The Danger of Personal Prophecy Chino Ross Podcast Episode 660

The Danger of Personal Prophecy | Chino Ross | Podcast Episode 660 ![rw-book-cover](https://img.youtube.com/vi/o1nSzzfGiTU/maxresdefault.jpg) 🔗 **Source:** [The Danger of Personal Prophecy | Chino Ross | Podcast Episode 660](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1nSzzfGiTU#transcript) > [!note]+ Document Notes > tags: [personal-prophecy, william-branham, hobart-freeman, word-of-faith, spiritual-abuse, charismatic-movement] > author: John Collins & Chenow Ross > source: William Branham Historical Research Podcast > reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1nSzzfGiTU > date created: 2026-07-21 11:19 > > # 🏷️ Title: The Danger of Personal Prophecy | Chino Ross | Podcast Episode 660 >  ## 🧭 Table of Contents - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [📚 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) - [🛡️ DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) ### 🔗 References - [William Branham Historical Research](https://william-branham.org) - Video referenced: Hobart Freeman, "Ministering by the Spirit" (Glory Barn, 1973) — YouTube - Video referenced: Hobart Freeman, "The Gift of Faith" (Glory Barn, 1973) — YouTube ## 📝 Summary - Two researchers into the William Branham / Hobart Freeman charismatic lineage (Faith Assembly, the "Glory Barn") argue that personal prophecy — a private "word from the Lord" delivered to an individual — is the most dangerous and manipulative practice they encountered in that movement. - John Collins recounts family-level fallout: relatives given a "get out of jail free card" prophecy ("all your children and grandchildren will be saved"), and a follower who bought a multimillion-dollar jet expecting Branham to resurrect and need it for a touring tent ministry — the plane sat unused for decades. - Chenow Ross traces how Hobart Freeman's entire ministry originated from a 1966 personal prophecy by "prophetess" Anna Schrader, even though Freeman later publicly taught against personal prophecy while continuing to practice it himself — including a prophecy that his newly converted son-in-law, Bruce Kinsey, was called to be a prophet (it never happened, and Bruce eventually left the church). - Case study: Freeman prophesied healing over missionary George Reeser's teeth ("Brother Reeser, it's your teeth"); Reeser later died from illness, unhealed, and his widow remarried a man whose two prior wives had also died of illness. - Chenow, an experienced lifelong hunter, dissects a Branham "squirrel hunting" miracle story retold by Freeman, showing internal inconsistencies that mark it as an embellished tall tale — and traces its role as a founding narrative of Word of Faith "speak-it-into-existence" theology. - Key stakeholders: rank-and-file congregants who financially and emotionally invested based on unfulfilled personal words; ministers (Branham, Freeman, traveling "prophets" Roger Teale and Stanley Rankin) whose authority depended on the practice; modern parallels cited include the Mike Bickle/IHOP-KC scandal. - Risk/tradeoff: personal prophecy functions as unfalsifiable religious fortune-telling — failure is retroactively blamed on the recipient's sin or lack of faith, never on the minister, which the hosts frame as a structural, repeatable abuse mechanism rather than isolated bad actors. - Bottom line: the hosts recommend discarding personal prophecy entirely — no giving it, no receiving it — in favor of direct engagement with scripture. ## 📖 Main Content The episode is a conversational history/critique, not a formal argument, but it converges on one thesis: personal prophecy in the Branham-descended charismatic/Word of Faith stream is structurally indistinguishable from fortune-telling, and its harm compounds because it is delivered with divine authority and insulated from falsification. **Origins and mechanism.** Hobart Freeman's healing ministry began not from doctrine or study but from being prophesied over by Anna Schrader at a 1966 Gordon Lindsay deliverance seminar. Freeman went on to teach against personal prophecy (citing 1 Corinthians 14:3 — prophecy is for edification, exhortation, and comfort, not prediction or direction) while simultaneously practicing it constantly, which the hosts read as a minister-only carve-out: ordinary members can't do it, but "prophets" and credentialed ministers can. **Case studies of failure.** Three recurring examples anchor the argument: 1. Bruce Kinsey, a newly converted son-in-law, publicly prophesied into a "prophet" calling that never materialized and preceded his eventual departure from the church. 2. George Reeser, a missionary, told his teeth would be healed ("Brother Reeser, it's your teeth") — no confirmation of healing exists, and he died of illness still a loyal follower. 3. A woman in one of Branham's own healing lines corrects him mid-prophecy when he misdiagnoses her husband's affliction (deafness vs. speech impairment), exposing the cold-reading mechanics behind supposed words of knowledge. **The squirrel story as theological ur-myth.** Freeman's "Gift of Faith" sermon retells a Branham hunting story: God tells Branham that "whatever you speak, I will do," and Branham commands three out-of-season squirrels onto a limb and shoots all three with one rifle shot each. Chenow, as an actual hunter, flags the story's technical implausibilities (season claims, the difficulty framing around a mundane hunting technique) as signs of fabrication or embellishment, and argues this narrative — not any biblical exegesis — is a root text for "speak it and claim it" Word of Faith theology. **Structural critique.** The hosts single out the delivery mechanism itself: "I have a word from the Lord for you — do you want to receive it?" is framed as a rhetorical trap (refusing sounds like refusing God), and failed prophecies are retroactively blamed on the recipient ("you must have sin in your life") rather than the prophet. Traveling personal-prophecy specialists (Roger Teale, Stanley Rankin) toured satellite churches, using advertising to swell attendance for prophecy lines — a business/audience-growth function layered on top of the spiritual claim. The Mike Bickle/IHOP-KC allegations are cited as a contemporary, more sinister application of the same mechanism (a "prophecy" used to justify predatory conduct). ### 🗒️ Notes Only one segment carries a stated timestamp in the source transcript (35:30–38:47, the squirrel story clip from Freeman's "Gift of Faith"); other segment breaks below are topical, not timestamped, since the transcript provided contains no inline timecodes for those portions. #### John Collins — family history with personal prophecy - Grew up in a mid-tier position in the Branham-adjacent world: not leadership, not rank-and-file, "in the know but just enough to be dangerous." - His grandfather was told, "All your children and your grandchildren will be saved" — a blanket, unfalsifiable, generational guarantee ("get out of jail free card"). - A follower was promised Branham would need a plane to fly a giant touring tent coast to coast after his return; the man bought a multimillion-dollar jumbo jet that sat unused in Arizona for decades awaiting a resurrection that never came. #### Hobart Freeman's origin story and contradiction - June 1966: Freeman prophesied over by "prophetess" Anna Schrader at a Gordon Lindsay deliverance seminar — the founding event of his charismatic ministry. - Freeman regularly taught against personal prophecy using 1 Corinthians 14:3, yet gave personal prophecies constantly himself — Chenow reads this as an implicit minister-only exception. - 1973, "Ministering by the Spirit" (Glory Barn): Freeman prophesies his son-in-law Bruce Kinsey (recently converted, married to daughter Kathy) into a prophetic calling; it never materialized, and Bruce later left the church disagreeing with Freeman's teaching. #### "Brother Reeser, it's your teeth" - George and Lillian Reeser were well-known Faith Assembly missionaries to British Honduras/Belize; Chenow financially supported them as a teenager and corresponded with Lillian. - Freeman publicly prophesied healing over George's teeth in the same "Ministering by the Spirit" tape. - No record of the prayer's outcome; George later died of an illness while still a loyal follower. Lillian remarried Don Nye — donor of Faith Assembly's church land — whose two previous wives had also died of illness. - Chenow's read: sincere, devoted people were funneled into unverified promises and left to privately conclude any failure was their own fault (sin, insufficient faith). #### William Branham's misfired healing-line prophecy - A woman brings her husband to Branham's prayer line; Branham, working from a partially filled-out prayer card, guesses the ailment is deafness ("he can hear now"). - The wife interrupts: the real affliction is a speech impairment from hardening of the arteries, not deafness. Branham backpedals ("well, he's sure doing a good job of it now"). - Framed by the hosts as evidence of cold-reading under pressure rather than genuine word-of-knowledge — and as one of the more "absurd" rather than "dangerous" failure modes. #### The squirrel-hunting "Gift of Faith" story - ⏱️ [35:30–38:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1nSzzfGiTU&t=2130) — audio clip of Freeman narrating Branham's story. - Branham, hunting off-season in Colorado, receives a message that "whatever you speak, I will do," then commands three squirrels onto a limb and shoots each with the rifle's first shot. - Chenow (lifelong hunter) disputes the story's plausibility point by point: squirrel season claims, the framing of shooting squirrels with a rifle as remarkable when it's the standard method, and the narrative's embellishment over retellings. - Argued as a foundational myth for "name it and claim it" Word of Faith theology — decreeing outcomes into existence. - Noted contradiction: near his death Freeman taught that "overcomers" may not hunt or own "weapons of death," yet praised Branham's hunting exploits as evidence of his anointing — one of many reversals in Freeman's teaching over time. #### The personal-prophecy circuit and modern parallels - Traveling "prophets" Roger Teale (England) and Stanley Rankin (San Antonio) toured Freeman-influenced satellite churches (e.g., Ken Hall's church in Memphis), running congregants through prophecy lines; radio advertising swelled attendance specifically for this draw. - Chenow personally went through Teale's line as a teenager, without the critical-thinking framework to question it at the time. - Modern parallel raised: Mike Bickle/IHOP-KC allegations, where a "word from the Lord" ("my wife will die, and you'll be my new wife") is alleged to have been used to manipulate a target. - Closing framing: personal prophecy is functionally identical to fortune-telling; ministers condemn secular fortune-tellers while running an equivalent practice under Christian branding, and failed predictions are reframed as the hearer's spiritual failure rather than the minister's error. ## 📚 References - [William Branham Historical Research](https://william-branham.org) - Hobart Freeman, "Ministering by the Spirit" (Glory Barn, 1973) — referenced YouTube message - Hobart Freeman, "The Gift of Faith" (Glory Barn, 1973) — referenced YouTube message, clip 35:30–38:47 ## 🗣️ Paraphrase John Collins opens by describing his family's front-row-adjacent seat inside the Branham movement — close enough to see the personal prophecies handed out, never quite at the center of power. He recounts two of the strangest: a blanket salvation guarantee given to his grandfather covering all descendants, and a follower who bought a jumbo jet anticipating Branham's resurrection and return to a touring healing ministry. Neither prophecy could ever be checked against reality, which is exactly the point of the critique that follows. Chenow Ross builds the case study around Hobart Freeman, whose entire ministry traces back to being personally prophesied over in 1966 — and who then spent decades publicly denouncing the very practice that created him, while privately practicing it on his own congregation, including his own family. The Reeser and Kinsey stories function as concrete, human-scale versions of Collins's