DeWitt Tabernacle Teaching Series
EXHORTATION
TO UNITY
IN
It
goes without question that within the framework of what we call “The End-Time
Message,” we have different understandings of some of the doctrines that the
Lord revealed to our Prophet, William Branham.
This is a natural thing that can only be overcome by
the Supernatural God. The Lord Jesus
referred to it as REVELATION! Matt.
We must have revelation. Message Believers have spoken sternly against the denominational sects who have built their walls of separation between God’s People. At the same time, we have unsuspectingly left our own flanks unguarded. In some cases, we have, in our own ranks, some of the most tightly-knit denominations on Earth. We have left far behind the teaching of Paul who admonished us to, “All speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you: but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment.” (1 Cor. 1:10)
In
this sermon, we will give the Prophet’s teaching concerning the ministers
having meetings of their own where they meet to iron out their doctrine.
Brother Branham was very clear about the need for such meetings.
The quotes on the subject will follow in this sermon.
About a year ago our Brother Don Osborne from
Without any animosity in his heart toward those who disagree in doctrine, he very apparently has a burden to see the Bride Ministers brought together “in the same minds, saying the same things.”
When he first spoke to me about ministers meetings and the possibility of the same mind among the ministers, my thoughts went back to others who have tried such meetings and failed. Having prayed much about this matter, I now see that failure is no excuse for giving up on the teaching of Paul and our own Prophet, William Branham.
I personally appreciate Br. Osborne for his burden. I have promised to help him any way I can.
The need is very clear, as well as the teaching to have such meetings. We do know that only the Spirit of the Lord will make it possible. Certain things need to be understood from the beginning. One is that all so-called Message ministers will not be willing to change their doctrine, even after being proven wrong. But, we will do well to remember that any Born-Again minister will be willing to change any teaching that he is wrong about. This is not only for his own benefit, but also, for those sheep that he might be unsuspectingly leading astray. If the ministers are confused on doctrine, it is a general rule that the congregation is also.
It behooves us to remember that we will all give account for our preaching. How dare we then close our minds and resist any God sent revelations that will surely come forth in the ministers meeting? Of all the people on Earth the Bride ministers should be those whose concern is for the true revelations of the Word to go forth. Let us not be known for how many we have refused to fellowship with because they reject our pet doctrines, rather let us be known for preaching Christ to a lost and dying generation. Will we who claim the full Truth be so spiritually blind as to sit in our own fragmented church camps and condemn others for being sectarian? We must be willing to clean our own skirts.
While the world’s church systems stand in a general state of unbelief in what we preach, at least some of this distrust can be traced to our failure to show forth a Christ-like spirit, and our own lack of uniformity in doctrine! Which Message church do you recommend when asked for a reference? Which camp are you in? With no disrespect meant to any, we will list a few of our denominations: We have the “Return Ministry” group, the “Thunders” group, the “Two Soul” group, the “Seventh Seal Opened” group, and those who say “Not so” group! There is a group that believes that William Branham was Jesus Christ, and another group that believes that every word Brother Branham ever spoke was “Thus Saith The Lord.” Still another group believes that Brother Branham’s teaching on Election is that God decided to send some to Hell and some to Heaven and that man has no say-so in the matter, and that we are not free-moral agents. Still another group believes that we are now in the Millennium. A few believe the Bride will go through the Great Tribulation. Some insist that we do not need God-called pastors today, and that we can sit home and listen to the Prophet’s taped sermons.
Can we not see, dear friends, that some of our churches are fragmented and war-like in their spirit toward so-called outsiders? Again, we say that we mean no disrespect to any of these groups, but at the same time, we are forced to say, “Somebody is wrong.” If we should investigate the “Assemblies of God, or the Methodist, or the Baptist, their doctrine would be written out plain and clear for all to read. The same investigator would be hard-put to discover our doctrine in the Message. As he moved from church camp to church camp, he could very well become more and more confused. May the Lord raise His True Bride above the strife and confusion, lest He be compelled to raise up some from the stones to carry forth His Glorious Message!
