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2026-06-19T20:01:43Z

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[[Image:Branham28.jpg|right|William Branham]]<div>

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<div style="font-size:300%; text-align:center; border:none; margin:0; padding:.1em; color:#000;"> [[BelieveTheSign:About|Believe The Sign?]]</div>
<div style="text-align:center; top:+0.2em; font-size:150%;">The encyclopedia of the [[William Branham|life]] and [[The Message|message]] of William Branham.</div>
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<div style="text-align:center; border:none; margin:0; padding:.1em; color:#000;"> [[BelieveTheSign:About|Believe The Sign?]]</div>
<div style="text-align:center; top:+0.2em;">A comprehensive and objective examination of the [[William Branham|life]] and [[The Message|message]] of William Branham.</div>
<div id="articlecount" style="text-align:center;">[[Special:Statistics|{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}]] articles</div>
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This website contains hundreds of articles relating to [[William Branham|'''William Branham's life''']], [[Commission & Ministry|'''ministry''']] and [[Is the Message a Cult?|'''followers''']], and [[List of Issues with the Message|'''asks questions''']] that arise from our research. We try not to arrive at conclusions or engage in speculation but rather leave it to our readers to answer the questions we raise.

=Under The Halo: Examining the Legacy of William Branham=

{{Top of Page}}

=Featured Video - A Warning to Message Followers=
<youtube>https://youtu.be/1h3YQUF7MVk?si=YX0ilX6h3j04GMZh</youtube>

=Prophecies & Visions=

*Did the [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] prophecy fail??
*Did any of [[Proof of the Prophetic|William Branham's prophecies]] ever come true?
*[[Billy Paul Branham|Did the prophecy about Billy Paul Branham fail?]]
*[[An Analysis of William Branham's Visions and Prophecies|A detailed analysis of all of William Branham's significant visions]]
*What are [[Prophet|the biblical identifications of a prophet]]?
*[[The Seven Visions of 1933]]
*[[Videos: Prophecies & Visions|Prophecy & Vision Videos]]

=Credibility=

*[[William Branham|Who was William Marrion Branham?]]
*[[Was William Branham Honest|Was William Branham '''honest'''?]]
*[[Plagiarism|'''Where''' did William Branham get his doctrine?]]
*[[Strange Teachings|Did William Branham believe or teach anything strange?]]
*[https://offtheshelf.life/podcast/ots84-the-serpents-tail1/ '''Off The Shelf Podcast #84'''] - The Serpent's Tail - Abuse in the Park - An interview with Deborah Thibodeau, a survivor of childhood abuse in the message.
*[[Deception by message followers|How message followers use deception to trick people]]

=Doctrines and Teaching=

*[[Did William Branham's teaching agree with the Bible?|Did William Branham's teaching '''agree''' with the Bible?]]
*[[The Message|What is '''the message''' of William Branham?]]
*[[Was William Branham a racist?|Was William Branham '''racist'''?]]
*[[Seven Seals|The Mystery of the '''Seven Seals''']] - Was his revelation stolen?
*The Revelation of '''[[The Seven Churches Ages]]''' - Was it copied too?
*If not William Branham, [[The Fulfillment of Malachi 4:5|'''who is the fulfillment of Malachi 4'''?]]
*[[What if I think BelieveTheSign is wrong?|What if I find something I '''disagree''' with?]]

=Other Resources=
[[Image:Off The Shelf square 1024x1024.jpg|thumb|right|250px|link=Off The Shelf]]
*The Message on Trial - [[A Response to Allistair Francis|Our Response to Allistair Francis]]
*'''The [http://offtheshelf.life/ Off The Shelf] podcast''' - interviews with ex-message followers, [[The September 2020 Debate|'''debates with current followers''']] and discussions of important topics relating to William Branham
*[https://www.youtube.com/user/believethesign Our Youtube channel] containing [[Videos: Prophecies & Visions|a number of videos]] relating to William Branham
*[[List of Issues with the Message|Our full list of questions regarding William Branham and his message]]
*[[Print Resources]] - Print- ready documents
*[[Multi-Lingual Resources]]
*[[Research Sources for William Branham and His Message|Other websites]]

=Help for former followers of William Branham=

*[[How to help those in the message|How to help those who are still in the message]]
*Why do people stay in the message when the evidence against it is so clear? - The problem of [[Cognitive Dissonance]]
*[[Why are people leaving the message?]]
*The problem of [[Cognitive Dissonance]]
*[[What should we believe?|What should I believe]]?
*[[Advice for those who have left the message|What should our attitude be to those in the larger Christian church?]]
*[http://www.facebook.com/BelieveTheSign Our Facebook Discussion page].
*I need help, [[Resources that have helped us|where can I go?]]
*[[Why does this website exist?|Why a website about William Branham?]]
*[[Contact information|I have a question. Who can I talk to?]]

