William Marrion Branham (April 6, 1909, Kentucky – December 24 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 (although William Branham denied any specific connection with the movement). Many consider him a false prophet who taught heretical doctrines, although many today still acknowledge 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.The whole intent of his ministry was to turn Christians hearts back to the scriptures and their experiences to match that of the Apostles. His theme was "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever".

Early life, conversion, and ordination

William 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 had supernatural experiences including prophetic visions. 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 an important ministry for him. Branham's family was nominally Roman Catholic; however, he had minimal contact with Christianity during his childhood. Branham also had a career as a 'prize fighter' boxer winning 52 fights. Branham had a conversion experience in the late 1920s, and was later ordained as an assistant pastor at a 'Missionary Baptist Church' in Jeffersonville. When he disagreed with the pastor about women preachers, Branham held a series of revivals in a tent, then began holding meetings in a Masonic hall until they were able to construct a building 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 continued 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 was initially pressured by his mother-in-law not to accept these invitations, preceding a number of tragedies (including the death of his first wife and daughter).

Successful public ministry

The late 1930s and early 1940s were usually a blank patch in Branham's accounts of his life story, although there are some glimpses in his early booklets. 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 Branham's 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. () and his 1945 tract 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 prominent Pentecostals joined his ministry team including Ern Baxter and F.F. Bosworth. Gordon Lindsay proved to be an 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." 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 who was healed after Branham prayed for him. (See the

From the mid 1950s onwards Branham became more open with his beliefs, indicating a position more in line with the 'oneness' position regarding the Godhead, and by the late 1950s he was openly stating that the Trinity as presented by most churches was not scriptural. He took the position that neither Oneness theology nor Trinitarianism lined up with the Bible. Also over this period a number of other doctrines which were considered to be unorthodox, but by no means unprovable from the Bible, such as the 'serpent's seed doctrine', which became increasingly obvious in his recorded sermons.

Angelic visitations and supernatural signs

William Branham had supernatural signs given to him in order to encourage people to believe. A physical sign appearing in his hand was to indicate a disease or healing. Later on secret thoughts and needs of individuals would be revealed to him. Many people believe William Branham was a prophet fulfilling scriptural prophecies about the end times.

Branham's 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 hundreds of people saw a bright fiery light suddenly appeared over his head.Then he heard a voice say, "As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming of Jesus Christ, so your message will forerun His second coming!"

William Branham 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." Some claim his successful career around the world and his meetings with world dignitaries were a fulfillment of this prophecy.

On the night of January 24, 1950, an unusual photograph was taken during a speaking engagement in the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston, Texas. As Branham stood at the podium, an apparent halo of fire appeared above his head. A photograph of this phenomenon was produced, the only one of its film roll that developed an image. George J. Lacy, an investigator of questioned documents, subjected the negative to testing 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.

William Branham's doctrines and teachings

William 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. William Branham said he had received seven major prophecies in 1933. When revealing them in later sermons, he said that the first five had already come true, and that they would all be fulfilled.

Here is a list of prophecys that William Branham recieved.

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.

Other notable prophecies by Branham include:

• That Los Angeles and much of California would sink beneath the sea. 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).

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 (although he felt that both Trinity and Jesus Only were not scriptural). 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 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. ()

Branham was of course correct that the trinity was not mentioned in the Bible, and the Bible does indeed speak of only one God.

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, like an actor would:

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.()

On other occasions Branham taught a form of adoptionism (also known as ‘dynamic monarchism’) teaching 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)

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.()

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 Branham'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. Branham'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 Branham 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 did not mention who the last messenger was. 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,Billy Graham, 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.

Current Followers Beliefs

There are still Christians today who follow the teachings of William Branham. Their beliefs tend to be an acceptance of the whole Bible as divinely inspired truth, and have a balanced view of the Bible, with many not focusing on a ‘pet’ belief, although there are certainly some fringe groups who do so. One of the identified doctrines is derived from the Christian Biblical scripture 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. In the past 50 years, this scripture has uniquely been applied to the Rapture as a three part process--'shout', 'voice', 'trumpet', as taught by William Branham. The doctrine of the Rapture speaks of a 'taking away' from earth, without death, of those people who have become the shout by committing themselves to Jesus Christ.

• This is a Pre-Tribulation Rapture that is already In Process.

This addition to the Rapture timetable states that the Rapture happens before the tribulation and is a three step process according to I Thessalonians 4:13-18. Furthermore, stage one of the Rapture, The Shout, is already in process preparing this group of people for a physical body change which will take them from earth.

The uniqueness of this group of individuals is that they believe they are already in the Rapture process. To them it is not a doctrine but a lifestyle. Unlike Branch Davidians they are not inclusive in gathering in one location. They do not focus on the destruction of the world, or prepare for a violent show down, but they are daily living in the 'Shout' in preparation of the 'Voice' which will change their bodies.

This group believes they are being prepared for a millennium reign and will be responsible for judging the world at the biblical White Throne Judgment.

• 1. The Shout

The people of 'The Shout' believe that a message has been brought to turn the hearts of the children (last day Christians) to the fathers (Apostolic). .

This 'shout' is has been brought by the Evangelist Prophet William Branham to whom many offshoots of Christianity are attributed. This group of 'followers' believe Bro. Branham to have 'tied the loose ends' of Christian doctrines back together. These doctrines had been corrupted through the gentile church ages, especially during the dark ages when the Catholic church predominantly reigned up to the mid 15th century.

Starting with Martin Luther, God begin to restore the true Christian Church back to its pure original form in the day of the Apostles. What followed Luther's justification, was John Wesley's sanctification of the believer, then the restoration of the gifts in the early 1900's ( Pentecostal ) and concluded by the full restoration of the Word in the days of William Branham.

The ‘bride’ become the restored Word which is producing Christians which match the original Apostolic Christians. These believers are being prepared to reign in the millennium as well as sit in the Throne at the White Throne Judgment to judge the earth according to I Corinthians 6:2-3, Revelation 3:21 and Matthew 25:31-46 .

• 2. The Voice

The Voice of the Resurrection is the second stage of the Rapture.This is the same voice in St. John 11:38 and 44 that called Lazarus from the grave. This voice gets the Bride: The ones living, which are the people of the shout, and the ones which are resurrected from the dead. Together they are united and 'caught up' into Heaven by having their bodies changed into glorified bodies.

• 3. The Trump

The Trump calls the unified bride to the feast in the sky called the wedding supper.The trumpet at the Feast of Trumpets in the Old Testament always called the people to a feast according to Christian theologians. This trump is to call those changed and resurrected to the Bride's supper, also called the Lamb's supper. This bride which is made up of ordained individuals throughout the gentile ages will be together with Jesus Christ. The trump culminates the three-fold process of the Rapture.

Where The Group Is Located

This group is neither monastic nor gather within a compound (fortification).The true followers of 'The Message' distance themselves from controversial exclusiveness. Instead, they maintain their homes in their communities. There is no headquarters but each church is sovereign. These churches have no membership or members.

William Marrion Branham