Pastor RAYMOND M. JACKSON
July 27, 1983
To Whom It May Concern:
This is an open letter in rebuttal to a booklet submitted by Mr. A.W. Post and Mr. Tom Marshall entitled, “Branhamism, Fact or Fiction”. I am writing in defense of Bro. William Marrion Branham, who is deceased and gone on to be with the Lord.
There are four main subjects that Mr. Post attacks, apparently seeking to prove errors and heresy that he assumes Bro. William Branham taught in his time and ministry. These four subjects are, “Predestination”, “The Serpent’s Seed”, “The End Time Prophet”, and “The Spoken Word Ministry”. I wish to express my regrets that a man would be so negative in his thinking that he would allow the enemy to project into his mind such unscriptural and unwise usage of scriptures in many places and blatant misquoting of facts in others to try to justify his own stand on these issues.
The first issue he attacks is Bro. William Branham‘s teaching on predestination. It happens that Bro. William Branham was not the first man that ever taught this subject. It is true that in church history this side of the Dark Ages, predestination has been fought by most of the major trinitarian systems as a teaching that they deny. But, we are going to have to come to a clear understanding that the entire Bible was written by Jewish prophets and apostles inspired by God, and they were the first to teach predestination.
The verb predestination was spoken in the past tense and used by the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:29 and 30; and in Ephesians 1:5 and 1:11. Mr. Post tried to explain and condense into a very short declaration the conclusion that in all four of these settings the Apostle Paul is referring to the Old Testament saints that were raised from the dead with the Lord Jesus Christ as recorded in Matthew 27. The man assumes that this was all only a past act of God, choosing some Old Testament saints to be conformable to the image of Jesus. Well, I believe according to the whole teaching of the New Testament, that it is the New Testament church that has the greater priority and is the great objective of God that was concealed in the Old Testament prophecies and the types and shadows of the Law. I believe that it is the church, made up of both Jews and Gentiles throughout the Age of Grace that is to attain to this image and likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When we make a thorough study of the writings of the Apostle Paul, we find we must take the verb predestination, or predestinate, or predestinated and keep it with the noun foreknowledge; because, when we separate the verb from the noun, we can lose ourselves within our own carnal way of thinking. This is also true when we go to I Peter. The Apostle Peter did not use the word predestination, but he used the words, “chosen and elect”, which mean the same thing. When we see how the Apostle Peter used the term “chosen and elect” it is tied to the noun word, “foreknowledge”. I would like to remind Mr. Post, who I am sure is an educated man and knows his English well, that he has done the Apostle Paul a discredit in seeking to attack Bro. William Branham. Thereby, when it’s all summed up, he has not only debased the Prophet presumptuously, he has actually belittled the Apostle Paul, who wrote the original scriptures declaring to the Christians of that day what a glorious and wonderful thing that the God of Heaven did in ages past, having foreknown us and chosen us in Christ according to Ephesians 1:4.
No wonder Paul could write Ephesians 1 like he did. I would like to remind Mr. Post that in Ephesians the first chapter the pronoun words that Paul used were “us and we”. Therefore, I cannot for the life of me see how we can take the pronoun words “us and we” and all of a sudden just wrap it up in the pronoun “them” that Paul uses in Romans 8:28-30. When Paul sums it all up in Romans 8:31 he said, “What shall we then say to these things, if God be for us, who can be against us”. Can we not say today, that God is as much for us as he was for those Old Testament saints? I am sure that is not the thought of Paul at all in Romans 8:28-34. For instance, in verse 32 he says, “He that spared not His own son but delivered Him up for us all. How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things”.
I am afraid that Mr. Post has taken it upon himself to do what many other men before him have done. When they come face to face with a truth in the Bible that their system will not accept, they’ve got to explain it away. But, oh the futile, weak things they grasp at to try to discredit the truth of God.
