I will now spend some time in responding to the tribute John Collins gave and that Rod and Jeremy Bergen so heartily thanked him for. I will place a statement made by Collins within double arrows: >><<
>>One of the founding fathers of the Message, the religious following of William Marrion Branham, has passed on to the other side.<<
That alone should be all we need to hear to know that Pearry Green was not a friend of Jesus Christ or His Church.
>>It was not until we read the "tribute" on Voice of God Recordings website, branham.org, that we decided to break our silence. Not to speak on behalf of those who have made their exit from this religious following, but to speak on behalf of Pearry Green. Mr. Green deserves a REAL tribute, not the few little paragraphs we find on Voice of God Recordings website.<<
John Collins professes to be a born again believer in Jesus Christ. Pearry Green was a false teacher who promoted a false prophet who called the doctrine of God, "of the devil." What place does a Christian have in deciding that a prominent false teacher "deserves a REAL tribute"?
>>But shocking to those of you who have left the religious following of William Branham, I am going to make an attempt at a proper eulogy.<<
I'm not shocked, knowing that John Collins never abandoned his view that Message believers are fellow Christians, even though they reject essential Christian doctrine. How does a Christian give a "proper eulogy" to a false teacher who hated the Jesus Christ of the Bible?
>>I am going to do so with the assumption that Mr. Green believed in what he said, respecting the fallen as I would any other person who devoted his entire life to something that he believed in -- regardless of whether or not I, myself, believed in it or the eternal consequences of that belief system.<<
One wonders if John Collins would have done a similar eulogy for Joseph Smith, Margaret Sanger, or Karl Marx. They had belief systems they devoted their lives to.
>>Pearry Green was much, much more than simply a "man who setup a telephone hookup" as branham.org's article would have you believe. And it was not only a "telephone hookup" that he established for the churches that followed William Branham during his life. How many are aware that he also had a "TELEVISION hookup?"<<
What a gallant endeavor--to make the false teachings of a false prophet accessable to thousands more than those who attended his meetings. To spread a wider net for those who would embrace his damnable heresies and be lost in the torments of hell forever. What a man!
>>Pearry Green worked very hard to spread William Branham's "message to a lost and dying world."<<
In doing so, Pearry Green worked very hard to add to those who were lost and dying in the world.
>>In 1964, he sponsored a series of meetings in Beaumont, Texas, inviting William Branham to speak for the crowds to hear what he truly felt was the new Gospel, or the "Spoken Word" for our day.<<
The biblical term for this "new Gospel" is "different gospel." (2 Corinthians 11:4; Galatians 1:6) The apostle Paul warned the Church against such false gospels in very serious terms. And John Collins is praising a false teacher for working so hard to make this false gospel available to as many people as he could.
>>In the 1964 sermon, "God Is Identified By His Characteristics," Green worked very hard in sponsoring and organizing the meeting, actively participating in the proceedings, and working closely with William Branham to convert Christians into what would later become "The Message."<<
Pearry Green worked so hard to convert Christians into Message believers. Gotta love him for that! Really?!
>>Peary Green eventually relocated to Tucson, Arizona, through what he believed to be a leading from the Holy Spirit. He was instrumental in establishing the following in Arizona, through the tabernacle that he would pastor until the day of his death.<<
Pearry Green would often say that one of his main reasons for starting Tucson Tabernacle was to provide a place where he could talk about Brother Branham as much as he wanted to and not have to apologize for it. I know countless people who weren't in the Message who, after a visit to the Tabernacle, would complain that all they heard was "Brother Branham said this, Brother Branham said that," and that Jesus Christ was hardly ever mentioned.
>>Though, I'm sure that if you asked Pearry Green at any time in his life, William Branham was the pastor while he was just a minister pointing others to Christ through William Branham's teaching. Branham himself recognized this.<<
I have no idea on what basis Collins would say such a thing. Maybe PG did consider WMB the true pastor of Tucson Tabernacle, but I never heard it, and it certainly wouldn't be biblical that an itinerant speaker who rarely visited a particular church could be the pastor of the sheep of that congregation. This reminds me of something else PG would say, usually on his tours to Sabino Canyon. He would look over Tucson from the spot where "the King's Sword" allegedly appeared in WMB's hand one day and say, "Most of that city down there doesn't know it, but I'm their pastor."
>>Books were published, such as "Acts of the Prophet," which detail the life and times of William Branham according to Branham's many recorded stories and his personal experiences with William Branham. Whether Voice of God Recordings wants to believe it or not, this religious following would not be what it is today without Pearry Green.<<
What a man! Where would the world be without the Message? Thanks to Pearry Green for keeping it going strong!
Speaking of his book, "The Acts of the Prophet," Pearry Green is known to have revised this book at least twice. The first time he did was to remove the lies that WMB told about the Cloud of February 1963 after I had begun a campaign to inform dozens of leaders in the Message (including Billy Paul Branham and his sister, Rebekah Branham-Smith) and a majority of families who I attended Tucson Tabernacle with about the lie. In his work, "The Acts of a Prophet," PG actually plagiarized portions of my own Website, as well as an article of Rebekah Smith's. I wrote him to protest his dishonesty but he never responded.
>>It likely would have imploded after David Mamalis' book entitled "1977" detailed Branham's predictions that did not succeed in the year that the book described.<<
I think he's referring to the booklet called, "...by 1977," which is actually nothing more than a compilation of WMB's quotes about the year 1977. It was published by Spoken Word Publications, which was part of what is now Voice of God Recordings, Inc.
>>I take issue with Voice of God Recordings limited celebration of the work that Pearry Green did for them. Not only because this is not much of a tribute to such a big name in the Message, but because of the statement that branham.org is making here. The best thing they can say in tribute is that he setup a "telephone hookup?" Really???<<
I take issue with a professing Christian like John Collins feeling like he needs to celebrate the work of a major false teacher. And what was PG's work? To subvert the gospel. And that's what John Collins wants to celebrate. Unbelievable.
>>If this TRULY were a message sent to a lost and dying world, would not his spreading of that message to that lost and dying world be the greatest tribute to his life?<<
Look up the word tribute in the dictionary. I don't see how a Christian can offer a tribute to someone for spreading a message of death to a world that's already lost and dying.
>>But I am willing, for just this moment in time, to pay respect to a man who devoted his life to spreading the new gospel that he believed in.<<
This is a professing Christian paying respect to a man for devoting his life to spreading a false gospel.
>>I pray that God will recognize his devotion to what he believed, and that he truly did find his place in the loving arms of the Savior who died for all men.<<
First of all, it does no good to pray for a person after he's dead. Second, Collins prays not that God will reward PG for repenting of his sins and trusting in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of his sins and the gift of eternal life. No, he prays that Jesus will receive Him into His loving arms for his devotion to spreading a lie which he believed was the truth.
And so ends this moving tribute to a man who is responsible for the lost lives of thousands of people worldwide who put their faith in William Branham and his Message instead of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And what did Jeremy and Rod Bergen of "Believe the Sign" have to say about Collins' tribute?:
"I want to thank John Collins for the tribute to Pearry Green that he wrote. . . Although I disagreed strongly with his beliefs, Pearry Green was a man that I respected and he will be missed."
BTS later went on to "like" a comment on their FB page which expressed elation that Pearry Green was now "in glory."
"Believe the Sign" and "Seek the Truth" are probably the two most influential anti-Message Websites online. But they are far from being Gospel driven, theologically sound ministries, as can be seen by their moving tribute to one of the biggest false teachers of our day.