WILLIAM MARRION BRANHAM (1909-1965)
William Marrion Branham was one of the most influential Bible ministers of our time, considered by many to be the initiator of healing and charismatic revival that began in 1947.
From 1947 until the time of his passing in 1965, the powerful ministry of William Branham was well known and considered unparalleled in the history of gospel meetings. The impact of the supernatural ministry of this one man was felt not only in North America, but also around the world.
Untold thousands
of verified cases of all manner of healing were manifested in the U.S.A.,
Canada, Africa, and all around the world through the prayers of William Branham.
The blind received their sight, cancer patients were made well, the maimed,
the crippled, and the halt were made fully whole. No disease stood in the
way as God proved to millions, that He is still God today, the same yesterday,
today and forever (Hebrews 13:8) in the ministry of His end-time messenger
to our age.
But most important of all, William Branham brought us an End Time Message
which restored all the loose-ends of the Bible which, even if all the Bible
schools in the world were combined, would never be able to unveil to us. These
teachings include the Mystery of the Godhead, the
Truth on Water Baptism, the Original
Sin, Predestination, the Revelation of
the Seven Seals, The New
Birth, the Mark of the Beast, Mystery
Babylon, and more... (view our home page for
the topical index). These truths were restored to the church today in
order to prepare the Bride of Jesus Christ in every nation to get ready for
the Rapture, which is the second coming of the Lord.
William
Branham said:
“Not for one moment do I bring a message to the people that they
may follow me, or join my church, or start some fellowship and organization.
I have never done that and will not do that now. I have no interest in those
things, but I do have an interest in the things of God and people, and if
I can accomplish just one thing I will be satisfied. That one thing is to
see established a true spiritual relationship between God and men, wherein
men become new creations in Christ, filled with His Spirit and live according
to His Word. I would invite, plead and warn all to hear His voice at this
time, and yield your lives completely to Him, even as I trust my heart that
I have given my all to Him. God bless you, and may His Coming rejoice your
heart.”
WITNESSES TO THE BRANHAM MINISTRY
The following are certified testimonies from well-known preachers and evangelists from around the world concerning the ministry of William marrion Branham:
JAMES MORRIS - “It was Branham, more than any other evangelist, who started the post-World War-II fundamentalist healing revival following his encounter with an angel on May 7, 1946. Word radiated in every direction that all manner of diseases and afflictions were healed instantly by the little Indiana preacher. Even cases of raising the dead were published.” (-The Preachers)
GORDON LINDSAY - “Never had we known of any preacher calling deaf, mutes and blind people to pray for, and then to see those people delivered on the spot... a ministry that was beyond any that we had before witnessed.” (-The House that the Lord Built)
TOMMY OSBORN - “ God has chosen diverse and mysterious ways to reveal Himself to His servants especially those called for dispensational purposes as was Brother Branham’s call. In short, the man we know as William Branham was sent to demonstrate God again in flesh. (-William Branham Memorial Service)
JACK MOORE - “The most gifted of all the evangelists.” (-All Thingsare Possible by David Harell, Jr.)
ORAL ROBERTS - “A humble devout man of God.” (-Healing Waters, July 1948)
F.F. BOSWORTH - “When the gift is operating, Brother Branham is the most sensitive person to the presence and working of the Holy Spirit and to spiritual realities of any person I have known.” (-A Prophet Visits South Africa)
GEORGE EKEROTH - “God called this humble man and anointed his ministry to a degree that within a few short years his name was known in the most remote jungle outstation. Wherever you would go in this world you would find that the name of this messenger has preceded you.” (-Introduction of Morris Cerullo’s Book, Wind Over the 20th Century)
DAVID EDWIN HARRELL JR. - “Most of the participants of the healing revival that erupted in 1947 looked upon Branham as its initiator. William Branham became a prophet to a generation. Night after night, before thousands of awed believers, he discerned the diseases of the sick and pronounced them healed. The power of a Branham service remains a legend unparalleled in the history of the Charismatic Movement.” (-All ThingsAre Possible)
THOMAS R. NICKEL - “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, whose photograph appears on the front cover of this issue of Full Gospel Men’s Voice. Branham has been used by God, in the Name of Jesus, to raise the dead.” (-Full Gospel Men’s Voice Magazine, February 1961)
JOSEPH MATTSON-BOZE - “Sometimes I was scared because of the deep sense of holiness that penetrated the meeting, but I never failed to see the gift of God in operation through His servant and feel the warmth of love that flowed through his ministry.” (-The Herald of Faith, February 1966)
EARLY LIFE AND CONVERSION
William
Branham was born April 6, 1909 in a log cabin in the Kentucky hills,
the first of nine children of Charles and Ella Branham. Reared near Jeffersonville,
Indiana, he knew only a life of deep poverty and hardship, his father being
alcoholic and illiterate. Compounding these circumstances, the young boy was
considered “nervous”, because from an early age he spoke of “visions”
and “a voice” which 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.”
