People ask questions, God answers by His Word

Answer: I brought the two brochures “Twentieth Century Prophet” and “ The Laodicean Church Age” and also the book “An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages” back from the USA in April 1966. Being under the impression that Brother Branham was the author of that book, I translated it and published 10,000 copies in the German language. Then I found out that the small, 48-page booklet “Laodicean Church Age” is in its entirety, from the first to the last word, found in the Church Age Book, pgs. 319-365. Later I noticed that there were many discrepancies between the original sermons preached by Brother Branham and the contents of the Church Age Book. There are even a number of unscriptural teachings in that book which Brother Branham never preached. It states, for instance, that people who were not born again would receive eternal life because they had extended some kindness to the brethren. This is absolutely contrary to 1. Jn. 5:11-12, “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”

Another example is the inconceivable statement about the tree of life and the tree of knowledge, “… thus the righteous one and the wicked one stood side by side there in the midst of the garden … and no doubt their very branches intertwined each other.” (pgs. 92‑98)! The book does not even differentiate between Mt. 25, from verse 31, when the nations will be gathered and judged, which takes place before the millennial reign, and then the white throne judgement of Rev. 20, from verse 11, when the last judgement takes place after the Millennium. I refuse to deal with the various points that are not rightly presented in the said book. I beseech everyone to use the original messages.

When inquiring about it, I was informed that Bro. Lee Vayle was actually the author of the Church Age Book. Brother Branham specifically said that he personally had never read it. On February 17^th, 1965, in his message “Running from the presence of the Lord”, pg. 6, he stated, “And then the seven Church Ages … I think, our precious Brother must have picked up a little extra inspiration somehow, and he said, he was going to write a couple of books of his own off of them like. And so he wrote one called, I believe, “The twentieth century prophet” and another “Laodicean Church”, I believe, or something like that … I have never read it myself. If I’d read them I might change my mind about that.”

Since some of the teachings therein cannot be reconciled with the Holy Scriptures, I must suggest that it should only be used for the historical background, but not as an authority for teaching purposes.