I want everyone who read this letter to never for one minute think the free will of man overrides the foreknowledge of God. No, my friend, never. God didn’t create an accident. God didn’t set something in motion and it got out of hand. When creation began to unfold, the Eternal Spirit, the Mighty Creator. the Omniscient, intelligent mind of God already had it settled, “for foreknown to Him all of His works from the foundation of the world”. When we can accept the fact that the great foreknowledge of God is what caused Him to write the Book of Life referred to in Revelation 13:8 and Revelation 17:8, we see not the word predestination, but we see the finished choice of God having already been accomplished and settled forever. My Bible says that God knows those that are His.
Every name of every person that will ever be found in glory in the great family of God was written in the great Book of Life before there was anything. That is why Jesus said in the book of John, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and He that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out”. And again He said, “No man can come to me except the Father draw him.”
Now to show the free moral agency of man, let us never forget God’s love and mercy as he expressed it through the open invitation, “Come, whosoever will, let Him come.” Again it says, “God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” God knew exactly what man’s free will or free moral agency in his mentality and ability to accept or reject this invitation. I would like to remind the readers of this letter, true predestination is never to taught in a fanatical trend as some through the reformation period have taught it. That is why it has been a teaching of the New Testament fought so hard by those who want to hang onto the free moral agency of man. However, I have to go back and defend the great foreknowledge of God and His ability to make a choice and to reach a conclusion. The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 1 and worded it like this, “that God counseled after the council of His own will.” This meant that God meditated.
God didn’t have to scratch His head wondering what was going to be, He knew what man would do. He knew how man would act, therefore, He knew how to design man, where to put him, and when to put him. He knew exactly what generation and hour each man belonged in and how he would react. God didn’t, however, just up and make one man to be lost and another to saved. It would be foolish to say that He is that kind of cruel God. But when we can take it and go beyond and realize that His foreknowledge and His great omniscient mind could reach a conclusion and on the basis of that foreknowledge could design vessels of clay, one to honor and another to dishonor. He could put one up and He could put one down, and the vessel could never say, “Why hast thou made me thus?”
As Bro. William Branham taught predestination, it is a beautiful doctrine. It sure takes it out of the hand of man and puts it back into the hand of the great architect who designed it before all time. He knew who would defend the truth and he knew who would not. Many are called, yes, but few are chosen. The word called in that respect was God’s merciful “whosoever will let Him come and take of the waters of life freely, but He knows that all will not accept the invitation”.
Another subject taught by Bro. William Branham and belittled not only by you, Mr. Post, but by many other denominational leaders is the doctrine of the Serpent’s Seed. My reply in defense of that lay hidden in the scriptures. The very mention of the Serpent’s Seed sets the critics in motion, challenging its truthfulness. They try to portray how unscriptural this teaching is, how unbiblical and unreal. Yet, they in return, have nothing to prove in reality what this great transgression that occurred in the Garden of Eden was. They merely sum up the traditional story that Eve just ate some forbidden fruit of plant life causing God to impute sin.
It seems strange to me that if the great transgression was eating a piece of plant fruit, why God didn’t curse the digestive system of man. Why did he curse the reproductive system and cause sin to become a heredity factory passed on through every human being since that time? And then when redemption was brought about, it did not come by plant life at all. If the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden were plant life, why wasn’t the redeemer a tree or a branch off a tree of plant life. No, he was the substance of what that tree symbolized. He was redemption manifested in human form, God becoming incarnate in flesh.
So now, with this in mind, I would like to approach the subject in greater depth. The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge were in no wise literal trees of plant life. It is true that they were described in the same verse of scripture wherein God planted a garden eastward in Eden. We have to realize first that this garden did have a geographical setting and dimension. The garden was in a certain area of the Middle East, lying between the Nile, the Tigres and the Euphrates Valleys. We know by history and the Bible that this is where the human race has been cradled through centuries of time.
I ask any critic to prove to me by the Bible that when God drove them from the Garden that they were driven out of the Middle East. The fact remains and archaeological discoveries prove that this is where civilization began. So, I am stating that when God drove Adam and Eve from what appears to be the Garden, they were not driven from a geographical location. Therefore, we will have to see the Garden not only from a geographical dimension, but also from a spiritual environment where God placed His divine presence.