opening anecdotes: real people whose lives were shaped by promises that were never fulfilled and never held anyone accountable. The squirrel story detour serves a structural purpose — Chenow's hunting expertise lets him show, from the inside, exactly how a fabricated anecdote becomes doctrine. The episode closes by widening the lens from this one historical movement to a general pattern: personal prophecy as unfalsifiable, minister-protecting, congregant-blaming religious fortune-telling, with the Bickle/IHOP-KC scandal offered as proof the mechanism still operates today. ## 📰 Newsletter Ever wonder how a squirrel-hunting story turns into a whole theological movement? This episode of the William Branham Historical Research Podcast digs into the wilder edges of mid-century charismatic Christianity — personal prophecy, the practice of handing someone a private "word from the Lord" that shapes (or wrecks) their life. John Collins and Chenow Ross trace it from William Branham's healing lines through Hobart Freeman's Glory Barn, with stories ranging from a family "get out of jail free card" prophecy to a jumbo jet bought and left to rust waiting for a resurrection. If you're researching spiritual abuse patterns, charismatic movement history, or just want a masterclass in how unfalsifiable claims get built and defended, this one's worth the listen. ## ✅ Action Items #### DevRel - Not applicable — this content is religious-history/media-literacy analysis, not developer relations material. #### OSPO - Not applicable. #### Community - Not applicable. #### WordPress - Not applicable. #### The WPCC - Not applicable. ### FAIR - Not applicable. ## 🧪 Hypotheses 1. Personal prophecies with vague, unfalsifiable content (e.g., "all your descendants will be saved") persist longer in a community's oral history than specific, checkable ones (e.g., "your teeth will heal"), because vagueness prevents disconfirmation. 2. Ministers who publicly denounce a practice while privately continuing it (Freeman on personal prophecy) retain more congregational trust after eventual exposure than ministers who never denounced it, because the denunciation itself functions as cover. 3. Failed personal prophecies are more often attributed to the recipient's spiritual deficiency than the prophet's error, at a rate that scales with the prophet's institutional authority. 4. Traveling "prophecy circuit" ministers (Teale, Rankin) measurably increased short-term attendance/donation at host churches regardless of long-term membership retention. 5. Fabricated or embellished anecdotes (the squirrel story) that anchor a theological system tend to gain specificity and drama with each retelling, trackable via variant analysis across recorded sermons. ### 📊 Methodology - Archival content analysis: catalog every personal prophecy referenced across Freeman's and Branham's available recorded sermons, coding each for specificity, verifiability, and stated outcome (fulfilled/unfulfilled/unknown). - Discourse analysis: compare Freeman's anti-personal-prophecy teaching passages against his own personal-prophecy utterances on a timeline to test the "minister exception" pattern. - Oral history interviews with surviving congregants/descendants (e.g., Reeser and Kinsey family members) to assess long-term life impact and attribution patterns (self-blame vs. minister-blame). - Variant tracking of the squirrel story across multiple recorded retellings to quantify embellishment drift. - Comparative case study against the Mike Bickle/IHOP-KC allegations to test whether the same rhetorical scaffolding ("word from the Lord — do you want it?") recurs across eras and movements. ### ❓ Questions - Did any documented case exist where a minister's personal prophecy failure was publicly attributed to the minister rather than the recipient? - What is the actual outcome of George Reeser's dental "healing" — was it ever independently confirmed, denied, or simply never mentioned again? - How much of Word of Faith "decree and declare" theology can be traced to this single squirrel anecdote versus other Branham/Kenneth Hagin-lineage sources? - Is there financial record of what happened to the jet purchased in anticipation of Branham's return? - What became of Bruce Kinsey's relationship to the church and family after leaving over the "weapons of death" teaching? ### 🔮 Future Research - A comparative study of personal-prophecy practices across Branham-descended, Word of Faith, and New Apostolic Reformation streams to map how the mechanism mutated over decades. - Legal/financial research into estates or purchases (like the jet) made in direct response to unfulfilled prophecy, as a measure of tangible economic harm. - A study of "traveling prophet" circuits (Teale, Rankin, and contemporaries) as a distinct fundraising/attendance-growth business model layered onto prophecy claims. ### 💡 Implications - **Practice**: pastoral training programs could add explicit warnings against solicited/unsolicited "personal word" delivery, given its documented harm pattern. - **Policy**: nothing regulatory applies directly, but denominational credentialing bodies could require disclosure of a minister's history of unfulfilled personal prophecies. - **Security**: none in the technical sense; the "security" risk here is reputational/financial — congregants making major life and financial decisions (missionary postings, aircraft purchases) based on unverifiable claims. - **Education**: media-literacy and critical-thinking curricula for youth in high-control religious environments could use these cold-reading and misfire examples as teaching cases. - **Funding models**: the prophecy circuit's attendance-driving function suggests a direct link between the practice and church revenue, worth mapping explicitly. ### 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment - Reading level estimate: conversational/spoken register transcribed verbatim; approximate Flesch-Kincaid grade level 8–9 (long run-on sentences typical of unscripted speech, but everyday vocabulary). #### 👀 Visual learners - Present: none — pure audio transcript, no diagrams or visuals. - Improve: a timeline graphic of the Branham → Freeman → satellite-church lineage; a simple diagram of the "prophecy → outcome → blame attribution" loop. #### 🔊 Aural learners - Present: the source is itself audio/podcast, well suited to this style; direct playback of the squirrel-story clip is highlighted. - Improve: pull additional short audio clips (the Reeser prophecy, the misfired healing-line exchange) as standalone timestamped excerpts. #### 🗣️ Verbal learners - Present: extensive storytelling, analogies (fortune cookie, phone monopoly), and definitions of terms like "word of knowledge" embedded in dialogue. - Improve: a short glossary of movement-specific terms (word of knowledge, gift of faith, Word of Faith movement, overcomer doctrine) for readers unfamiliar with charismatic jargon. #### 🧩 Kinesthetic learners - Present: none directly actionable in this format. - Improve: a self-guided exercise — have readers try to "fact-check" a sample vague prophecy against the criteria discussed (specificity, verifiability, accountability) as a hands-on media-literacy drill. #### 🧠 Logical learners - Present: the hosts implicitly build a cause-and-effect chain (prophecy → belief → decision → unfulfilled outcome → blame-shift). - Improve: an explicit decision-tree or flowchart of the blame-attribution pattern described (prophecy fails → "you have sin" → self-blame → continued participation). #### 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Social learners - Present: the episode is itself a two-person dialogue format, modeling collaborative sense-making. - Improve: a discussion-prompt companion for listener groups processing their own high-control religious experiences. #### 🧘‍♀️ Solitary learners - Present: reflective personal disclosure from both hosts about their own past participation. - Improve: journaling prompts for listeners assessing their own history with directive spiritual guidance. #### 🌿 Naturalistic learners - Present: the squirrel-hunting anecdote itself is a nature/outdoors narrative, and Chenow's rebuttal draws directly on real hunting knowledge. - Improve: none needed — the naturalistic angle is already load-bearing to the argument. ### 📊 Accessibility Assessment #### Screen reader semantics - Present: none (raw transcript) — this note adds headings and structure on top of it. - Improve: consistent heading hierarchy (done above) and descriptive link text rather than bare URLs. #### Keyboard navigation - Present: not applicable to audio source; applies to any web publication of this note. - Improve: ensure any published version has a working table of contents with in-page anchor links (included above). #### Contrast and readability - Present: not applicable to audio. - Improve: when published, ensure body text meets 4.5:1 contrast minimum and avoid color-only distinctions between speakers. #### Text resizing and reflow - Present: not applicable to audio. - Improve: keep paragraph lengths short in any published HTML version to support 200% zoom reflow. #### Media and captions - Present: a transcript exists (the basis for this note), which is itself a strong accessibility feature. - Improve: publish timestamped captions/transcript alongside the video, not just this derived note; the source material as given lacks embedded timecodes, which should be added for accessibility compliance. #### Forms and interactions - Present: not applicable — no interactive elements in this content. #### Standards reference - Primary gap against WCAG 2.2 AA: 1.2.2 (Captions) and 1.2.4 (Live captions, if streamed) depend on the source video actually shipping accurate, timestamped captions — not verifiable from this transcript alone. ### 🌍 DEIB Assessment #### Cultural breadth - Present: references missionary work in British Honduras/Belize and a British traveling prophet (Roger Teale), giving some geographic range. - Improve: the discussion centers entirely on U.S. Midwest/South charismatic Christianity; broader context on how personal-prophecy practices manifest in other cultural or religious traditions would widen the lens. #### Inclusive language - Present: mostly plain, direct language; hosts are careful to distinguish target of criticism (specific ministers, the practice) from blanket condemnation of the people involved. - Improve: some casual asides (e.g., "hillbilly from Burkesville, Kentucky") lean on regional stereotype for rhetorical effect; could be reframed without the class-coded shorthand. #### Neurodiversity support - Present: chunked storytelling with clear topic shifts helps some listeners track the narrative. - Improve: as a long unstructured conversational transcript, it would benefit from more frequent explicit topic-change markers for listeners who need predictable structure. #### Representation - Present: centers the lived experience of two men who were inside the movement; includes women's roles (Anna Schrader, Lillian Reeser, Kathy Kinsey) though largely as objects of others' prophecy/actions rather than as speaking subjects. - Improve: interviews with women who experienced personal prophecy directly (rather than being discussed in the third person) would balance representation. #### Psychological safety - Present: hosts explicitly validate that participants (Reesers, Bruce Kinsey, their younger selves) were sincere people who were manipulated, not fools — reducing shame for listeners with similar histories. - Improve: an explicit content note at the top of the episode/note flagging discussion of spiritual manipulation and grief (Reeser's death) would help listeners with related trauma histories prepare. ### ✅ Logical Validity #### Strong reasoning - Inductive: the pattern-based argument (multiple independent failed personal prophecies — Kinsey, Reeser, the airplane, the healing-line misfire) builds a cumulative case that failure is the norm, not the exception, for this practice. Strengthened by including the hosts' own firsthand participation as evidence, not just secondhand anecdote. - Analogical: the fortune-teller/fortune-cookie comparison is a clear, testable analogy — it invites the listener to apply the same skepticism they'd already have toward a secular