=Oneness theology=
Most Message churches hold to a [[Oneness]] understanding of the Godhead, although there are some significant differences between Oneness denominational churches and the Message. Here are our views on the subject of Oneness theology, including an analysis of most of the major publications of David Bernard, the General Superintendent of the United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI):

*[[Oneness]] theology
*[[David K. Bernard - A Critical Analysis of his Major Publications|Who is David Bernard?]]
*[[An Overview of Bernard's The Oneness of God|Analysis of Bernard's ''The Oneness of God'']]
*[[A Critical Analysis of The Oneness View of Jesus Christ|Analysis of Bernard's ''The Oneness View of Jesus Christ'']]
*[[Our Analysis of Appendix B to The Oneness View of Jesus Christ|Analysis of Appendix B to ''The Oneness View of Jesus Christ'']]
*[[The Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ (doctoral thesis)|Analysis of Bernard's ''The Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ'']]
*[[An analysis of Bernard's ''Essentials of Holiness''|Analysis of Bernard's ''Essentials of Holiness'']]
*[[Oneness and Trinity AD 100-300|Analysis of Bernard's ''Oneness and Trinity AD 100-300'']]]
*[[The Trinitarian Controversy in the Fourth Century|Analysis of Bernard's ''The Trinitarian Controversy in the Fourth Century'']]
*[[A response to Bernard's views on women's hair]]
*[[A response to Bernard's views on makeup and women's adornment]]
*[[A response to Bernard's views on women wearing pants]]
*[[Modern day Pharisees?]]
*[[Is baptism necessary for salvation?]]

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[[Category:Menu pages]]

Under The Halo

2026-06-19T20:00:53Z

Admin:

[[Image:UTH Cover.jpg|right|250px|]]
'''''Under The Halo: Examining the Legacy of William Branham''''' is available in print, electronic and audiobook versions. A Portuguese translation of the book (''Por Trás da Coluna de Fogo: Examinando o legado de William Branham'') is also available (see below). Spanish and French translations are in process.

Under The Halo is an examination of whether William Branham, a twentieth-century faith-healer and evangelist, was a prophet of God as believed by an estimated 1 to 1.5 million followers who call his teachings the “Message.“ Written by a former Message member who shares his journey into and out of this religious movement, it’s a well-researched review of the prophecies, visions, stories, and doctrines of William Branham—things that can’t be questioned by those in the Message.

The audiobook and electronic formats are the lowest price options. '''See below if you would like to get the audiobook at no cost.'''

==The ''Under The Halo'' Song=
Check it out! Someone read the book and wrote an amazing song for us!!
<youtube>https://youtu.be/eDY8Y6omaP4</youtube>

=Where to get Under The Halo=
Get your free copy of Under The Halo at: '''<u>Audible</u>'''

Audible lets you get one free book when you subscribe. If you quit before the end of the first month, you get to keep your free book. Some other audiobook sellers offer similar programs (see details below).

