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| William Branham's Occult connections The Zodiac and the pyramids before the Bible are equal to the Bible William Branham taught dozens of times that “ God wrote three Bibles: one, the Zodiac, one in the pyramids, one on paper. Now, He's writing His first, the Zodiac. It starts off with a virgin, ends up with Leo the lion: Jesus' first coming and His second coming. (53-0509, The Pillar Of Fire, Bible Hour Tabernacle, Jonesboro, AR) The Zodiac and the pyramids, predate any written Scripture. This was not something Branham had come up with at the end of his life; as far back as 1953 Branham taught the message in the stars as equal to the Bible and the pyramid as equal to the Bible, it was all as perfect as the word. The Zodiac and the Egyptian pyramids were equal to the Scriptures in the revelation of God’s Word. (William M. Branham, Adoption (Jeffersonville, IN: Spoken Word Publications), pp. 31,104 The first Bible that man ever looked to was the stars, the zodiac. And it's a perfect... just... It dovetailed with this Bible here…. He write it on up, the cancer age, and everything down through ” (53-0729, Questions And Answers On Genesis, Branham Tabernacle, Jeffersonville, IN) Branham would speak unfavorably of Astrology but he spoke well of what astrologers used in their profession to predict the future - the Zodiac. Can God’s truth come through the zodiac, something He told Israel not to use? Branham insisted “ God's first Bible was in the skies, the Zodiac; it starts off and runs every age .” So why does God not say my stars will last forever, to look to the stars for my word to know me? Or the pyramid as well, if the word is written in it? Not one verse of the Bible has ever been found in or outside the pyramid. “ We've had three Bible's written. One of them is in the heavens above, the Zodiac. Starts off with the virgin, ends up with Leo the lion, the first coming and the second coming of the Lord Jesus, down through the different ages. Then we find it, till Enoch wrote one and put it in the pyramid. The third is put on paper ” (54-0809A, I Will Restore Unto You, Saith The Lord, Shriner Temple, Los Angeles, CA) “ I'm not going back to teach Zodiac, but I'm just showing you the heavens declare It. In the Zodiac we find out, in the constellations of the stars, that He declared the whole Bible in the constellation of the--of the Zodiac . We find out there that He starts off, the very--very first figure in the Zodiac is the Virgin, and the last figure in the Zodiac is Leo the Lion; showing that Jesus would come first to the earth by a Virgin, He'll come the second time as the Lion of the tribe of Juda. See? He goes through the crossed fishes just before that. Cancer Age, what we're living in now. "And all the heavens declare Him " (64-0112, Shalom, House Meeting, Sierra Vista, AZ) The whole Bible? Too bad the virgin is not the first figure and the Zodiac can be in different orders throughout the world. So there is no real consistency in the horoscope. According to Branham, the Old and New Testament are not as lasting because it’s paper. Consider that God made the stars directly. “ God wrote three Bibles. The first Bible was in the sky, called the zodiac. Now, if you don't know the Book of Job, just forget about it, 'cause--because Job is the one explains it: how that he looked up, and he named those things in the sky . (Blasphemous names, Jefferson IN 62-1104M) If the stars were the First Bible, we have God giving us His word and history by mysteries of which only the initiated could understand. How do the stars teach us knowledge of God? How can any of this be compared to the written word. Did Job name them or did God name but a few stars? Enoch was not in Egypt; the Bible does not mention him building the pyramids as Branham taught. Only Job spoke of mazzaroth, the constellations of the heavens, no one else. And it was in a conversation that God prompted Job for answers: Job 9:8-9 He alone spreads out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea; He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south .” Job 38:31-33 " Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loose the belt of Orion? Can you bring out Mazzaroth in its season? Or can you guide the Great Bear with its cubs? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth ?” God asked Job questions he had no answers to (Job 38-40). The answer to “Do you know the ordinances of the heavens” is a no, so to say God revealed this to Job (or anyone else) is just not true. Amos 5:8 “He made the Pleiades and Orion” is clearly in the context of Him being the Creator of all things. No stars are mentioned that are part of the virgin or the lion, so where did Branham learn this? From Astrology. “ Job is the one explains it: how that he looked up, and he named those things in the sky (The Spoken Word; p.10-12; William Marrion Branham; Blasphemous Names, November 4, 1962, Branham Tabernacle, Jefferson, Indiana Vol. 3) How can Branham say this when Job’s book does not contain this information? There were only 6,000 visible stars seen by the naked eye before our modern telescope. Certainly God named all the stars and put them in their place, but this does not mean He revealed their names all to man. Ps 147:4-5 “ He counts the number of the stars; he calls them all by name. Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; his understanding is infinite .” The Lord knows every hair on our head just as he can name every star, there is no reason to read into this any further. We get names of only a few stars from God but he does not teach that creatures that exist were assigned to their groupings to tell a story. Job 9:7-10: “ He commands the sun, and it does not rise; he seals off the stars; He alone spreads out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea; He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south; He does great things past finding out, yes, wonders without number .” The Bible says God named them all but he did not tell us their names. Could we know and record the name of the trillions of stars? No, only God can. The promoters of this gospel in the sky can’t answer the questions of who did God first teach this to? Who grouped the stars together in these so called illustrations of the gospel? How was it passed down? When or how do they know this? Later on Branham seem to adjust his view to make it seem that he was not teaching this as from the Bible “ Now, please, let it be known on the tape and wherever more, I'm not teaching this as a doctrine, what I'm going to say now. But I'm just want to show you that, by the help of God, what it really is, that the first Bible that God ever wrote was the Zodiac in the skies. It starts off with a virgin. It ends up with Leo the lion. And when I get into that Sixth and Seventh Seal, you'll find out when that other Seal was opened, the Zodiac mark of that place was cancer, the cross fish. That's the cancer age we're living in now revealed. And the next thing the seal tore off, it revealed Leo the lion, the second coming of Christ. " (62-1014M, The Stature Of A Perfect Man, Branham Tabernacle, Jeffersonville, IN) The fact that he mixed astrology with the 7 seals and prefacing it with it not being taught as doctrine was contradictory to everything else he said. Pure conjecture on his part. The Zodiac theory was previously put in book form by Seiss and E.W Bullinger (1893, 'The Witness of the Stars) and promoted by Branham’s contemporary, Franklin Hall, who said "In 1848 A.D. the Aquarian Age was introduced to the world.” “ That's the first Bible. Man was to look up to realize that God is from above. Follow the Zodiac; did you ever study it? It even gives every age, even the cancer age. It gives the beginning, the birth--the birth of Christ. What is the first figure in the Zodiac? The virgin. What's the last figure? Leo the lion. The first coming and the second coming of Christ, all of it is written in there. Then the next Bible was written, was in stone, called pyramid. God wrote in the pyramids. If you study them, watch the ancient histories and wars, how they were built before the antediluvian destruction ” (60-0522E, Adoption, Branham Tabernacle, Jeffersonville IN) To say God wrote in the pyramids like it says God wrote the commandments on stone is more than absurd. Branham did not explain the other signs that were in between the beginning and end of the Zodiac, but he was able to promote this occult view in the church without it being challenged. So Branham along with others like Bullinger and Seiss believed the gospel was contained in the sky before it was ever written, though the Bible does not speak of this in any manner. Nor that God is located in it as are the people that lived. “It is well known that the Greeks had the very same signs of the Zodiac as did the Babylonians; and it has been found in the ancient Egyptian records that the Egyptians gave the Greeks their knowledge of polytheism. Thus the mysteries of Babylon spread from nation to nation until it appeared in Rome, in China, India and even in both North and South America …” Exposition of The Seven Church Ages) Was the Zodiac taught in Judaism, definitely not. Israel was told not to use it. Did anything good come from Babylon the origin of organized false religion? Astrology came from Babylon, the telling of the future or past by the stars. This is what astrologists use to predict a person's future - the Zodiac. Zodiac confusion There is no uniform message behind the stars. The zodiac is out of order - the sign of Virgo (allegedly representing a virgin conceiving the Deliverer) comes before the sign of Libra (which supposedly symbolizes the fact that humankind has sinned). The Book of Genesis is the opposite. The promise of the “seed of the woman” (Gen. 3:15) is given after mankind sinned (Gen. 3:1-14), so it is out of order. Clearly the forms and names are manmade and not God-given. The example of the Centaur being half man and half horse allegedly showing Christ's dual nature is absurd. Where does the Scripture say a horse represents His deity? Christ was not half human and half God, but 100% of each. There is no way to claim (or prove) there is an original authentic Zodiac which is God-given which promoters claim Satan counterfeited and corrupted. The gospel zodiac Branham believed and taught the gospel could be read in the stars, did any of the apostles? Lets look as Scripture to see what they said. Rom.16:25-26: “ Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now has been made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures has been made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith --According to my Gospel .” “which was kept secret since the world began” Col. 1:24-27: “…I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations , but now has been revealed to His saints.”” Mystery hidden from ages” Eph. 3:2-5: “ by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets.” “ which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men.” Nowhere does it say in the gospel was put in creation as a completed story (or even in part). It says it was unknown until the Scriptures of the New Testament were given. To say that man figured out the gospel or God wrote His gospel in the sky before it even happened in history and gave it to man is not from Scripture. Before it was revealed to the apostles, before the Bible wrote of it (the first book of the bible – in the sky) is error. This is not what the Bible teaches yet Branham said, "I tried my best to see that zodiac, and I can't see it; but yet, it's there.” Those who are trained know it's there. Job saw it; man used to look at it; it was a Bible at one day. But in that whole great mass of millions and billions of--of light years, God sets in the midst of all of it, and He looks down. Paul is in there; my mother's in there somewhere looking down. " (62-0311, The Greatest