Bro Richard Gan - Testimony

Friends and Bible Believers,

I am setting up this website to bring about an awareness of the Apostolic Teachings of God which was once delivered to the saints of old.  Because of the lateness of the hour there have been many discussions promoted on the Net regarding the soon return of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ — as to when and how He will come. However, we need to be aware that unless we, as believers and worshippers, are true to God's Revelation as written in His Word, we might even miss that blessed hope and find ourselves in the time of the great tribulation that is soon to come upon the world. This new millennium must certainly be the Lord's. Prophetic signs point to His Return, perhaps within the first decade. [The first and second decades have passed. O, how long will He tarry to take His Bride away?]

The churches today are so organized and even commercialized that many Christian people do not know the Word of God.  I have personally known many Christians who do not even know the basic fundamental teachings of the Word. Basic fundamental truths are only what they had gathered from their church creeds and dogmas.  They have never grown in the faith and in the Word even after attending church services for several years.

Many times I have been told that doctrines only separate Christian people. Well, this is true only when love and understanding are lacking in the Christians, after all when a Baptist presents his doctrines to a Lutheran, or a Charismatic presents his teachings to a Presbyterian, they are bound to argue and debate.  God's Word is what we live on and the Apostolic teachings are our foundations of the Faith. [Click here for ourStatement of Faith.]

There are some 30,000 or more denominations, sects and groups in the Christian World and each one claims to have the Truth.  We know that is just not true. Jesus once asked this question: "When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?"  So then, what is Truth? What is Faith? [Read the message SPEAK THE WORD!]

There has been a good response to this website since it was put up in September 1998. With the first two messages — the doctrine of THE ORIGINAL SIN and the doctrine of THE SERPENT SEED (two doctrines which are practically lost to the denominational churches) — we have since added many others.

Though I am a firm believer of the Spoken Word Ministry and Message of William M. Branham, I am not a Branhamite. I do not agree with the many teachings taught by many of his followers whom the organized churches have given the name Branhamites. William Branham did not create the Branhamites nor did he bring about Branhamism. Those foolish followers did when they failed to hearken to his simple admonition to: "Come back to the Original! Back to Pentecost! Back to the Apostolic Fathers' Faith! Back to the Absolute, the Word of God, the Holy Scripture!" Branham's Absolute is the Holy Bible.  But to his followers it is Branham's words on magnetic tapes. Some of those followers have called Branham – Lord Branham Christ – and are even baptizing converts into his name.

Also, I am aghast at the many articles written against William Branham that are posted on the Internet by the Trinitarians and so-called Apostolic.  Most of these writers have no true knowledge of Branham's teachings. They blamed Branham for all the confusions and false teachings, publishing only what they have gathered from the Branhamites who, in the first place, are in error. (Talk about the blind leading the blind.) Read this article: BRANHAMISM — How Some Christians View & Distort Branham's Teachings.

Feel free to email me your comment or question. I sincerely believe that a Truth Seeker and True Worshipper will find the Truth and the Spirit of God in His Word.

May God bless you.

Richard l. s. Gan (1948-2023)

February 1999

 

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MY CALL TO THE WALL
by Richard Gan

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For a long time I have resisted putting my testimony in print or recording it on magnetic tape. I have my reasons, but God has finally dealt with me and invalidated them. A minister has to declare and make known his calling so that the Bible believers may identify the works of God in his ministry. Therefore, I am going to give a little testimony of how God has dealt with my life and my calling to the ministry.

I am the firstborn of six children. My father emigrated from China to Singapore at a very young age. Several years after he married his first wife, he married my mother, who was then a nominal Presbyterian. My father is not a Christian. His father was, so he told me. When I was very young, my mother used to talk to me, and the younger ones, about Jesus Christ. I attended Sunday School at a nearby Baptist church. My father was strongly opposed to my attendance. He hated Christianity because of what the “red-hair d——” (Caucasians) had done to his country, China, before Chairman Mao came into power.

In 1960, at the age of twelve, I was converted. I felt a tremendous change in my life as the Holy Spirit touched me. But during my secondary school years, the foolishness of the world and the ugliness of people hurt me, and I backslid for about two years. Of course, looking back now, I realized it was my own foolishness. However, during those years, I did not deny my Lord. Then one day, He worked a miracle for me to return to Him. A sinner friend of mine came up to me and said, “Richard, I have never been to a church, and I've always wanted to go to one.” And I thought to myself that I would go with him to church the following week. I said, “Well, let's go this coming Sunday.”

