I’ve posted some snippets from Bruce Wilson’s piece, “Weird Theology in Wasilla: A Look Inside Sarah Palin's Pentecostal Church” but if you haven’t read his entire article see it here:


http://www.alternet.org/election08/97939/weird_theology_in_wasilla%3A_a_look_...


After I read Wilson's piece, I did a little digging around and found another layer to the Palin church story. Wilson mentions the prophecies of William Branham as being the inspiration of the Third Wave movement that Palin’s Wasilla Assembly of God Church and its pastor, Ed Kalnins, embrace:

“The pastor, Ed Kalnins, and Masters Commission students have traveled to South Carolina to participate in a "prophetic conference" at Morningstar Ministries, one of the major ministries of the Third Wave movement... “The Third Wave is a revival of the theology of the Latter Rain tent revivals of the 1950s and 1960s led by William Branham and others. It is based on the idea that in the end times there will be an outpouring of supernatural powers on a group of Christians that will take authority over the existing church and the world. The believing Christians of the world will be reorganized under the Fivefold Ministry and the church restructured under the authority of Prophets and Apostles and others anointed by God. The young generation will form "Joel's Army" to rise up and battle evil and retake the earth for God.”

There can be no question that Sarah Palin’s church believes in the endtimes. And what is significant about Palin and the William Branham connection are the endtime prophecies that he made throughout his career. Particularly, one of seven he made in 1933:

Vision Six: “Then there arose in the United States a most beautiful woman clothed in splendor, and great power was given to her. She was lovely of feature but there was a hardness about her that defied descriiption. Beautiful as she was, she was yet cruel, wicked and cunning. She dominated the land with her authority, she had complete power over the people.” Same Branham vision, different time and place: “And remember, THUS SAITH THE LORD there will be a woman rule before the end time. She'll either be President, Vice President, or it'll be the Catholic church as a woman. I've seen her: A great woman, the nation bowed to her. It'll be one before the end time. THUS SAITH THE LORD. Write it down and find out, you young people. See if it happens. If it isn't, I'm a false prophet.”

Of course, many endtimers believed that woman, would be Hillary Clinto but guess what! Looks like it might well be Sarah Palin! This may make many endtimers happy, but for those of us not so inclined, it’s more than a little disturbing. Are you ready for the end times?

I’ll leave you with this discomforting thought, Branham’s seventh vision of 1933: The voice bade him look once more. As he turned and beheld, a great explosion rent the entire land, and left the land of America a smoldering, chaotic ruin. As far as the eye could see there was naught but craters, smoking piles of debris, and no humanity in sight. The vision then faded away.

Deva