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Copycats of heresy We all know that new revelation is shared among the word faith teachers. What many do not know is that the Latter Rain teachers (many who are word faith) of our day copied William Branham, whom they look to as their spiritual idol and mentor. It is said that copying is a best form of flattery – in this case it is a form of heresy. We see this consistently among themselves, copying each other’s words and mannerisms. What you will find is that nearly all unanimously endorse, and follow William Branham, the greatest false teacher of our time.
Here is an example of two men who have utmost respect for Branham. From
Benny Hinn’s Sept. 1999 "This is Your Day" telecast:
Benny: "You were trying to imitate me?" RHB: " Some people think I'm crazy when I say this, but this is a fact. I was there when it happened. If you've ever seen a movie when somebody got struck by lightening . . . Well, through the chair the power of God just come up and hit me . . . my eyes got big. They all felt the presence of God (Kent Maddoux & his wife). And I just slowly put the video down. . . for about 18 hours I felt that. . . and right after that the miracle anointing increased in my life. It was amazing!. . . and even though I was playing, I mean I wasn't doing it mocking, but the anointing of God just came and God touched me. And it's scriptural because the Bible talks about when they took the dead man and threw him on the grave and he landed on the prophet's bones, the person came back to life ." Just like Elisha, hardly, but this is how they interpret the Bible by inserting themselves into it. This is a standard interpretation from those who are of the Latter Rain, R. H. Browne being a huge supporter and participant explains the transferable anointing. Now that we understand this as the basis for today’s third wave we can look at the numerous statements of men who copy William Branham, the greatest of all false teachers in modern times. William Branham taught Jesus became God, not that he was God incarnated in human flesh as the Bible teaches. Of course he occasionally gave lip service to the biblical doctrine but when he had the opportunity to explain it he showed how wrong he was. Branham: “He lived as a man until He was baptized by John, at Jordan” (54-0720A, The Maniac Of Gadara, Lane Tech High School, Chicago, IL) When he was baptized “Jesus immediately anointed with God, He was just a man till that time, but now He becomes the God-man. '" (55-0806 Jesus Christ the Same Yesterday, Today and Forever, preached in Campbellsville, KY) “ Jesus immediately anointed with God, He was just a man till that time , but now He becomes the God-man. (55-0806, Jesus Christ The Same Yesterday, Today, And Forever) the Spirit of God like a dove coming from above, and It settled on Him, and went into Him, God coming to His Temple .” (55-0116A, The Believer's Position In Christ, Lane Tech High School, Chicago, IL) “And John said, "I bare record, seeing the Spirit of God like a Dove coming down, and abiding on Him." …That's when God and Man became one. …. That's when God was made flesh ...? … that's when God came down from the Spirit form and was made a Man and dwell among us.” (56-0805, The Church And Its Condition, Branham Tabernacle, Jeffersonville, IN). This is a denial that he was incarnated in Mary’s womb as the Bible teaches. This was and is the heresy of adoptionism that is still with us today. Creflo Dollar explains it this way “If Jesus came as God then why did God have to anoint him. Jesus came as a man that’s why it was legal to anoint him. Jesus came as a man and at 30 god is now getting ready to demonstrate to us and give us an example of what a man with the anointing can do. Can you imagine being Jesus growing up all these years being told you’re the son of God. And all the things happening and walking around in this flesh body and then at age 30 the confirmation comes from heaven YES you are my son- you are my son-Yes you are my son and I’m getting ready to anoint you and I’m getting ready to show you the difference between a man that does not have my anointing and a man that does have my anointing. Now Jesus was on the earth- why did he have to be anointed… because he was man he had to be anointed, he was man .” (tape) We can see the Latter Rain teaching from Branham clearly in the word faith teaching of today. What does Bill Johnson teach? “ Jesus laid aside his divinity ... the anointing Jesus received at his baptism was the equipment necessary to make it possible for Jesus to live beyond human limitations . (When Heaven Invades Earth p.79). “ Jesus lived His earthly life with human limitations. He laid his divinity aside