So, the following Sunday, knowing a little about what the Lord was doing in the Pentecostal Movement, I took him to an Assembly of God church. We were about half an hour late when we got to the church. The singing had just ended. We sat on a pew which was about 3 rows from the back. The preacher, who was an American Chinese, began to preach. It was a message especially prepared by the Lord just for me. You better believe it. It was entitled 'Prodigal Son, Come Home.'

The church hall was built in the shape of the letter T, and the 3rd row from the back was near the base of the letter T. Every time the preacher pointed a finger in a direction — left, right, front or back — to emphasize his message, I could see a very large finger pointing straight at me saying, “Prodigal son, come home.”  That happened many times during the sermon. I was totally oblivious to all the people in the congregation. The Spirit was speaking, my heart was crying, and tears were welling up in my eyes. Kneeling at the altar with my friend, I broke down and repented of my sins and backsliding.  I was unaware of the congregation leaving and only got up from pouring out my heart to the Lord, long after the minute hand of the clock had swept twice around its face.

Not long after that I was baptized, in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, of course. The Lord began to work in my life. I began to spend a lot of time with the Bible, and I started a little ministry of teaching and praying in the church. One day I decided to fast and pray to seek the Lord for His direction in my life. I did that for a week or so. The Presence of the Lord was so real. He showed me that I would have a ministry that would edify and establish Christians in the Word. Being untrained, and having a Pentecostal denominational mind, I thought of the need to be trained in a Theological School. I was a little scared, being only 20 years old then, and my parents being poor, I had wondered how to go about it. Like Jeremiah, the Lord said, “Do not say, 'I am a child': for you shall go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command you you shall speak. Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.”  Of course, I knew nothing about the "Pillar of Fire" at that time.

 

THE MESSAGE CAME

And of course, the pastors began to keep an eye on me. To them, being on fire for God was good, but anything beyond the church traditions was bad. Prophesying and prophetic teaching were fine until the 'Evening Time Message' came to me. Being a Pentecostal, I was privileged to have access to some Pentecostal magazines (such as Voice of Healing and The Full Gospel Business Men's Voice) from which I learned about the ministry of William Branham. But I didn't know that he had a special message. (I came to realize later that the pastors had kept away some books of William Branham from the church library.)

I was leading a Bible Study group in the A.o.G. Church. One evening, in the middle of the year 1971, a young member of the group showed up only after we had ended our session on the Book of Revelation. He related how he was distracted by some gospel singing in a community hall whilst on his way to the Bible class. He went there instead and found a preacher from New Zealand preaching that the denominational churches had deviated from the Truth and were in errors. When the preaching was over, he was given two books. He showed me the books. One of them was entitled 'The Exposition of the Seven Church Ages'. The name William Marrion Branham was on the cover of the book. I had several times mentioned that name to the class. I felt disturbed. I had always propagated the A.o.G. faith. I was proud to be a member of the system. But, then, for the first time, my A.o.G. denominational standing was being challenged. Still, in my heart, I said, “There must be truth, if William Branham was a man of God.”

The young man showed no interest in the books, and said that I could have them. It was God Who had sent him to get the books for me. When I reached home, although it was late in the night, I opened the 'Seven Church Ages' book and began to read. When I came to the statement, which read, “Three distinct persons, though identical substance, make three gods, or language has lost its meaning entirely”, it shook me because I was taught a Holy Trinity and I was believing in a Triune God. I had often prayed to three different persons, and I had expected to see three Gods in Heaven. I closed the book, and I talked to God and said, “Lord, what am I believing in?”  And this scripture rang in my ear, “Ye worship ye know not what.”

I told the Lord that I would not read the rest of the book because I needed to know the truth, and I was going to get it directly from Him. For a whole month, I fasted, on and off, and studied the Word. I was then working as a male nurse in a psychiatric hospital. I had to work different shifts. I re-studied the various portions of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation with the expectation that God would give me a real understanding of the Scriptures. Believe me, God revealed to me that there was but only one God in the various scriptures where the Trinitarians taught three. For example, God showed me that the three men who visited Abraham were Elohim Himself with the two Archangels, Michael and Gabriel — not Father, Son and Holy Spirit as taught by the Trinitarians. Then, God showed me that I should be re-baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ because Father, Son and Holy Spirit were titles and not the Name(s) of God.

