analogy of a wheat or corn seed<\/span><\/a> reproducing to illustrate this dispensationalist history. According to him, the first Christian martyrs were the seeds that literally \u201cwent into the ground\u201d (were killed) to give life to the plant that is Christianity. Then came the first shoots, stalk, leaves, husk and finally the corn (or wheat). The very last stage is thus to be identical to the original. Message believers think that they are being restored to life as it was for the apostles.<\/span><\/p>\nThere\u2019s a hitch in this neat little story. Branham died in 1965, before there even was<\/em> a \u201cMessage of the Hour\u201d network of churches. He died long<\/em> before the Message adopted many of its new tenets. For example, I don\u2019t know of many Message believers who date rather than court. Most have taken on Josh Harris\u2019s I Kissed Dating Goodbye<\/em> as part of their unspoken creed. (Saying<\/em> you don\u2019t have a creed is different from not actually having one.)<\/span><\/p>\nI know of very few Message believers who don\u2019t homeschool or use materials from Vision Forum, Nancy Campbell, and Michael and Debi Pearl. Acceptance of these materials is also part of the unspoken Message creed. As \u201cmainstream\u201d fundamentalist culture grows more and more extreme (no sex before marriage! \u2013> no kissing! \u2013> no touching! \u2013> no talking alone! \u2013> no emotional connections! \u2013> give your heart to your father for safekeeping!), Message believers move with it.<\/span><\/p>\nSo, if William Branham brought the final message and restored the days of the apostles already by 1965\u2026 what\u2019s all this other stuff? There was no courtship movement, there were no purity balls, there were no To Train Up a Child<\/em> or Created to be His Helpmeet<\/em> in 1965. There was no Homeschool Legal Defense Association. But just you try taking those things away from Message believers, and see how \u201clost\u201d and \u201cworldly\u201d they feel. Their<\/em> kids would never go on a date!<\/span><\/p>\nEither Branham didn\u2019t bring all<\/em> the truth, or all this stuff is inconsequential fluff that could be thrown out without incurring any damage. Which is it?<\/span><\/p>\nThere\u2019s another possibility: that Branham was just one mid-twentieth century fundamentalist preacher among many, and that Vision Forum and its ilk are part of a cultural movement that is more about family structure and the supremacy of middle class conservative values than about faith.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Message of the Hour believers claim that William Branham was the last of seven prophets to \u201crestore\u201d the Bride of Christ to life as it was in the days of the apostles. For most believers, this means restoring miracles and divine healing, so Message believers insist that they have been given power to cast out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1147,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,22],"tags":[190,949,426,962,609],"class_list":["post-541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eschatology","category-preaching","tag-divine-healing","tag-eschatology","tag-mysteries","tag-preaching","tag-the-message"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n