fortune-teller to a religious one, which is a legitimate and clarifying rhetorical move. #### Fallacies - Hasty generalization (implicit): individual embellishment in the squirrel story is used to imply broad fabrication across Branham's ministry; while plausible given the pattern, the specific technical rebuttal (squirrel hunting mechanics) doesn't itself prove other, unrelated healing claims are false. Fix: separate the squirrel-story critique (well-supported) from the broader claim about Branham's healing ministry (which needs its own independent evidence, discussed elsewhere in the hosts' body of work). - Unfalsifiability critique used both ways: the hosts rightly criticize personal prophecy for being unfalsifiable, but some of their own claims about motive ("Hobart was becoming a little more concerned about his own reputation") are similarly unverifiable psychological inference. Fix: flag motive-attribution as informed speculation rather than established fact. #### Tone of voice - Conversational, wry, occasionally sarcastic ("that's a pretty good trick even without the anointing"), with moments of genuine sympathy for harmed congregants (Reesers). The tone shifts appropriately between mockery (aimed at the theatrics) and compassion (aimed at the people who trusted it). ### 🛡️ DARVO Analysis - **Deny**: not directly modeled by the hosts (they are critics, not the accused), but they describe the pattern within the movement itself — ministers implicitly deny responsibility for failed prophecy by reframing it as a conditional word ("here are the 17 conditions") rather than admitting error. - **Attack**: not present as a rhetorical move by the hosts against a living accuser; within the movement's dynamic described, congregants who question a failed prophecy risk being framed as lacking faith or harboring sin — a soft attack on the questioner's spiritual standing rather than addressing the claim's failure. - **Reverse victim/offender**: the recurring "you must have sin in your life" response to a failed prophecy is a clear reversal — the minister who made an unfulfilled claim recasts the disappointed congregant as the party at fault, protecting the minister's authority. - **Emotional cues and rhetoric**: the "word from the Lord — do you want to receive it?" framing is identified explicitly by the hosts as a compliance-inducing rhetorical trap (refusal feels like refusing God); this functions as an emotional lever rather than a logical claim, reinforced by public, in-group settings (prayer lines, packed satellite-church events) that add social pressure. ## 🎯 Conclusion Personal prophecy, as documented across Branham's healing lines and Freeman's Glory Barn ministry, operates as an unfalsifiable claim delivered with divine authority, immune to correction because any failure is reassigned to the recipient's spiritual deficiency rather than the prophet's error. The concrete harms traced here — a family's blanket salvation guarantee, a wasted jumbo jet, an unhealed missionary's death, a young convert's derailed sense of calling — show this isn't a victimless theological quirk but a repeatable mechanism with real financial and emotional cost. Practical next step for readers: apply the same skepticism to any private "word from the Lord" that you would apply to a fortune-teller's reading, and treat "do you want to receive a word?" as a question worth declining. ## 🔄 Refactor Appendix — The Danger of Personal Prophecy > Density: 2–5 Literature atoms (H3), 0–3 Permanent candidates (H4). > Defaults: 3 Literature, 1 Permanent. Resonance filter applied. ### 📚 Literature Atoms (H3) #### Personal prophecy blames the hearer, not the prophet > [!quote] > "But sister, you have sin in your life, don't you? ... They will do whatever it takes to reinterpret the meaning of whatever it was that they said." **Context & use**: - Mid-episode, John Collins's core structural critique. - This is the load-bearing mechanism explaining why the practice survives repeated failure — it names the unfalsifiability engine directly. **Tags**: #xref #aphorisms **Highlight**: [view highlight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1nSzzfGiTU)  #### Freeman denounced personal prophecy while practicing it > [!quote] > "So, I always found it fascinating, John, that he taught against it, yet his ministry was based upon it, and he himself frequently practiced it." **Context & use**: - Chenow Ross describing Hobart Freeman's contradictory public/private stance. - Key case for the "minister exception" pattern — worth cross-referencing against other high-control-group leader hypocrisies. **Tags**: #xref **Highlight**: [view highlight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1nSzzfGiTU)  #### The squirrel story anchors Word of Faith theology > [!quote] > "I decree that three ... gray squirrels come out on that limb and that I hit everyone with the first shot with this rifle." **Context & use**: - 35:30–38:47, Freeman retelling Branham's hunting story in "The Gift of Faith" (1973). - Chenow's hunting expertise exposes internal implausibilities — a strong case study in how a fabricated anecdote becomes load-bearing doctrine. **Tags**: #articleseed **Highlight**: [view highlight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1nSzzfGiTU&t=2130)  ### 🧠 Permanent Candidates (H4) #### Unfalsifiable claims survive by relocating blame to the hearer **Claim** (one sentence, Courtney's voice): A claim stays unfalsifiable in practice not because it can't be checked, but because the group has a built-in move that shifts responsibility for its failure onto the person who received it rather than the person who made it. **Evidence pointer**: [[Literature note#Personal prophecy blames the hearer, not the prophet]] **Scope & conditions**: Holds in high-control religious and non-religious settings alike (astrology, MLM "the universe rewards hustle" framing); breaks down where the claimant is structurally accountable to an outside authority that can penalize false claims. **Links** (≥1 with annotation): - [[DARVO]] — because extends (reverse victim/offender is the specific mechanism enabling the blame-shift) - [[Cold reading]] — because applies-in (the Branham healing-line misfire is a live example of the same underlying technique)  ### ✏️ Fleeting Queue - [F1] Check whether any independent source confirms or denies George Reeser's dental healing outcome — https://william-branham.org #xref - [F2] Compare this episode's squirrel-story critique against other traced origins of "decree and declare" Word of Faith theology #articleseed ### → Things 3 (max 2 actions) - [ ] Look up whether William Branham Historical Research has published further detail on Bruce Kinsey's departure — research #things ``` Processed: The Danger of Personal Prophecy | Chino Ross | Podcast Episode 660 - Literature atoms: 3 / 5 cap - Permanent candidates: 1 / 3 cap - Fleeting items: 2 - Things 3 actions: 1 / 2 cap - Konik tags used: [#xref, #aphorisms, #articleseed] - Triage callouts populated: [not applicable — single-source podcast note, not a Literature-note triage import] - Quality gates: [✓ verbatim quotes ≤25 words, ✓ atomicity markers present, ✓ link annotations use allowed relationship types, ✓ no [MISSING] strings, ✓ single highlight per atom, ✓ no view-highlight links stripped] - Override conditions triggered: [none] ``` --- ## Full Transcript [00:07] [music] [00:18] [music] [00:24] [music] [00:29] [music] [00:31] >> Hello and welcome to another episode of [00:33] the William Branham Historical Research [00:35] Podcast. I'm your host John Collins, the [00:37] author and founder of William Branham [00:39] Historical Research at [00:40] william-branham.org, [00:42] and with me I have my co-host, minister, [00:44] and friend Chenow Ross, pastor and the [00:46] voice of the Understanding Scripture and [00:48] Truth by Chenow D. Ross YouTube channel. [00:51] Chenow, it's good to be back and to talk [00:53] about personal prophecies. [00:55] I grew up in this weird world where I [00:58] wasn't really at the bottom with the [01:00] rank and file member, and I wasn't [01:02] really at the top because I didn't have [01:04] any money. [01:04] >> [laughter] [01:05] >> But, there's this weird tier in between [01:07] the central figure and the rank and file [01:09] member where you kind of see what's [01:10] going on, and you're in the know, but [01:13] you know just enough to be dangerous. [01:16] And my family was in that section, so we [01:19] saw some things that were weird. My [01:21] family, most of them stayed in it. We We [01:23] did escape my immediate family, my wife [01:25] and my kids, [01:27] >> [clears throat] [01:27] >> but we saw personal prophecies. [01:30] And these things were [01:32] outlandish. [01:33] I'm just going to be honest with you. We [01:35] heard about personal prophecies. We had [01:37] legend of personal prophecies. [01:39] We had everything from the The greatest [01:42] one for me was, "No matter what I do in [01:44] this life, Chenow, I am saved. I have a [01:47] get out of jail free card. I can go do [01:49] whatever I want." This man, William [01:52] Branham, prophesied to my grandfather, [01:54] "All your children and your [01:55] grandchildren will be saved." And my [01:58] grandfather wasn't the only one that he [01:59] did this to, so we all had get out of [02:02] jail free cards. [02:03] And there were people he told one guy [02:06] that, "Now, whenever I come back, I'm [02:09] going to drive drive around from coast [02:11] to coast and I'm going to have the [02:12] biggest tent ever. And I'm going to need [02:15] you to help me fly it around from city [02:17] to city. Can you get me an airplane?" [02:20] And the guy bought the airplane after [02:22] Branham died expecting Branham to come [02:24] back. [02:25] The plane sat out until I think it's no [02:28] longer mobile out in Arizona. I can't [02:31] tell you how many million dollar I mean [02:33] this was one of those big jumbo jets. It [02:35] was a million million dollars or more [02:36] way back then. [02:38] And it sat there waiting on personal [02:40] prophecy to be fulfilled. [02:42] And that's just two of the weirdest [02:44] ones. I could go on for probably the [02:46] next hour and a half, but needless to [02:48] say personal prophecy is the most [02:51] dangerous, the most absurd, and quite [02:53] frankly the stupidest thing that I've [02:55] ever encountered in religion. [02:58] >> Well, we were talking the last time you [02:59] and I um got together and did a podcast, [03:02] Shawn, about personal prophecy as it [03:05] related to Hobart Freeman's ministry. I [03:08] think in the [03:09] uh past weeks prior or months prior to [03:12] that, [03:13] we had given the history of how Hobart's [03:17] charismatic ministry came to be and that [03:21] was through personal prophecy. [03:24] When in June of 1966, he had traveled [03:27] down to a Gordon Lindsay deliverance [03:29] seminar and had been prophesied over by [03:33] the [03:34] prophetess Anna Schrader. [03:37] >> [snorts] [03:37] >> So, it's very interesting to look in the [03:39] next few years of Dr. Freeman's teaching [03:43] ministry when he is now back in Indiana, [03:47] he regularly taught against personal [03:50] prophecy. [03:52] Um I I think he had [03:54] he had enough [03:56] experience and probably enough common [03:59] sense [04:00] to know and to have seen a few cases [04:03] where [04:04] person A is [04:06] giving a word from the Lord. That's the [04:09] way they always um phrase it. I have a [04:11] word from the Lord for you, brother. Do [04:13] you want to receive it? [04:15] And you know, who who who in their right [04:17] mind would say, "No, I don't want a word [04:20] from the Lord." So, they've already got [04:22] you hooked by saying, "I've got a word [04:24] from the Lord for you." And I think [04:27] Hobart had seen [04:29] maybe some problems with that. [04:33] And so, he frequently taught against it. [04:36] And and whenever he taught against it, I [04:38] thought it was good. I mean, he would [04:39] use 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 3 saying [04:44] prophecy is is generally not prediction. [04:47] It's surely not to direct people's [04:49] lives. It's for edification, [04:51] exhortation, and