The Promise Of A Prophet In The Last Days

The very last words written in the Old Testament give this promise: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” (Mal 4:5-6)

The great and dreadful day of the Lord has yet to come, so we should sincerely look for the prophet Elijah. In the Bible, the prophets did not come to the mainstream religious organizations. They came to a select few. Imagine if the prophet of Malachi 4 came, and he was missed. What if he is like the prophets of old, and only a handful of people recognize him? If this prophet is to return in the last day, how will we know him? The answer is plainly seen in the Scriptures. He will have the nature of a prophet. He will know the secrets of the heart. He will perform miracles. The religious organizations will attempt to discredit him. But there will be a chosen few that recognize him as the promised messenger for the day.

How will we know when Elijah returns? What characteristics will he display so we can recognize him?

Elijah was a man of the wilderness. Great signs and wonders followed his ministry. He preached against the evils of his day. He especially preached against the immorality of Queen Jezebel. When Elijah was taken up to Heaven in a chariot of fire, his spirit fell upon Elisha. Great signs and wonders then marked Elisha’s ministry, and he also preached against the sins of the world. Both prophets stood alone against the religious organizations of that day. Hundreds of years later, the same spirit returned to the earth in John the Baptist. The prophet Malachi predicted that Elijah would return to introduce the Lord: “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me...” (Malachi 3:1). John the Baptist was true to form as he called for repentance among the children of God. Like Elijah, he preached against the king and the modern religious organizations. The Lord Jesus confirmed that John the Baptist was the prophet of Malachi 3 in the Book of Matthew (11:10): “For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.” Luke 1:17 says that the spirit of Elijah (Elias) was to be in John the Baptist, “And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.” But notice that the second part of Malachi 4 had yet to be fulfilled: “…and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” That part of the Scripture will come to pass before the Second Coming of Christ.

Two thousand years after John the Baptist, it is again time for the spirit of Elijah to return to earth.

That day has come! In this age, we have seen the spirit of Elijah return. He defied the modern denominational system. He stood against the sins of the world. He showed innumerable signs and wonders. He preached the Bible word-for-word from Genesis to Revelation. The prophet of Malachi 4 came as promised, and he brought a Message from the Throne of the Almighty God. That prophet’s name is William Marrion Branham. We call him “Brother Branham.”

“William Branham, whom I loved and believed to be a prophet of God.”

Oral Roberts, world-renowned evangelist and founder of Oral Roberts University.

“William Branham came our way as the prophet of God and showed us in the twentieth century precisely the same things that were shown us in the Gospels…. God has visited His people, for a great prophet has risen up among us.”

Dr. T.L. Osborn, Pentecostal evangelist and accomplished author

“Before praying for a person, he would give accurate details concerning the person’s ailments, and also details of their lives - their hometown, activities, actions - even way back in their childhood. Branham never once made a mistake with the word of knowledge in all the years I was with him. That covers, in my case, thousands of instances.”

Ern Baxter, evangelist, manager for Branham Campaigns for seven years, and one of the original leaders of the British New Church Movement.

Not since the Lord Jesus Christ walked the earth has a man affected the world in such a profound way. From a humble beginning in a one-room cabin in the hills of Kentucky, to Amarillo, Texas, where the Lord took him Home, his life was continuously marked by supernatural events. At the direction of the Angel of the Lord in 1946, Brother Branham’s ministry produced a spark that ignited a period of great healing revivals that swept across America and around the world. To this day, he is acknowledged by Christian historians as the “father” and “pacesetter” of the 1950’s healing revival that transformed the Pentecostal Church and ultimately gave rise to the Charismatic movement, which today influences nearly every Protestant denomination. However, true to form, the denominations discount his teachings and deny his commission.

Wherever he went, God proved that Brother Branham is the prophet to this generation. Like Job, the Lord talked to him in a whirlwind. Like Moses, the Pillar of Fire was seen leading him. Like Micaiah, he was reviled by the clergy. Like Elijah, he was a man of the wilderness. Like Jeremiah, he was commissioned by an Angel. Like Daniel, he saw visions of the future. Like the Lord Jesus, he knew the secrets of the heart. And like Paul, he healed the sick.

The Lord has again visited His people through a prophet. In the darkest time in history, where morality has sunk to depths never before seen and weapons of mass destruction loom on the horizon, a humble man was sent from the presence of God to call a dying race to repentance.

The beloved disciple John wrote about the Lord Jesus:

And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. (John 21:25).

The same can be said about the life of Brother Branham. There are more than 1,200 taped sermons with thousands of stories about the life of this gallant man. Yet we continuously hear new testimonies of his influence on the lives of millions of people. This booklet could never scratch the surface of the impact this man of God had on the world.