What the Prophet Really Said About Hofmann’s Painting

The Subtle Deception of the Image

Friends, I want to speak to you today about something that’s been spreading among the people who claim to believe this End-Time Message. I want you to listen closely, not with prejudice, but with a heart open to the Word of God. This is not Jesus Christ. This is not the face of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, this painting has become widespread: Displayed on websites, hung on church walls, printed in homes, and carried about as though it were sacred. Why has this image become so popular among those who are supposed to be the called-out ones of this last day? Why are they adorning their churches and identifying themselves with something that the prophet never taught nor led the Bride to do?

In this article, by the help of the Holy Spirit, we will take these claims and examine them carefully. We will test every argument of the proponents of this doctrine by the Thinking Man’s Filter, the Word of God, our Urim and Thummim. For if it is not found in the Scriptures, then it is not of God. Let the Bible speak, that we may walk in the Light of the hour and keep ourselves from every form of idolatry.

Solely Based On One's Private Interpretations

The image above is not of the mother of the harlot’s daughters. It's not taken from the organized churches of the denominational systems. No, this is a collection of pictures pulled from the public pages and websites of those who call themselves End-Time Message believers, displaying that painting of Jesus Christ by Johann Michael Ferdinand Heinrich Hofmann. And these very ones, who claim to be the called-out Bride, separated from the idolatrous harlot, are walking in error, contrary to Revelation 18:4.

How did this happen? Did God sanction it? Did the prophet ever tell His people to do such a thing? Absolutely not! This is disobedience. This article has been raised up to sift these practices through the Thinking Man’s Filter, by the infallible Word of God, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Quotations For Defense

"I’ve got it on all literature"

To defend this questionable practice, those who promote it almost always reach for the prophet’s own words.

I never did care for Sallman’s picture. I—I like Hofmann’s picture, The Head At Thirty-three, you know. And I’ve got a big picture of it, ’cause, when I seen Him in the vision that time, that’s just the way He looked. And there it was, I got it fixed so that He would be looking right at me when I was praying, in this picture.—“Testimony”, para. 148

There’s not an artist in the world could paint His picture, the characters of His face. The best I’ve ever seen is that Hofmann’s Head of Christ at Thirty-Three, I’ve got it on all literature and everything I use. That’s because that looks just like it, and so then…or pretty near, as close as it could be.—“How The Angel Came To Me, and His Commission”, para. 43

And I looked, and I thought there was something, that I might be wrong. So I—I rubbed my eyes and—and looked up again. And He was standing kind of sideways, kind of a profile of His face. And the looks of His face, which I’ve always seen in the visions, has been like Hofmann’s head of Christ at thirty. That’s the reason I have that in my house, on my literature, wherever I can put that, because that’s the way it looked, more like that. Only, He seemed to be small.—“The Seed is Not Heir With The Shuck”, para. 17

Now the morning that I left, at our home, we always had to get up, and when we would go to pray; when we’d leave, we’d take the children and all of us, stand around towards the picture of Jesus, in our front room, Hofmann’s Head of Christ at Thirty-three. And we would all gather round there, the children, and each one of them would pray for me. The wife would pray for me, and then I pray for her. Then I’d go overseas, wherever it is. And we commit ourselves to the Lord, for His service.—“His Unfailing Words Of Promise”, para. 125

For completeness, I have compiled as many quotations as possible where the prophet mentioned this painting, particularly Hofmann’s “Christ at 33”. Brother Branham clearly appreciated Hofmann’s depiction of our Lord Jesus Christ. He had seen the face of Jesus in a vision, and it so touched his heart that he hung the painting in his study, on his literature, and in everything he personally used. He even gathered his family around it to pray.

But listen closely, brothers and sisters. If you carefully read these quotations, you will notice something important: nowhere does the prophet instruct the believers to hang this painting in their home churches, nor to build altars in their homes with it, nor to parade this painting in all their activities to identify themselves with it. Nowhere. The prophet pointed always to the Word, the infallible Urim and Thummim, and never gave such directions to the Bride. To take it upon oneself to elevate this interpretation of the Message above the Word is to step into disobedience and confusion.