comfort. [04:54] So, [04:55] I always found it fascinating, John, [04:57] that he taught against it, yet his [05:01] ministry [05:02] was based upon it, [05:04] and he himself frequently practiced it. [05:08] So, the only thing I could figure is, [05:11] well, maybe ministers are an exception. [05:13] You know, maybe [05:15] rank and file members in the church are [05:18] not allowed to give or receive personal [05:21] prophecy, but since Anna Shradar was a [05:24] prophetess, {quote} {unquote}, and [05:26] Hobart was a minister, then she could [05:28] prophesy to him, [05:30] his future ministry, and then he could [05:33] prophesy to other people. [05:36] And so, I know in our [05:39] in our previous talk together, we had a [05:41] fairly long clip [05:44] that people heard on from a message [05:46] entitled ministering by the spirit. It [05:49] was done in [05:51] the glory barn in 1973 [05:55] the second half from what I can figure [05:57] of 1973. [05:59] And I say that the second half because [06:02] one of them what we listened to and one [06:05] of the highlights of that tape or that [06:08] message it really wasn't a teaching it [06:10] was Hobart giving words of knowledge [06:12] prophecies tongues and interpretation [06:16] personal words to people [06:19] was whenever he gave a personal word to [06:22] Bruce Kinsey [06:24] who just happened to be his son-in-law [06:26] married to his middle daughter Kathy. [06:29] And that word to Bruce called him into [06:32] the ministry as a prophet. [06:35] And I don't know how many people who are [06:38] Freeman followers today remember that or [06:40] maybe they don't even know anything [06:42] about it but that message is available [06:44] on YouTube you can go listen to it [06:46] yourself. [06:48] You don't have to just hear the clip we [06:50] played you can hear the whole message. [06:53] Or it's not a message as I say it's just [06:55] Hobart [06:56] having words of knowledge and all of [06:59] these things for people according to [07:01] him. [07:02] And [07:04] as years as the years went by and I put [07:06] the pieces of the puzzle together I [07:08] realized Bruce had just been recently [07:12] converted he had just been saved I think [07:14] that year. [07:16] And he was a he was one of those [07:17] so-called hard cases [07:19] he had married Hobart's daughter Kathy [07:21] Kathy was not supposed to be dating an [07:24] unsaved boy so she had to do all of this [07:27] you know by her own admission and by [07:29] Bruce's admission he had to do all this [07:31] um [07:33] behind her her parents back. [07:36] uh [07:37] June didn't even know they were married [07:38] whenever they got married so Kathy is [07:41] out sneaking around by their own [07:43] admission. You know, she met a guy at a [07:45] pizza parlor. She thought he was cute, I [07:48] guess. I don't know. And ended up dating [07:51] and ended up marrying Bruce. And Bruce [07:53] wanted nothing to do with religion, [07:55] especially not this charismatic version [07:57] of it in the glory barn. So, for Bruce [07:59] to have gotten converted, and I think [08:02] Bruce was born again and saved, and now [08:05] a member of the glory barn, that was a [08:06] feather in Dr. Freeman's cap. Here, you [08:09] know, my son-in-law [08:11] has been converted, you know, from [08:13] heathenism to Christianity. So, I just [08:16] think it was all in the spirit of the [08:18] moment of that year that now Hobart [08:21] feels like he has a prophecy to give a [08:24] brand new Christian saved not less than [08:26] a year that he's calling him into the [08:28] ministry as a prophet. [08:30] Well, we know that never [08:33] realized itself, never materialized. [08:36] Later on, you know, within 10 years, [08:39] Bruce was actually leaving the church [08:42] because he no longer agreed with all of [08:44] his father-in-law's stuff. [08:46] But something else that I wanted just to [08:48] mention on the in that very same [08:52] um [08:53] YouTube message entitled ministering by [08:56] the spirit, [08:57] later on [08:59] in that message, because Hobart's giving [09:01] words to different people, Bruce and [09:03] Kathy, Stephen and Pam, somewhere around [09:06] the um 41-minute mark, we're not going [09:09] to play this. People can go listen to it [09:11] for themselves. [09:13] And you'll see why I'm telling this [09:14] particular story. Dr. Freeman just says [09:18] all of a sudden, "Brother Reeser, [09:21] it's your teeth." [09:25] Well, the reason I say that is because [09:27] the Reeser couple, George and Lillian, [09:30] were a [09:31] very well-known couple [09:34] um from way back early days under [09:37] Freeman's ministry at the Glory Barn. [09:40] And I'm going to [09:42] I'm going to tell the story the way it [09:44] actually happened. Um [09:45] but I'm not going to reveal any details [09:48] of [09:49] Reeser [09:51] uh what can I say? Relatives that I have [09:54] talked to having done these podcasts [09:57] with you. [09:58] The Reesers were [10:00] pretty important people, at least the [10:02] parents were. And so they children, [10:05] grandchildren, other relatives. So I [10:07] won't say which relatives, but I have [10:09] talked to [10:10] Reeser relatives and I don't know if [10:12] they're still following the podcast, but [10:14] I'm really curious [10:16] to know did they realize what Hobart [10:20] said to their dad, George? [10:23] Um [10:24] Brother Reeser, itch your teeth. [10:27] My connection to the Reesers is very [10:29] interesting, John, and it goes back very [10:31] early. [10:32] You know, I first learned of Hobart [10:34] Freeman in 1976. [10:37] Uh and I immediately that summer in [10:38] August made a trip to the Glory Barn. So [10:41] >> [snorts] [10:42] >> in my trip to the Glory Barn, I was able [10:44] to meet some people and you know, I was [10:47] 17 years old, but I was able to meet [10:49] some people. I never met the Reesers, [10:51] but I heard about this wonderful [10:55] missionary couple, George and Lillian [10:57] Reeser, who were missionaries to the [11:01] Central American company or country. [11:04] Back then it was known as British [11:06] Honduras. I think later in the early [11:09] 1980s, it became known as Belize. [11:13] And George and Lillian, about whom I [11:15] have nothing but good things to say. So [11:18] if Reesers relatives are listening, [11:21] don't worry. I don't have anything bad [11:22] to say about George and Lillian because [11:25] I found out who they were. I was able to [11:28] get their address and I thought, how [11:31] cool. You got missionaries down in [11:33] British Honduras carrying this faith [11:36] message, this healing message, Freeman's [11:38] message down there." [11:40] And I knew they were from Churubusco, [11:42] Indiana, which is up in kind of like the [11:44] northeast corner of the state. [11:48] And I thought, "I'm going to start [11:49] supporting them financially." Now, I [11:51] didn't send much cuz I'm a kid, I don't [11:53] have much. But I'm going to, you know, [11:55] start sending them money. And so I did, [11:58] and then I would receive a postcard, [12:01] which was just very cool for a [12:03] 17-year-old to get a postcard in the [12:06] mail from British Honduras, and it was [12:09] from Lillian Reeser. [12:11] And she was just a lovely, very [12:14] well-known part of that church. Um very [12:17] well-known for doing a lot of cassette [12:20] tapes um geared towards children. So she [12:24] had a like a children's teaching [12:26] ministry. And yet they were missionaries [12:28] in a Central American um country. [12:34] I wonder [12:36] when Dr. Freeman said, "Brother Reeser, [12:39] it's your teeth." [12:41] He said, "God wants me to pray for your [12:43] teeth." And I'm sure, you know, George [12:45] was there. He was, you know, back on [12:48] furlough or something from missionary [12:50] duty down in Central America. And he [12:53] went up for the healing of his teeth. [12:55] And I don't know what that involved. Was [12:57] he missing teeth? Did he have cavities? [13:00] Uh I don't know. [13:01] Um relatives, descendants, children, [13:04] grandchildren may know. [13:06] But I wonder what happened whenever he [13:09] was prayed for. [13:11] I did find out from talking to Reeser [13:14] relatives that [13:16] um and they are welcome to correct me if [13:18] I'm wrong in my memory on what they [13:19] said, but that George Reeser did [13:22] unfortunately continue to remain a loyal [13:25] follower of Dr. Freeman's. and if I [13:27] remember correctly, [13:29] um did die from [13:32] a some disease. I don't know what it [13:33] was, but it was not [13:36] it was not a happy death or a happy [13:37] ending. [13:39] Lillian, his widow, ended up marrying, [13:42] believe it or not, Don Nye, who was the [13:46] person who had allowed Faith Assembly to [13:49] build to erect their new church building [13:52] on his property. This was Don Nye's [13:55] third wife because his first two wives [13:58] had died of [14:00] illnesses. I I I can't say whether [14:03] treatable or not. It depends on when you [14:05] call the illness. [14:07] And so I guess my point in telling that [14:09] story is I think George and Lillian [14:12] Reeser [14:13] were really good Christian people. [14:16] And like so many people who have [14:18] followed Dr. Freeman or NAR today or [14:22] whomever, they just got hooked up with [14:24] the wrong character. And here they are [14:27] going through I don't know what, you [14:28] know, as a missionary in Central [14:30] America. That's not the life I get to [14:32] live. I live in a comfortable home in [14:34] the United States of America. That's a a [14:37] big ordeal to go and do something like [14:39] that and especially do it under the, you [14:41] know, the influence or the auspices of a [14:44] message like Dr. Freeman's and then for [14:47] Dr. Freeman to say, "Brother Reeser, [14:49] it's your teeth." [14:51] You know, I hope I hope that he went up [14:54] and got prayed for and his teeth were [14:56] miraculously healed. My guess would be [15:00] he went up and was prayed for and they [15:02] probably weren't. And and then he had to [15:05] struggle with why they weren't. Well, [15:07] it's definitely not Dr. Freeman's fault. [15:09] It's definitely not the message's fault [15:11] that we've been taught. It must be my [15:13] fault. There must be sin in my life or I [15:15] must have um a lack of faith. So when I [15:19] look at myself, John, here 50 years, [15:21] literally 50 years later from when I [15:24] first heard of the research, and [15:27] then I learned how things ended up with [15:29] him, and you put all these pieces [15:31] together, there's just so much [15:33] dysfunction, and so much trauma has [15:36] happened in all of these people's lives. [15:38] >> I mentioned before that these personal [15:39] prophecies can become dangerous, but [15:42] also mentioned they could be absurd. And [15:45] I'll read you something that happened in [15:48] the prayer lines of the ministry that [15:50] Hobart Freeman was referencing whenever [15:52] he said William Branham was God's [15:54] prophet. Everybody who was part of this [15:57] movement believed this, and even if they [15:59] did not believe his doctrine, they [16:01] believed that when people approached him [16:03] on the stage, the power of God flowed [16:04] through Branham into these people. That [16:06] was widespread belief, even though that, [16:09] you know, some of them didn't adhere to [16:10] the doctrine. But this lady approaches [16:12] him, and he's he's giving personal [16:15] prophecy during the prayer lines, and I [16:17] think that's the part that most [16:19] historians miss because they think if [16:21] you are a historian sympathetic to [16:24] Branham or Branhamism or [16:26] NAR, any of this thing, [16:28] you believe that that's not really [16:29] personal prophecy, that is something [16:32] that's for the whole people, it's for [16:33] the edifying the body of Christ to come [16:36] through this healing line. [16:37] But this lady brings her husband up to [16:40] William Branham and [16:42] >> [clears throat] [16:42] >> to be prayed for, and the way it worked, [16:44] you would put in a prayer card, and