as He sought to fulfill the assignment given to Him by the Father: to live life as a man without sin” (“The Anointing and the Antichrist Spirit.” When Heaven Invades Earth. p.79) If his divinity is laid aside than who came from heaven? His humanity was formed on earth through Mary, so who was in her womb? Todd White being associated with Johnson and his teaching, what does he teach? Jesus was NOT born God on earth but was only a man, but when anointed at his baptism for ministry then he was able to do all his miracles, because the Holy Spirit anointed him AS a man. Just as Branham said of Jesus, being a twelve-year-old Boy “ … The Father didn’t dwell in Him at that time, because He come on the day when He baptized Him; …and went in Him .” (Paradox, tape #64-0206B) Todd White says it was at Jesus’ baptism that is when he became God, just like Branham. Todd White adheres to a Gnostic teaching of Jesus, exactly like all the other word faith /Branham followers have. It is a denial of God with us, the one true God coming to earth through Jesus Christ. “ He didn’t live as God on the earth , Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan when he went down in that river He came back up, it says the heavens were open, for him legally … he obeyed the law and if righteousness is given to you I will open the heavens and cause it to rain. So that day the heaven’s were open only for Jesus and whom Jesus appointed.”…“The Holy Spirit was the agency of God that rested upon Jesus’ life and when he was 30 years old and that Holy Spirit came upon him he went out into the wilderness for 40 days and came back out and went about doing mighty works.”(youtube video) Who else teaches this? You would be surprised how many do. Kenneth Copeland says Christ "had no innate supernatural powers. He had no ability to perform miracles until after He was anointed by the Holy Spirit." (Kenneth Copeland, "Question & Answer," Believer's Voice of Victory, August 1988, 8.) “ Jesus immediately anointed with God, He was just a man till that time , but now He becomes the God-man. (55-0806, Jesus Christ The Same Yesterday, Today, And Forever, Methodist Campgrounds, Campbellsville, KY) Rodney H. Browne " Nothing Jesus did was because He was the Son of God. The Bible says He laid aside His royal robes of Deity and when He walked on earth He did so as a Prophet under the Abrahamic Covenant ." (Rodney H. Browne, the Touch of God p.13, 14) Browne was taught in Hagin’s school Rhema in south Africa before he came to America so we would expect him to have nearly the same words " Of course Jesus stands in a class by himself, personally as deity. But when it comes to ministry, Jesus does not stand in a class by Himself. . . Even though Jesus was the Son of God, and divine blood flowed through His veins, yet He was ministering on the earth as a human being - a prophet anointed with the Holy Spirit “(Hagin, Kenneth, Hear and Be Healed, pp. 8, 13-14) “In other words , the miracles Jesus did was because He was merely a man anointed by the Holy Spiri t, or "an anointed man." (ibid p.19.) What we need to understand is the Branham connection. The Latter Rain movement that was popularized through William Branham has so infiltrated the Pentecostal/ Charismatic churches that this has all become the normative for our time. And we hear this teaching in the leaders of the revivals. John Kilpatrick "[Jesus was] an anointed man... Walk as Jesus walked, and remember, he did it all as a man who did not pull from any source other than those that are available to man ." (John Kilpatrick, When the Heavens Are Brass p.19, 22.) The list of everyone agreeing with this is long. The Bible directly addresses this teaching 1 John 4:2-3 “ Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the fleshis of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist.” 2 John 7 “ For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist .” All that deny his incarnation, that he was God with us at his birth; according to the Bible means they are deceivers, an antichrist. The spirit of antichrist means one denies the most fundamental core teaching of Christ being the incarnate God. This also affects the gospel Copeland copied Branham, he states, " Once you start re-translating the word Christ, as anointing you'll realize how the message of the anointing permeates the entire New Testament .” (K Copeland, Voice of Victory: Vol. 23, No 4, April 1995) Copeland goes far and wide to prove that the word Christ only means anointing. So when you come to the word Christ in the Bible it is retranslated to the anointing. This means when it says Jesus Christ, he was a man who was "christed," which is an early heresy in the church. Being the Christ he was the anointed