Questions presented to Brother Ewald Frank by Ministers from Various Countries

And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose him; if God perhaps will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. (2. Tim. 2:24-26).

In this exposition we are dealing with life and death. In the Word is life, in the interpretation there is death. Every interpretation is a snare that the enemy places around the neck of the people. He does not always tighten the noose right away, but nevertheless keeps these people captive and enslaves them unto his will, as the aforementioned Scripture clearly states.

Since I have been in God’s service for well over half a century, a certain confidence has been established with many of the ministering brethren worldwide by God’s grace. They have recognised that God has ordained me to take the everlasting Gospel to the nations of this world. After the ministry of Brother Branham it is now my task to share the true Word of God with God’s people, in co-operation with all His faithful servants. As it was in the days of our Lord and in the times of the apostles and prophets, so it is with the message today, “… some things are hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction.” (2. Pet. 3:16). This has been the case throughout all the ages. The diverse interpretations have caused many divisions and a doctrinal confusion, even within the message of the hour. Ministers who are truly concerned about the spiritual welfare of God’s people no longer want to accept the present situation and are asking for clarification in regard to the various points in question. All true children of God have the right and the desire to know the correct answers that are based solely on the Holy Scriptures.

I knew Brother Branham personally and was a witness of his extraordinary ministry. In August 1955 I attended his meetings for an entire week. From September 1958 I started receiving the tapes of the sermons he preached in the USA by mail and began translating them into the German language regularly. In December 1962, during a personal conversation with Brother Branham, I explained to him how I did that, namely by using a headset to listen to the sermon and simultaneously translating it into the German language for the assembled audience. In 1963 he remembered this and spoke about it,

“The tape ministry is a worldwide thing, everywhere. I think it’s one way God has got scattering the message back into the heathen lands, back in where that it has to be translated. In Germany they got tapes they go to their congregations, of hundreds and hundreds of people; and put little things in their ears, and run it on a tape. And just as I’m speaking, the minister stands there making the same expressions, in the other languages, and bringing it out before hundreds. And hundreds are being saved and healed, just through the tapes going out across the world. All in English, but being translated in many, many different languages (Europe) in tribes (South Africa) around the world. We hear from them, back through the mail.” (Testimony, Shreveport, LA,
V-17-N-5; Thursday, 63-11-28). It is obvious that Brother Bran-ham was referring to Sidney Jackson in South Africa and to me, as we were the only ones translating his sermons at that time.

Over the past forty-seven years I have read and listened to his sermons repeatedly as well as translated them, therefore I can say that I do know the end-time message as hardly anyone else. I have also been very familiar with the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures, since the early days of my youth. The fact that so very few pastors asked, “What does the Scripture say?” when posing these questions was very disconcerting to me, for the answers I give must be according to the written Word of God, which remains for ever (Isa. 40:8; 1. Pet. 1:23).

Question 1: What is your position today towards Brother Bran-ham’s ministry?

Question 2: What is the actual wording of the commission given to William Branham?

Question 3: What is your conviction in regard to the “end-time message”?

Question 4: Do you correct the prophet in certain points?

Question 5: What is your absolute, the Bible or the message?

Question 6: Are you teaching differently in comparison to what Brother Branham taught?

Question 7: Do you believe in the opening of the seven seals?

Question 8: Was the seventh seal also revealed?

Question 9: Do you believe that Rev. 10:1-7 was fulfilled in 1963?

Question 10: Do you believe that Brother Branham received the revelation of the seven thunders?

Question 11: Why did Brother Branham repeatedly speak about “the third pull”?

Question 12: Why did Brother Branham frequently refer to Rev. 10, verse 7?

Question 13: Do you believe in the ministry of an eighth messenger?

Question 14: Do you believe in the “parousia” teaching?

Question 15: Do you believe that the Son of man has already come according to Lk. 21:27?

Question 16: What about your ministry? Is it found in the Holy Scriptures?

Question 17: Do you preach Brother Branham’s sermons?

Question 18: What is the spiritual food, Brother Branham’s sermons or the Bible?

Question 19:Who will present the Church of the last days to the Lord?

Question 20: How do you react towards those who slander your name?

Question 21: Did Brother Branham teach “polygamy”?

Question 22: What is your teaching on marriage and divorce?

Question 23: What about the family of a servant of God?

Question 24: What about the Seven Church Age Book?

Question 25: Was the duration of each of the seven church ages revealed to Brother Branham?

Question 26: Did Brother Branham prophesy that 1977 would be the end?

Question 27: Did Brother Branham see a calendar that ended with the year 1977?

Question 28: Is the baptism by the Holy Ghost the same as the new birth?

Question 29: What about the tent vision that Brother Branham had?

Question 30: Can something that was shown in a vision remain unfulfilled?

Question 31: What comparison do we have between Israel and the Church?

Question 32: In what phase are we now according to the plan of Salvation?

Dearly beloved Brethren in the Lord,

Dear Children of God,

May I first say this: I wish to make it clear right from the start that, as you will later see, it is absolutely not permissible to base a teaching on one single Scripture or on one single statement that our Lord, an apostle, or a prophet made. It is a divine must that all things have to be founded on two or three witnesses (Dt. 19:15), upon two, three or more Scriptures. We do not have just one gospel, but we have four gospels, to provide the necessary confirmation and completeness. For instance, if you do not take the Great Commission as found in Mt. 28:16-20, Mk. 16:15-20, Lk. 24:33-53, and Jn. 20:19-31 as a whole, you do not have it in its entirety. And if you do not then take these four parts of the one Great Commission to Acts 2:38 and all the other applicable Scriptures, you still do not have a complete insight into this subject, you do not have the actual answer about the correct administration of water baptism.

