William M. Branham

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William Marrion Branham (April 6, 1909, Kentucky - 1965) was an influential Bible minister sometimes credited with founding the Latter Rain Movement within American Pentecostal churches, elements of which are present in most modern Pentecostal and Charismatic churches. Some consider him a false prophet who taught heretical doctrines, although many view him as a true prophet.

Branham is considered by many to have initiated the faith healing movement that began in 1947. Other sub groups in the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements where partially influenced by Branham, including the Latter Rain Movement, Manifest Sons of God, and Kingdom Now theology. His ministry had effects felt around the world, and it fostered a number of other ministers who became internationally known.

Contents

Early life, conversion, and ordination

Although Branham's life story was a common feature of his recorded sermons, the significant discrepancies between the various accounts and additional information, makes much of his life story far from certain. Branham was born in a log cabin in the Kentucky hills, the first of nine children of Charles and Ella Branham, and was raised near Jeffersonville, Indiana. Branham's father was an illiterate alcoholic, and his upbringing was difficult and impoverished. From his early childhood Branham claimed to have supernatural experiences including prophetic visions. He claimed that on at least one occasion during his teenage years he was approached by an astrologer telling him that he was born under a special sign and prophesied a important ministry for him. Branham's family was nominally Roman Catholic however he claimed that he had minimal contact with Christianity during his childhood. Branham also claimed to have had a career as a 'prize fighter' boxer winning 52 fights, however no confirmation of this has been found and it is difficult to fit this into the other events of his life. Branham reported a conversion experience in the late 1920s, and was later ordained as a assistant pastor at a 'Missionary Baptist Church' in Jeffersonville. When the church burned down Branham took over the congregation which initially met in a tent and a Masonic temple until a building was constructed in 1933. This was originally named the ‘First Pentecostal Baptist’ church (Jeffersonville Evening News, 10 June 1933) but later became known as 'Branham Tabernacle'. Over this period Branham claimed to continue experiencing prophetic visions and other supernatural events. In 1936 Branham was invited to preach at a Oneness Pentecostal convention and received invitations to minister at various Oneness churches. Branham claimed that he was initially pressured by his mother-in-law not to accept these invitations and that this resulted in a number of tragedies (including the death of his first wife and daughter).

Successful public ministry

The late 1930s and early 1940s was usually a blank patch in Branham's accounts of his life story. Typically his story would resume in May 1946 when he broke from daily life to seek God and establish the meaning of his life. At this point he subsequently reported that he had received an angelic commissioning which began a public ministry of evangelism and faith healing. From accounts from Branhams family it is evident that Branham had been conducting healing campaigns at least as early as 1941 when he conducted a two week 'revival' in Milltown. (At Totten’s Ford, Believers News, April 1998) and his 1945 tract 'I Was Not Disobedient Unto the Heavenly Vision' shows that his public healing ministry was well established by this time.

During the mid 1940s Branham was conducting healing campaigns almost exclusively with Oneness Pentecostal groups. The broadening of Branham's ministry to the wider Pentecostal community came as a result of his introduction to Gordon Lindsay in 1947, who soon became his primary manager and promoter. Around this time several other prominant Pentecostals joined his ministry team including Ern Baxter and F.F. Bosworth. Gordon Lindsay proved to be a able publicist for Branham, founding The Voice of Healing magazine in 1948 which was originally aimed at reporting on Branham's healing campaigns.

His early work in faith healing attracted attention, and as stories began to spread of his healing gift, local pastors came to ask Branham to minister to their congregations and pray for the sick. When local churches could not accommodate the crowds, Branham's meetings were moved to larger auditoriums or stadiums for united campaigns in major cities in North America.

