DEWITT
TABERNACLE TEACHING SERIES
The Book of Revelation
As Revealed to the
Prophet William Branham
By C.W. Wood
July 2007
The very first verse
in Revelation chapter one holds a very deep mystery. For the sake of
those who are not familiar with the teaching of Brother William Branham, we will
go into much detail in the study of this first verse. For if the minds of the
people can be opened to receive the teaching hidden in the first verse, they
will be well down the road to understanding other mysteries of the Book of
Revelation!
Rev. 1:1, “The Revelation
of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which
must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified [it] by his angel unto his
servant John.”
Here we see that God gave Jesus Christ the truths that are found in the
Book of Revelation. Then we see that Jesus Christ passed these truths on to His
servant, John the Revelator.
We want to look closely at the method Jesus used in getting these truths
to John. Notice! The Scripture says that Jesus sent the revealed truths to John
by an angel. The truths come from God to His Son Jesus and from Jesus Christ to
an angel and from the angel to John!
In the beginning, the revelation was in God, who gave it to Jesus, who
then passed it on to John. It is important to see that there are three persons
involved here in the bringing of the Revelation to Earth. Number one, we have
God (and we know that God and Christ are one), then we have an angel, and then
John the Revelator. Do you see these three persons in verse one? God, an angel,
and John the Revelator. We know who God was and we know who John was. Seeing
these three, then the next pertinent question is, “Who was the Angel?”
John was the scribe, the one who was to write down all the Revelations,
God was there in Christ, but who was the angel? At this point we are going to
appeal to the Prophet’s teaching on this subject. We will give some statements
Br. Branham made concerning this great mystery (and it is GREAT), then we will
go to the Scripture to prove the quotes.
The quotes that we are about to give show the astounding truth that
“the angel” of Rev. 1:1 was “a prophet” who gave the whole Book
of Revelation to John the Revelator.
In the following quote, Br. Branham speaks of the angel (prophet) that
came to John on the Isle of Patmos and revealed the whole Book of Revelation to
him.
QUOTE: THE SEVEN SEALS, PAGES 359-361, “This is just not me
standing up here to talk. I’m in here, too. I’m among you. It’s me. I’ve
got family. I’ve got brothers and sisters that I love. And the God of Heaven
kind enough to come down and reveal that thing by His Own….by visions that’s
been proved for thirty years it’s the Truth. We’re here. We have arrived.
Scientific search has proved it. The vindication of the Word has proved
it. And we’re here; and this revelation comes from God, and it’s the Truth.
Have you caught anything? I might not have to tell you then, Sunday.
Notice, notice. …Wonderful! Now notice now. And then according to the time
that God was going to deliver the antediluvian world, He sent the eagle. And the
time He was going to deliver
You know, an angel is a messenger, but did you know the messenger was a
prophet? Do you believe that? Let’s prove it. Revelation 22—let’s see if
it was an eagle. Sure he was an angel; he was a messenger. But it was a prophet
that revealed this whole Book of Revelation to him. (Revelation the 22nd
chapter and the 19th verse). Now, I believe that’s right if I’ve
got it written down here:
“Then saith he unto me. See thou
do it not; for I am they fellowservant, and of they brethren the prophets….
Watch what John seen here:
“And I John saw these things,
and heard them…
(Now, he’s closing it. This is the last chapter.) “And when I heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of
the angel which shewed me these things. (And he, then the angel, see?)
“Then saith he unto me, See thou
do it not:….(No true prophet would be worshipped or messenger of any kind)
“Then saith he unto me, see thou
do it not: for I am they fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of
them which keep the sayings of this book worship God.”
See? Now, the Book was so important that it is the Word of God. Now
watch! And when the Word of God is brought forth, it’s got to be brought by
the prophet, because that’s who the Word of God comes to.
I was expecting to get a question on that in this box here—I just
thought I’d just beat them to it….?...I just feel there is one in there so..
I just thought I’d get to it, see. Every Word of God is brought. The Bible
doesn’t change its system at all. See, it’s the same thing. It’s got to
come to this seer that we’re expecting to arrive. Now, notice. Revelation
10:1-7. Now, let us read the 9th verse again.
Now, we get….we…now, before we go to that verse, I want to ask you
something. Do you see perfectly, before we leave these Seals? Now remember,
there is no more powers goes out after that eagle, no more. Every time the
antichrist sent forth something, God sent a power. The antichrist sent another
power; God sent something to combat it. Then he sent another power; God sent
something to combat it. See? Then when He got down to the eagle, that was His
Word, back like it was in the first place.
Now watch. Isn’t the prophet that we’re looking to come, some man
anointed with the Spirit like Elijah? It won’t be Elijah, of course, but it
will be a man like that that will come down, and his very ministry is to send,
to restore back to this fallen people through these denominational twists, back
to the original faith of the fathers.