These two trees that appear to be trees of plant life planted in relation to the other plant life trees were not trees in function from the earth’s substance at all. These were two figurative trees dealing with a basic law of right and wrong, true or false, good or bad. You might say that the Bible doesn’t prove that. Let’s just read on, because somewhere we’re going to have to read between the lines if we ever do get a revelation as to what really happened and from what they were driven.
The Tree of Life was not a tree of plant life at all. It was the true law way that Adam and Ever were to bring forth offspring. All trees bear fruit of their kind. Man has always been referred to as having a family tree. Every time you look at a genealogical picture of races and such, you always see it portrayed as a tree. Therefore, the two trees as we read in the scriptures stood in the midst of the garden, side by side. One was the right way and the other was the wrong way. And the Lord said, “The day that thou eatest thereof…” It’s true, he did say “eat”, but we must realize that this word eat can also be read, “to partake”, and partake can mean “to touch or handle”. If we are going to get hung up on the word eat, then what are we going to do when we come unto the Psalms where the writer states, “Taste of the Lord”? Does that mean that we literally take a bite out of the Lord to find out how he tastes? You know it doesn’t. That is figurative language and, therefore, I am confident that God inspired Moses to write this and conceal this great mystery in such language so man would not see the full picture until the time was right.
But, right here in the end-time God has brought forth the real true understanding of what went wrong. This is proven in the light of a modern age when men are trying through their scientific, atheistic and evolutionary knowledge to disprove the Bible as being the Word of God; to disprove the fact that man’s a sinner, to disprove the fact that there is a God; and to disprove man needs a redeemer. This proves to the elect of God, the real children of God the necessity for redemption to come the way it did and that the true Savior, the Jewish Messiah, was born of a virgin.
The next figure in this drama that we want to examine is the serpent. This creature was very much like man in all of his physical make-up. The original serpent, before his curse, would have been a part of the animal kingdom with an intelligence that would have been able to communicate with man. He would have been man’s servant. Adam, in the beginning, would never have gotten callouses on his hands. Adam was not made to till and toil in the earth. He was made to rule as an offspring of God, Therefore, Adam would have ruled in the beauty and splendor and glory and authority of his creator, and the serpent would have been his servant.
But the devil was allowed to inspire the serpent to become a tool for his evil plot against the creator, God himself. And so the serpent came to Eve and began to start up this conversation, and the conversation then led her not to eat an apple, not to eat any kind of fruit, but to partake of this act of relationship; not for the purpose of bringing forth life, but for pleasure. This is where fornication was first introduced to the human race. We realize that fornication, though an act committed for pleasure, can also bring forth offspring; yet not according to the divine perfect plan of the creator.
So, when Eve partook of it and saw that it was pleasurable, she went to Adam. I will have to say she did not entice Adam in one moment’s time. But in the process of time she convinced him that it was all right. Adam, we believe, was not ignorant of what he was doing. When Adam partook of it, he knew good and well he was doing something wrong.
Now, if it had been an apple or any kind of plant life, it’s very strange that immediately as they partake, they suddenly become aware of their nakedness. If that be a fact, then I believe that somewhere there ought to be some kind of plant life than man could eat today that would have the same kind of effect upon his intelligence and make him realize the wrong or the right of some of the things that the human race is doing today.
So, we can see there is a far greater depth here that we must consider rather than just stop with plant life. Therefore, when they saw they were naked, it wasn’t the fact that they could see each others face; it wasn’t the fact that they could see each others hands, their shoulders, their feet. It was absolutely the part of the body that they had been told, we will say, not to touch or handle in a pleasurable relationship. These parts of the body were only to be used to propagate life.