In June 1947, the Evening Sun newspaper of Jonesboro, Arkansas reported that "Residents of at least 25 States and Mexico have visited Jonesboro since Rev. Branham opened the camp meeting, June 1st. The total attendance for the services is likely to surpass the 20,000 mark." His success soon took him to minister in countries around the world. According to a Pentecostal historian, "Branham filled the largest stadiums and meeting halls in the world." (please as a reference) In Durban, South Africa in 1951 he addressed meetings sponsored by the Apostolic Faith Mission, the Assemblies of God, the Pentecostal Holiness Church, and the Full Gospel Church of God. Meetings were conducted in eleven cities, with a combined attendance of a half million people. On the final day of the Durban meetings, held at the Greyville Racecourse, an estimated 45,000 people attended and thousands more were turned away at the gates. As he travelled around the world he met many individuals of public influence, including U.S. Congressman Upshaw whom Branham claimed was healed after he prayed for him. Branham also claimed that God healed King George VI of England(whom he did not meet) of multiple-scleroris through his prayers (he actually suffered from Arterio-scleroris).

From the mid 1950s onwards Branham increasingly clearly stated his preference to the 'oneness' position regarding the Godhead, and by the late 1950s he was openly denouncing the Trinity as a heresy. Also over this period a number of other doctrines which were considered to be unorthodox, such as the 'serpent's seed doctrine', became increasingly obvious in his recorded sermons.

Angelic visitations and supernatural signs

Branham and his followers claimed that supernatural signs were given to him in order to encourage people to believe. A physical sign appearing in his hand was said to indicate a disease or healing. Later on it was claimed that, secret thoughts and needs of individuals would be revealed to him. To some, it seemed that Branham was a prophet fulfilling scriptural prophecies about the end times.

Branham's claims of experience with the supernatural went back to his childhood. As a young boy he was considered "nervous" because from an early age he spoke of "visions" and "a voice" that spoke to him out of a wind, saying, "Don't ever drink, or smoke, or defile your body in any way. There will be a work for you to do when you get older." Shortly after being ordained, he was baptizing people on June 11, 1933 in the Ohio River near Jeffersonville, and he reported that a bright fiery light suddenly appeared over his head. In later accounts he reported that he heard a voice say, "As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming of Jesus Christ, so are you sent to forerun His second coming!.

Branham asserted that as he prayed alone late one night during his search for personal meaning in 1946 or 1947, an angel of light appeared, saying: : "Do not fear. I am sent from the presence of the Almighty God to tell you that your peculiar birth and misunderstood life has been to indicate that you are to take a gift of Divine healing to the peoples of the world. If you will be sincere when you pray and can get the people to believe you, nothing shall stand before your prayer, not even cancer. You will go into many parts of the earth and will pray for kings and rulers and potentates. You will preach to multitudes the world over and thousands will come to you for counsel." Branham later claimed that his successful career around the world and his meetings with world dignitaries was a fulfillment of this prophecy.

Branham's engagement with the supernatural included claims of miracles. He claimed that in 1948 God had shown him a vision of a boy being raised from the dead. He said that he related the details to his audiences and asked them to write those details down in the flyleaves of their bibles.
Image:Pillar of fire.jpg
He later claimed the vision had been fulfilled two years later during a speaking trip to Helsinki, Finland in 1950 at the scene of a street accident near Kuopio, Finland. Branham reported that a boy on a bicycle had been struck by a car and had been killed. Branham's party had come upon the scene, Branham related, and he then asked that the sheet covering the boy's body be removed, because he recognized the boy as the one he had seen in his vision. He claimed that he then prayed over the child and the child was raised from the dead.

On the night of January 24, 1950, an unusual photograph was taken during a speaking engagement in the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston, Texas. It was claimed that as Branham stood at the podium, an apparent halo of fire appeared above his head. A photograph of this phenomenon was produced, reported to be the only one of its film roll that developed an image. George J. Lacy, an investigator of questioned documents, subjected the negative to testing[1] and declared at a news conference that, "To my knowledge, this is the first time in all the world's history that a supernatural being has been photographed and scientifically vindicated." The original of the photograph is in the archives of the Religious Department of the Smithsonian Institution.

