When the Prophet Lies: The Warning of 1 Kings 13

Music Hello and welcome to another episode of the William Brandham Historical Research Podcast. I'm your host, John Collins, the author and founder of William Brandham Historical Research, at William-brandham.org and with me I have my co-host, researcher and friend, John McKennan, author of Godhead in their own words, voices of oneness preachers of the in-time message.

John is good to be back and to talk about all things prophetic. I remember there was a point in time whenever I believed that Brandham was a prophet and I believed the whole entire thing that we were supposed to believe.

And suddenly I encountered some flaws with it, very, very critical flaws. And I realized that some of the things that he said were not true, some of the biblical things that he was teaching was, actually it was anti-biblical things he was teaching.

And it was in conflict with what I was reading in the Bible. But there was this weird period of time where I believed he was a prophet and I believed that he was leading people astray because my mind could not reconcile those two.

Fast forward, I came through different study groups and trying to learn the Bible myself reading and over and over and over again. I kept reading these passages that are all throughout the New Testament and even the Old Testament about how if a prophet comes and speaks something that does not happen, you don't have to fear them.

And it just hit me like a brick wall. I can't believe this. But suddenly I came to terms with the fact that there were many people like me who were trapped in a movement that had the so-called prophetic and the so-called prophetic failed time and time and time again and often had really no bearing to my salvation at all, even the prophecies they had.

So I came to terms with the fact that it was difficult to leave the mindset of the prophetic and I'm not saying by no means that prophecies wrong or that there's this debate on modern prophets whether they're biblical or anti-biblical, I'm not going to get into that debate.

But what I'm saying is prophecy is supposed to edify the person and if it's not for you then why would you even care? Some of the prophecies that we had that failed were not even for me.

They were just literally to show that the person speaking, the so-called prophet, was the one in power. And suddenly when I realized, wait a minute, they're not coming to pass. The power is just ripped away from them.

I'm a little bit excited to get into this one if you can't tell. Well, hello there, John, and the listeners today. It's great to be back here again and discuss another example that I've discovered in the Bible that I'm not sure has ever been discussed with your guests as of yet.

But I came across this, as you can imagine, me and my wife, we discuss many things over morning coffee when we can sit out on the back porch and go back and forth about the message in our journey.

But just the other day, this came out of the blue from a wife who she was thinking about trying to look for an example of a lying prophet in the Scriptures. So what popped in my head was this story that I remember in the Bible, but haven't thought of it in a long time in the same manner until she said that.

So I really like it with my wife, and I just work as a team and come up with these things when we're not even trying. They just pop up all of a sudden, and then I've got to go make another video, such as what I did today.

So today I want to talk about one of the most sobering stories in the entire Bible is found in 1 Kings chapter 13, and story about the prophet from Judah and an old prophet from Bethel, a direct command from God and a lie spoken in the name of the Lord, and a judgment that still speaks to us today that we should take heed.

So as a title to this podcast, I would say it's the tragedy of a deceived prophet, and why God's word must be obeyed above every man's word. Yet a story is not about a prophet who just made a mistake.

It's a warning about what happens when sincere people follow a lying prophet. It's a warning about what happens when someone allows the word or voice of a man to become more authoritative than the voice of God.

It's also a warning that's really relevant to anyone who's been involved in a movement centered around a prophet or a messenger or a man claiming, you know, special revelation from God. So our story begins today with the reign of Jeroboam, King of Israel.

Jeroboam, he led the northern tribes into a rebellion against the house of David. He established a separate kingdom out of that, but also a false religion. He set up golden calves, created alternative places of worship so people would not return to Jerusalem to worship.

But God was not silent about this false worship and judged the king for it. But there's another lesson that's clear in this passage. And it's what I want to focus today. And it's a lesson and a warning to all believers who follow the message of William Brownham.

You know, perhaps God's using this podcast to tell them one more time to open their minds and examine all the facts against scripture. You know, I know people in the message of ministers, everybody at this point in time, in our history, in our journey, they admit the William Brownham lied.

And I've been told that for the last. seven years since it was first brought up, you know, since I left the message that preachers have even openly said this over the pulpit now, and they've made excuses for William Brannum Lyon, such as Abraham lied to the king of King Pharaoh about his wife, Sarah.