Nothing But Unbiblical & Unfounded

This is a dangerous error! Plainly fallacious and deceiving! These ones are twisting the prophet’s words, quote-mining him to justify their own lust for idolatry. Hear me, brothers and sisters: Nowhere, nowhere at all, did Brother Branham ever instruct these so-called believers to print this painting, sell it, buy it, or parade it around to identify themselves. The prophet never instructed such things! He always pointed us back to the Word, the Urim and Thummim, the infallible Scriptures. To take his words and turn them into a license for man-made practices is to step out of the Word of God and walk in disobedience. God calls His Bride to the Word alone, nothing else, nothing less!

Sifting It Through the Thinking Man’s Filter

"Why It's Misunderstood"

So, now, listen to every Word. Catch It. And—and if you’re taking It on tapes, or anything, then you stay right with that tape Teaching. Don’t say nothing but what that tape says. Just say just exactly what the tape says. See? Now, because, some of those things, we’re going to understand a whole lot about this now, why It’s misunderstood. See? And you be sure, just say just what the tape says. Don’t say nothing else. See? Cause, I don’t say That of my own. It’s Him that says It, you see. And so many times, confusion, people raise up and say, “Well, So-and-so said It meant so-and-so.” Just—just leave It the way It is.—“God Hiding Himself In Simplicity, Then Revealing Himself In The Same”, para. 106

And if you will not hold back from the truth, but let the Message speak to your hearts, you will see plainly that the prophet himself declared, this is not the face of Jesus Christ. No artist, no painter, can capture the glory of His countenance. This painting may come close, but it is not Him. To believe otherwise is to step into error, to follow after cults and clans, and to separate yourself from the true Bride, which walks by the Word and the Spirit.

Now if he stood here with scars, that would be a human being, that’s flesh. Anybody can impersonate that; a human being can disfigure himself. Or, maybe, we don’t know what Jesus looked like, we just got the—the—the artists’ idea, the psychology of it, what He looked like; Hofmann had one kind, Sallman another, and how many more! But how would you know Him? It would be of His Life.—“A Greater Than Solomon Is Here”, para. 187

There’s so many people have so many different ideas about Him. See, each one, as an individual, try to draw up our idea about Christ, what He was, what He looks like, and—and how the psychologists has painted the picture. Like, Hofmann’s Head of Christ at Thirty-Three, and—and Sallman and different ones, but, see, we don’t know He looked like that. So we could never understand, or what He looked like, and by just a painting of some picture.—“Christ Is Identified The Same In All Generations”, para. 57

There’s not an artist in the world could paint His picture, the characters of His face. The best I’ve ever seen is that Hofmann’s Head of Christ at Thirty-Three, I’ve got it on all literature and everything I use. That’s because that looks just like it, and so then…or pretty near, as close as it could be.—“How The Angel Came To Me, and His Commission”, para. 43

Would He look like the pictures that we see, the—the painters paint? No. That’s the psychological painting that some man had, his conception of what Christ would look like. And if we had go to by that, which one would be right? There’s Hofmann, Sallman, and how many more, all different descriptions of Him, so you’d be a bit confused what He would look like. Would He look like Hofmann’s painting of Him, or Sallman, or some of the rest of them? We don’t know. If Hofmann is right, then Sallman is wrong. See? Sallman is right, then Hofmann is wrong, and, see, you wouldn’t know what to look for.—“Jesus Christ The Same Yesterday, Today, And Forever”, para. 69

We don’t know just what He looked like. I wouldn’t know. A psychiatrist or psychology paints us a picture, but Hofmann one, and Sallman, and whoever more, but that’s just what they think about it. See? We don’t know just what He looked like.—“Sir, We Would See Jesus”, para. 129

Now, if He appeared to us in a physical body, looked just exactly like Hofmann’s Head of Christ at Thirty-three, and blood running out of His hand, and so forth, nail scars all over Him, I wouldn’t accept it. No, no. No, no. When He comes, Hisself, “Every eye shall see Him, every tongue shall confess Him; and as the lightning cometh from the East unto the West, so shall it be.” See? We don’t believe these cults and clans. We believe God is the Word.—“Spiritual Food In Due Season”, para. 167

They have stumbled, brothers and sisters! They have misunderstood the Message and committed a great offense against the Word of God because they could not simply say what the tape says. They could not leave it alone. They took the prophet’s words and mixed in their own reasoning, their own desires, their own ideas, and twisting the Message to suit themselves. The prophet gave it plain, clear, and perfect by the Spirit of God, and to tamper with it, to add to it, or to take from it, is a blunder. Oh, how many are being led astray because they refuse to bow to the Word and let the Message speak for itself!

In service of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Bro. Eric T. Cesar