William Branham came to know the Lord and was filled with the Holy Spirit
in 1931. From that time, the Bible became the focus of his life and Jesus
Christ the center of his very existence! He was ordained to the ministry at
the age of 23 years, in the Missionary Baptist Church in December of 1932.
VISITATIONS OF AN ANGEL
On June
11, 1933, William Branham was baptizing in the Ohio River near Jeffersonville,
Indiana, when a bright fiery light suddenly appeared over his head and a voice
spoke out, “As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming
of Jesus Christ, so are you sent to forerun His second coming!”
The next edition of the Jeffersonville Evening News reported
the incident with the subheading, “Mysterious Star Appears Over Minister
While Baptizing”.
In May of 1946, he set himself aside to seek God for the
meaning of his strange life. As he prayed alone late one night, an angel of
light appeared, saying, “Do not fear. I am sent from the presence
of 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.”
For half
an hour, this angel explained to Brother Branham about the past and told him
of his future. He explained why the ministers couldn’t recognize a gift
of God in William’s life, yet the devil could. It was the same in Jesus’
day: the religious leaders said Jesus had a devil, yet the devils at Gadara
recognized Him (Mark 3:22; John 7:20).
TWO
VINDICATED SIGNS
The angel also told Brother Branham that, even as Moses was given two signs
to prove he was sent from God (Exodus 4:1-8), so he would be given two signs
also. First, he would be able to diagnose diseases by their vibrations, which
would cause his hand to swell. If the swelling went down after he prayed upon
the person, he could say, “Thus saith the Lord, you are healed.”
The angel said that time would come when Brother Branham would be able to
discern the very secrets of men’s hearts (Heb 4:12; John 2:24-25).
Millions of people bear record that the words of the angel were fulfilled exactly (as in Acts 27:21-25). As the sign in his hand was manifested, which when seen would raise the people’s faith to be healed, his ministry grew nationwide, then worldwide. Then it came to where the Spirit of Christ would reveal to him the very thoughts of men’s hearts, reveal their needs; reveal unconfessed sins that were not cleansed by the Blood of Jesus Christ; reveal things about their lives that Brother Branham himself couldn’t possibly know. Not mindreading or psychology, but rather he would see a vision of it - the things actually enacted before his open eyes (Joel 2:28). And when he spoke under the anointing, out of hundreds of thousands of times all over the world, the words spoken to total strangers never failed to be exactly the truth. And the prophesies — of healing, of future events, small to great, thousands and thousands and thousands of times - not once was one even partly wrong! It was a literal, “THUS SAITH THE LORD!”
Over the next ten years Brother Branham circled the globe seven times, holding some of the largest meetings in history. Some 100,000 people heard him in Durban, South Africa. Seven truckloads of crutches, wheelchairs, canes, etc.. were hauled away after the healing services.
Many individuals of public influence, including Congressman Upshaw of the U.S.A. and King George VI of England, were healed as a result of his prayers.
WORLDWIDE MINISTRY
As news
spread of miraculous healings, pastors from all around began to call
Bro. William Branham to minister for their congregations and pray for the
sick. A supernatural sign had been given him for the purpose of encouraging
the people to believe.
Firstly, a physical sign in his hand would indicate a disease or healing.
Later on in his ministry the secret thoughts and needs of individuals were
revealed, resulting in faith for deliverance. It became abundantly clear to
any serious Bible reader, that William Branham was ordained a prophet to fulfill
the many scriptural prophecies concerning our time. Churches could not accommodate
the crowds, and the meetings moved to large auditoriums or stadiums for united
campaigns in the major cities of North America.
While preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Portland, Oregon, a huge, demon-possessed man strode to the platform, calling Brother Branham a fake, an imposter, a deceiver, threatening to break every bone in his body. As the man drew near to execute his threats, Brother Branham said softly, “Satan, because you have challenged the servant of God - in the Name of Jesus Christ, you shall fall at my feet.” The powerful man struggled to come nearer, but couldn’t. He sank to the floor and had to be carried out by ushers because he fell on his face in front of God’s vindicated servant.