They just accept the fact, but what concerns me the most, John, and it serves me for them is that they could be under the judgment of God, you know, for not leaving and following the truth. You know, once they openly admit they no lies exist, and then they still continue to make excuses for staying in the message, you know, before God, they really have no excuse anymore to come back to such as their ignorance as our ignorance was years ago, because they've admitted now they're not ignorant. You know, even I remember Jesus said at one time, you know, they no longer have a cloak for their sin because they now say

that they believe there's no longer a cloak. I don't know the scripture I have to get back to it here in a minute, but I'm really concerned about this, you know, what happened this morning between me and my wife may become real concerned again about message believers, especially, you know, maybe not for their salvation, ultimately, but it's really for how God is looking at the message in general now and how God looks at these sincere people who are living, you know, way after way in Brannum and all the early ministries gone, and this new generation has risen up.

There's so much to unpack there. I came to terms with the fact that we were living in a world of half truths, you know, all of these prophets, not just Brannum, but all of them who claim that they either have the gift of prophecy or they're the greatest prophet known to mankind has some of them have done. They will tell you a prophecy and they'll give you all these specific details in symbolism. And then whenever those details fail, if they can find one little symbolic detail that matches the situation, let's say, see, I told you

this was going to happen. And you have to sift through all the things that aren't true to find that one little single thing, that little shred of path truth. For me, that is a problem because I started thinking about just simply lying after leaving this movement.

Like you said, almost every single thing that came out of the man's mouth was not true that he said about himself or his ministry, I should say, I started going through this one by one by one and some guy and one of the support groups created a list of things that he was going to verify. I want to say it was like 200 things that the man had claimed boisterously that was either spiritual or about himself and he was going down the list one by one finding out which ones were true and which ones were false, having a lot of real trouble

trying to find anything that was true. But I got to think about lying and half truths. And I suddenly realize that a half truth is actually worse than an outright lie, because you're giving somebody just a seed of truth as the deceptive part, and the overall substance is a lie, because you cannot take something that is false and mix a shred of truth and make it true, it's still overall it's false.

So the deception is actually in the truth in that case, and it's really, really hard for me to understand that. The irony of this is, you mention Abraham and his lie about his wife, Sarah.

Well, the interesting part about that is, the ministers of the movements flip it upside down, because for Abraham, they will say he lied, so therefore it's okay, a random lie, but they're not telling you, it's actually a half truth.

Sarah was his half-sister or, you know, part-sister. She's the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother is how Abraham explained it. So it's partly true, but the ministers who are upholding the half-truths of the prophets, they'll go back to Abraham and not uphold the half-truths there.

So it's really, really odd when you think about it. It basically becomes, people end up in the circular reasoning. We can have the faults in our ministry, but we're going to point to the faults of people even in the Bible who are making similar mistakes, so that we can uplift the faults in our ministry.

It's very circled at never ends. Yeah, John, that's so true, and you hit the nail on the head there. But going back to what I said about the scripture, I just looked it up.

You know, Jesus was talking to him in John 1522, saying, if I had not come and spoken to them, they've not had any sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin. You know, the statement occurs while he's talking to the disciples and the people, emphasizing the heightened accountability for when you hear something and you recognize the teachings to be true.

Before Christ's revelation, you know, their ignorance could serve as a partial covering for the sin, but his coming exposes the truth, you know, leaving no justification for rejecting it. So the same is going to hold true today in our story, John.

You know, there's, you know, there's a partial covering for sin, perhaps, in people's ignorance. But we're going to find out in today's podcast that there's no more ignorance any longer because people are openly admitting of the situation of what I'm going to speak about today.

So it goes back to 1 Kings 13 and we're going to be speaking about a true prophet who was very sincere and an old prophet who became a liar. And I want to type these two as the young prophet, the true prophet to Christians today, young, you know, people who adhere to the message of William Brannum as being a type of this, true prophet who was very sincere and had the word of the Lord and against the old line

of him and we'll see how this pans out here. So this prophet came out of Judah and the word of the Lord gave him to go to Bethel and prophesy against Jeroboam who was making thoughts offerings to the Lord. So he cried out against him and talked about another Josiah was going to rise up and make offerings on you and human bones will even be burned on you. So he was a genuine prophet that spoke judgment to this man, Jeroboam. He had a genuine commission, a genuine message. God had spoke to him and worked through him and

vindicated him. But before this chap is over, we see that this prophet is going to be dead beside of the road. Now we wonder why that would happen. It's because having a true ministry, being a true Christian, don't exempt you from judgment, actually requiring obedience from you. Having the true calling does not exempt you from judgment. Having genuine experiences with God don't exempt you from following God's word. And so the man of God it says when the king tried to attack the prophet for prophesying against him, his hand withered. So he asked the prophet, say, can you restore my hand and pray to God for me?