As I began to know more of the Eternal God, during that period of study, I also received the revelation that there was no such a thing as an eternal hell where souls of people would be burnt forever and not burnt up. The revelation was confirmed when I realized that there was only one form of true life — God's life. Anything outside of the Spirit of God has no life, no existence.

When I went back to reading the 'Seven Church Ages' book, I discovered that Bro. Branham taught the very same things God had revealed to me. The pastor of the first Endtime Message church here, in Singapore, believed that it was impossible for me to receive those revelations directly from God without first reading William Branham's books. I told him that revelation of God's Word would come only from God, and not from Bro. Branham or any man of God, past or present. A man of God may teach a truth he has received from God, but it is the Lord Himself Who imparts the revelation to the hearer who could receive what the Spirit says. Today, there are many believers, just like that pastor, who obtusely insist that only Branham's teachings can impart the revelation of truth. Such are the notions of the Branhamites.

 

A PROPHECY

Very soon after that, I left the A.o.G church. Leaving with me were six young men. We gathered together in my home regularly on Sundays and, as often as we could, on certain weekdays. We had much difficulty in gathering together as a group for worship and fellowship because some of us had to work on Sundays and some were holding jobs with shift duties. It was a struggle for us to meet as a group. I will never forget the first prophecy that the Lord gave us at one of our meetings during that period of time. It is etched in my mind and heart and I can still remember it very clearly today.

"Hearken unto Me, saith the Lord. Your gathering together in this manner is not of your own doing. I have caused it to be. I have called you out that I might have a people. I have set thee for a ministry to raise up a standard in this part of the world for a blessing to my people."

 

THE PERIODICAL

God put in my heart to start a ministry and print a little periodical. I needed a hand-crank mimeograph machine. Our tithes and offerings did not amount to much. Still, I went ahead and called up a company which sold mimeograph machines. A salesman came and told me that, if I bought the machine on hire-purchase, I would have to make an initial payment of 20 per cent of the sale price and installment payments of S$100 every subsequent month. I told him that I didn't have that kind of money. He sized me up for awhile, then asked what I could sincerely offer to buy the machine. I said that I could only make an initial payment of S$100 and monthly payments of S$60. Of course, that would take twice as long a period to pay for the machine, and that plan didn't fit the company's policy. Finally, he asked what I was going to print. I told him that I was going to print the Gospel. He smiled at me and told me that I could have the machine.

So, I paid S$100 and got a brand new mimeograph machine with several free tubes of duplicating ink and a few reams of paper. Our little group printed 500 copies of our first periodical in November 1971. We called it 'The Spoken Word'. It contained some Gospel messages, testimonies, prophetic news and a short message by William Branham. We sent them out to people whose names we had gathered from Christian magazines. Soon, we received some little offerings, and we printed more copies. (In 1974, the same pastor of the first local Endtime Message church accused me of trying to confuse people about the Message of Bro. Branham because of the name of my periodical. William Branham's sermon books are printed under the title 'The Spoken Word'. I had not expected such an accusation to arise from the use of the same name for my periodical. Still, God had His will in this, as I looked back. There had been too much talk about 'The Spoken Word', 'Endtime Message', 'Evening Light', 'Malachi 4', etc., and hardly any prophetic revelation of the truth to which the Prophet-messenger has brought us back. So, in March 1974, 'Prophetic Revelation' was adopted as the new name of our present ministry. A sign was given to me, several days later, as a confirmation of the right choice of the new name when an article entitled “What is prophetic revelation?” appeared in the local newspaper.)

As the Lord blessed the ministry, we were able to afford better models of the mimeograph machine. We had upgraded from a hand-crank machine to a fully automatic one in the second year. As we began to have more work, the periodical had to be printed on a bi-monthly interval, and later quarterly interval, so that more time could be spent on my overseas ministry. We collated the pages, folded, stapled and cut them, all with our own hands. From the initial printing of 500 copies per issue we gradually increased the printing to 1,000, 1,500 and then 2,000 copies. Now, we are printing 5,000 copies per issue with some reprints at 10,000 copies. Besides the periodicals, we have also printed several tracts. By 1988, we began page-making by computer and sending the finished layout of the message to a commercial printing company to print the books. A total of no less than half a million pieces of literature have been printed. To date, with no more than 30 local believers supporting this ministry, we have distributed nearly a million pieces of our books and other Gospel literature to many places around the world.