Battle Ever Fought, Branham Tabernacle, Jeffersonville, IN) Exactly what did Branham mean his mother was “in there” as was Paul, looking down; as well as God. (Jer. 31:35 the stars were for light as is the moon. “ That's the way the stars stand. The solar system hasn't changed. The zodiac, the morning star rises on its post of duty every morning just exactly the way it did when the earth was created. The evening star takes its place. Every star, the little dipper, it right at the time of season is just exactly where it's supposed to be. The north star stands steady and never moves. Hallelujah. The whole thing revolves around the north star, all the rest of them, because it's right in the center of the earth; that's Christ. ” (62-0311, The Greatest Battle Ever Fought, Branham Tabernacle, Jeffersonville, IN) The north star is Christ? That’s what a Japanese religion says, the north star is where the ultimate god resides. The Japanese religion says: “So if one asks where the dwelling of this great kami is, it is in the very center of heaven, very highly elevated, in a still and unmoving place, namely, the so-called pole star, the point forming the fulcrumXVI of heaven; it is there that Amenominakanushi no kami resides . (from 4. Hirata Atsutane's View of Amenominakanushi no Kami- Kami Contemporary Papers on Japanese Religion) Hirata used expressions implying a sovereign role for Amenominakanushi no kami, his interpretations did not describe the kami as one that disclosed its existence, but as a deity that existed "eternally hidden within the so-called north star, which is the High Plain of Heaven ," http://www2.kokugakuin.ac.jp/ijcc/wp/cpjr/kami/sasaki.html Chinese astrological thought refers to that group of constellations encircling the north star, and believed to be the home of the Heavenly Emperor (tentei). http://www2.kokugakuin.ac.jp/ijcc/wp/cpjr/kami/sasaki.html There are other god’s as well. Dhruva Hindu God of the Pole Star. He is an avatar of Vishnu and one of the vasus Tara Hindu Celestial deity and the goddess of the Pole Star. Seen in some areas as an important aspect of the Mother Goddess. Xaman Ek Mayan God of the north star, he is the protector of merchants and travelers. Offerings were made to him on altars erected beside roads. This is all proven not to be correct. If you trace the path of the axis in the sky, you will find that Polaris, Vega, Thuban, and Alpha Cephei all fall on or very close to it. So when the earth's axis is at a point on the path near Vega, Vega becomes the North Star while Thuban is the North Star when the axis is near it on the path. Five thousand years ago, Thuban was the North Star. Five thousand years from now, the North Star will be Alpha Cephei. Seven thousand years after that, it will be Vega. Nine thousand years after that, Thuban will be the North Star again. At these dates, the various stars will be at the closest to absolute north. The North Star, the Pole Star also known as Polaris is the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor, it seems stay fixed in our sky but the North Star does move. It appears this way because it is in a direct line with the axis of the Earth and this is why it has been used as a navigation aid, but it does wobble. Thousands of years ago, when the pyramids were built in Egypt, the North Star was Thuban in the constellation Draco the Dragon. Twelve thousand years from now, the blue-white star Vega in the constellation Lyra will be a much brighter North Star than our current Polaris. Apart from God speaking directly to us, by His only source of specific revelation - the Bible, we are unable to have personal knowledge of the future (history) or the gospel that can save. To say the gospel is in the stars is to claim the reading of the stars can save someone and teach them what the only the Scripture can. What confusion this brings when the Bible says the law came first, the shadow before the light. How can the gospel be in the stars first when the Bible says it was hid, not seen (Rom.16:25) until the apostles revealed it, until it was given in the Scripture. Remember Branham claims the Scripture is the third Bible, not the first. Matthew 24:14, Mark 13:10 has said the gospel must be preached to all nations, therefore the stars do not proclaim it. We can never associate the Zodiac with teaching us Bible doctrine of any sort. The gospel is to be preached, by people and its meaning must be understood for it to be of any effect to save. God did not arrange the stars to form images that would tell a Bible story that was yet future. There is no way that visual images were positioned to present the gospel to all mankind. You can look at Virgo and have a million years and not come to the conclusion of it meaning a virgin birth of the perfect, sinless Son of God unless one superimposes the Bibles revealed teaching on it. The Southern Cross configuration in the sky does not explain what Christ would do in the future --die upon a cross for our sins and rise again from the dead. No one in Scripture says they learned of anything of God from the zodiac. God gave us prophecies through men He chose, but not all at one time as portrayed by Branham or the other advocates of gospel in the stars. Throughout history He slowly revealed Himself to the prophets of Israel until the promise is culminated in Jesus and the gospel was revealed to man. The gospel is mentioned over 100 times in the New Testament (directly and indirectly) and it is never associated with the stars. Yet we are to believe the promoters of the gospel in the stars that God gave the exact same gospel without it ever being mentioned in the Scripture that it is in the stars. But one cannot even find this so called gospel in the stars without first reading of it. No one has ever looked up and read the stars and found the Bible story there without knowing it first and even then they have to impress it to mean what they want it to.
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