In Bombay, India, where some 400,000 came to hear the Gospel, there was a blind beggar brought before Brother Branham for prayer. In a vision, Brother Branham saw who this beggar was, where he lived, and that he had become blind by staring at the sun, which he worshipped as God. Then Brother Branham challenged the various heathen Indian priests in turn saying, “If your god be God, then come up here at the platform and have him open this man’s eyes and we’ll fall down and worship your god.” None moved. “But if my God, the Lord Jesus Christ, be God and opens this man’s eyes, will you forsake your powerless gods and accept Jesus as your Saviour?” To this they agreed. The reason for this prophet’s fearless confidence was because he had already seen the man healed in a vision, and the these visions never failed him. When the beggar’s eyes came open that he could already see all the people in that meeting, pandemonium broke loose as those poor people strove just to touch Brother Branham to be healed.
It was in Mexico that the simple faith of a woman caused God to work a mighty miracle. The doctor wrote out a sworn statement that her baby had died at 9:00 in the morning of pneumonia, but because she had seen God give a blind man back his sight in Brother Branham’s meetings the night before, she carried her dead baby around all day, believing that if she could just get it to Brother Branham, God would raise it up. That night, where Brother Branham was having a meeting, he saw a vision of a Mexican baby being cuddled by her mother, alive. There he prayed in Jesus’ Name and laid hands on the baby. Immediately the infant began to cry and was restored back to life. The news packed the article and the doctor who issued the death certificate could not believe what had transpired.
THE PILLAR OF FIRE
The photograph at the left with the PILLAR OF FIRE above Brother Branham’s head was photographed at Houston, Texas, in January of 1950. This Light had accompanied Brother Branham since his birth in 1909. And during a 1933 baptismal service at the Ohio River at Jeffersonville, Indiana, this SUPERNATURAL BEING appeared before hundreds of people saying to him, "As John the Baptist foreran the first coming of Christ, you will forerun His second Coming." This picture is displayed today at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and was examined and certified as genuine by Mr. George Lacy, a federal examiner of Questioned Documents in the U.S., to be the only authentic documetation of the supernatural in this generation.
On February
28, 1963, over in Arizona, U.S.A., a constellation of seven angels appeared
to Reverend William Marrion Branham in the form of a ring shaped-Cloud
(left photo).
These seven angels came from the presence of God revealing to him the hidden
mysteries of the Bible which were sealed in the Book of Daniel and the Book
of Revelation yet were ordained to be unveiled at the end time. This was to
inform the people of God of the perfect will of the Father in preparation
for the oncoming millennial reign of Jesus Christ upon this earth.
It was as they left Brother Branham that they formed this mysterious cloud
which Life Magazine had featured in their May 17, 1963 issue, and Science
Magazine in their April 19, 1963 issue.
The original glossy prints reveal the full face of the Lord Jesus Christ as
the picture is viewed from the right side angle "like unto the Son
of Man, His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow"
(Rev.1:13).
SEVEN SEALED-BOOK OF REVELATIONS UNVEILED
On December
22, 1962, Brother Branham had a vision where he was standing near
Tucson, Arizona, picking a sand burr out of his pants leg, when a tremendous
explosion occured. He told this vision to his congregation in Jeffersonville,
Indiana on the 31st of December (the sermon was tape recorded). Then he moved
to Tucson, Arizona.
Over a month later, on February 28, 1963, while out hunting, he noticed a
sand burr in his trouser. As he reached to pull it off, a tremendous blast
rocked the mountainside. Looking up, he saw seven angels in the form of a
pyramid sweeping towards him, and for a time he seemed to be caught up in
their midst. These seven angels represents the Seven Messengers to the Seven
Church Ages as written in Revelations Chapter 2 and 3.
Then a voice cried out, “Go back east,” and Brother Branham knew
it was time for the opening of the mysteries of the Seven Seals in the Book
of Revelation (Daniel 12:4,8-9; Rev. 5,6 & 8) which the angels have entrusted
to him. The angels returned into the sky and formed a cloud some 50 miles
long and 30 miles wide, which was visible for hundreds of miles around.
Many pictures were taken of this peculiar Cloud, some appearing
in Life Magazine (May 17, 1963 issue); some in Science Magazine (April 19,1963
issue), along with a scientific report of how it was scientifically impossible
for such a cloud to exist. The highest clouds form at about 10 miles, but
this phenomenal cloud was 26 miles up, at which altitude water vapor does
not exist.