 

NIGHT VISIONS

There were many difficulties during the early days of the ministry. By the end of 1976, our little group decided to team up with a small group of believers who had left the first local Endtime Message church. (Whatever reasons which caused them to leave that church are better left unsaid here. For even my fellowship and I had not been spared the antipathy, defamation, resentment, hostility, etc., from that church.) I had earlier brought the Message to the believer who headed this small group, but he and his family had chosen to fellowship with that first local Endtime Message church.

Our fellowship with this small group lasted for about 2 years. In the first year, there was a good move of God's Spirit among the believers. But the familiar spirits of the first local Endtime Message church soon began to manifest themselves in the assembly. Problems emerged, disharmony mounted, and conflicts set in. During that period, my wife (whom I married in 1974) and I had a little mishap while riding a motorcycle. Though I had peace deep within me in spite of the incident, I became burdened and frustrated with the seemingly endless fight with the destructive spirits of the Adversary of God during the week after the mishap. That was when I had a dream. This happened on the night of 30th April 1977. (It wasn't my first spiritual dream. I had one, in June 1975, on the Coming of Christ. It prophetically revealed that a small number of believers would make it for the Rapture because of the falling away from the faith. The Lord appeared to me in that dream and answered a very personal question which had been on my mind. Bro. Branham was identified in that dream, too.)

That very night I was feeling very restless, I was worked up, I was angry with everything and everyone, even my good wife. I questioned God about myself and my ministry — was it just my own desire? Or something that I did not know of? I walked up and down the staircase in my house with many thoughts flooding my mind. Then I went to pray, and said, “Lord, I want an answer, somehow.”

Near midnight, I went to bed. Then, I found myself walking among ruins of large white marbled structure. There were partially broken walls, and piles of broken stones. There were fractured pillars standing here and there. I was looking at the broken floor structure as if searching for something — something of great price, a pearl, a jewel, or… Seeing a broken pillar, which had fallen and was lying across the centre of the ruins, I sat down and continued to gaze at the cracked up floor structure of the building, searching, but I found nothing.

Then the vision changed. I heard a voice call my name, and I found myself going forward to a rostrum (or podium) to receive my 'first prize'. When I was standing before the rostrum, the 'second prize' and 'third prize' winners came forward almost immediately. (The rostrum is like the one used in the Olympics games. Facing the viewers, the first position is on the centre stand, the second position is on its right, and the third position is on its left.) I looked at them. The 'third' position winner just stood there. There was nothing unusual about him. But, when I turned to look at the 'second' position winner on my right, I immediately recognized him as a mental patient in the psychiatric hospital where I was still working, as a male nurse, at that time. He was one of my patients, but I couldn't remember his real name, for in the dream he possessed a strange name that clouded my mind. I just could not figure why he was there. He knew who I was. Perplexity heightened as he began to look at me with a mischievous grin. I could sense that he was up to no good.

Then the Angelic Announcer, who was in a distance up in the air, in front of me, began to make his announcement. He was dressed in radiant white and bathed in bright orb of shining light.  Between the Announcer and the rostrum, where I stood with the other two persons, there was a throng of people facing the Announcer. They stood up, raised their voices and asked him, of me, “For what (was he called to that top position for the ”first prize")?!  Just before the announcement, I quickly made my way up the rostrum to take my position on the top, but not without difficulty. The insane man, on my right, was trying hard to shove me from taking my position. But, I was very resolute and with some difficulties, firmly planted my feet on the top position. Straightaway the Announcer made the proclamation, in answer to the question which the throng of people had asked: “For the restoration of the foundation!”

I woke up and began to ponder. Then three Scripture verses immediately came to my mind — Acts 13:1; Ephesians 2:20; Titus 1:5. These are the verses that pointed to my calling of the ministry that God had earlier shown me. There were two questions, in my mind, about the dream. What was I looking at, and searching for, on the floor of the ruined structure? And, who was that loony person, known to me in real life yet had a different name? I sought the Lord for the answers, and was shown the interpretations of the visions.

Looking, and yet not seeing, searching, but not finding it — that precious 'something' was the foundation in the beautiful white marbled structure that was in ruins. That is the pearl of great price, so to speak. The foundation was there, yet not there because it was broken. As regards the lunatic man, who tried to push me away from my position — my ministry, my placing, my calling — he represents the many trouble-makers, confused and mixed-up people, and those who walk disorderly, who seek to destroy the ministry that God has ordained me to do. Up till that time, he had clouded my mind and confused me as to what constituted the ABSOLUTE WORD of God. I realized then that I had to fight a good fight, and press on and overcome the 'loony atmosphere' in the Endtime Message Movement. God has reaffirmed my prophetic teaching ministry, and has called me, as an apostle, to the work of 'restoring' the apostolic foundation.  (This call to the ministry was made known to me, back in the months of February and March 1969, when the presence of the Lord came and revealed it during a period of my fasting. Being an A.o.G. member, I did not understand the calling at that time.)  I knew I would have to travel when the time came for me to do so. I was still working as a male nurse at that time. So, I just recorded the dream and the interpretations in my Bible and awaited the fulfillments.

