The Devil's Stirrups - William Branham's Joke Theology
- 2 years ago
In July of 1951, William Branham made an insulting joke about what he claimed to have been a Duchess who came to one of his tent revivals to meet him in Miami. According to his version of the story, the lady asked to speak with him, and he was not very excited to see her. The subject matter of the story that he used in his sermon if summed up in a single sentence, was this: "The lady was excited to see William Branham, so she came to greet him, but she was not dressed according to American custom, so he decided to insult her and she left."
The story had no moral substance beyond that; Branham’s insults were the focal point of the story. He made insulting comments about her eyeglasses and the way she held them, her custom of greeting him, and her earrings. He said that the “devil had rode her all over hell” using her neck for a saddle and the earrings for stirrups, simply because her customs were different than his.
Over time this joke — meant nothing more than to be insulting — turned into a doctrine and it spread through the revivals. Both Branham and his peers began calling earrings "the devil’s stirrups" and women who wore them the devil’s horse. Because the "revealed word" was believed to be superior to the "written word"[2] in the revivals, and many of the ministers had never been through proper ministerial training — some of them had not even studied their Bibles, the doctrine was widely adopted even among non-pentecostal groups.
Interestingly, Ezekiel 16:10-14 describes God adorning Jerusalem as his symbolic bride, and described what God called “perfect”: Bracelets, neck chains, a jewel on the forehead, and earrings on the ears. Also interesting is that the interlinear version uses Strongs #639 to describe the rings, and the original Hebrew also included a nose ring. The King James version omits that part of the translation, while newer versions such as the ESV include the nose rings.
You can learn this and more on william-branham.org
Piercings and Jewelry:
https://william-branham.org/site/research/topics/piercings_and_jewelry
Ezekiel 16:12 Interlinear:
https://biblehub.com/interlinear/ezekiel/16-12.htm
The story had no moral substance beyond that; Branham’s insults were the focal point of the story. He made insulting comments about her eyeglasses and the way she held them, her custom of greeting him, and her earrings. He said that the “devil had rode her all over hell” using her neck for a saddle and the earrings for stirrups, simply because her customs were different than his.
Over time this joke — meant nothing more than to be insulting — turned into a doctrine and it spread through the revivals. Both Branham and his peers began calling earrings "the devil’s stirrups" and women who wore them the devil’s horse. Because the "revealed word" was believed to be superior to the "written word"[2] in the revivals, and many of the ministers had never been through proper ministerial training — some of them had not even studied their Bibles, the doctrine was widely adopted even among non-pentecostal groups.
Interestingly, Ezekiel 16:10-14 describes God adorning Jerusalem as his symbolic bride, and described what God called “perfect”: Bracelets, neck chains, a jewel on the forehead, and earrings on the ears. Also interesting is that the interlinear version uses Strongs #639 to describe the rings, and the original Hebrew also included a nose ring. The King James version omits that part of the translation, while newer versions such as the ESV include the nose rings.
You can learn this and more on william-branham.org
Piercings and Jewelry:
https://william-branham.org/site/research/topics/piercings_and_jewelry
Ezekiel 16:12 Interlinear:
https://biblehub.com/interlinear/ezekiel/16-12.htm