you [16:46] might write your name and your address, [16:47] and he would tell you your name and your [16:49] address. [16:50] >> Like any of the gimmicks. [16:51] >> But sometimes [snorts] [16:52] they didn't really fill out what he what [16:54] the disease was or the affliction was in [16:57] full, and so Branham had to [17:00] I guess the word is guess what it was. [17:03] >> [laughter] [17:04] >> So the lady comes up, and [17:06] he starts talking to the person, and [17:09] he's trying to get, [17:11] you know, get a little bit [17:13] a little bit to know him so that he can [17:15] cold read, I think is what was [17:16] happening. [17:17] And [clears throat] he starts praying [17:19] and says, [17:20] "And now he can hear. He can hear now. [17:23] Can you hear me?" And he starts talking. [17:25] And [17:26] the lady [17:27] you don't hear this in any of the [17:29] history books, but the lady it says in [17:31] brackets, the lady says, "He isn't deaf. [17:33] He has hardening of the arteries. He [17:34] can't talk." [17:35] >> [laughter] [17:36] >> And he says, "Can't talk? Well, he's [17:38] sure doing a good job of it now." And [17:40] the lady says, "Well, there are a lot of [17:42] words that he can't say. He can say some [17:44] words, but not all words. He struggle" [17:45] In other words, he is he's afflicted. [17:48] He's struggling. And they actually got [17:51] an argument and she finally says, "Look, [17:52] it's not his hearing. In fact, it was [17:55] his hearing and his speech." And so the [17:58] the conversation shifts where he's [18:00] trying to Now he's trying to walk back [18:02] what he said that it's not the healing. [18:04] Well, that was a personal prophecy and [18:06] that's one of the absurd ones because it [18:08] really does nobody any good. The guy [18:10] left more confused about "Oh, does God [18:13] not know what I have?" This is kind of [18:15] silly. [18:16] >> And I wonder if when George Rieser [18:18] walked out of the prayer line [18:21] >> [clears throat] [18:21] >> he was more confused than when he went [18:23] up. I mean, you know he's expecting his [18:25] teeth to be healed and whether they were [18:27] or not, I don't know. [18:29] But speaking of William Branham [18:32] we've got a wonderful clip we will [18:34] listen to here in a moment. It was on a [18:36] message entitled The Gift of Faith which [18:38] Hobart taught in the Glory Barn the same [18:42] year that he had that ministering by the [18:44] spirit by the Holy Spirit. This was in [18:46] 1973. [18:48] Dr. Freeman was heavily influenced by [18:50] William Branham. [18:52] And to this day we have [clears throat] [18:53] people pushing back saying "No, he [18:56] wasn't influenced by Branham." [18:59] And I guess they're just I mean, they're [19:01] just denying the obvious and the obvious [19:04] isn't isn't, you know, my opinion versus [19:07] their opinion. It's just go listen to [19:09] the any of the cassettes from the any of [19:11] the messages from the late 60s through [19:13] the you know I don't know the first half [19:15] of the 1970s. Hobart continued to [19:18] believe in Branham but he began [19:20] post 1975 trying to distance himself a [19:23] little bit um not because Branham was [19:27] now teaching weird things. Branham had [19:29] been dead for 10 years. It's probably [19:30] Hobart was becoming a little more um [19:33] concerned about his own reputation. So I [19:36] better I better still stay with him as [19:38] God's prophet. He always said. His [19:41] famous statement was [19:43] I don't care what anybody says I believe [19:46] William Branham was God's prophet. [19:48] But then he would distance himself from [19:51] some of the teachings that he had heard [19:54] from Branham cassette tapes because [19:56] Hobart was trying to refine his own [19:58] theology. [19:59] But in this in this message uh entitled [20:03] The Gift of Faith, he's going to talk [20:05] about William Branham um which we'll [20:08] listen to here in a just a moment. I'll [20:10] just kind of introduce it with what I'm [20:12] saying now. He's going to tell one of [20:14] these famous uh Colorado hunting [20:17] stories. [20:19] And what's interesting is [20:21] this is just one of maybe I don't know [20:25] six or eight or maybe 10 different [20:29] stories on this same message The Gift of [20:32] Faith where Hobart always did very [20:35] little Bible teaching. It was use a [20:38] verse and then tell just incredible [20:41] stories. And I'm sure I was this was one [20:45] of the early tapes I heard because when [20:48] I was first began listening to Dr. [20:50] Freeman in 1976 [20:53] he didn't have just a whole lot of [20:55] tapes. He didn't have the tape list that [20:57] he ended up with when he [clears throat] [20:59] died in December of 1984. So The Gift of [21:02] Faith from 1973 would have been one that [21:05] I listened to and it was simply [21:07] fascinating. So, he tells that William [21:10] Branham, this great man of God, he said [21:13] he had hundreds of thousands, [21:17] those are his words, of people healed in [21:19] his prayer lines. Hundreds of thousands [21:22] of the gift of the word of knowledge. [21:26] And Gordon Lindsay was his crusade [21:29] director, and and Gordon Lindsay said [21:32] William Branham never missed it, never [21:36] made a mistake. So, this is what we are [21:39] being told. This is the build-up [21:42] to hearing stories of this famous [21:45] prophet, [21:47] uh, William Branham. [21:48] And we have played an earlier clip, it's [21:52] not on this tape, where Hobart Freeman [21:54] said William Branham, William Marion [21:58] Branham, had the greatest [22:01] ministry in the history of the Christian [22:05] church since the time of the Apostle [22:07] Paul. [22:08] So, that's that's what he thought of [22:10] him. So, if we can, John, let's hear [22:12] this. It is from 35 minute 30 second [22:16] mark through 38 minute and 47 [22:21] second mark. [22:22] >> doubt. And William Branham said when [22:24] that anointing was there, the gift of [22:26] faith was always operating in his [22:27] ministry, and he couldn't doubt. He said [22:29] when they when the anointing was not [22:31] there, he said I I'm like a baby. [22:34] Uh, he says I can't do anything. [22:36] You know, as far as [22:37] those tremendous miracles and things [22:40] that took place in his ministry. [22:42] Literally hundreds of thousands of [22:44] people healed. [22:47] And hundreds [clears throat] of [22:48] thousands of manifestations of the word [22:50] of knowledge, and Gordon Lindsay, who [22:52] was his crusade director in all those [22:55] early years, in fact, most of the time [22:56] up until [22:58] say in the middle 50s. [23:01] Or late 50s, I suppose. [23:03] Uh said that he's seen it operate tens [23:06] of thousands of times. He never once [23:08] ever made a mistake [23:10] in diagnosing a disease or casting out a [23:13] demon or anything he said always came to [23:15] pass. When he was under that anointing. [23:17] So he said one time the Lord taught him [23:19] how this gift of faith operated. He was [23:21] up in Colorado. He would take a month [23:24] off. He would minister uh you know, very [23:26] hard and then he he wouldn't take a [23:27] week's vacation. He'd take a month or [23:29] two and go up there [23:31] get him a horse and [23:32] and uh he was quite a hunter [23:36] woodsman and he said he was one day in [23:38] the woods wherever he was uh most [23:40] particular area and I think it was [23:41] Colorado. That is that doesn't matter [23:43] this particular time but he said he was [23:45] out squirrel hunting in the season when [23:47] there were no squirrels, you know, you [23:49] they just seasons they don't even come [23:50] out. [23:51] But he was just out, you know, in case [23:53] he might see one because he liked to be [23:54] out in the woods and he said the voice [23:56] of the Lord came to him. He said this [23:58] anointing first came on him. He couldn't [23:59] figure out what it was for because of he [24:01] was out by himself miles from anybody. [24:03] Said the voice of the Lord came and [24:05] said, "Whatever you speak, I will do." [24:11] Well, what do you do? You [24:14] claim all the people in the First [24:15] Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas [24:17] be saved or [24:22] that the moon will turn to blood or [24:24] what? You know, he said, "Anything you [24:26] speak." [24:28] Now friends, he didn't say anything but [24:33] That happened once before when he spoke [24:35] the word about somebody to be saved and [24:38] they just I think it was one or two [24:40] William Branham tells it. He said just [24:41] as he spoke it they just they fell on [24:43] their knees and repented and they didn't [24:44] even know what was happening. [24:46] Just as he spoke it they just they fell [24:48] on their knees and repented and they [24:49] didn't even know what was happening. [24:52] He just decreed [24:54] two people would be saved. They fell on [24:56] their knees and repented. [24:59] And he I mean they didn't hear this. He [25:00] was doing it under this anointing. And [25:02] so, what do you ask for? What is that [25:03] thought? [25:05] He said that I decree [25:07] that three and this is out of squirrel [25:08] season, three gray squirrels come out on [25:10] that limb and that I hit everyone with [25:12] the first shot with this rifle. Do you [25:13] ever shoot squirrels with a rifle? [25:16] That's a pretty good trick even without [25:17] the anointing. [25:21] You don't think it is? Go ahead and try [25:23] it. [25:25] Now, there are no squirrels. And he said [25:26] he had no sooner spoken the word until a [25:28] gray squirrel came out on the limb. [25:31] Plunk. [25:32] Plunk. Plunk. Three of them. [25:35] >> So, you know, when you carefully listen [25:37] to this story, it's a hunting story, a [25:39] squirrel hunting story with William [25:41] Branham out in Colorado. [25:44] Um you carefully listen to it, there are [25:46] just so many red flags. [25:49] You know, Freeman wasn't a hunter. I am [25:52] a hunter. I was raised in the woods. My [25:55] father was a hunter. He was a fisherman. [25:58] I spent I've spent my whole life since I [26:01] was old enough to hold a gun or carry a [26:03] fishing pole either on the water in the [26:05] woods. [26:06] And [26:08] you can tell when a story is being told [26:10] by somebody who has never hunted and [26:13] doesn't know anything about hunting or [26:14] guns. And by the way, let me just [26:16] parenthetically, I'm getting ahead of [26:17] ahead of myself, but say this. Remember [26:19] that at the the one of the last two [26:22] messages Hobart Freeman ever preached, [26:25] he came out with this new great [26:27] revelation that overcomers are not [26:30] allowed to hunt. They're not allowed to [26:32] have or use weapons of death, weapons of [26:35] death, weapons of destruction. And [26:37] that's one of the reasons that Bruce [26:39] left, Bruce Kinsey left, um and just [26:42] caused a lot of problems. So, I find [26:44] this interesting, Dr. Freeman, that this [26:46] is a truth that Christians can't use [26:49] guns, and yet William Branham was the [26:51] greatest minister since the Apostle [26:54] Paul. But man, he was sinning in his [26:56] life all the time because he was always [26:59] going hunting somewhere. So, you know, [27:01] stuff like that John never made any [27:03] sense to me in Hobart's life. He was so [27:06] contradictory. He'd say one thing one [27:09] year and contradict himself, you know, [27:10] five years later. And you you could [27:12] never make heads or tails about of it. [27:15] But he said that that William Branham is [27:18] out he'd take a month off and he'd go to [27:20] Colorado. He'd get a horse and then he'd [27:22] go squirrel hunting in the woods. And [27:24] then he'd say, "Now, this [27:26] You know, when you hear the story, you [27:27] just laugh. This This was the time of [27:29] year when there were no squirrels." [27:31] Well, then why is the guy hunting then, [27:33] you know? An experienced hunter like [27:35] Branham would know this is not the time [27:38] of year. There's always squirrels. [27:39] Squirrels are always in the