Now, if that don’t tie that Bible together, I don’t know what does. I
can’t say no more about it. Because that’s it. It’s just arrived. That’s
the Truth. You take anything from there, you twist it. See? So it’s just got
to be that way.” (End quote)
In the Book “The Revelation of Jesus Christ,” Br. Branham again
speaks of the angel who gave the revelations to John on
QUOTE: THE REVELATION OF
JESUS CHRIST, PAGE 25, (In this statement, Br. Branham is referring to Rev.
1:1.), “Now, the 1st chapter, 1st verse, was
introduced—to John. Now, who is the writer? John—John. It was not a
Revelation of John., and we know that it wasn’t, because it was the Revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was….He was chosen for a disciple. And the—the
Book Itself reveals the thing, that it was Jesus Christ in Whom He was
revealing. He……..
And It was sent to the …. ‘And
signified this by His angel unto John.’ We do not know who the angel was.
The Bible doesn’t say who the angel was. But we know that it was a prophet,
‘cause the Bible later said that. ‘I
Jesus have sent My angel to testify of these things which must shortly come to
pass.’
Then we find out that when John started to worship the angel, the angel
said, ‘See that you do it not.’
Revelation 22, I believe it is. And he said, ‘For
I am of thy fellowservants and of the prophets.’ It might have been
Elijah. It might have been one of the prophets…John was an Apostle, but this
prophet was sent. And John being an Apostle…Look at the nature of the rest of
his epistles; prove that it wasn’t John wrote it, because it has no nature
like John. Take I John and II John, so forth, and read it. And
look at the nature of that, then look at the nature of this. John was a writer
and was an apostle, but this is the spirit of a prophet. It’s a different
person, altogether. See? Wasn’t John’s writing, wasn’t John’s
Revelation. It was God’s Revelation of Jesus Christ to the churches. And it
had… John was just a writer, the scribe, and—and the Book declares the
same.” (End quote)
Now comes the deep mystery!!! If the Bible says that this angel of Rev.
1:1 was a prophet, then which prophet was it? What prophet does the
Scripture say would come in the last church age and reveal the mysteries?
Rev. 10:7, “But in the
days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the
mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the
prophets.”
This seventh angel was to come in the seventh church age to tie up all
the loose ends that had been misunderstood through the other church ages. Now if
we will look at Mal. 4:5, we will see that this angel was to be a man
born in our day with the spirit of Elijah on him.
Mal 4:5-6, “Behold, I
will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day
of the Lord.
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart
of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a
curse.”
This man, this angel,
this Elijah was the same angel that had appeared on the Isle of Patmos to
John the Revelator! Now the question arises, “How could this angel of Rev.
10:7, who was to come in the last days, be the same angel who appeared to
John on the Isle of Patmos 2000 years earlier?
To answer this we have to go to the Scripture and quotes, to see that
God’s Bride was first created in Heaven….in another kind of body, before
they were ever created on Earth in this flesh.
Gen. 1:26-27,
“And God said, Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of
the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the
earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he
him; male and female created he them.
Notice! These were bodies just like God’s own body. They were not clay
bodies. The clay bodies came later! Gen. 2:7, “And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
A very interesting statement by Br. Branham, “Adam first walked the
Garden of Eden in a Theophany body.” This was before he was ever created out
of the dust of the earth. (Gen. 2:7)
There
are Two of Us
The Prophet taught that a part of our supernatural being (Theophany) was
placed in flesh, but that we are not just altogether here in flesh, a part of us
remained in the Theophany.
QUOTE: C.O.D. BOOK, PAGE 340, “Notice now, when man was
separated from the Theophany and put in flesh, he wasn’t just altogether there
(in flesh). Part of his being was still a Theophany…” (End quote)
QUOTE: C.O.D. BOOK, PAGE 341, “We are both natural and
supernatural.” (End quote)
The Prophet saying there are two of us. Let’s read this in Scripture, I
Cor.
Does the Scripture teach this? Heb. 2: 10-14, “For it became Him, for whom are all things, in bringing many sons
unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings.” God was going to
put His sons in flesh bodies, then bring them to Glory after they overcame.
Heb. 2:11, “For both He
that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause He
is not ashamed to call them brethren.”
We
Came From
A
Higher
Being
Now notice, Heb. 2:14. It tells us that the children, who were
once in Heaven with Father, in a Theophany, were made to partake of flesh and
blood. “Forasmuch then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the
same….”
The children of God, who had been in Heaven with God, had a part of
themselves put on earth in a clay body, to be tested and tried. So the children,
who were first in Heaven with God, were made to be partakers of flesh and blood.