Branham's doctrines and teachings

Branham preached thousands of sermons, of which 1100 were recorded and transcribed. His sermons dealt not only with the doctrines that would secure his place in modern religious history, but with staples of Pentecostalism such as personal prophecy. Branham contended he had received seven major prophecies in 1933. When revealing them in later sermons, he claimed the first five had already come true, and he claimed that they would all be fulfilled, possibly by 1977. Though he usually claimed the 1977 date as a prediction rather than a prophecy, on other occasions he did claim "Divine inspiration" (William Branham (edited by Lee Vayle), An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p.322, 1965) for this date and claimed a vision as its origin. Significant variations in recorded versions of the '1933' prophecies however a typical list is as follows:

  1. "Franklin D. Roosevelt will run four terms and take America into a second world war.
  2. "The dictator that's now arising in Italy will come into power, Ethiopia will fall. He'll come to a shameful end.
  3. "The women has been permitted to vote. And in voting, someday they'll elect the wrong man.
  4. "Our war will be with Germany, and they will build a great big concrete place and fortify themselves in there, and the Americans will take a horrible beating.
  5. "Science will progress in such a way until they will make a car that will not have to be guided by a steering wheel, and the cars will continue to be shaped like an egg until the consummation
  6. "I saw a great woman stand up, beautiful looking, dressed in real highly royals like purple, and I got little parenthesis down here, 'She was a great ruler in the United States, perhaps the Catholic church'
  7. "I saw this United States burning like a smolder; rocks had been blowed up. And it was burning like a--a heap of fire in logs or something that just set it afire; and looked as far as I could see and she'd been blown up.[2]

In later versions of the prophecies, the prophecy concerning Roosevelt was deleted and the seven was made up by a prophecy of moral decline amongst women.

Other notable prophecies by Branham include:

  • That Los Angeles and much of California would sink beneath the sea. He said that this would be before his son Billy Paul would be an ‘old man’(Pearry Green, The Acts of the Prophet, p.119). Billy Paul was born in 1935 (his father described himself as an ‘old man’ when he was in his fifties). Branham told one group of his followers: "People will make fun of the destruction of the earthquake that we have said would happen, ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ on the west coast of America, but I want you brothers to know this, that if you have any friends or relation in Los Angeles, if I were you, I’d get them out as quickly as possible."(Pearry Green, The Acts of the Prophet, p.115) . Many of Branham’s followers did leave California including 95% of one Church (Eulogy in Memorial Service #1, Phoenix Arizona, 25 January 1966).
  • Based on a claimed vision in late 1955 Branham prophesied of a future phase in his ministry that would occur in a large tent(Why are People so Tossed About, 1 January 1956). Up until shortly before his death he was still seeking funds to buy a tent and fulfil the vision: "I want to get my own tent and my--my stuff, like the Lord gave me a vision to, and I believe the time is just now at hand. And I want to see while I'm here, why we can't get the tent" (Ashamed, 11 July 1965). A number of Branham’s followers are so convinced that this prophecy would be fulfilled that they expect that he will be physically resurrected to fulfil it.

Branham also went outside traditional Christian theology in his rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity. From the late 1940s to the early 1950s it appears that Branham did not publicly denounce the Trinity in his campaign meetings, however to his congregation in Jeffersonville he was more open regarding his preference to the 'Jesus Only' position . The avoidance of controversial doctrinal issues particularly regarding the Trinity was a stated policy of Branham's party during this period of his ministry,it being reported in 'The Voice of Healing':

Doctrines that are peculiar to one denomination, or involve thee [sic] mysteries of Divine Sovereignty, or which concern formulas of water baptism are to be avoided in the meetings, and not to be identified with it afterwards. (Branham Party News, The Voice of Healing, April 1948, p.4)

However from about 1953 onwards Branham increasingly clearly stated his preference to the 'oneness' position, and by the late 1950s onwards he was openly denouncing the Trinity as a heresy. e.g.:

The hour has approached where I can't hold still on these things no more: too close to the coming. See? "Trinitarianism is of the Devil." I say that THUS SAITH THE LORD. Look where it come from. It come from the Nicene Council when the Catholic church become in rulership. The word "trinity" is not even mentioned in the entire Book of the Bible. And as far as three Gods, that's from hell. There's one God. That's exactly right. (‘Revelations Chapter 4 Part 3, Mercy Throne’, 8 January 1961)