I remind you, Mr. Post, it might do you some good to study carefully the functioning of the animal kingdom, which is so much lower than man in intelligence and knowledge of what is sacred. You don’t see the animals behaving promiscuously like man does today. You don’t see the animals taking their sex life and making some kind of an entertaining program for the other animals. So, I believe we can take a lesson even from the animal kingdom and begin to see the picture. If the animal kingdom can live like it does (and they are a much lower form of life) then let’s elevate that to a much more sacred thing and bring it back to the first man and woman who were placed in the beautiful garden of God.
When they saw that they were naked, they realized it was the area of their body they have partaken of that caused this transgression. They did not have a revelation of what was going to make an atonement for this, so they immediately began to pull leaves off fig trees to cover themselves. They didn’t cover the mouth where they ate the apple, if that’s the case. They covered the area of their bodies by which they were eventually to reproduce themselves. They didn’t cover their face; they didn’t cover their feet; it was that part of their bodies they had used to transgress the law and will of God. In other words, once they partook of it, they knew right from wrong, good from bad, true from false. Therefore, now the time has come for God to come to the garden. His divine presence is moving toward that time of day for fellowship.
As God spoke out, “Adam, where art thou?” we see Adam coming forth from behind the trees. He’s not only covered by plant life, he’s hiding behind plant life. And immediately God asks him, “Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst eat?” Adam immediately passed the buck and said, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat.” The Lord looks at the woman and she says, “The serpent beguiled me….” So she passed the buck on down the line. The Lord didn’t look at the serpent and say well now what caused you to do this? The Lord immediately as he looked at the serpent said, “Thou are cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field…” In other words, he had stood as a creature at the head of the animal kingdom in intelligence, much as a man made in the image of God. Yet he was not the Son of God. He was a servant creature, a part of the animal kingdom. In actuality, he’s the missing link that the scientists and evolutionists are looking for today.
As the Lord cursed the serpent, before he went on his belly, before he lost his arms and legs; He says these words, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman…” Now that goes to show there’s going to be a variance, a hatred projected from Eve to that particular creature. For as she stood there no doubt trembling with the guilt of the divine presence of God now talking, she hears these words, “enmity, a difference, hatred”‘ and as she sees the serpent creature that has been a tool to get her into such a trap she sees him absolutely go on his belly, lose his identity, and become a crawling reptile among the rest of the reptiles of the animal kingdom. No matter where she was she could always see and identify that thing and hate it for having done to her what he had done.
But now we notice, the enmity was not just to stop between Eve and the serpent. The Lord said, “and between thy seed and her seed” Now, we know what the seed of the woman is in any case. It is her offspring. Well, if her seed is her offspring, what could the seed of the serpent be but also his offspring? Now, are we going to state then that it means all the little snakes he will produce after he has become a crawling reptile? Or does this refer to the seed that has been planted in the womb of Eve through his own conniving trick of introducing her to this sex act for pleasure? That’s the seed that God had in mind. Therefore, “it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” That was a prophecy spoken in figurative language which was not understood for centuries of time; but it was fulfilled in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The bruising of the Serpent’s head and the bruising of the heel of the redeemer had nothing to do with man in his conflict with snakes or crawling reptiles. It is definitely a conflict that has been going on between man and the seed of the serpent projected into the stream of humanity. The devil was going to use that serpent strain to work against God, who would work through His strain of people.
So, let us leave this point of discussion and go on. What is the first part of the Bible called? It is called, “Genesis”. It might interest everyone to know that the word “Genesis” itself means “the history of the genes”. Therefore, even in that we can see that it is not a book about apples or peaches; it is a book that carries forth the history of the propagation of the human race. It all comes forth from the genes that started the human race, which came out of the loins of Adam. But somehow, there was a foreign gene inserted into the stream; and a great battle and conflict became manifested once they were driven from the garden.
Now we must come to an understanding of the episode described in Genesis, Chapter 6. Traditionalist Doctors of Divinity and all of the major theological seminaries have always interpreted the “Sons of God” mentioned here as fallen angels coming down to the daughters of men and taking unto themselves of all whatsoever they would. It also states in that chapter that there were giants born into the earth in that day. And also men of renown, men of worldly reputation, men who gained worldly acclaim, men who were looked upon, by the unbelieving kind of seed, as something important. Well, the world is filled with millions of that kind today. That’s why the world today goes for education, human carnal learning and intelligence, but without a knowledge of their need for God.