So he did. And then went on his way and said, I'm not going to accept any reward from you, not even half your kingdom, no bread, no water because God commanded me just to go out and not come by the same way I came. So that's how he left it. And he did the right thing there by leaving Jeroboam and not accepting any reward for restoring his hand. But an old prophet was living in Bethel at the time and his sons had told him about what had happened. And he inquired about where he went. You know, if you read first Kings 13 for yourself. And

so he said, you know, saddle me the donkey and let me go out and meet him. And so he did found him under an oak tree, probably resting. He said to him, the old prophet said to him, are you the man of God that came from Judah? He said, I am. Then he said to him, come home with me and eat bread. And the young prophet then said exactly what he should have. He said, I may not return with you or go in with you. Neither will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, you shall eat neither

bread or drink water there nor return by the way you came. But then the old prophet said to him, I'm also a prophet as you are. And an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord saying, bringing back with you into your house that he may bread and drink water.

But he lied to him. So he went back with him and ate bread and drink water there. So that was the first issue. But while they were eating there, the old lion prophet came with the word of the Lord saying, because you've disobeyed the word of the Lord, not kept the command, which God commanded you.

You have come back and eaten bread and drunk water, of which he said to you, eat no bread, no water, your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers. So the judgment was pronounced on the young prophet for listening to a lying prophet.

The old prophet didn't even receive judgment. That's what's so strange about this situation. So it serves as a strong warning to us who might know that a prophet is lying, but still accept him.

And even those who are in ignorance, who don't even know the prophet's lying to him. And we have both cases in the message, John, but he says, as he went his way, the lion met him on the road and killed him. His body was thrown in the road and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the body and men passed by and saw the body thrown in the road and the lion standing by the body. And that was also gone back and told the old prophet about what had happened.

But by the lion not tearing the man to pieces, it shows that it was a judgment from God. It wasn't something that was natural in nature for it to happen. The lion should have devoured him.

So the old prophet had the donkey saddled again and he went back and took the old man back and laid him in his own grave. So the man never got to go back to his homeland and be buried with his fathers. He had to be buried with the faults, the old lion prophet. It says, after he buried him, he said to his sons, when I die, bury me in the grave, in which the man of God is buried, laid my bones beside his bones. So the young prophet knew exactly what God had said to him. And that's

where the story becomes relevant to us today. Because we have God's word, we know what God is telling us. We have no doubt we didn't need some special visitation to tell us what God has said because we have his scriptures. The prophet possessed something many people desire to have or claim to desire. And that's the direct word from the Lord. He knew exactly what God had told him to do yet. He chose to disobey because a liar had deceived him. It's one thing to be deceived and another just to straight out disobey with God's word. God's word has a warning

and warning after warning that Christians should not hear a prophet who prophesies falsely because their false prophet to begin with. Now we see another warning which talks about those who would hear a true prophet telling a lie which causes them to disobey the scriptures or the commands of God. You know, that's very relevant to message people today. William Brenham's lies causes the Christians in the message to live and disobedience to God's word even though they have a lot of outward show to be to be Christians. You know, the disobedience for them comes from sometimes they're pride of being declared as the only Christians to this age,

sometimes twisting the plain meeting of scriptures. That happens a lot. Even following Brenham's truth prophecies or claims, or even repeating his own lies, or separating themselves from all of the Christians, or turning people out of the church who don't go along fully or have questions, and even ruining people's marriages, ruining their lives, causing psychological dependence on the group.

You know, many other things we could go through that, you know, the message has caused in people's lives. You hit the nail on the head because for me, that is a widespread problem. We have made these people more than human.

Whenever we were in Brannemism, we made Brannem more than human. When I left and I began working with other groups, other groups made their prophets more than human. And suddenly I began to realize that we were treating these people and their humans, we're treating them as though they're better than us, and we're using Bible verses out of context to do it.

Touch not God's anointed. We say that left and right. Touch not God's anointed and do God's prophets no harm. Though ripped us out of context to say that no matter what this prophet does, no matter what he says, no matter who he prays upon, we would give him a respect that is undue to this person.

Yeah, we would not do that to a single other person in the congregation. If anybody else were to lie to us, we wouldn't trust the word they said. If anybody else were to do some of the horrific predatory things that some of these guys do, we'd want to lock them up.

We'd want to get them out of our face. But if anybody in the congregation came up to me and said, John, I had a prophecy, and X, Y and Z is about to happen, well, X and Y didn't happen, I'm not going to listen to them about Z.

The guy lied to me. I know he lied to me. But we make these people more than human, and it puts us into a prison of our own making. I'll just say it like that.

And my family, we decided we were no longer in prison. We have to leave this thing. Yeah, John, that's exactly right, and we're going to go further with this. In this story, as I said before, I'm typing the good prophet, the young prophet, as the message believer, and the Christian, along with the old line prophet who I'm going to keep the type as William Brannum.

