The Apostolic Prophetic Bible Ministry - TV series - No.43
/ Ewald Frank
Sprache englisch
Beloved friends, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
This is Brother Frank, speaking to you from the Mission Center in Krefeld, Germany. I greet you in a very special way in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We do realise that we have arrived in a very special time: we call it, as the Scripture declares, the end-time. And therefore, the message proclaimed to all nations must be the end-time message. It must be the original Word of God that was at the very beginning. I have written a small brochure with the title „In the beginning was the Word – not the interpretation“. And, friends, if we look unto this chart for just a moment we have a drawing about the time from Adam till now and actually time will be no more and eternity will set in. If we look at this, we have the first 1,000 years from Adam to Enoch, again 1,000 years from Enoch to Abraham, again 1,000 years from Abraham to David and then again 1,000 years from David to Christ, and now we look back to again 2,000 years since our dear Lord came to save us. Beloved friends, if you know the Holy Scriptures you will understand that our Lord said what will take place prior to His coming and also the prophets in the Old Testament and the apostles in the New Testament were writing inspired by the Holy Spirit about the end-time. Actually, to be honest, Bible prophecy concerns itself mostly with the first generation at the first coming of Christ and with the last generation just before the return of Christ. If you go into the New Testament, the New Testament begins with the fulfilment of Bible prophecies. Actually going back to the garden of Eden to Genesis, chapter 3, verse 15, where the first promise was made that the seed of God would come by the woman and then bruise the serpent’s head. Throughout the whole period of 2,000 years and then again 2,000 years, altogether 4,000 years, in the Old Testament promises and promises were made, right to the Prophet Malachi in chapter 3, that the Lord will send His angel before His face to prepare His way. And when the time was fulfilled God watched over all these promises and prophecies and predictions, and the all were fulfilled within the space of one generation: right from the birth of John the Baptist to the birth of Jesus Christ, from the ministry of John the Baptist to the ministry of Jesus Christ, to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, to the ministry of the apostles in the New Testament Church. You can go step by step right from the birth of our Saviour which was the main fulfilment of all Bible prophecies and His life and ministry, His sufferings, His death, His resurrection, His going to heaven: all was recorded already in God’s Word. And when the time was fulfilled all these prophecies and predictions were a reality by the grace of God. But only a few understood the divine visitation. All the others continued in their religious ways. In fact, if you read Luke 19, from verse 41, our Lord was quite angry, stating that the people of Israel did not understand God’s visitation at that time. And then He pronounced judgment. The main thing, beloved Brothers and Sisters, dear friends, at this time is to understand what God presently does. And He always does all things according to His Word. I am an old-timer in the Kingdom of God: In 1949 I was born again and baptised in the Holy Spirit. I preach since 1955. Then of course, a special time for me was in August 1955. From the 12th to the 21st of August, 1955 the man of God by the name of William Branham came to Germany and Switzerland. I saw and heard him preach. I saw God confirming His Word. I saw a true apostolic, prophetic ministry. I saw Bible days with my own eyes. Only in June 1958 in Dallas, Texas, USA, when I attended The „Voice of Healing“ convention, where many of the US-evangelists participated – it was precisely from the 6th to the 15th of June 1958 – and William Branham was the main speaker in those meetings. And Brothers and Sisters, I am not here to glorify a man, I am here so God will receive all the honour, the praise and the glory. But I would be foolish to bypass God’s choice in my time, to bypass what God promised and what God did and still does in my time. As you know, people tend to do the same all over again. They praise God for what He did, and they already look forward to what He is going to do, but bypass what He presently does. Beloved, there is a message to prepare God’s people now – a message of calling out, of correction, of lining up with the true teachings of the Word of God. This, of course, includes, which has top priority, that God is one. God does not exist in three individual persons, talking to one another, loving one another and sharing eternal power with one another. Three such eternal persons would not make one God – they would be three gods, no less and no more. But I remember, years ago, when a Jesuite gentleman from the Netherlands came to visit me here in the Mission Center. And he had studied eight semesters. And then, of course, he said, „Rev. Frank, I can follow your teachings, because they are God’s Word.“ But then his arguments came and he said, „Half of all the time of my study was to know the relation between Father and Son, Son and Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit and Father, Father and Holy Spirit, just like in a triangle, just establishing the thoughts of how it could have been.“ And of course, if somebody spent years to study, of course all the things he learned will be part of him directly. Like we all have been born into different religions, into different Christian faiths. Of course, all things in the natural bring forth after their own kind, and so it is in the spiritual. But, Brothers and Sisters, we come to the facts, when the Old and the New Testament declare that there is only one God and one mediator between God and man, like Paul writes to Timothy, or if you read in Romans, chapter 3, that there is one God, or in Galatians, chapter 3 and in different places, in Mark 13, where our Lord Himself uses the scripture from the Old Testament, „Hear, o Israel, the Lord, your God, is one.“ God is one, but He reveals Himself, He manifests Himself in various ways. In the Old Testament we know Him as Creator, as Sustainer, as King, as Judge … In the New Testament He revealed Himself as our Father in heaven, in His only begotten Son on earth, in whom we were adopted and were made sons and daughters of God by the grace of God, being foreordained to eternal life, and, of course, by the Holy Spirit in the Church of Jesus Christ right from the very beginning. So God above us in the fatherhood, then God with us in His only begotten Son and then in us by the Holy Spirit. Three different manifestations of the same God for one great purpose: to bring us back unto Himself, to save us and to give us eternal life, so that we can live eternally.