Now, if you want to criticize Bro. William Branham‘s teaching that God permitted the genes of an animal to become compatible with the genes of man, you’re going to have to give a better explanation then why you say He would allow the genes of angels to mix with man. In the first place, Jesus, when asked about marriage in eternity said, “For they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” In other word, angels do not reproduce themselves in that way. Therefore, I believe that we could say, if it’s impossible for the genes of the serpent to have been permitted by the creator to have become compatible with the genes of man, then so would it have been an impossibility for angels. If such a thing did happen, we would have to say then that these genes were not the genes of men at all, they were the genes of devils, fallen angels. So I ask you then, which would be the difference? Which would be more horrible? More fantastic? The genes of devils being allowed to produce these giants and these men of renown, or the seed of the serpent. I don’t believe that we are on a subject that’s so hard for sensible men with open minds to visualize.
Therefore, I believe that these traditionalist Doctors of Divinity who have interpreted the Sons of God in Genesis 6 to be angels are off course. The Sons of God in Genesis 6 were the true descendant line of Seth. Now to further substantiate this, my scriptures tell me that Enoch was the seventh from Adam. We know that by the prophecy that is written concerning the numerical record not passing through the lineage of Cain? But when we read the genealogy of Cain, after he went into the land of Nod, none of his offspring were ever recorded in the records of those accepted by God as being spiritual men having revelations from God. The whole record of that line is that they were inventors of evil things. From that line came polygamy and murder.
However, when we examine the genealogy of Enoch, we find he was the firstborn of Jared, and Jared was the firstborn of Mahalaleel and right on back to Seth. Cain is not listed as Adam’s firstborn, Seth is.
And the Bible says that when Seth was born, Eve said, “For God hath appointed me another seed.” She called him her seed. If Cain, who had left the area, was her true seed by her true husband, Adam, then somewhere Cain would have had to be recognized, because he would have been referred to as Adam’s firstborn. Cain is not Adam’s firstborn. He is the offspring of the seed of the serpent, resulting from the initial act introduced to Eve while they were both still in the Garden.
When Adam and Eve were sent from that place, yes, it does state that Adam knew Eve and she brought forth her son and said she had gotten a man from the Lord. Well, any child born, I don’t care under what relationship is brought into life by the creative law of God. But that doesn’t mean it is born under the direct will and plan of the creator. That’s why in the New Testament that a child born out of wedlock is referred to as a bastard. Now I ask you to take that further and analyze it very carefully. But as we deal with this seed aspect, when Eve said the Lord had appointed her another seed, then we notice that Seth was not necessarily the first born, but took the place of Adam’s first legal heir, Abel. It was Cain, the seed of the serpent that had slain Adam’s first born child, Abel. Therefore, Seth was appointed to take his place, making him the full heir. And from Seth’s hour straight on down, all other first born fell right in line.
The Bible says that in those days they, (men) called upon the Lord. It was Seth’s line who still held that spiritual quality of their father, Adam, and it was passed right on through each one’s son. Seth’s line, none of that line, until we come into Enoch’s day were perverters, inventors of evil things, murderers, polygamists, etc. They all, though their names are not mentioned, called on God because they had revelatory capacity.
It was only Cain’s line who didn’t have that revelatory capacity. None of them called on God, in the sense of salvation, or to serve Him, to glorify Him, to give Him honor. They were conscious of Him, they needed Him for protection and guidance, but no where is it written that they called on Him or had a revelation or understanding of the depth and of the will and plan of God.