The problem with the believer or the young prophet was that he allowed another voice to override the voice of God that was given to him. So we see we can't let other people's words override what God has said in his scripture already.

His mistake was listening to an old lion prophet. Now, God is clearly placing His warning to all His people that we must avoid any other voice other than His written word today, and clearly avoid lion prophets, even if they have some things that are true because judgment is coming to you if you follow them, even if they claim that an angel visited them, you know, the old prophet...

invited him home to eat and then repeated the command God to give it him the young prophet did, saying, I can't go with you. I can't eat. I can't drink. God's spoken that. And the matter really should have ended there. And that's where the matter should end with us too. When we see what is written in scripture, and we hear other voices trying to speak contrary to what scripture has said, even though they say an angel visited them, even though they say, I have this saith the Lord, if it's contrary to the written word, you

know, we must avoid it like the plague, John. But then comes the most dangerous statement in scripture here, the old prophet, the lion prophet said, I'm a prophet as thou art. And an angel spaking the knee by the word of the Lord, saying, bring him back with the he may eat bread and drink water. And then the scripture adds these words, which tells us the whole story here, but he lied unto him. The old prophet, the lion prophet was claiming divine authority. He was claiming supernatural revelation. He was claiming angelic confirmations.

He was claiming prophetic status and the whole time he was lying. And, you know, this, this old prophet was probably a true prophet in the day. But this one lie calls his devastation. So not only is just one little lie problematic, but when you've got a multitude of lies in the ministry, that ought to be a huge red flag to us. So notice also something that the young prophet already had the word of God. He didn't need another revelation to supersede that.

And not another interpretation. He didn't need a correction, because he already knew exactly what God has said. The lie was not effective really because God's command to him was unclear. The lie was effective to him because the prophet, the young prophet trusted a man more than the word of God that he already received. That's the, that's the heart of the story here.

The issue is not merely that a prophet lied. You know, the issue becomes that another person believed that lie. The issue is that someone abandoned what God had clearly said in his word, because another religious authority had claimed to have newer information. Now, I'm going to go through just a few of known and verified, viable lies of William Brannum that are known. One is claiming to raise a dead person from the morgue in Jeffersonville.

When he said he raised a little boy from the dead in Finland after being hit by a car, we know that story was totally fabricated. One was visiting Muhammad's grave, which we know he never could have. One was seeing the carous fill eye, daylight, daylight over the Pope's throne in Rome. When we know that's not even written over his throne. And it's not even there. Another is Seeing 16 men fall from the municipal bridge during construction, we know that totally didn't happen.

One was claiming to be dirt poor, and yet owning a 1926 Ford car, which was brand new that he drove west to Arizona when he left Jeffersonville for the first time. Others were events surrounding the 1933 tent meetings and the baptism which followed, which he claimed there was a light and a voice and it was all in the newspapers.

There's absolutely no newspaper that will even describe what he's talking about, other than his small, his tent meeting where he had 14 people converted. Faults statements concerning his pulpit that rose up and came down in the flood in his tabernacle when there was directly a newspaper article that said that happened in another church, which was I think a Methodist church, other than his, his, his didn't even get mentioned if that really happened in his church.

Fault statements about his proposal to his wife and I would say many other events in his life story that are not verifiable and some were even proven to be faults. Fault statements and deception in the 1950 halo picture and the healing debate.

Fault statements about congressman upshall and his healing in the meetings in 1951 and how all that took place. Also claiming he never even heard of upshall until the 1951 meetings, but I say this is highly unlikely when upshall was running for president in 1932 and at the time he visited Brenham's hometown or somewhere very close to that and campaigned openly.

He also worked with his pastor, Roy Davis, throughout his life when Davis was in Georgia in the 1920s all the way when he moved into Jeffersonville in the 30s and also working with upshall in the 1944 while starting an orphanage just before the 1951 meetings.

And also knowing that Davis was the one that sent upshall to the meetings and William Brenham knew this fact as well. Fault statements about the praying for King George and claiming he was healed when he actually died.

Fault statements about Donnie Morton's recovery when he also died. Dropping his 1933 prophecies that he had written down into the cornerstone of the tabernacle when the tabernacle cornerstone was hit more than once, hit twice and people examined it and never found anything.

All statements made about the cloud in 1963 or faults basically. All statements surrounding the teaching of the seven seals and how his inspiration came. Faults claiming Billy Paul would not be old and still living when Los Angeles would fall into the ocean.