The second part is the true baptism in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there again we have to go to the Old Testament: Psalms 22, „I will make Thy name known to my brethren.“ We have to go through all the New Testament, especially to the Gospel of John, where our Lord Jesus Christ speaks about the name of the Father, „Glorified, sanctified, hallowed be Thy name“, addressing the Father in heaven. Going right to John 17, „I made Thy name known unto those whom thou hast given Me out of this world.“ And then you go back to Matthew 28: 19, „… baptising them into the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost …“ And the going to the book of Acts, chapter 2, verse 38, „Repent, everyone of you, and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.“ Beloved, especially those of you, who preach God’s Word: Come out of tradition; come back to God! Come back to His Word! Respect God’s divine order! Would you think that your revelation is to be esteemed higher than the one of the Apostle Peter, of the Apostle Paul? You must go back to the original apostolic teachings. Because in the great falling away we see all the interpretations and we see all the misleading. So this is God’s time for God’s people, not to have a new direction in Christianity, but to be directed back to the original Words of God right from the beginning. In this way God used Brother William Branham in a very special way. He had not only a unique ministry, but he was a man sent from God with the Word of God to the people of God to bring us back again to where the Church has been at the very beginning.
Now, in reference to the end-time we have to look to Israel, we have to look to Rome, we have to look to the things which are now taking place all over the earth. And if you read Matthew 24, there our Lord speaks about all the different catastrophes that would come upon the earth prior to the return of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Not all may live where earthquakes are, but everybody seems to live somewhere when and where something happens. Because, if you listen to the news, there is not a day passing without something happening somewhere. Might be wars here, earthquakes there, flood there, fire there: everywhere something happens. The world is being shaken. And there is no solution for all the problems existing on the face of the earth. Then in Matthew 24, verse 8, our Lord said, „All these things are the beginning of the time of sorrows.“ And then, of course, he speaks in verse 11, „… And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.“ Now we have to understand that God promised us a true prophet before the great and dreadful day of the Lord will be: Malachi, chapter 4, verse 5 and 6; Matthew, chapter 17, verse 11 and the corresponding scriptures in Luke and also in Mark and even in John.
Beloved, we have to understand that there is a false prophet, representing all the false teachings in the apostasy, the man of sin, the son of perdition: II Thessalonians, chapter 2. And if you wish to go to I John, chapter 2, there the apostle, the beloved apostle of our Lord, speaks about the coming of the antichrist, singular, and stating, „many antichrists are already in the world.“ Now we have to have divine inspiration and revelation to understand God’s holy Word, because in one verse mighty things can be expressed. So the announcement was that the antichrist would come, pointing to the end-time, in whom all will be gathered together that belongs to the apostasy, representing all the false teachings and of course, because it’s the end-time, the calling out of God’s people, the preparation of the Bride Church, there has to be a true prophet with the true teachings of the Word of God. And this, we understand, has taken place through the ministry of Brother William Branham. Then in Matthew 24, verse 24 we are told, „For there shall arise false christs, and false prophets.“ Of course they would say, „Christ is here, and Christ is there.“ If you go today into the countries of this world, and I have only been to over 130 countries myself, being in the international ministry for over 40 years, everywhere in every meeting people prophesy and say, „The Lord is present“ and give predictions. But what about the „word of prophecy“, written in this book which permits no private interpretation? Beloved, as I stated many times, we cannot go back to the so-called „church fathers“ and what they introduced as teachings or dogmas; we have to go back to apostolic days. I am no here to tell you what Hieronymus believed, or what Irenaeus believed, or what Polycarp believed or what Tertullian or what Augustine or what the all believed. That’s not my business. May the believe what they wished to believe, even today. I have to believe what the Scripture says! To me the Word of God remains for ever. And, Brothers and Sisters, be not deceived! All is religious, all is inspiration. But there is a right inspiration and a wrong inspiration. Even if you go to the true prophets and the false prophets, it’s always inspiration, inspiration. The false prophets feel just so wonderful, they feel so good, they could embrace everybody, having such a nice atmosphere around them. I don’t care about such an atmosphere – I want God’s presence to be with me! I want the true inspiration of the Holy Spirit! And of course if I do have the true inspiration of the Holy Spirit, then I will believe as the apostles believed, will teach as they taught, will baptise as they baptised, will preach in every way the same what they preached! Beloved, I have to take it seriously, because I do have a direct call from the Lord to the ministry. I cannot please everybody. It’s impossible. Today we have 342 different churches in christianity and denominations joined in the World Council of Churches. But we have one God, one Bible, one salvation, one eternal life, as the Apostle Paul writes to the church of Ephesus, „… one Lord, one faith, one baptism …“ We shall contend to the faith once delivered to the saints.
Beloved, one more verse from Matthew 24, verse 33, „So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.“ When ye shall see and hear about the wars and rumours of wars …, but also when all the false prophets shall rise, all the false christs and everybody playing „churchianity“ and Christianity and fooling the people, there must be a true voice of God which is the Word of God for ever. So understand, this is God’s time for God’s people to know His Word by divine revelation.
May the dear Lord bless you, may He be with you. I trust that you will write, so we can send to you the literature, which is so important, dealing with the essential Bible subjects at this time. May the blessings of Almighty God rest upon you in Jesus’ Holy Name. Amen.