It goes without question that not all ministers will be interested in meeting to discuss doctrine. That will be their individual choice. I have heard it said, “God did not call me to straighten out ministers!” Perhaps in times past this writer has been of the same mind-set. But, we had best remember that God’s mind-set is that we end up saying the same thing!
We often make the remark that, “When the last Bride member comes in, the Bride will be taken out.” I would like to add a line to that statement. “When the last Bride member comes in and is ready to be raptured, then we all leave.” There must be maturity in the Bride group, and a big part of that maturity will be when we are all in “Unity of the Spirit and Doctrine.”
Could
it be that one thing that is holding up our leaving time is our disunity?
(Remember only the Bride in Message Churches will ever be brought into
unity.) As the Scripture declares,
“All Israel is not
No doubt, there could be meetings that some would declare to be a failure. But let us remember that because unity is God’s will for us, we should not consider any move toward it as a failure, but only a stepping stone toward His goal for us. He will not fail to honor all honest efforts on our part. How beautiful was Brother Branham’s plea that we return to New Testament Christianity. His God-given Message was, “Let us be Christians only, laying aside our private interpretations of the Word, and all human philosophies and creeds, in order to embrace Christ the Word.”
Do we suppose that the world’s denominational systems entanglement in the Scriptures is any worse in God’s Eye than we with ours? I believe not! Our Brother Osborne is an expert at setting up meetings and getting the people together. For those who have never tried to set up an important meeting, perhaps you don’t understand that it takes a God-called man to do it well. Brother Osborne has had years of training and in this writer’s mind, it could well be that our Lord has prepared him for just such an hour as this.
Any Message minister that is keeping up with the signs of the times has to know that it is very late for God’s Bride to be in such disunity! It should be every man’s prayer that we come together in unity. But what good will it do us to pray, dear brothers, if we ourselves are not willing to take part in its attainment? We can be sure that many hard lessons will be learned in such meetings, yet this writer is convinced, along with Brother Osborne, that it must be done.
There will be more information forth coming by way of the DeWitt Tabernacle monthly sermons, as we work under the leadership of Brother Osborne and the Holy Ghost.
God
Bless,
Brother C.W. Wood
SCRIPTURES FOR UNITY
1 Corinthians 1:10-11 “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you: but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
Verse 11 “For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there contentions among you.
Ephesians 4:1-3 “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
Verse 2 “With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love:
Verse 3 “Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Ephesians 4:11-15 “And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some pastors and teachers;
Verse 12 “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Verse 13 “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:
Verse 14 “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
Verse 15 “But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Romans
Psalms 133:1-3 “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
Verse 2 “It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments;
Verse
3 “As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains
of
QUOTE: C.O.D. BOOK VOLUME 2, PAGE 762. “And then in there, get training in your own groups, other ministers—man that you see has a calling in their life for the ministry. Train them young men; bring them in here to the elder. All of you set together in a ministerial meeting and there teach the deeper things of God. Don’t go on the bad end. Keep someone who….can have confidence in to be kind of like a—a leader for you. And then sometimes if you don’t see it just exactly the way he does, goes—that’s all right; you’re in the faith anyhow, just move along. Maybe when we come together then, all of us together, we’ll pray; the discernment of God come down, and He’ll give it just exactly what it is (you see?) let us know just how to do it.” (End of quote)
QUOTE:
WHAT IS THE HOLY GHOST,
(End of quote)
QUOTE: THE GODHEAD EXPLAINED, 1961 CHICAGO “Now, I said to Brother Scism and Brother Ness, “To answer your question,” I said, “now, I do not take either sides with you brethren, and I know, as long as you fuss, you’re both wrong (see?) Because I would rather be wrong in my doctrine and right in my heart than to be right in my doctrine and wrong in my heart.” See? I said, “After all, it’s your heart’s condition.”