Falsely claiming God gave him a vision, he would shoot a brown bear and then blame it on his failure of not being in the right place at the right time, when that vision was supposed to be thus saith the Lord.

Also falsely claiming a tent ministry. And John, we could go on and on. This is just a few, but we could go on and on. I think there's probably over a hundred things we could mention.

Have you ever wondered how the Pentecostal movement started or how the progression of modern Pentecostalism transitioned through the latter reign, charismatic and other fringe movements into the new Apostolic Reformation? You can learn this and more on William Brannum Historical Research's website, William-Brannum.org.

On the book's page of the website, you can find the compiled research of John Collins, Charles Paisley, Stephen Montgomery, John McKinnon and others, with links to the paper, audio and digital versions of each book.

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I mentioned before that this guy had started creating lists and there were lists of things that just simply were not true that the man said. And that's part of what led me out of Brannumism, but I'll be honest, the lying isn't what fully made my brain to disconnect from it and realize that the whole movement was false.

It was just one attribute of the falsehood. Since then, I've mentioned this list and I've mentioned various things that were not true that was said. And people will contact me and say, do you have a page on this?

Do you have a resource page or a book that talks about this? And the problem is there are so many things that are not true that you could make websites and books dedicated, like with volumes of books dedicated to explaining the lie and why he would lie about it and how it pointed to himself.

And you can find some of them if you go to my website and type in the search, but I actually point people directly to table.brannum.org. For everything that the man said, you can look it up for yourself.

You can see how he's saying, he's making these wild claims that are just simply not true. Things like, there were things I was going through some of the lists myself and some of the things he were saying is that the sex glands are in the lips, for example, and that's why children should not kiss.

Well, that scares every kid out of kissing, yes, but is it true? It's not really true. And he had to have known it was true because the man had kids and I guarantee you he did not think that they came into this earth because he kissed his wife.

I guarantee you this, but that's one the things the man said and you can go right down the line of I was going sermon by sermon by sermon at whenever I first started my original website and original YouTube site and I would just pick a sermon at random and look for a lie in it and every single one you'd find not just one but many the problem is this I so I I conduct business through my through my corporation I meet new clients I talk to new people and I have the power to accept or reject somebody that I engage in business with and a lot of times

what will happen is they will start telling me about their business and what they do and give me some details well you would not be a good business owner if you didn't go check those out and so what happens is I will go check out what they said and see is it true are they is the guy being truthful with me or is or female she being truthful with me or not and if they're not I want to know why and so I'll dig a little bit deeper and that's really how you should apply your your fact checking your critical thinking to ministry to basically

everything in life you should engage critical thought God gave us a brain for a reason and so once I once I was able to deep program and come out of this I use that to my advantage if I went to a new church I would listen very closely to what the man said and if it was true I would believe it and if it wasn't I would ask why why would he say it and usually it came to it was something trivial and the guy said something that was just slightly off mark but it further emphasized his point that's usually what happened but there were cases

that I did come across that was just outright not true and I realized that that's really not a ministry that I want to sit under the problem is the way that this movement has been structured where you're seeking to find a superior authority a five-fold ministry leader they call it you're seeking to find these people who are up here in status while you're down here below them in status and because they're up here you don't apply your critical thinking every aspect of life you do except for in the religion and for me that's a problem they have trained and manipulated the crowds not to critically think

about the people and in doing so they they make exactly what you're talking about they make you trust people who may have been good at one time maybe maybe they even were a profit at one time I'm not gonna say they weren't but the things that they're saying now are not true why would I look backwards go back to my clients why would I go backwards and say well 10 years ago this this person that I'm about to engage business with 10 years ago they were truthful and they had this thing but today they don't well I might engage in business and I

might totally lose my business over it I might it might be a monumental mistake That I made. Well think of how much greater a mistake it would be if you invested all of your your life and your family's life into a ministry and the guys lying to you John, that's so true and how you elaborate on that it just it just meets and matches perfectly and and you really Speaking the truth there, but I hope people can see this what we're talking about today as God's warning and an Admonishment to them because I'm really very concerned about message people

It it happens constantly in with people in groups like the message. It don't even have to be the same as the message But it's very much like that People are very sincere that they don't want to do wrong. They want to be Christians But then they're swept into something that's very opposite of what they really want You know people know what the scripture says Then comes along somebody claiming special Revelation They claim that angels have appeared to them. They claim visions and dreams and claims God showed them something that's very hidden From the rest of Christianity or claiming to be the special messenger for the time

