find an ass tied there, and He also told them to
bring him. He saw all this before it happened.
This was William Branham’s life. Precisely as we read it in
the Scriptures . Then men hear Brother Branham say this, and
they say, “It is wrong today;” but it isn’t. They don’t
believe today; they would not have believed then. But God has
come again, crossed our paths again, and showed us again what
the God-man is like, what God is like, what He is like in the
flesh, and what the new creation is like.
See what this is? This is the new creation at work. He was a
discerner, as Jesus
discerned the woman at the well and her life. And how many
times have you sat and
marveled? If we believe when we read the Scriptures of the few
things that we heard that Jesus did, how can we be without
excuse when we sat night after night and saw these things
repeated, not once, but dozens of times in the same perfect
manner in which Jesus did them? Exactly! How it has been that
one could see this and not believe, is beyond me.
Brother Branham knew diseases. He knew them everywhere before
anyone told him. The same God knows all things. It is God in
man, demonstrating His knowledge — what He is, how that He
transcends all natural barriers, and nothing is impossible
with Him.
He knew when virtue had gone out of him. How many have sat and
watched when
Brother Branham whirled around and said, “There she is”,
“There he is”? Only once in the Scriptures did the little
woman see this. Of course we do have the fact that later
everybody heard about it, and they all got it; but only one
case is set forth in detail. But my eyes have beheld dozens of
cases, and some of you have seen hundreds of cases! How can I
not believe?
This does not bring doctrinal barriers to me. This simply
tells me that what happened then is the same today. My God is
unchanged.
By these signs it is witnessed in the Scriptures that the
Gentiles were made obedient by word and deed through mighty
signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God. Have we
not looked on and seen the multitudes come to Christ as they
beheld the wonders and repented of their sins, cried out for
Salvation, and received eternal life, not only here, but
abroad to the count of as many as 30,000 in a single day,
standing to receive the life of Jesus Christ, because God
crossed their path in human flesh and unveiled Himself?
Is this a mystery? This is not a mystery, this is the wonder
of God! Is this a matter to dicker over doctrinally? This is a
matter to give glory to our God, Who has come in the flesh
again in our generation. He has come in the flesh in all of
us, but in a particular way in this man who was His prophet
for this generation, for He surrounded him with these
supernatural signs which were to attract the attention of the
world once again by a sign.” Here we end with the testimony of
Rev. T. L. Osborn, who is respected world-wide as the most
influential evangelist of the “first revival wave”.
We are certainly grateful for the excellent testimony of Rev.
Osborn who was one of the first to directly experience the
impact of God’s supernatural working . The same opportunity
was given to me, as I also became an eye-witness of this
extraordinary ministry. Since 1955, when Brother Branham came
to Europe and preached in Karlsruhe, Germany, and Zurich,
Switzerland, right until 1965, when he was taken to be with
the Lord, I partook in a number of his national and
international meetings. After the sermon, Brother Branham
first prayed for those who accepted Christ as their personal
Saviour, then he prayed for the sick. It was as Rev. T. L.
Osborn testified. The man of God did not ask those who were
sick what illness they had or what he should pray for. The
supernatural light came down over the person he was praying
for and it was shown to him in visions, as it was the case in
the prophetic ministry of the Son of man (Jn. 5: 19-20). He
told those in the prayer line what they suffered from and
details from their lives. Many times he saw in a vision the
name of the person, the city hey came from, the street and
even house number where they lived. Therefore he could
ruthfully say “Thus saith the Lord”. God is the only One Who
knows every person. William Branham was a seer, as described
in the Bible.
This ministry did not happen somewhere in a remote corner of
the Earth, it took place in large meetings in various
countries around the world. Even where Brother Branham did not
speak the language, but used an interpreter, everything that
was revealed about each person was correct and proved to be
true. Millions became eye- and ear-witnesses throughout the
world. Truly, it was Jesus Christ Who in our time manifested
Himself as the Same through a man with the same sign of the
Messiah. As it was with John the Baptist, we are once again
not dealing with a man, but with a promised ministry ordained
by God . The question therefore is not, “Which stand do we
take towards Branham?” but rather, “How do we stand before
God?”, Who used a natural vessel to perform the supernatural.
The New Testament started with a promised ministry to prepare
the way for the Lord, and the New Testament ends with a
promised ministry to restore all things to the Bride. |
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