Brother Branham
returned to Jeffersonville, Indiana wherein for seven days, as he waited on
God, the voice of God spoke out the Pillar of Fire, revealing the exact Truth
of the Mysteries sealed up in Revelations 5 through 8; which revelation was
contrary to what everyone (including Brother Branham) had previously supposed,
yet was perfectly in line with the rest of God’s Word.
As Brother Branham preached seven consecutive nights on these Seals (March
17-24, 1963) his sermons were tape-recorded: Thus the Scripture is fulfilled
in our day saying, “But in the days of the voice of the
seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be
finished, as he hath declared to His servants the prophets”
(Rev. 10:7).
SEVEN
VISIONS OF WILLIAM BRANHAM
In the year 1933, God gave Brother Branham a continuous vision of seven major
things that must transpire before the Lord Jesus Christ would come again.
The first (1) vision was that he saw a dictator rising up
in Italy that would invade Ethiopia. He saw Mussolini and his shameful end
where the people turned on him, before it ever transpired in actual event.
The second (2) vision was shown to him by God where he saw
a young Austrian named Adolf Hitler who would gain power in Germany and would
lead the world into war, but that Germany would be defeated and Hitler would
come to a mysterious end.
In the third (3) vision, he saw three great ISM’s in
the world: Fascism, Nazism and Communism: but that the first two would be
swallowed up into the third one - Communism.
Then on the fourth (4) vision, he beheld the tremendous advances
in science that would follow World War II. He saw an automobile looking like
an egg that’s being run not by humans but by remote control.
The fifth (5) vision showed him the horrible moral decay
of the world, centering mostly around women. He saw women cutting her hair,
smoking cigarettes, drinking, wearing pants and indecent clothing. (Remember
these five things were shown to him in 1933, years before they occured).
In the sixth (6) vision, he saw a beautiful, yet cruel woman
rise in America, dominating the land with authority.
And in the last (7) vision, he saw the land of America in
smoldering ruins. As far as the eye could see there was no life, only craters
and smoking piles of debris. He also saw Los Angeles, California sank beneath
the ocean caused by a major earthquake. Then these visions faded away.
PROPHESY FULFILLED IN OUR DAY
“Surely
the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants
the prophets.” Amos 3:7
God’s pattern of dealing with His people has always included the sending
of prophets. The prophet Amos informs us that God does “nothing”
without a prophetic forerunner, and even a surface study of scriptural history
will uncover this to be exactly as stated. Seldom was there a prophet who
spoke the words of God who was not greeted with skepticism, rejection and
abuse!
CONSIDER these Scriptures on the spirit of Elijah:
MALACHI
4:5-6- "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming
of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of
the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers,
lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
Malachi 4:5 and 6 is two-fold, fulfilled in part in the ministry
of John, the Baptist. He preceded the first coming of Jesus
Christ, called the “great” day of the Lord, turning the hearts
of the fathers of the “law” to the children of the New Testament
era of “grace.”
As stated in Jamieson, Fausset & Brown Commentary on the Whole Bible,
“…John the Baptist was an Elijah in spirit (Luke 1:16,17) but
not the literal Elijah (John 1:21). This implies that John, knowing he was
referred to by Malachi 4:5, knew by inspiration that he did not exhaustively
fulfil all that is included in this prophecy: that there is a further fulfillment.
There is a prophet that will fulfill the second part of this scripture, forerun
the second coming of Christ and “turn the hearts of the children to
their fathers..” Literally, this means that there will be a ministry
that will turn the hearts of a backslidden generation back to the Word of
God and the faith of our “early church” fathers before the “dreadful
day of the Lord”, the second coming of Christ in judgment.
Again, Matthew 17:10-12 is two-fold. Firstly, “Why
then say the scribes that Elias must first come?” “…
But I say unto you, That Elias is come already and they knew him
not …” speaking of John the Baptist.
Secondly, “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias
truly shall first come, and restore all things.” Speaking of a
future forerunner to precede Christ’s second coming.
The ministry
of William Branham is the fufillment of the coming of the spirit of Elijah
that was to precede the second coming of Christ which is to "restore"
the heart so of the children banck to the teachings of the Apostolic Fathers.
The ministry of William Branham involved three distinct
stages that he referred to as “pulls”. The First
Pull: Healing. Second Pull: Prophesying. Third Pull: The opening or revealing
of the Word of God.
The ministry of Jesus Christ followed exactly the same pattern.