And all the sudden people begin following that and reinterpreting scripture Contrary to what it's plain meeting is into the lens of this messenger That's happened in the message and that's exactly what happened in first Kings 13 that we're talking about today The prophet abandoned the certainty of the word of God that he had for some novel Idea that the old line prophet gave him he abandoned God's clear commands for a man's claim He abandoned what he knew Because another prophet had come claiming something otherwise which was contrary to the word of God The result of that young prophet which represents Christians today is catastrophic

Because the man of God disobeyed the commandment of the Lord he died and he could not be buried with his fathers Now that will be the worst ultimate judgment to a Christian today that's following the message is that they were not dying go to be Go to be with the people in heaven Which represents being buried with the fathers there'll actually be separated from that That's the worst catastrophic thing that could happen John I pray it doesn't doesn't happen But there could be something else happen to them while they're on earth there could be a

Judgment because especially once they have knowledge of it then they have no cloak, you know for the sin So so that's why I'm very concerned about that and that's what prompted me you know to really bring this out today So another important question we can ask you know was the prophet sincere?

You know, this is the young prophet we're talking about in which I would say the young believer of the message today Are they sincere? Absolutely they're sincere So I believe they are do they intend to rebel against God? No No, but what's wrong? They were to They're deceived. This young prophet was deceived. Message people are in effect deceived.

Did they think they were doing the right thing? Does the young prophet thought he was doing the right thing because he now obeyed the voice of the lion prophet? Yeah, he did, apparently he did.

Or otherwise, he wouldn't have gone into his house. Do message believers think they're doing the right thing by following the message of William Brenham? Absolutely. They trust in someone they believe is a prophet. They trust in someone or they believe in him because he claims divine authority. And it sounds spiritual because he was visited by angels. But you know, in all their sincerity and all this young prophet sincerity to serve God and all message believers and others like them and their sincerity to serve God, that does not protect them. It did not protect this young prophet from being killed and from having this judgment upon him. And that's one of

the hardest truths for modern Christianity to accept. You know, sincerity does not make the error harmless. There is great harm that comes to them. There's great harm that comes to others from continuing in the era, especially once this exposed. A person can be sincerely wrong, sincerely deceived, sincerely following a false teaching and trusting in the wrong voice, sincerely. But that does not transform, sincerity does not transform disobedience into obedience.

God does not recognize it as obedience to him. In fact, he recognized it as disobedience, especially as Jesus said, now you have no cloak for your sin because it's known. Now that you know William ran him lied and lying is not permissible. And now you're openly admitted it from the pulpit.

Now, whatever happens, there's no cloak for that. There's no coming to God and saying, well, I was in ignorance of that. And now there's even an example in scripture that pronounces judgment upon someone that would believe a lion prophet. So the question never is whether or not you're sincere to question this, whether are you obeying God's word or not. And let's bring this closer to our day. You know, followers of William Brannemos are sincere. They're kind. They genuinely love God.

They desire to please Christ. They've sacrificed greatly and given up everything for what they believe. So the issue is not their sincerity. The issue is whether the teachings that follow or agree with the word of God are scripture. The issue is whether listening to God's word or just to a man's interpretation and bent on scripture. The issue is whether the scripture is remaining the final authority or not. And if some people argue that because William Brannem did say some true things, we should overlook things that were false. But John this story today in First Kings chapter 13

teaches us the very opposite lesson. I had a friend one time who made the mistake of getting snuckered into one of these multi-level marketing schemes and he had this, I'm laughing now, shouldn't laugh because it's kind of sad, but he had this gimmick that he was trying to sell me where there were these bracelets that you put around your wrist and on one side of the bracelet there was a magnet and what he said was the most of the blood flows through your wrist and because most of the blood flows through your wrist it's a great access point

where you can cleanse your blood and so this bracelet it puts a magnet right there at your wrist where most of the blood flows and as it flows through that magnet will purify your blood and I looked at him like are you crazy man that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard now think about what he just said he did give a pretty accurate assessment he was saying that most of the blood flows through your wrist and it is true a lot of blood flows through your wrist that part of what he said was true but then he followed up with put this magnet on and your blood

will be clean which is false now he started with the true thing and then injected the false thing so your mind goes towards the truth and your mind is thinking oh this guy's okay I understand this I realized that there's a lot of blood if you cut your wrist you'll bleed out and you'll die I know there's a lot of blood that flows through there so you're thinking truth and then he tries to slide in the false thing and that's how he was sadly manipulated to believe this thing that he got involved with well it's the same thing with ministry they'll try to slide in with this true thing

and they'll give you something to make your mind focus on the truth something that you can recognize realize something that you're familiar with something that's comforting to you there's always these charismatic gimmicks of doing this to give you something true focus on that distract you with it and then slide in the faults and the faults usually is something that uplifts themselves and this guy's case he was going to get some money out of me and sadly the people above him we're going to get even more money out of him because everyone that he sold they they got a piece of it

