William Branham: Playing With Fire
June 6, 2022
William Branham had a strange fascination with fire. The word "fire" was used over three thousand five hundred times in the transcripts that we have access to hear from 1947 to 1965. When William Branham asked the father to "send" the Holy Spirit with cleansing fire in one of his Trinitarian versions of his stage persona, his Oneness Pentecostal listeners would have been more surprised that God could "send" the Holy Spirit than about the word fire. In Matthew 3, John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. And Pentecostals looked to the fire that fell on the Day of Pentecost with the same expectation during Latter Rain. In versions of his stage persona that did not mock or scorn ministers who tried to reach the sinners, William Branham said that fire would bring a new birth.
While Christians used the word "fire" symbolically, spiritualists use literal fire. The metaphysical meaning of literal fire among spiritualists is "cleansing" and "purification." In Shamanism, fire was associated with spiritual healing that was used in ritual purification and death ceremonies.
Though his converts might have believed these statements were only symbolic, William Branham's fascination with fire was often literal. When Branham spoke of converting sinners, his analogy was a literal fire. He expanded upon common doctrinal themes that the water of baptism does not save to say that fire did and set a turtle on fire as his example. After the turtle moved, Branham's "salvation" was to decapitate its head.
Branham also associated fire with his healing ministry. Like the ancient shamans, Branham instructed converts to throw objects into a literal fire. According to Branham throwing a shirt in the fire was a cure for epilepsy.
You can learn this and more on william-branham.org
Shamanism:
https://www.llewellyn.com/journal/article/1863
Metaphysical meaning:
https://www.truthunity.net/rw/fire
While Christians used the word "fire" symbolically, spiritualists use literal fire. The metaphysical meaning of literal fire among spiritualists is "cleansing" and "purification." In Shamanism, fire was associated with spiritual healing that was used in ritual purification and death ceremonies.
Though his converts might have believed these statements were only symbolic, William Branham's fascination with fire was often literal. When Branham spoke of converting sinners, his analogy was a literal fire. He expanded upon common doctrinal themes that the water of baptism does not save to say that fire did and set a turtle on fire as his example. After the turtle moved, Branham's "salvation" was to decapitate its head.
Branham also associated fire with his healing ministry. Like the ancient shamans, Branham instructed converts to throw objects into a literal fire. According to Branham throwing a shirt in the fire was a cure for epilepsy.
You can learn this and more on william-branham.org
Shamanism:
https://www.llewellyn.com/journal/article/1863
Metaphysical meaning:
https://www.truthunity.net/rw/fire