Frequently Branham taught a form of ‘modalism’ (sabellianism)with regard to the Godhead, claiming that there are no personal distinctions between Jesus, God the Father and the Holy Spirit and that the 'persons' of the Godhead are just God playing different roles as an actor:

The Bible said that He changed His countenance, or He changed Himself, en morphe. The word comes from the Greek word, "en morphe," which means "a Greek actor that plays many parts"; today he is one thing, in the next act he's something else. He was God the Father in one act; God the Son in another act; and He's God the Holy Ghost in this act. See? There He is; His Word is still Supreme. We're living in the last days.(‘Ashamed of Him’, 11 July 1965)

On other occasions Branham taught a form of adoptionism (also known as ‘dynamic monarchism’)claiming that Jesus was a human who became regarded as God as a result of the Holy Spirit indwelling him (in the same sense as the Holy Spirit indwells Christians, only to a greater degree) sometimes claiming that this occurred at his baptism:

All right. Father, Son, Holy Ghost, now, Father and the Holy Ghost is the self same Spirit. What is Ghost? It's the Spirit of God. And when it was, He came on the baptism of Jesus and dwelt in Him, "This is My beloved Son in Whom I'm well pleased to dwell in." He came down and dwelled in Jesus, and that made Him Emmanuel on earth.(‘Questions and Answer’, 28 June 1959)

His last years

On December 18, 1965 William Branham and his family (all except his daughter Rebekah) were returning to Jeffersonville, Indiana from Tucson, Arizona for the Christmas Holidays. About three miles east of Friona, Texas (about 70 miles southwest of Amarillo on U.S. Highway 60), just after dark a car traveling west in the eastbound lane, struck Braham's car head-on. The driver of the car was intoxicated and died at the scene as did the other front seat passenger. The other two passengers in the back seat of the car were severely injured. Braham's wife was seriously injured and his daughter Sarah was lying in the back seat also injured. Branham's left arm was mangled and caught in the driver-side door, and his left leg was wrapped around the steering wheel. After about 45 minutes Braham was extricated from his car and transported to the hospital at Friona-then later transported to the hospital at Amarillo, Texas. He lived for six days after the crash, dying on December 24, 1965 at 5:49 PM. His body was returned to Jeffersonville, Indiana for burial.

Branham's legacy and influence

Branham's popularity continued through the last years of his life. In its February 1961 issue, the Full Gospel Men's Voice (now the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International) glowed: "In Bible Days, there were men of God who were Prophets and Seers. But in all the Sacred Records, none of these had a greater ministry than that of William Branham, a Prophet and Seer of God.... Branham has been used by God, in the Name of Jesus, to raise the dead!" Branham's teachings and notoriety had a profound influence on the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. Though Branham has been dead since 1965, there are thousands around the world who regard him as a prophet, and the fulfillment of Malachi 4:5. Branham taught that the 7 churches of Revelation represented 7 church ages, each of these church ages having a messenger. He taught that the succession of messengers were: The Apostle Paul, Irenaeus, St. Martin, St. Columba, Martin Luther, and John Wesley. Branham generally did not mention who the last messenger was, but described him such that Branham's followers take as referring to himself. It may be difficult to measure Branham's influence on other evangelists in his time period, but he certainly led the way in the pioneering of tent revivals, which would lead into the era of televangelism. Branham is often mentioned as the leader or first revivalist preacher of the second wave of Pentecost that swept the country after World War Two (the first wave being Parham, Seymour, and others). Among those who began around the same time of Branham and part of the Second Wave of Pentecostalism (late 1940s to the mid 1950s) were Jack Coe, Oral Roberts, and A. A. Allen. It is interesting to note that Branham was one of the first "faith" preachers and evangelists who not only preached a latter day visitation of God’s Spirit, but also emphasized faith for healing, as did Coe, Roberts, and Allen.

External links

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