so in the end what I learned from this lesson of this guy trying to sell me these crazy magnets I learned from this lesson that people can sincerely tell you things that are faults they can sincerely be duped and they may preach it until they're blue in the face believing it it doesn't mean that they're a bad person it means that they too are deceived yet at the same time they're spreading the deception and they're part of the deception so what this guy was doing in my opinion this was wrong this was this guy was doing something clearly wrong he was trying to

take advantage of me but he himself had no idea that he was doing it the people that came before him they might have even been dead maybe the guy that signed him up died put that guy manipulated him until he believed it and so he was believing the false thing and he's trained and manipulated to wedged the truth in with the faults, basically. So I came to realize that I look at people differently now.

People, even in the ministry that I came out of, some of them truly believed what they said. They really did, and they were genuinely good people, but at the same time, they were genuinely faults. And I have to separate the truth, the truth on the faults.

I have to weigh them in the balance and see, well, if they're saying this true thing, I can believe it, but if they're saying this false thing to make an overall statement, I have to reject the overall statement, because you can't mix a little bit of truth with something faults and make it all true. It just doesn't work. That's how we need to apply every aspect of life in my opinion. You need to weigh in the balance is what you're being told true, because if there's a statement that comes after this that is a broader statement that includes the true and the faults, you have to reject the broader

statement. So John, that's so true, and it's a very scary proposition here for message believers today. And as time moves on, it's going to even get worse. And so what I fear today, if they're not taking heed to the fact of this lesson we're learning in First Kings chapter 13, you know, I fear for what is coming later, but the old prophet here, we see the old lion prophet, he was a real prophet. You know, the issue don't have to be whether William Brannum was a real prophet or not.

But at the end of the chapter, God had used him to pronounce a true prophecy, but his lie brought destruction. So even if William Brannum had any true prophecies at all, the lies are a bringing destruction. Think about that. That old lion prophet was not entirely false. He probably in his day had true prophecies. He was not a pagan priest. He was not an atheist. He was not some sorcerer. But he was a prophet. The Bible says he was and has no reason to believe he was in a prophet. Yet one lie was enough to bring judgment upon the man who followed him, one lie.

So what would that do in this day for us to be following a man? We know that lied. What is that going to bring upon us to continue with that? How much more careful should we be when dealing with someone whose record contains false prophecies and knowing that many of what things that he said are verifiable just lies? So the lesson of 1 Kings 13 is not that a prophet has to be completely false before we have to reject him. The lesson is that any message contrary to God's revealed word in scripture must be rejected. Even if it comes from someone who has spoken the truth before or

someone who's highly respected or someone with a reputation for spiritual experiences or claims angelic visitation. You know, the standard never changes. God's Word remains above every prophet. That's exactly why scripture repeatedly warns believers to test everything. You know, the Bereans, we can go back to them. They were commended in scripture because they searched the scriptures. They didn't just listen to Paul. They searched them to find out for themselves. Are these things we hear or true? Possible Paul was tested by scripture. So if brother Brannum is relating himself to the apostle Paul and say he preached the same gospel should not William Brannum be tested with scripture

the same as the apostle Paul. The Bereans did not say Paul's in a possible possible. Therefore, we got to accept everything he says because he's had all these visitations of God and he's going on up into the third heaven. You know, they examined the scriptures. You know, the word of God was the only standard they took. Also, Paul even warns us in Galatians not to accept any message contrary to the scriptures or the gospel that I've preached even if an angel from heaven were to come down and preach it to you. So but scripture tells us to look at one thing. What does God actually

said? Not what someone claims God is saying. Not what someone claims an angel had said. Not what someone says was revealed to him in a vision and especially if the visions are not even true.

But what does God actually said in his word? That remains the true foundation, John. You know, it's really odd. When I left Brannumism, I started noticing something that was troubling to me. I started listening to other ministers who are in the movement and I'm not talking about the ones that play the recordings. We had a large number of people that they would just simply say, I'm going to preach today by playing William Brannum sermons and go hit press the play button.

I'm talking about the ones that actually did preach. I was starting to hear them talking about things that would be very relevant to me about Bible passages that are relevant to the thing that is relevant to me today. But instead of saying the Bible says X, Y and Z and therefore it's relevant to you today, they would say, our leader said that the Bible says that this is relevant to you today. So you're a step removed from the Bible. And then the things that were being said weren't quite all true. Even the quoting of the Bible sometimes, sometimes Brannum would take a verse from

this chapter in this book and another verse here and combine them and say the Bible said and he would invent a new Bible verse. And that's really problematic for me because if you're going to make the Bible relevant today, you have to point to the Bible. If you're going to be preaching from the Bible, I don't care what the other guy says that it says. I want to read it for myself.