When we come to Genesis, Chapter 6, we have a brief history of all that developed, from Enoch’s hour when he began to see that evil taking place, after men began to be multiplied. Cain’s line multiplied. Those women born under that line did not have convictions. They did not have the revelation how to walk virtuously. No, they were just like millions of women today, they have no convictions, no guilt, no shame. They would stand stark naked just to defy the laws of morality and decency. These same kind of women today would stand in the face of a virtuous, saintly woman and make fun of her. So we realize that Satan moved again on the scene. And as he was allowed to move on the scene, the Sons of God looked upon the daughters of men. Now I remind you, these Sons of God were not angels at all. There were still the sons of, the descendants of Adam, who was the Son of God. And these men were now being enticed by another Satanic flock through these seductive women portraying themselves in such a sensual way, as modern women are being inspired to do today.
That’s where, then, polygamy was introduced to the Sons’ of God. Because it says that they took unto themselves “wives” plural. Here polygamy was being used by the devil to get Cainite genes into the Sons of God line to degenerate and to debase them.
Now I am going to close this subject with this point. Which is worse, to teach the revelation of the Seed of the Serpent or to teach the Seed of Fallen Angels? No matter which way you want to sum this up and answer it, you’re going go have to acknowledge that in Genesis 6 there was a horrible, evil thing taking place that tore up the whole genetic structure of the human race.
No, don’t limit this to a small scale, that there were just a few giants in the land. I want you to know those giants and what they had done, these great intelligent men of renown. The genetic structure has been disturbed and there it was in the ark that Noah and his three sons and their wives were in. There it was in the loins of every one of those men, the diluted genes now of all that had transpired prior to the flood dispensation. Therefore, if you don’t like the revelation of the Serpents Seed, which we believe is what happened in the garden, then you will have to come to an acceptance that these Sons of God, supposedly being angels projecting themselves into human flesh, planted enough of their genetic seeds in those women to bring about a satanic purpose that definitely began to affect the whole genetic reproductive quality of mankind.
Even when the flood was over, giants still appeared on the earth. When, years later in time, the children of Israel were delivered from Egypt and went to the land of Canaan, what did they find? Giants. Did not the spies report to Moses, that they were just like grasshoppers in their sight? This was still a hereditary continuation of what had gone on prior to the flood. We must also realize that in certain strains of humanity, this gigantic gene just keeps turning up. Not only that, but we have intelligent wizards born in this world today. They become men of renown, but you can’t touch them with the gospel of Jesus Christ, for they have no revelatory quality to their thinking. No, they would rather count the rocks on the moon than to search for the revelation of the truth in God’s Word. They’re more interested in how this world got here than in how to bring their soul and life into line with the grace of God.
I have heretofore defended scripturally two of the great doctrines taught by Bro. William Branham; but now I would like to defend the man, William Marrion Branham and his ministry, that of the End-Time Prophet.
It is evident that Mr. Post refutes the fact that the Bible teaches and holds a prophetic promise for a Malachi 4: 5 & 6 fulfillment for our day and time. Mr. Post refers to this scripture as having already been fulfilled in John the Baptist. Anyone can accept that because it is written in the Bible. Then he denied that it has an application for our day. He takes it completely away from our day and applies it to Revelation 11 as the spirit of one of the two prophets that would minister to the Jews.
Now John the Baptist was not a writing prophet, he was a revealing prophet. He was revealing scriptures that were pointing to the dispensation of Grace that was coming. He said that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, and he was announcing One that was on the scene who would Baptist with the Holy Ghost and with fire. As Malachi put it, he was to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. Well, this Holy Ghost baptizer was definitely going to be the one that was going to administer the New Covenant to these children. Many of these children were old Judaistic dropouts, they were tired of the old traditions and rituals of their hour. I wonder how many times Peter and John and the rest of those fishermen really went to the temple and participated in all the rituals that were required in that day. But, nevertheless, when John the Baptist came on the scene, he was preaching such a message that all of Judea and Jerusalem went out to hear him and be baptized. So the children of that first advent setting were the recipients of the New Testament covenant of Grace. We can call it the New Birth, we can call it the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. It’s all summed up in the gospel that has been preached for the last two thousand years. It started with the Jews first and then was given to the Gentiles.