And I made that a practice to know this, that if a man, no matter what he does and how much he differs, and what he says about me, if in my heart, not from just a duty, but from my heart I can’t love that man as well as I love anyone else, then I know there’s something wrong in here. See? That’s right…..” (End of quote)
QUOTE: C.O.D. BOOK VOLUME 2, PAGE 768, JEFF. 1962. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to Brother…up there from Utica, Brother Crase, all you other brethren here come together, meet, come into a place; you ministers set together and discuss things. You’ve got to have fellowship somewhere. You’ve got to have something to come together to kind of get together about. You all come together as a group of man and believe one with the other and like that, and discuss these problems and set out, maybe once a month, just ministers alone. Let you meet somewhere in one of your churches. Sit there and discuss it and talk it, each one of you pastors, and evangelists, and whatever you are.” (End of quote)
QUOTE:
UNITING TIME AND SIGN,
“Also, while all this uniting of the nation, these signs, national signs, we see out here in the world, earthquakes, in divers places, different things uniting; bringing the world together, bringing the people together, all of the churches together, all these things. And while all this uniting’s being going on, there is another uniting going on. Amen! That’s what I want to point to you now.
God is uniting His Bride. She’s coming together from the east and the west, from the north and south. There’s a uniting time, and that’s on right now. What’s she uniting for? The Rapture! Amen! God’s getting Her ready. Yes sir, uniting! What’s She uniting with? With the Word! “For all the heavens and earth will pass away, but My Word shall never pass away.” She’s uniting Herself with THUS SAITH THE LORD regardless of what any denomination or anybody else says. She’s uniting Herself. She’s getting ready. Why? She is the Bride. That’s right. And she’s united Herself with Her Bridegroom (see?) and the Bridegroom is the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” (End of quote)
QUOTE: WHERE I THINK PENTECOST FAILED,
“If it ever gets to a place that I couldn’t put my arm around any
brother that’s working for the
I’d be scared to stand on the platform and face evil spirits, to know that I had envy in my heart against any brother, no matter who he is, that’s trying to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ or live a Christian life.
If he—we disagree a million miles upon theology, if he loves the Lord Jesus, he’s my brother, and it’s my sister. And we’ve drawed those lines. “And if you can’t love your brother who you have seen, how can you love God Who you can’t—have never seen?” And brother, when love goes out, God goes with it, for God is love. And you can never get anywhere without Divine love. And as you love one another, you love God.” (End of quote)
RULES
FOR THE MEETINGS
(Note:
Rules and regulations are
subject
to change and/or added
as
we learn from experience in
the
meeting.)
1
There can
be a 30-minute motivational preaching sermon to start a meeting.
2
The one motive for the meeting will be adhered to throughout: to come
to the Unity of the Truth, as the Scriptures and the Prophet have set it
forth, concerning all doctrine.
3
The
motive will not be to set one church, or one minister, up above any
other.
4
One
major doctrine only will be the topic of discussion in a meeting (unless
the teaching on it is resolved, and there is time for another doctrine to be
discussed.)
5
There will be a mediator in charge of each meeting.
He will be in charge of the meeting to preside over the speakers when
expounding their doctrine. He will
have deacons under his orders, and any signs of disunity, arguments, or
disruptions will be subject to being dismissed from the meeting by said deacons.
(The Prophet said they are, “Policemen of the Church.”)
Church order will be strictly followed and enforced, in all humility and
love!
6
The
mediator will not be allowed to give his views, but must wait until he is just a
participant in a meeting.
7
The Brother in the pulpit expounding on doctrine will be given
twenty-five minutes to state his views. He
should give Scriptures, followed by quotes of the Prophet in making his case.
It will be the duty of the mediator to pull the speaker’s coattail if
he runs overtime (No preaching, just
state the doctrine.)
8
Each
minister in the congregation will be allowed one question only (as time permits,
the mediator will call on those whose hands are raised.)
The questions must pertain to the doctrine being submitted.
9
All participants
in the meeting will be required to respect every other participant in
Godly Love. QUOTE: RESPECTS,
JEFF. 1961, PAGE 9. “God demands
respect for His Servants.”
10
There will
be one hour of discussion and questions after the speaker is finished, also to
be presided over by the mediator, to keep order.