woods. Now, [27:42] there might not have been hunting [27:43] seasons back in those days. Today, we [27:45] have seasons. This is when fall squirrel [27:48] season opens. This is when uh summer [27:50] squirrel season opens here in Kentucky. [27:53] But Hobart said, cuz he's trying to make [27:55] this story be as dramatic as possible. [27:58] So, he said, "So, he goes, he's got his [28:01] rifle, he's in the woods, and this is [28:03] not the time when you'll normally see [28:06] any squirrels." Um and so, God tells him [28:11] that whatever he says will come to pass. [28:16] So, this is the gift of faith operating. [28:18] You can just say whatever you want to [28:20] say. [28:22] And it [clears throat] will come to [28:22] pass. And so, what William Branham said [28:25] is, "I want three squirrels to come out [28:27] on that limb, [28:29] and I want to hit each one of them with [28:32] the first shot, plunk, plunk, plunk." I [28:35] think is what Dr. Freeman says. And then [28:38] Dr. Freeman says, "And with a rifle." [28:40] And now, if any of you know, that's a [28:41] really hard to do. No, that is easy to [28:44] do. That's the way most people go [28:45] squirrel [laughter] hunting. [28:47] Now, you can shoot them with a 20 gauge [28:49] shotgun, but a lot of people love to go [28:52] to the squirrel woods with a rifle. So, [28:54] Hobart telling the story is very telling [28:57] to me as a lifelong hunter. I can tell [29:00] he doesn't have a clue what he's talking [29:02] about. But anyway, here comes three [29:04] squirrels out on the limb and plonk, [29:07] plonk, plonk, he gets all three. And so, [29:10] this is Hobart's background to gifts of [29:14] the spirit. This is the way gifts of the [29:16] spirit are supposed to operate. This is [29:18] the way God speaks to people. This is [29:21] the way, you know, the gift of faith [29:23] operates, you know, in this bizarre way [29:26] for a man who, I think William Branham [29:29] probably was an experienced hunter. I [29:31] don't know. If he wasn't, you can [29:33] contradict me here in a minute, John. [29:35] But you don't I mean, you don't need God [29:38] to tell you and you don't need any help [29:40] killing squirrels. You just go out and [29:41] go squirrel hunting. You know, it's not [29:43] the gifts that we see in the Bible that [29:46] are for the church's benefit and that [29:49] are to actually help people. So, [29:52] I don't know. It's just totally amazing [29:55] to me in looking back that an adult [29:59] male, a seminary professor with an [30:02] earned doctor's degree in theology, fell [30:05] for stuff like this. It simply amazes [30:08] me. [30:09] >> I don't know if you've ever been [30:10] squirrel hunting, but there's a point in [30:12] time when you're sitting there waiting [30:14] for the squirrel. And yes, you do hunt [30:16] it with a rifle. You can't hit the dang [30:18] things with a pistol unless they're [30:19] really close to you. But you're sitting [30:22] there [clears throat] and you're waiting [30:23] and you're seeing nothing because those [30:24] things sit on the other side of the [30:26] tree. And so, you're sitting there [30:28] hoping that they don't notice you. And [30:30] you may sit there and and there comes a [30:32] point when you say, [30:34] "Okay, I'm going to give it like 10 more [30:35] seconds and then I'm going to get out of [30:36] here." And you count to 10 and then you [30:38] say, "Well, I'm going to give it another [30:40] 10." And you [30:41] Those like me who are impatient you you [30:43] just can't sit there forever. It's [30:45] boring, right? [30:46] I have [clears throat] a strong [30:47] suspicion that he was the boring type of [30:50] person. He liked the big game hunts [30:52] where he would go out and pay an [30:53] excursion team and they would take him [30:55] and you can find photos of him doing [30:57] this though they're taking these jeeps [30:59] and they say, "All right, right there is [31:01] a [31:01] >> [laughter] [31:01] >> a whole herd. You can't miss." And he's [31:04] getting these big game, right? Well, he [31:05] goes squirrel hunting and what's funny [31:07] about it is the story grows over time. [31:10] He tells the story and like anybody he's [31:13] sitting there and he says, "Oh, Lord, I [31:15] can't I can't find a squirrel today. [31:17] Please show up a have a squirrel show up [31:19] for me." And maybe one showed, maybe one [31:22] didn't. I don't know. I've I've made the [31:24] same prayer when I was out hunting cuz [31:26] you're sitting there just waiting [31:27] forever. [31:28] But the funny part is he embellished the [31:30] story and it kind of grew over time and [31:33] oddly it grew into the word of faith [31:35] movement. If you really trace the roots [31:37] of this, he's saying I can speak [31:39] squirrels into existence and he tells [31:41] the whole movement, well, now everybody [31:43] is well, we should all speak. What can [31:46] we speak next? And they start doing it. [31:48] And then Hobart embellishes it even [31:50] further and [gasps] [31:52] the things that you say are just crazy. [31:54] I'm sitting here we have pear trees out [31:56] in my front yard and the squirrels just [31:58] demolish the pears by the time the crop [32:01] [clears throat] is ready. So, I would [32:02] give anything to find a place where [32:04] there isn't a squirrel year-round. There [32:05] isn't I've lived from coast to coast. [32:08] There really isn't a place like this, [32:09] but if it exists, that's where I'll [32:11] plant my pear trees. [32:14] Have you ever wondered how the [32:16] Pentecostal movement started or how the [32:18] progression of modern Pentecostalism [32:20] transitioned through the latter rain, [32:23] charismatic, and other fringe movements [32:25] into the New Apostolic Reformation? [32:28] You can learn this and more on William [32:30] Branham Historical Research's website, [32:32] william-branham.org. [32:35] On the books page of the website, you [32:37] can find the compiled research of John [32:39] Collins, Charles Paisley, Stephen [32:41] Montgomery, John McKinnon, and others [32:44] with links to the paper, audio, and [32:47] digital versions of each book. [32:49] You can also find resources and [32:51] documentation on various people and [32:53] topics related to those movements. [32:56] If you want to contribute to the cause, [32:58] you can support the podcast by clicking [33:00] the contribute button at the top. And as [33:02] always, be sure to like and subscribe to [33:05] the audio or video version that you're [33:07] listening to or watching. On behalf of [33:09] William Branham Historical Research, we [33:11] want to thank you for your support. [33:13] >> We need to listen, John, to stories and [33:16] with discernment, right? I mean, so and [33:18] when I was 17, you know, I'm just I'm [33:21] not listening with any discernment. I [33:22] don't possess any discernment yet. I'm [33:24] just fascinated with I'm trying to learn [33:26] the Bible. You know, I want to know what [33:28] God's word said. And so, I see one of [33:30] the gifts of the spirit in 1 Corinthians [33:32] 12 is a gift of faith. Well, what is [33:33] that? Oh, well, here's what it is. You [33:36] can just name it and claim it. If you [33:37] want three squirrels to come out, just [33:39] do it. I don't know that I ever tried [33:41] it. I'm sure if I did, it didn't work [33:43] because that's not how you use the gifts [33:46] of the Holy Spirit. That's not what [33:47] they're for. And anyway, I was an [33:49] experienced squirrel hunter. I normally [33:52] didn't sit, John. I'd walk. I love to [33:54] walk through the woods. And if you can [33:55] find [33:56] a good shag bark hickory tree, that's [33:58] where you hunt in the fall because, you [34:00] know, they're going to be up in the top [34:02] cutting those nuts. And you can you're [34:04] sitting under neath the tree and [34:05] literally the pieces are falling down [34:08] like rain all around you. And because [34:11] there's still a lot of leaves on the [34:12] trees when they're cutting those [34:14] hickory nuts, you've got to [34:16] be patient until you can get a sight of [34:18] them. But speaking of when they're on [34:20] the other side of the tree, when they go [34:21] on the other side of the tree, I just [34:23] had several limbs or [34:26] you know, rocks or something beside me [34:27] and I would pitch them over on their [34:29] side of the tree and that would scare [34:31] the squirrel to come around on my side [34:33] of the tree and they were easy picking. [34:36] Um [34:37] but in listening to that, yeah, [34:40] I know it's just it's just amazing. [34:42] You know, how did someone it it [34:45] it it tells me a lot about Hobart [34:48] Freeman. There was something not right [34:50] about the man. We've already [34:52] kind of documented that regarding [34:54] healing and money. He was very poor and [34:57] he was very sick and afflicted. So, [34:59] that's why he desperately needed to [35:02] believe the word of faith movement. I [35:04] mean, he desperately needed it and held [35:07] on to his belief to the day he died and [35:11] what have we seen in earlier podcast, he [35:14] was not healed of a single solitary [35:17] thing that he had claimed, confessed, [35:19] professed for years, for 18 years he had [35:23] professed and he was not healed of a [35:25] single thing. [35:27] There's something else in the man's [35:29] mind, though, [35:31] when you consider the level of [35:34] education that he had to fall so quickly [35:38] for stuff like this. [35:40] I mean, I had to give myself some [35:42] latitude. I was 17 years old when I [35:46] heard these stories and I'm not [35:48] listening to these stories delivered [35:50] from a hillbilly from Burkesville, [35:53] Kentucky. I'm listening to these stories [35:55] delivered from someone with an earned [35:57] doctor's degree in theology that you [35:59] would [36:00] as a 17-year-old think, surely this man [36:03] knows what he's talking about. [36:05] And I think that was such a sell for Dr. [36:10] Freeman's ministry to not have been a [36:13] hillbilly, to have this education and [36:16] then still to believe all the hillbilly [36:19] stories. Because you're saying, "Wow, if [36:22] this guy who has all of this training [36:25] believes this, then surely there there [36:27] must be something to it. [36:30] And that's what was attracted to me [36:33] because what Hobart was coming along [36:35] doing, he was saying, [36:37] "You have been raised in your [36:39] denominational churches hearing what God [36:41] is not doing anymore. I'm here to tell [36:44] you what God is doing. He's healing the [36:48] sick. He's raising the dead. He's [36:50] opening blind eyes and he's bringing [36:52] three squirrels out on a limb for your [36:55] hunting pleasures. This is what God is [36:58] doing today." [37:00] So, it was very appealing. [37:02] And I guess I probably [37:05] would think, John, I have the feel that [37:09] that people in our audience are [37:12] maybe sometimes hearing us say what God [37:15] is not doing today. And I don't mean to [37:18] come across with what God is not doing, [37:20] but I surely don't want to tell people [37:22] God is doing something when he isn't. I [37:24] don't want to say he's raising the dead [37:27] left and right and people are turning [37:29] water into wine like the people down in [37:32] Indonesia claimed they were in Mel [37:34] Tari's book like a mighty wind when I [37:35] don't think those things are happening [37:37] at all. It's just not been verified. If [37:40] there is a resurrection of the dead, you [37:42] know, it's probably an occasional thing. [37:44] It's not [37:45] something that every Tom, Dick, and [37:47] Harry can just go do. And yet that's the [37:49] way it is being presented today. [37:52] And so this business of personal [37:54] prophecy, I can even share some more of [37:57] how it [37:58] affected me and [38:01] um the church that I was in. Um I was in [38:05] Memphis, Tennessee when Hobart first I [38:09] first heard of Hobart. He came there in [38:10] the spring of um 1976. [38:14] And then we just happened my little band [38:17] of fellow teenage um [38:20] charismatic