Whoever really wants to know everything about the birth, the life, the ministry, the suffering and the death, and also about the resurrection and the ascension to heaven of our Lord and Saviour must read all of the four gospels. And whosoever would like to know that the Lord taught His Apostles about the Kingdom of God for a period of forty days before ascending to heaven must even read Acts 1:1-3. Some things that are not included in the four gospels you find further on, for example, that our Lord was taken up to heaven on a cloud you can read in Acts 1, verse 9. And then in verse 11 we are told that He will return bodily, in the same manner in which He was taken up to heaven (Lk. 24:50-51). In 1. Jn. 3 we read, “… when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” Amen!

Whoever wants to learn about the conversion of Paul and his commission and ministry cannot simply read Acts, chapter 9. You must also include chapter 22 and chapter 26 to gain a comprehensive overview, and then even 1. Cor. 15:1-11, for it was the Apostle Paul — not Peter — who reported that the Lord Jesus appeared to more than 500 brethren at the same time after His resurrection. From these examples we can clearly see that it is not sufficient to take just one Scripture, but we have to include all of the Scriptures that pertain to the same subject.

We also have to heed the warning given by the Apostle Paul in 2. Cor. 11:1-4, about how Satan, the old serpent, beguiled Eve. When he addressed Eve, he simply added the single word “not”, as found in Gen. 3:1, to what the Lord God commanded Adam in Gen. 2:16. That is how he brought her under his direct influence and took her captive unto his will. The enemy always continues to debate the subject the Lord spoke about, but never keeps the exact wording — he never remains in the truth of the original Word. The statement was very clear, “Of every tree in the garden you mayest freely eat …” The enemy sowed doubt by saying, “Yeah, has God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” That one word which was added to what God had originally said became the poisonous bite of the serpent. Thereby the first couple and then all of humanity were sentenced to death and separated from God. First the Son of man sows the pure, original seed of God’s Word and then the enemy immediately comes to sow his own seed of discrepancy by way of the interpretations (Mt. 13). That is how he takes them captive and submits them to his will. This is the time for God’s people to be delivered out of all the snares of the enemy and to be brought back into the Will of God.

Any deception is made believable to the human mind by adding to and then misconstruing and misinterpreting a single statement. The warning to not add to or take away from the words of prophecy of this Book must be taken very seriously (Rev.
22:18-19), because the consequences are indeed for ever irreversible. To every biblical question, to every subject there is only one true answer, which can be found in the applicable Scriptures. The many various interpretations are the work of the enemy — the consequence of eating from the tree of knowledge. The same applies to the numerous different teachings within the end-time message. If we take all things back to the Scriptures to find the one true answer, no misunderstanding is possible. The attention of all the ministers and all the congregations must once again be focused on the harmony with and the full respect towards God’s Word, which is the only absolute in heaven and on earth. In the longest sermon that Brother Branham preached, “The Spoken Word is the Original Seed” (March 18^th, 1962), which altogether lasted more than six hours, we see the pre-eminence he attributed to God’s Word. “… if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them.” (Isa. 8:20).

Admittedly, there are difficult statements in God’s Word and in the message as well, statements which we must put into the correct divine order. For instance, our Lord said back then, “… Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come …” (Mt. 10:23). He also said, “Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the Kingdom of God come with power.” (Mk. 9:1). We have to view such statements in the correct context according to the plan of Salvation and in their fulfilment. The law and the prophets were until John (Lk. 16:16), from that time on the Kingdom of God was being preached. On the Day of Pentecost it came down with power, as it had been announced by John the Baptist in Mt. 3:2 and by our Lord in Mt. 4:17: The Church was born, received spiritual life, and the glorified Saviour walked in their midst. In Rev. 1 John saw the Son of man walking in His glory in the midst of His Church, represented by the seven golden candlesticks.

The Apostle Paul included himself when he said, “Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” (1. Cor. 15:51). We are now expecting the fulfilment thereof. The Apostle Peter made the declaration about the Scriptures and the writings of the Apostle Paul, saying that some things are difficult to comprehend (2. Pet. 3:15-16). No one should dare to explain or make a doctrine of what Brother Branham said in the hard-to-understand statements. He said, for instance, “And when the seals are broken and the mystery is revealed, down comes the Angel, the messenger, Christ, setting His foot upon the land and upon the sea with the rainbow over His head. Now, remember, this seventh Angel is on the earth at the time of this coming.” Brother Branham was on earth when the “Angel of the Covenant” revealed Himself in the supernatural cloud. Quote: “That great Angel of the Covenant, that One Who was with Moses in the wilderness, that One Who come to Paul on the road to Damascus, that same One permitted His picture to be taken with us; the same One that was in the picture in the Life magazine the other day, the same Word by the same God …” (Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed, pg. 92).

He furthermore said, “And here He returns back in the 10^th chapter after the coming time …” What does after the coming time signify? Which coming is being referred to? And what does returns back in the 10^th chapter after the coming time mean, and so on? Just a few minutes later Brother Branham stated, “He has taken a gentile Bride and will take her from here to the palace, to His Father’s house in Glory for the wedding supper and will slip back down to make Himself known to His brethren, the 144,000.” Preachers should pay attention to the particular statements, correctly place them with the event that they pertain to, and immediately stop presenting their own views! For no Scripture, no statement of the Apostle Paul or of Brother Branham allows any private interpretation. God is His Own interpreter, He watches over His Word to fulfil what He promised. God’s people should forthwith cease to believe any of the interpretations that are in circulation! The Bride Church must now be brought back into step in order to once again walk in perfect harmony and unity with the Bridegroom, whose Return is imminent, and in agreement with every Word of God! The hour of decision has come.