 

CONFIRMATION

Following a prophetic warning from God, our little group broke off fellowship with the other group, in early 1979. That fellowship then ceased to exist, in fulfillment of the prophecy. By that time, there were about twenty of us in our group. The following year, a small group of believers, also from the first church, came to join our fellowship. But, after a year, they left our fellowship. They alleged that our fellowship was under a Nicolaitane spirit because I was the pastor. The leader of that group was influenced by the wrong teachings of an American minister who believed in a Fourfold Ministry with a committee of elected Elders (Pastors who were also Teachers) overseeing the local churches.

In November 1980, a minister from California, U.S.A., by the name of Ernest Hawtin, visited Singapore. He was one of the two Hawtin brothers who were the leaders of the Latter Rain Movement in Canada in the mid 20th Century. He had no knowledge, at that time, that I was shepherding an assembly. I had dropped by his church in Oakland, California, in July 1980, during a service. I was then on my way home, with my family, after attending a convention in Bro. Raymond Jackson's assembly in Jeffersonville, Indiana. During that meeting with him, he had given me a word of knowledge that God had a work for me to do. I had not said anything about myself to him. We were total strangers and were meeting each other for the first time. When he visited Singapore, he ministered to our little church for three nights. On the third night, as he ministered, he began to discern the people in the church. Then he turned around, to where I was sitting at the side, and pointed at me and said, “Brother Gan, you have an apostolic ministry. The time is come for you to move.”

I sat there with my face as white as a sheet. I had put a 'fleece' before the Lord that He might show me when I should hand in my letter of resignation to my employer and embark on a full time ministry. So, when that word of knowledge was given by the Spirit of the Lord, I knew that was my answer from God. November passed, and I put a few more 'fleeces' before the Lord, and He again gave me the answers. In January 1981 (I was 33 years old), I tendered my resignation and took my overdue vacation. And, two months later, at the end of March, I began my first overseas 'missionary' trip — to India.

So, since that time, I have travelled to various places as the Lord led me. As truly as the vision had shown, in nearly all the assemblies the Lord has led me to minister, I could see either broken foundation or no proper foundation at all of the Word of God. All they had were the statements/quotes of William Branham, and/or some misinterpreted doctrines from his sermons. Many believers were confused, and the churches were divided. Truly, “if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psa.11:3). In restoring the foundation, my work was to set in order the things that were lacking in these churches, and to show them what the Apostolic Fathers' faith truly was that Brother Branham had preached about. It was not easy, and it is not any easier, because the spirits of 'Branhamism' and 'proselytizing', brought about by many of the BIG ministers of America, Canada and Europe, have become the foundations of many Endtime Message churches.

 

TO WHOM I AM SENT

I may not be an apostle to some people, but I am surely one to those true believers, who would receive me, for they are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord (cf. 1 Cor.9:2). There are other apostles and other ministers who have their respective works to do; I respect them and hold them in high esteem. But, there are some who would judge my teachings by another minister's. It's to their shame that they are showing up their own immaturity. If you have to judge anyone, judge him by the Word of God. Indeed. And don't bug him just because he is yellow or black. There are always those who will 'butt' at the Truth that they hear, and foolishly announce, “Brother Branham was vindicated. Who is Richard Gan?”  Truly, I am a nobody but a watchman on the wall of New Jerusalem. I am not disobedient to the heavenly vision. I am resolved to do the work that I have been commissioned to do, to keep watch over the sacred things of God, for “his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot” (Jer.20:9b NIV). I have received, therefore I speak. I will not jettison what I have in God for some kudos, fame or fortune. Amen. The Lord Jesus has not failed to bless my ministry all this time. For, when He first called me, I made a covenant with Him, so to speak, that if He would provide ten faithful godly Word-loving believers to support the cause, I would do the ministry.

May God bless you.  Richard l. s. Gan (1948-2023)

 

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Email us:

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zoel.gan@propheticrevelation.net

henry.gan@propheticrevelation.net

prasanna@propheticrevelation.net

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