former Presbyterian church [38:23] member believers. [38:24] Uh we were just we just happened to find [38:27] a church there in Memphis. It was on [38:29] Sweeney Road, sat right beside uh [38:32] Memphis International Airport. And it [38:34] was pastored by a man, I don't think [38:36] he's even alive anymore, pastored by a [38:38] man named Ken Hall. So and maybe we will [38:41] talk in the future when we can have time [38:44] to talk about the ministers that came [38:47] out of Faith Assembly, the satellite [38:49] outreaches that church had, and then [38:51] what happened post Dr. Freeman's death. [38:55] But this was somewhat of a satellite [38:57] church. Um I would put satellite in [39:00] quotation marks because he did not carry [39:02] Dr. Freeman's tapes on his table in the [39:05] back of the church or anything like [39:07] that. But he was a pastor there. [39:10] Uh if I remember correctly, he had [39:13] at least a master's degree from a [39:15] Southern Baptist Seminary, I think down [39:18] in New Orleans, a Baptist Seminary in um [39:20] Louisiana. Poor guy couldn't teach a [39:23] lick. Um [39:25] he he would go to passages in the Bible [39:27] that were miracle stories. He loved to [39:29] talk about David and the mulberry trees. [39:31] When you hear the rustling in the [39:33] mulberry trees, the Lord is with you. [39:36] And you know, we're trying to figure out [39:38] yeah, that's a wonderful [39:41] biblical story and miraculous biblical [39:44] story, but how do [39:46] how do I fit that into my life? You [39:49] know, what does that mean? So you're [39:50] literally thinking, do I need to hear I [39:53] don't First of all, I don't have any [39:54] mulberry trees in my yard. But secondly, [39:57] am I supposed to listen to the rustling [39:59] in any leaves? I don't even know why you [40:01] would continue to teach on that because [40:03] he wasn't trying to show a miraculous [40:05] thing that happened in the life of [40:06] David. He's trying, you know, to teach [40:09] us that we need to have miracles in our [40:11] life. And so the reason I bring this man [40:14] and his church up is because he had, [40:17] I'll never forget, two [40:20] particular ministers come to his church [40:24] and I was a member of that church at [40:26] that time. I was probably 18 or maybe 19 [40:29] years old. [40:31] One man's name was Roger Teale. [40:34] He was a prophet from England. [40:37] And I've never been able to discover any [40:39] other things about Roger Teale since [40:41] then, but the other person [40:45] is someone you can easily go online, I [40:47] don't think he's alive anymore, and read [40:50] all about him. His name was Stanley [40:52] Rankin, r a n k i n, and he was a [40:56] prophet. [40:58] Both of these are prophets, you know, [40:59] personal prophecy, remember? He was a [41:01] prophet from San Antonio, Texas. [41:04] And what both of these men did in a [41:07] satellite [41:09] Faith Assembly influence, Hobart Freeman [41:13] influence church, what both of these men [41:16] would do [41:17] is they they didn't teach, they didn't [41:20] preach because they're prophets. And [41:21] what do prophets do? Prophets don't [41:23] teach, they don't preach, not according [41:25] to them anyway, they prophesy. [41:28] So, a long line would form up in the [41:31] front of the church and you would go [41:33] through Roger Teale, then Stanley Rankin [41:36] at another date. They they were not [41:37] connected at all, would lay hands on [41:39] your head [41:41] and prophesy and do what? And give you a [41:44] personal prophecy. [41:46] What they always said is a word from the [41:49] Lord. And so, the minister, Ken Hall, [41:52] who was a pastor of this church, he [41:54] would advertise on Christian radio. [41:56] There was a Christian radio station out [41:58] in Collierville because I believe the [42:00] manager of that Christian radio station, [42:02] he and his wife, were members of Ken [42:05] Hall's church here in Memphis. So, you [42:07] put out all this advertisement and our [42:10] little [clears throat] church, which was [42:11] really small, I mean it was less than I [42:14] don't know, 40 people, maybe less than [42:16] 30 people. Our little church would swell [42:20] because of this advertisement. So, [42:22] you've got people from all kinds of, you [42:24] know, Assembly of God churches, people [42:27] that would normally go to your Full [42:29] Gospel Business Men's Fellowship [42:31] International meetings. They would see, [42:33] "Oh, Prophet Stanley Rankin from San [42:35] Antonio is going to be at this church." [42:38] So, your your the population the inside [42:41] the four church walls would swell [42:45] and all of these people are there to [42:48] stand in line and to get a word from the [42:51] Lord. [42:52] And [42:54] and I went through the line myself. I [42:56] don't remember being in Stanley's line, [42:58] but I probably was. But, I remember [43:00] being in Roger Teale. He was this tall, [43:03] skinny. He reminds me in thinking back [43:06] of um [43:08] uh of Ichabod Crane in um The Headless [43:12] Horseman. He just reminds me of that [43:15] kind of He was bent over, long crooked [43:18] nose, uh tall, slender fellow. But, he [43:21] was a British prophet. So, he laid hands [43:24] on and I don't remember all of what he [43:27] said to me. I remember some of it. [43:30] The reason I'm mentioning this is I [43:32] think these things, John, probably still [43:35] occur today. [43:37] Um [43:39] and [43:40] they can influence you if you don't [43:42] watch out, not only then and the [43:44] decisions you make in your life, but [43:46] sometimes these little these little [43:48] episodes can influence you for the rest [43:51] of your life and it's not the way it [43:53] should be. We should have our Bible in [43:56] our hands. We should be [43:59] sitting before ministers who are [44:01] teaching us exegetically, they're [44:03] expounding expositionally [44:06] on what God's word says, what the author [44:09] meant, what the original recipients, how [44:12] they took the message, that's the [44:14] meaning of the text. Whatever the author [44:16] meant and whatever the original [44:18] recipients understood it to mean, that's [44:21] the meaning. That's never the meaning [44:23] today. The meaning is something personal [44:26] for us. [44:27] And so I look at Hobart influenced by [44:31] by Anna Schradar prophesying to him, he [44:34] goes on to give personal prophecies to [44:36] other. [44:37] That tells everyone that this is okay. [44:41] So then I'm a part of a church who has a [44:43] minister who's influenced by Hobart, who [44:46] invites in two prophets who don't teach [44:48] or preach, but who run people like a [44:51] herd of cattle [44:53] through a a personal prophecy line and [44:56] then we all receive these personal [44:58] prophecies and then what are we supposed [45:00] to do with these words that we have [45:02] received? [45:03] >> You know, usually I focus on the [45:04] minister during the podcast because [45:06] they're usually the one who is [45:08] manipulating the crowd and that is the [45:10] case with personal prophecy. [45:12] But I want to focus a bit on the people [45:15] because there's another issue here that [45:17] not many people think about and that is [45:20] the people who get involved with this [45:22] kind of thing, these personal [45:23] prophecies. [45:24] There [clears throat] is a concept in [45:25] business called monopoly [45:27] and years ago there used to be one phone [45:30] company and as the rates increased, [45:32] increased, increased, eventually the [45:34] government stepped in and said, "Okay, [45:35] you need some friendly competition to [45:37] keep keep prices low. We all need the [45:40] telephone, right?" So there there is [45:42] this situation where you have to have [45:45] business enterprises that are in [45:47] competition to keep everybody happy. [45:50] But the government tries to separate [45:51] itself from religion [45:53] and in religion it's kind of weird [45:56] because the types of people that get so [45:59] caught up in this and go continuously to [46:01] hear their personal prophecies are the [46:03] same types of people that would also go [46:06] continuously to the fortune teller down [46:09] the street and see what the crystal ball [46:11] says about their future. [46:13] They get so caught up in is my business [46:15] going to succeed? Is my marriage going [46:17] to succeed? Will this boyfriend work out [46:19] or should I ditch him and go to this [46:21] other boyfriend? And they get so caught [46:22] up in it that their mind is more focused [46:25] on the unknown future than it is the [46:27] Bible. [46:28] And at the same time, the ministers are [46:31] telling them, "You're not allowed to go [46:33] to that fortune teller. That fortune [46:34] teller is bringing Satan into your mind [46:37] and your body, your soul. They rob your [46:40] souls. Come to our fortune telling [46:42] instead." That's really what they're [46:44] doing because these personal prophecies [46:47] there's yes yes, there are some that are [46:49] probably not fortune telling, but I [46:51] would say the vast majority of them are [46:53] people who are coming because they want [46:54] to know their future. [46:56] And what good fortune teller who is [46:58] standing behind a pulpit and talks to [47:00] you in private is not going to tell you [47:01] your future if that's what they paid to [47:03] come see. So, they end up doing it. And [47:06] here's the problem. [47:07] None of them are prophets. [47:09] >> [laughter] [47:09] >> So, what they say fails. They picked the [47:12] wrong card or they their crystal ball [47:15] was just a little bit smoky when they [47:16] were up there [47:17] >> [laughter] [47:18] >> and it fails. So, what happens is the [47:20] person comes back, that prophecy wasn't [47:22] right. Oh, but sister, you have sin in [47:25] your life, don't you? You did the wrong [47:27] thing and God took it back. [47:30] >> [laughter] [47:31] >> They will do whatever it takes to [47:32] reinterpret the meaning of whatever it [47:35] was that they said that they pulled [47:36] straight out of their butt. I've used [47:38] that phrase too much now, I think, [47:39] straight out of their butt, but that's [47:40] really what these people are doing and [47:43] they're calling it God. So, whenever I [47:45] hear these personal prophecies, I think [47:47] about the minister, but I also think [47:49] about the people [47:51] because I was in the same movement and I [47:53] never wanted to know my future. I felt [47:56] like if I knew my future, and I'd read [47:59] enough science fiction books to know [48:00] that that's a bad idea. But if you know [48:02] your future, you're going to make [48:04] decisions that you wouldn't otherwise [48:06] make to try to enhance or avoid some of [48:10] that future. So, it changes your life [48:13] leading up to that future, and it can [48:15] destroy your life. And time and time [48:17] again, you read books or watch movies [48:19] about this. So, I never wanted it, but I [48:21] had friends who did. And now, you can [48:24] listen to the Our Stories podcast that I [48:26] do, the series on Friday. You can hear [48:28] person after person after person with [48:30] personal prophecies that failed, and the [48:33] minister just put it back on the [48:35] shoulders and said, "This is your [48:36] fault." [48:37] >> And we can end right there. You stole [48:39] every bit of my thunder. [48:41] >> [laughter] [48:42] >> But I But I love it. And I was going to [48:44] say, John, it's the minister's fault for [48:47] for [clears throat] being the clowns on [48:48] stage, and it's, you know, it's our [48:50] fault. It's the people's fault for, you [48:53] know, wanting to to um submit to this, [48:56] to participate in it. Again, I was 18 or [48:59] 19 years old, and um [49:02] you just don't have the critical [49:04] thinking skills then. You know, my [49:06] minister was not that good of a [49:08] minister, Ken Hall, but I couldn't move [49:11] to Indiana, so I knew he had gotten the [49:14] message, {quote} {unquote}, from Hobart. [49:16] So, you know, second hand, good enough [49:18] for me. [49:19] Um but yeah, [49:21] I I mean, I would never go through any [49:24] line for personal prophecy now. But [49:26] yeah, I went, you know, right up to the [49:28] line, you know, and uncertain, [49:31] you know, you know enough about the [49:33] Bible to know I don't see any these [49:35] kinds of situations in the Bible. [49:39] You know, I don't see prayer lines, [49:40] number one, where you just line up and [49:42] the minister slaps his sweaty hand on [49:45] your sweaty forehead. But even worse [49:48] than that, I don't see people lining up [49:50] for personal prophecy. It's just not in [49:52] the Bible. But, you just don't think. [49:55] You just go ahead and participate in it. [49:58] But, yes, what I was going to say is [49:59] just what you said. [50:01] The reason that the membership in the [50:04] church would swell when these people [50:06] would come is people are seeking not [50:09] knowledge of the Bible. [50:11] They're seeking a word from a fortune [50:13] teller. Absolutely. There is no There is [50:16] no difference. None. Except one calls [50:19] himself a minister and the other calls [50:22] herself a medium. The But, there is no [50:24] difference. You are trying to predict [50:27] something about this person. So, it [50:29] There is no difference in my mind in [50:32] going to a fortune teller, going to um [50:36] have your [50:37] tarot cards read, going to some little [50:40] smoky, dark room's place where someone's [50:44] going to read a crystal ball for you. [50:47] And these clowns on stage will oblige [50:52] the people [50:54] who are coming through the line. You [50:55] know, it is So, it does remind me of [50:58] what Jesus said, not in this context, [51:01] but when he said, "It is the blind [51:05] who are leaders of the blind." [51:08] And [51:10] I'm sure, even though I'm not immersed [51:12] in NAR at all, I know very little about [51:16] it cuz I have no interest in that. I'm I [51:17] would much rather study serious biblical [51:21] literature and the Bible itself than be [51:24] a part of that. But, I'm sure that this [51:27] is a big deal still out there today [51:30] where you go for a personal prophecy and [51:34] direction for your life is given. [51:37] Um advice is followed [51:40] often times with disastrous results. I [51:44] mean, you can make life-altering [51:46] decisions through personal prophecy. And [51:49] it's not always a minister, [51:52] you know, I've I've seen and heard of [51:54] too many cases where some brother or [51:57] some sister in the body, [52:00] the Lord's given them a word for you. [52:02] And they'll say, I mean, it's always [52:04] baptized in this terminology, "The Lord [52:08] has given me a word for you. Do you want [52:12] to receive it?" And as I said earlier in [52:14] this podcast, who would say, "No, I [52:17] don't want any word from God. I don't [52:19] want to hear from God. I reject all [52:21] words from God." No, no one no one would [52:24] say that. So, they've already couched it [52:26] in such a way, what are you supposed to [52:28] say? You know, "No, I don't want to hear [52:31] from God." So, the person says, "Yes." I [52:33] mean, what you should say is, "Look, I [52:35] don't trust you as having a word from [52:38] God, and I'll listen to the Lord myself. [52:40] So, so no, thank you. I will pass on [52:43] that word from the Lord." Um [52:46] look at [52:47] according to what has been published, [52:50] and it's all over the internet, what [52:52] happened with the fall of Mike Bickle [52:55] and the Kansas City situation there. Uh [52:58] according to what I have heard, I'm not [53:00] privy to any of this information first [53:02] hand, but the women [53:04] that Mike Bickle allegedly preyed on, [53:07] they have come out and done [53:10] um their own interviews, [53:12] and Mike Bickle, and this is just [53:14] standard fare, John. This is just [53:16] run-of-the-mill. This is the way you do [53:18] it. [53:19] He would have a word, and so I think a [53:21] word to one of these women was, "Mm my [53:24] the Lord has shown me that my wife, I [53:27] believe his wife's name is Diane, and [53:29] this is all public knowledge. It's on [53:31] other YouTube videos. [53:33] The Lord [clears throat] has shown me [53:34] that my wife, Diane, is going to die, [53:38] and you are going to be my new wife." [53:41] >> [laughter] [53:42] >> Well, what, you know, woman probably [53:44] half Diane's age, what young woman would [53:48] would not want to hear that if you're a [53:50] part of [53:52] um this intercessory prayer movement [53:56] that's going to going to reshape and [53:58] redefine the whole globe, Mike Bickle is [54:02] at the um head of that, and you will get [54:05] to be Mike Bickle's wife. Who wouldn't [54:07] want to hear that? Now, that's an [54:08] extreme example, for sure, but still, [54:12] that is an example of how these people [54:15] will manipulate. And you're so right, [54:17] John, once a word has been given, then [54:19] the person for the next few weeks, [54:21] months, maybe years, tries to figure out [54:25] what they need to do to make that come [54:28] to pass or why it simply failed and it [54:32] didn't come to pass. And then you are [54:33] also exactly right. If you ever go back [54:36] to the minister, well, I didn't tell you [54:40] that it had 17 conditions on it here. I [54:42] just gave you the word, and here are the [54:44] 17 conditions. He waits to see whether [54:47] it ever happened. And sometimes a word [54:49] is kind of vague. You know, it's kind of [54:50] it's kind of like going to Panda Express [54:52] and getting a fortune cookie and [54:54] cracking it open and reading the little [54:55] thing. It says, "Probably one day next [54:58] week uh something good will happen to [55:00] you." Well, it probably will. Or it [55:02] might say something bad will happen, and [55:04] that will probably happen, too, because [55:05] that's just the way life is. Some weeks [55:07] have some good things and some bad [55:09] things. It's no different than that. [55:12] It's no different than [55:14] reading something from a a fortune [55:17] cookie. [55:18] And I would just caution people, not [55:20] caution, I'm just tell them flat out, [55:22] throw all of that stuff away. Every [55:24] single bit of that is garbage. [55:27] Um don't go get personal prophecies for [55:30] from anyone, and don't give personal [55:33] prophecies to anyone. Just read your own [55:36] Bible and [55:38] pulling other people to the Bible. [55:40] >> I was thinking as you were talking, [55:42] I used to go [clears throat] out to eat [55:43] with this guy and we'd go to Chinese [55:45] restaurant and he'd open up his fortune [55:46] cookie and he'd always make a joke and [55:48] his funniest one I think was he said, [55:50] "May the flies of a thousand cattle [55:52] infest your armpits." [55:54] And [55:54] >> [laughter] [55:54] >> we went to this one Chinese restaurant [55:57] and I opened up my fortune and I kid you [55:59] not, it said, "You are going to have a [56:01] really bad day." [56:03] And it was the worst day. When I left [56:06] there, from the moment I left that [56:07] restaurant, [laughter] for the whole [56:09] rest of the day, every single thing that [56:11] I touched went wrong, everything that I [56:13] did went wrong. [56:15] And I've thought about that over the [56:16] years. The fortune teller, the fortune [56:19] cookie that I got, is more accurate than [56:21] most of these people who are fortune [56:23] telling from behind the pulpit. [56:25] >> [laughter] [56:25] >> And I got it, it didn't cost me but $7, [56:28] it was a lunch rate fee [56:30] >> [laughter] [56:30] >> at the Chinese restaurant. If you want [56:32] something that's more accurate, you [56:33] might can go to the Chinese restaurant [56:35] and get a fortune cookie. But these guys [56:37] that are using it for manipulation, like [56:39] you mentioned the example, [56:41] there are other [clears throat] people [56:43] and you listen to the story on Fridays, [56:44] you can hear person after person after [56:46] person. They're all saying the same [56:48] thing. They're either falling into [56:50] depression after all of this comes to [56:52] pass that they they realize that the guy [56:55] on the stage was just manipulating them. [56:57] Nothing that they said was real and I it [56:59] suddenly hit me, "Oh my gosh, none of [57:00] this is real." [57:02] They lose their faith. They have [57:04] Maybe they were given a {quote} word of [57:08] the Lord that told them to go invest or [57:10] told them to do this, that, or the other [57:12] and they suddenly found themselves in [57:14] financial hardships, broken [57:16] relationships. [57:19] I will say this, the moment any [57:21] minister, I don't care who it is, what [57:22] they're talking about, the moment they [57:24] get into a relationship between a young [57:26] man and a young woman, they have crossed [57:28] a boundary into I will never set foot in [57:31] that church again. And I've always been [57:33] that way. If you do that, you are so [57:35] wrong. But there are people who will do [57:37] that and they'll get with the wrong [57:39] person and suddenly the course of their [57:41] entire life has been ruined just because [57:43] one guy wanted a little bit more money [57:45] in his pocket. So, in the end, this is a [57:48] harmful thing. This is not a good thing [57:50] and I think that if you want if you want [57:53] fortune telling, you probably instead [57:56] need to get counseling. [57:57] Get [laughter] out of that mindset [57:59] because none of it works. Even the [58:00] fortune cookie that I mentioned, it's [58:02] not a good thing. So, thank you so much [58:04] for doing this. [58:06] >> Thanks for having me, John. [58:08] >> Well, if you've enjoyed our show and you [58:09] want more information, you can check us [58:10] out on the web. You can find us at [58:11] william-branham.org. [58:13] For more about the dark side of the New [58:15] Apostolic Reformation, you can read [58:16] Weaponized Religion from Christian [58:18] Identity to the NAR, available on [58:20] Amazon, Kindle, and Audible. [music] [58:31] >> [music] [58:36] [music] [58:43] [music] [58:53] [music] [59:12] [music] [59:21] [music] [59:31] >> Hey.  📄 **Full text:** [[Full Document Contents/Articles/The Danger of Personal Prophecy Chino Ross Podcast Episode 660.md|The Danger of Personal Prophecy | Chino Ross | Podcast Episode 660 by YouTube]] ## Highlights - that he taught against it, yet his ministry was based upon it, and he himself frequently practiced it. So, the only thing I could figure is, well, maybe ministers are an exception. You know, maybe rank and file members in the church are not allowed to give or receive personal prophecy, but since Anna Shradar was a prophetess, {quote} {unquote}, and ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01ky2nyjp13zrbx68kb7b4g33a)) - Note: The internal contradiction being examined: teaching against personal prophecy while building a ministry on it. - Tags: atom/literature/h2 - was doing it under this anointing. And so, what do you ask for? What is that thought? He said that I decree that three and this is out of squirrel season, three gray squirrels come out on that limb and that I hit everyone with the first shot with this rifle. Do you ever shoot squirrels with a rifle? That's a pretty good trick even without the anointing. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01ky2nys71xzhvg7r1e0s41ec2)) - Note: A concrete anecdote used to critique "decree and declare" prophecy — the squirrel-hunting claim. - Tags: atom/literature/h3 - were up there >> [laughter] >> and it fails. So, what happens is the person comes back, that prophecy wasn't right. Oh, but sister, you have sin in your life, don't you? You did the wrong thing and God took it back. >> [laughter] >> They will do whatever it takes to reinterpret the meaning of whatever it was that they said that they pulled straight out of their butt. I've used ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01ky2nycvzg70dyd3pnmjn5t6t)) - Note: The unfalsifiability mechanism: failed prophecy is blamed on the recipient's "sin," so it can never be wrong. - Tags: atom/literature/h1