ONE, not just anointed. No other man or prophet was called Christ. Dake's Bible “He did not claim the attributes of God, but only the anointing of the Spirit to do His works ” (Dake's Annotated Reference Bible, Finis Jennings Dake, New Testament, p. 218.) Todd White says, Jesus is born of the virgin Mary, he is born as a man he is not born as God, he’s God’s son but he had, he was fully God and fully man, I’m not taking, I’m not taking divinity away from Jesus .” He speaks of people being attacked, like himself. “ They think I’m taking divinity away from Jesus but I’m not I’m just bringing the gospel. Jesus did what he did and he was called the son of man when he was on this earth, Son of god. He then refers to Jn.5:19 the son of man can do nothing of himself. …What the father does the Son does in like manner. Because the Holy Spirit was on Jesus’ life. Until the Jordan river there was not miracle. He then speaks of the baptism in the Jordan river “that at 30 years old Jesus would receive everything that his father had. (God’s man) When Jesus was baptized “and came back up God came upon Jesus through the agency of what? The Holy Spirit… so when Jesus healed the sick it was God through Jesus through the agency of the holy Spirit healing the sick. You have to get this!”He’s fully God and fully man but he had to lay divinity aside to do what God sent him here to do.”(youtube video) If what he is describing is true -- than Jesus was not God revealed (manifested in the flesh). To lay aside you divinity means you are NOT God, furthermore this is a denial of his nature, who he is, which means it is not God who came to earth, “God with us,” on earth, he was still in heaven. The incarnation of God becoming man is a core doctrine of the church for 2,000 years. “God with us,”1 Tim. 3:16 great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh.” This means these men are presenting a very different Jesus. One just like the cults, and other religions. The fact is he had to be conceived with deity or he could not do what God sent him here to do! Copeland got his little god theory from Branham as did Hagin. Kenneth Hagin got many of his heretical concepts for Branham and wrote numerous books on them. Apparently they can’t have any original heresy of their own, they have to copy another. Jesus was not God Branham stated Jesus never said he was the Son of God “… He never said He was the Son of God; He said He was the Son of man.” (60-1225, God's Wrapped Gift, Branham Tabernacle, Jeffersonville, IN). “God adopted His own Son.” God adopted His own Child into the family. ” (55-1006A, A Hidden Life, Lane Tech High School, Chicago, IL) Branham further stated it was at the transfiguration. “ when He took Him up; took Peter, James, and John, as a witness. "…The Holy Spirit overshadowed Christ, … And there, God adopted His own Son.” (54-1231, Everlasting Life And How To Receive It, Branham Tabernacle) This means he there was no deity at birth. Branham insisted that Jesus never said he was God’s son. What spirit would have one deny Jesus as God’s Son? Or that he was God in the flesh? It is the antichrist spirit that denies he came in the flesh (in humanity). John addresses this in I Jn. 4:2-3: “ By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist .” Copeland "Why didn't Jesus openly proclaim Himself as God during His 33 years on earth? For one single reason. He hadn't come to earth as God, He'd come as man." (K. Copeland, Believer's Voice of Victory magazine, Aug. 8, 1988. p.8.) This is a direct denial of the incarnation. But Copeland goes further conveying that Jesus said, “ They crucified Me for claiming that I was God. But I didn’t claim I was God; I just claimed I walked with Him and that He was in Me. Hallelujah." (Kenneth Copeland, Take Time to Pray, Believer’s Voice of Victory 15, 2 (February 1987): 9. Creflo Dollar like Copeland, “ Jesus didn't come as God , he came as a man, that he did not come as God. I am just telling you all these fantasy preachers have been preaching all of this stuff for all of these years and we bought the package . And the question mark was there.” (Creflo Dollar's program " " Made After His Kind ", dated Sept. 15, 22, 2002.) The teaching of being anointed to be a prophet or God is a first century heresy that is being spread today. An anointing to change Jesus’ relationship with the father, an adoption at his baptism or any time in his life diminishes the personhood of the Son of God that came to earth. But there is so much more that the word faith teachers have copied from the Latter Rain movement of Branham. Its tentacles run through all its theology and practices. p.2 Adam the God man on earth |
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