QUOTE: C.O.D. BOOK, PAGE 20-23, “He made the man and the women
before they was ever formed out of the dust of the earth. And then God made man
not in His own Image. This body (of flesh) is not in the Image of God, this body
is in the Image of beasts. Jesus told His Disciples that He knew them before the
foundation of the world was ever formed.” (End quote)
Here Brother Branham makes reference to John 15:26-27….. “And you shall also bear witness because you have been with Me from
the beginning.” In referring to this Scripture, again Brother Branham
said,
QUOTE: C.O.D. BOOK, PAGE 344, “That’s the way we are here, we
came from a higher being. (A Theophany) In the beginning we were in the Image of
God. The veil of darkness keeps us from knowing it now, but Jesus told His
Disciples He was with them before the foundation of the world, see! We were. “….And if this earthly tabernacle be dissolved we have one already
waiting. Then we move into this Theophany, what we once lived in.” (End
quote)
In this house of flesh there lives a part of our Theophany body, and that
Theophany body of ours is pure sons and daughters of God, created without hands,
created by God’s spoken word.
Did
We By-Pass
Our
Theophany?
Some teach that we by-passed our Theophany, and that we have not lived in
it yet. No doubt, they base their teaching on a statement Brother Branham made
in WHO IS THIS MELCHISEDEC, where he said, “See we have by-passed that
(Heavenly body) to come straight from God. The attribute (we were His
attribute)….to be flesh, to be tempted and tested by sin, like Adam was. But
when testing time is over, then we are taken up to this body that was prepared
for us before the foundation of the world.” (End quote)
But when we put this statement with the one in the C.O.D. BOOK, PAGE
344, where he said, “We move into the Theophany we once lived in,”
then we see that he only meant that we by-passed our Theophany in that we did
not stay in it.
A careful study of the Prophet’s message can leave no doubt about his
doctrine concerning our first creation in a spiritual body, before we ever
appeared on earth in flesh.
QUOTE: C.O.D. BOOK, PAGE 342, “Well my dear sainted Brother, my
dear sainted Sister, before the foundation of the world, when God created you in
His Image…He made you a Theophany just like Himself. When He said, “Let
us” to the creature He had made, let us make man in our own Image, in our
likeness, a Theophany.” (End quote)
QUOTE: C.O.D. BOOK, PAGE 23, “Man was first made in the Image of
God, then he was made in the image of beast and he fell.” (End quote)
QUOTE: WHO IS THIS MELCHISEDEC, PAGE 17, “If we had come that
(in that Theophany) ….there would have been no temptation, we would have known
all things.” (End quote)
Guardian
Angels
Brother Branham also indicated that the Theophany bodies of the Bride are
one and the same with their guardian angels. They are actually supernatural
angels that are encamped round about those that fear Him.
QUOTE: C.O.D. BOOK, PAGE, 1155, “Now there is an angel (of the
Lord) but these angels of the Lord that are encamped about those that fear Him
(implying they are different). Now this is pretty deep. It isn’t promised that
sinners have angels, did you know that? It’s so perfect; it will prove
predestination to you.” (End quote) Here
he said the predestinated have angels, or other bodies (Theophanies)…and that
their angels are different from the Angel of the Lord. The predestinated people
of God have angels, which are their Theophany bodies, and they encamp around
their clay bodies to constantly guard them.
Heb.
Brother Branham confirms this again in the C.O.D. BOOK, PAGE 1156
as follows. A person asks the question, “Explain each person’s angel who
abides with them from birth.” Answer …. “That’s it, it is the spiritual
body of the people.” (Saying it is their angel) (End quote)
As we gather the evidence which the prophet taught and take it to the
Word, we see that we were first in Heaven with our Lord, created in a body like
His own. Then it came time for the part of His plan to be fulfilled that placed
us on Earth in flesh.
We were happy and eternally satisfied where we were, it was not our
thought to live in flesh. But we were made to do so by our Creator, for reasons
of His own. Rom. 8:20, “For the
creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason (or for
the reasons) of Him who has subjected the
same in hope.”
Then because God subjected His sons to life in a flesh body, He came and
lived in one also. Heb. 2:14, “For
as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself
took part of the same.”
Who are we? We are the clay (flesh) part of a supernatural being, that
was created by God before the world was.
No wonder the Scripture says, “We
are one with Him.” (John 17:11) No wonder it says “we are joint heirs” (Rom.
We are Children of God, having come out of Him, just as earthly children
have come out of their natural parents. Earthly parents are only a type of the
Bride coming out of the Heavenly Father, in a spiritual sense.
TO
BE CONTINUED
NEXT
MONTH
NOTE: This is the first of a series of
sermons on the Book of Revelation. Hopefully, they will be published in a book
when the series is complete, that is, if it be the will of the Lord and if He
tarries yet before His Coming! Amen.