First Pull: multitudes flocked to hear his gracious words
and to receive His miraculous healing touch. Second Pull:
Revealed the secrets of the hearts. (John 4:17-18) Third Pull:
His “message”, the Word of God which came in strength and contrary
to the religious order of the day, caused the multitudes to leave him. “From
that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”
John. 6:66
A PROPHET IS NOT WITHOUT HONOR EXCEPT IN HIS OWN LAND
Why then is not William Branham widely acclaimed today? No true prophet
was ever accepted by the majority of people in their day. Yet a true prophet
strikes against the corruption of their day, and people don’t like to
change from their carnal ways. Only a few will know and believe, just as it
was in the days of John the Baptist.
Notice this: as long as Jesus Christ (who was the God-Prophet) was healing
the sick, multitudes swarmed to Him. But when he began to bring forth strong
doctrine, rebuking the Saducees and Pharisees (the denominations of his day),
the Bible records: “From that time many of His disciples went back
and walked no more with Him,” (John 6:48-68).
Likewise, as long as God used Brother Branham to heal the sick and afflicted,
millions followed his ministry. But when God through His prophet began to
restore the WORD, most people loved the miracles but hated the Word. Howbeit,
that the Word had to be restored before Jesus Christ could take His Bride,
for she must be a pure Word Bride, and the true meaning of the Word of God
has been so distorted down through the centuries until today; as Jesus said,
“In vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men ... making the Word of God of none effect through your traditions”
(Mark 7:6,7,13).
Think not that these things exalt a man, CHRIST ALONE IS EXALTED!
Brother Branham of himself could do nothing (John 3:27). It was Jesus
Christ performing (through a humble prophet) the same works he did when He
walked in human flesh upon this earth (Heb. 13:8). So look not at the man,
but at the Message which he brought forth, for that Message will point you
to the pure Jesus Christ, free from all denominational creeds and traditions.
Did not the apostle Paul say, “Be ye followers of me, even as I
also am of Christ,” (1 Cor. 11:1; 4:16). When you obey Paul, you
are not following a man, but the Holy Spirit speaking through him. “And
today,” as one man wrote, “this man, William Branham, has had
literally thousands of manifested vindications from God, and with his life
containing all the other factors that make up the prophetic office, he ought
to be received for what he is - he must be received for what he is. “Thus
saith the Lord” in his mouth by the Holy Ghost, is absolutely no
different from the “Thus saith the Lord” in the mouth of Paul,
for it is the same Holy Ghost.”
But would you have recognized Paul had you lived in his day? Or if you had
lived in the days of Noah? Or Elijah? or Jeremiah? Would you have recognized
them as prophets and heeded their Message? How about if you had lived in a
remote part of Palestine and heard reports about somebody called Jesus who
was performing mighty miracles? Would you have recognized Him for who He was,
or would you have been like the Pharisees, who believed what God did in the
past, but could not accept what God was doing in their own day! They even
called Jesus “Beelzebub, the prince of devils”. “Woe
unto you scribes and Pharisees,” cried Jesus, “hypocrites!
Because ye build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchres of the
righteous, and say, if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not
have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets, wherefore ye be
witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the
prophets!” (Matt. 23:29-31).
AN ENDTIME MESSAGE THAT'S LEFT FOR ALL OF US
William Branham died in December of 1965 when his car was hit by a drunken driver. It was a death which he had already anticipated by a vision. But the MESSAGE God used him to bring lives on and cannot die. There are over 1,100 different tape-recorded sermons of Brother Branham today and most of these have been printed out in book form circulating around the globe today, crying out against perversion, warning souls that Jesus Christ is coming very soon, mapping out the truth through God’s Word, and preparing a Bride for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It is the “voice of the seventh messenger” and the final Word-Message to our age.
God has once again visited this last generation with a mighty prophet. A humble man, who desired neither fame nor wealth, who never failed to give every bit of the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Briefly this essay have sketched his life, and briefly his vindication. Yet, this has not even touched on the Message which he brought forth, even though it is that Message that is most important. Now it is up to you to dig on these treasures. Books and tapes are available upon request, but you must be sincere to check it out, weigh the evidence, examine the Word, and then pray it through. If it is the Truth, God requires you to believe it.
Brother Branham finally concluded: “We’re at the end, friends. Soon it shall be time run out. Millions will lose their lives. Millions that now believe they are saved will be counted fodder for the atomic age. We are living at the last hour. By the grace of God, by His help we speak to His people that they might look forward to the soon appearing of Christ...”