But now let us look at the second half of Malachi 4″6, “… and the heart of the children to their fathers”. The word their is a pronoun meaning the endtime children are a part of the same children in the first advent, those followers of Jesus. Therefore, it means this. That in the endtime he will send that spirit of Elijah again on another prophet. Not a writing prophet, No, because John was not a writing prophet; he was a preaching prophet. He will send it on another prophet for the endtime, closing out this age of Grace, because this same spirit on John the Baptist introduced this Age of Grace.
I have to say as I heard William Branham preach through the years, he was the first man this side of the dark ages who took the doctrine of faith that Luther taught, predestination that Knox brought, Eternal Security that Calvin brought, Sanctification that Wesley brought, right on into the Pentecostal Baptism of the Holy Ghost and tied them all together restoring accessibility and the display of the power of God. This had to be accomplished in the endtime to turn the children back to their Apostolic fathers.
Mr. Post, you state in your booklet that because this man did not shut the heavens that it didn’t rain, that he didn’t smite the earth with plagues and turn the water into blood; that this was proof that Bro. William Branham had not the spirit of Elijah. May I remind you, Mr. Post, John the Baptist did none of those things. In fact, John did none of the miracles that Jesus or His apostles did. John the Baptist preached, and I remind you that the anointing that was on Elijah was that anointing of God that deals with apostasy. Remember, John came four hundred years after Malachi to deal with apostasy in his hour; because the Jews were stooped in tradition and mere theology. So, right here, at the end of the age of Grace, God found it necessary to again use that ministry. He used a man to take the truths that have been restored stage by stage, step by step, by the reformers and put them all back in the Bible to show the endtime children how to be true apostolic, born again, holy ghost filled, revelated saints like the early church – because they are part of them.
Like many people, I was brought up in a Methodist background, but I didn’t know the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior. When God dealt with me in such a way that I couldn’t resist submitting my life to Him any longer, I felt that great burden of guilt roll away. The Bible began to have a great attraction for me. I found myself sitting many times reading and asking God to help me to understand the contents of His Book. I knew nothing about divine healing, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues, or any of the supernatural manifestations. I actually, as I read, thought all those things were for the days of the early church. This was my conclusion, that I was now a Methodist Christian, and I was getting ready to settle down in the little Methodist rut and chug along through life.
Then one day I was reading in Luke the first chapter where the angel of the Lord spoke to Zechariah telling him that his wife was going to bear a son. And the angel quoted this prophecy recorded in Malachi 4: 5 & 6. I didn’t know as much then as I do now, I wouldn’t have been able to defend my convictions; but God, by His Grace, let me know that if we are living in the last days before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in His second advent, then he would send that spirit of Elijah again to do in this religious world what he did in the old Judaistic religious order. That became a revelation to me. I’d look any man in the face and say you can’t take it away from me, because God put it there.
Well, a few months later in the year 1952, I was speaking to a relative of my wife’s. Unknown to me, this man was a Holy Ghost filled, believing Christian who attended the church of William Marrion Branham. He began to tell me about this man; about his meetings in South Africa and how the Lord spoke to him while he was baptizing converts in the Ohio River. When the man referred those words to me, as John the Baptist was sent to forerun His first coming, so would this man, William Marrion Branham, take a message that would go around the world that would prepare the way for the Lord’s second coming, inside something said then if that’s true, this must be that man.
A few nights later I was privileged to go and see this man. When I sat that night and heard that little man preach; I’d heard Doctors of Divinity, Theologians, Professors from various seminaries and Bible schools, but this little man made the Bible a living book right before my very eyes. When I walked out of that church that night, I knew that was the man.
Now I want to tell you, this man made Jesus of the bible stand head and shoulders taller than any Pope could ever make Him. He took Him out of the arms of the Virgin Mary as a little baby and you could see him walk the sandy shores of the Sea of Galilee. Yes, I remind you, Mr. Post, I, Raymond M. Jackson, was privileged to see this man and study him. Yes, he was uneducated. Yes, he was a Midwestern hillbilly. That’s why, when you read his booklets, which are printed verbatim right off the tapes, you want to belittle his speech. But when he was under the anointing, I remind you, he made God real. Books could be written, tracts could be printed, testimonies the world couldn’t contain from Africa, Canada, Mexico, Europe and all through the United States could be written of what people saw as they watched the power of God use this little man.
