THE SEVEN CHURCHES AGES BY WILLIAM BRANHAM

SUB-TITLE: THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE SEVEN CHURCHES AGES

There is a write up posted to the internet (www.williambranhamhomepage.org) by William Branham on the above title.

I am not in any position to criticise whatever anyone decides to post as his personal opinion. I am only responding to people requesting me to give them an explanation regarding the churches and the ages attributed to them in the book of Revelation.

I must emphasise that the book of revelation is one of the hardest book in the bible to understand. But the Holy Spirit always gives us the understanding of the holy words of God if we allow the spirit to direct.

The writer quoted the episode in the book of Revelation chapter 1 as it relates to John the revelator and the seven churches in question. We must remember that most of the things revealed to John the revelator concerns the future and not the present. The bible say, ‘The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that, must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near (Rev.1:1-3). From those verses, it can be established that the whole scenario is a prophecy meant to happen in the future.

God sent a message to the seven churches through John the Revelator in which Christ said John should write down what he saw of things that are and of those to come. Christ further explained the meaning of the Seven stars and Seven golden Lampstands as they relates to the seven churches. Here is Christ words ‘19 Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. 20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
Coming back to Mr Branham analysis, He said and I quote ‘In that right hand of power are seven stars, who, according to Rev. 1:20, are the seven church messengers . This signifies that the very power and authority of God are behind His messengers to every age’. According to my bible, I cannot recollect where Angels as messenger of God were equalled to Pastor or any human creature. It is spiritually wrong for the writer to interpret the Seven Stars (which represent Seven Angels) as seven human messengers namely Paul, Ireneus, St. Marti, Columba, Luther, Wesley and Branham himself.

‘Paul (Ephesus 53-170AD)Ireneus (Symrna 170-312AD) St.Martin (Pergamos 312-606AD) Columba (Thyatira 606-1520AD) Luther (Sardis 1520-1750AD) Wesley (Philadelphia 1750-1906AD) Branham (Laodicea 1906-AD)’

As much as I agree that God has numerous Human messengers to preach His message to the entire world, as far as the seven churches in the book of revelation is concern. The only messenger relevant to delivering those messages to the seven churches was John the Revelator. Allocating the ages of the above mentioned people to these churches in revelation amounted to gross mis-information and spiritual carelessness. Unless prove otherwise in the bible, Mr Branham should not allocate the responsible of him being the seventh star to the church in Laodicea. For those who are confused about those ages as related to the churches, the ages were the lifetime of those people mentioned by Mr Branham as the seven stars to those churches. My bible never mentioned Mr Branham as a messenger to the church in Laodicea but my bible says Laodicea has got its Angel who monitors Laodicea activities. Just like every one of us has got our guidance Angel so also the churches.

In my humble conclusion, those seven people as mentioned above might be messengers of God but they have got nothing to do with the message God sent to the seven churches in Asia. God bless

Reference

W. Branham (2014), ‘The Seven Churches Ages: The Revelation of Jesus Christ in the Seven Churches Ages’ cited at www.williambranhamhomepage.org