But in today's world, what we're doing today matches exactly what you're describing in the ancient world. They care more that the guy is a prophet than they do whether or not the prophet has the truth.

And maybe he did in the past, I'm not going to say that he did or he didn't in this podcast, I've examined it a few times in other podcasts, but let's say that he did.

Say that back in 1933, say that there was actually these seven prophecies that he claimed and ignore all of the things that are stacked up against them actually being true. Ignore all of that and say they were true.

So that was way back in 1933. Well, what about 1965 when he's saying things that aren't true about the Bible, about himself, about the prophecies? So what you're talking about, this is not just an ancient story in the Bible.

This is very relevant today. This started a broad movement that is, you look at everything from the White House to all of the weirdness that's happening in the churches today. All of this stems from Brannemism.

Brannem had a significant impact on the world. And sadly, the things of today that we see that are so extreme, that are edging closer and closer to extremism, they came from many of the statements that were just slightly off the mark.

And for me, that makes it a huge problem because it starts at the core, it starts with the message believers stepping up and saying, OK, Brannem said this, maybe I believe Brannem, maybe I believe he was a prophet, but this thing that he said is not true.

So therefore, I'm going to go towards the truth. Or this thing that he said is anti-biblical. I'm going to choose the Bible over the anti-biblical thing that he said. It's not going to, nothing is going to change until people make that distinction.

If the man said something's false, we have to admit that it's false and move on. If you don't, you're stuck in the faults and what happens as you spin off into extremism, that's exactly the mess that is being caused today.

John, that's so true again. And we can go over this. I'm so glad we're having this conversation today because I feel very strongly about this in my heart. And I feel very concerned about all message believers today because I've just what popped up today and be on my wife's discussion.

It's amazing how God can use just informal discussions to bring things to light and bring them to the forefront. So I hope that we're bringing this once again to the forefront in maybe a different way, but with some verifiable scripture to back us up here.

We're not just speaking in the wind. We actually have a verifiable example now of a lying prophet and what it did to somebody that was sincerely following him. So the tragedy, you know, to sum all this up in the tragedy of religious movements that follow followers begin with scripture, but eventually filter that script.

Scripture through what the prophet says. You know, whatever William Brannum says, has to be filtered through the scripture. Not that the scripture is gotta be brought through William Brannum's words, because the scripture gets left behind.

You know, instead of judging the prophet by scripture, they judge scripture by the prophet. That reversal is spiritually dangerous to him. You know, once a man becomes the lens through which the Bible is interpreted, then the authority of scripture is totally replaced.

It's no longer the rule. The believer no longer starts with what the Bible, what did the Bible say? Instead, all these believers in the message ask, what did the prophet say? The Bible meant.

That's how the deception grows. And that's exactly what it is today, John. It's what did the prophet say about the Bible? That's what I'm going to believe. And whether it's right or wrong, they stay with the prophet.

But the safest place for the Christian today, John, is not under some prophet. Even if there are prophets today, we don't need to stay under some prophet. The safest place for us is under the authority of God's word.

The lessons of 1 Kings 13 is not that line prophets are dangerous and they are. The lesson is that believers must refuse to abandon God's clear word for any competing authority. God's word must be heard rightly and proclaimed accurately and obeyed fully.

The prophet died. Judgment came to him because he listened to another voice. But the path of safety is to remain anchored to the Word of God as revealed in Scripture. When Scripture speaks, every other voice has to be subordinate to that.

No prophet may override it. When the Scripture spoke and no vision can contradict it, no dream can replace it. And no messenger, of course, can alter it. This is a warning is started. It goes across the centuries.

But even today, it's a strong warning to us. Don't follow a man because he claims special revelation. You know, follow Christ and his word is revealed in Scripture. So John, that's where we'll end today.

And I appreciate the time. And like I say, this is just something that popped up all of a sudden, but I think it's very and highly important to everyone, especially message believers today. And I hope they will take heed, you know, to what we've said today.

Absolutely. Well, if you've enjoyed our show and you want more information, you can check us out on the web. You can find us at William-Branum.org. For more information about the message teaching on the Godhead, you can read Godhead in their own words, voices of oneness preachers in the end time message.

And for more about the dark side of the New Apostolic Reformation, you can read Weaponized Religion from Christian identity to the NAR. A bill upon Amazon, Kindle, and Audible.