Now I also want to include here the defense of the Spoken Word Ministry. You criticize it, Mr. Post, as though there is no such thing. Well, I’m not in agreement with the way certain preachers in his following want to take his sermons and publicize them as though they are the spoken word of God. To me they are sermons, so don’t accuse me of giving them that type of identity. But, I defend the man’s ministry. It was truly a spoken Word Ministry. I’ve seen this man many times stand and challenge devils in sick minds. I’ve seen people come, filled with criticism, and before long their heads would bend and their eyes would fill with tears as he would tell them the secrets of their hearts. Yes, Mr. Post, this man has a Spoken Word Ministry, because whenever he said, “Thus saith the Lord” it would be.
Now I’m not defending anybody who wants to go around taking some mere statement calling it “Thus saith the Lord” and we have a lot of them. But I remind you, that in the Pentecostal hour you had your fanatics that brought reproach upon the truth you held. And you did your best to hold your head high and continue to defend the real truth. So I do not defend the fanatics of this following; but I defend the man, his spiritual image and character and the ministry and wonderful revelation and understanding he brought to a people who were sick and tired of denominational systems.
Now, Mr. Post, you have attacked a man of God and his ministry. You have belittled his teaching. You have your ideas of what happened, but I was there and I know. Which brings me to this illustration of your lack of true knowledge of the events of the years of Bro. William Branham‘s ministry.
On page 11 of your book, you say, and I quote, “Unfortunately, Mr. Branham was killed in an automobile accident and carried to the Faith Assembly Church in Jeffersonville, Indiana, where his followers waited for over a week for him to be raised from the dead.”
Now I remind you, Mr. Post, I am the Pastor of Faith Assembly Church. He was not carried back to my church and laid in state to be mourned over. He was brought back to Jeffersonville and laid in the Coots Funeral Home. I want to also remind you that it is true many of his followers did believe that he would be raised from the dead, but I am not defending what they assumed would be. I am defending the man himself, who never taught such a thing and would have screamed out against it. The man was grieved many times by watching the way people acted. I assume that you don’t detect those things as you would read and analyze some of his sermons because you don’t read them in the full context to see what he is saying. I happened to know the man personally and how he tried to defend his character and his honesty and sincerity in this. He was a man that was not ashamed of his calling.
Now, Mr. Post, you happen to be a great man in the United Pentecostal Church. A fellowship of a people very proud of their revelation of One God and water baptism in Jesus Name. You have every right to be proud, because your founding fathers, who broke the ranks of the old trinity pentecostal denomination in the early years at the turn of the century were persecuted when God gave them this great revelation. Yes, these men lost a lot of sleep, they went through agony, but they cherished that revelation of truth coming forth from the Word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. Yes, I know the history. I know what your system stands for. You had a truth in your day, but now your system is on the same road as all the others, even the ones you came out of. You wrote your Articles of Faith and you put a period to it. If God is to do anything else, it has to come through your ranks. But I have my doubts anything else will come because you have put an end to revelation saying it is all restored and there is no more.
So I close my reply and my rebuttal to this booklet, “Branhamism, Fact and Fiction”. I am fully aware that many will read, but most will not take heed. Many will laugh and many will scorn, but eternity will bring to light the truth of it all. I am satisfied in what I heard and my heart rejoices. I therefore leave my defense for this man for the world to read and to do with as they will. As far as I am concerned, this man, William Marrion Branham, was truly a prophet from God. Yes, a man that definitely fulfilled the Malachi, Elijah spirit for our day. As a child of God, I truly thank Him for that spirit that was on that man so he could point me back to the Faith of my fathers, Peter, Paul, and John.
Raymond M.Jackson
Pastor, Faith Assembly Church