*[https://books.apple.com/gb/audiobook/under-the-halo-examining-the-legacy-of/id1800524373 Apple Books (Audiobook)]
*[https://www.audible.com/pd/Under-the-Halo-Audiobook/B0DZ967HJ8?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-436839&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_436839_rh_us&overrideBaseCountry=true&ipRedirectOverride=true&ref_pageloadid=not_applicable&plink=fXjogUhrYgDiCPTD&pageLoadId=nQG3jsTRXTpcnNCJ&creativeId=292d6343-f11b-4bbe-a8a5-d4b7272abf61 Audible - USA]
*[https://www.audible.ca/pd/Under-the-Halo-Audiobook/B0DZ975MVL?qid=1741473092&sr=1-1&ref_pageloadid=not_applicable&pf_rd_p=b278ed0a-c3b2-4491-808c-7cb2190a487c&pf_rd_r=Y3EEE30QVDVJBM5Q519H&plink=92euNN2wdRa4hr50&pageLoadId=eltUHukmcpSL0rvy&creativeId=0d6f6720-f41c-457e-a42b-8c8dceb62f2c&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1 Audible - Canada]
*[https://www.audible.com.au/pd/Under-the-Halo-Audiobook/B0DZ97MVPJ?source_code=AUDORWS022318009C-BK-ACX0-436839&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_436839_rh_au&overrideBaseCountry=true&ipRedirectOverride=true&ref_pageloadid=not_applicable&pf_rd_p=97a1c91a-2694-43e4-ad66-256f5ac11479&pf_rd_r=PN23M0HGQDRSGYZW8432&plink=nk7iw6puXRDQNT2u&pageLoadId=5GBKtsBajH0k82jw&creativeId=292d6343-f11b-4bbe-a8a5-d4b7272abf61 Audible - Australia]
*[https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Under-the-Halo-Audiobook/B0DZ8RQ43F?source_code=AUKFrDlWS02231890H6-BK-ACX0-436839&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_436839_rh_uk&overrideBaseCountry=true&ipRedirectOverride=true&ref_pageloadid=not_applicable&plink=d2O1LbRvltxR4sqG&pageLoadId=ojtmxZU5MnH3Qzo1&creativeId=292d6343-f11b-4bbe-a8a5-d4b7272abf61 Audible - UK]
*[https://www.audible.de/pd/Under-the-Halo-Hoerbuch/B0DZ91TQVF?source_code=EKAORWS0223189009-BK-ACX0-436839&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_436839_rh_de&overrideBaseCountry=true&ipRedirectOverride=true&ref_pageloadid=not_applicable&plink=IPKf3DWTtkpx9ucZ&pageLoadId=1mIkEAy4riiVUS4F&creativeId=292d6343-f11b-4bbe-a8a5-d4b7272abf61 Audible - Germany]
*[https://www.audible.fr/pd/Under-the-Halo-Livre-Audio/B0DZ8YKMRP?source_code=FRAORWS022318903B-BK-ACX0-436839&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_436839_rh_fr&overrideBaseCountry=true&ipRedirectOverride=true&ref_pageloadid=not_applicable&plink=PbvYMAezxq3iCA10&pageLoadId=8qlFH9sHUeqiB5t2&creativeId=292d6343-f11b-4bbe-a8a5-d4b7272abf61 Audible - France]
*[https://open.spotify.com/show/5bizC1l0EJIW6uWmMRSTIa Spotify]
*[https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=under+the+halo&fclanguages=en Rakuten kobo]
*[https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9798347866700-under-the-halo-abridged?srsltid=AfmBOoou4WYgt2FKWGU93LGah9IoUxUrdVCC30guOeBS1lvg_rgNAIGq Libro.fm (Europe)]
*[https://www.everand.com/audiobook/837917764/Under-The-Halo-Examining-the-Legacy-of-William-Branham Everand]
[[Image:UTH Portuguese cover for web.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Portuguese edition]]
'''<u>Electronic and print versions</u>'''
*[https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/under-the-halo Kobo store - Canada]
*[https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/under-the-halo Kobo store - USA]
*[https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/under-the-halo-rod-bergen/1146985308?ean=2940184727233 USA - Barnes & Noble]
*[https://www.amazon.com/Under-Halo-Examining-William-Branham-ebook/dp/B0DX7682CJ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.i98OTJSlfON2R8gJi1QNOAtfFAnj1XemExoriyZa5bwgT0GU7feQ8i9CZ0OCaSnJ_AXLJQ0MLqNnYvM_3MlLZr4s-6JwVM8mSDcniz76sD-TIrW7eQV71YXzeAfde_j1duAuBGJCl85NzmaBTHu8WQ.RZQB_r3O4bKEq_2UcxyYjgOKpU9gZZftJHbH0zJWRUg&qid=1739834214&sr=8-1 USA - Amazon.com]
*[https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000434102875 Canada - FriesenPress]
*[https://books.apple.com/us/book/under-the-halo/id6741875038 Apple Books (eBook)]
*[https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Rod_Bergen_Under_The_Halo?id=9h1GEQAAQBAJ Google Play]
*[https://www.amazon.ca/Under-Halo-Examining-William-Branham/dp/1038313929/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3EXYJZCPE3WPJ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ljgNiwyTZYwHAKgu-5JuvA.qFFyB0JmSyk5a712G22Bs5apaHd0x-464s6zFnPo8qc&dib_tag=se&keywords=rod+bergen+under+the+halo&qid=1739839368&sprefix=%2Caps%2C134&sr=8-1 Canada - Amazon.ca]
*[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Under-Halo-Examining-William-Branham-ebook/dp/B0DX7682CJ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.or9Iq7RFNYAGIGYITGBCvA.h-7HbP5MchHJDmZb9Guumh3txl_UZ0LosMDFTeKQ6nA&qid=1739839664&sr=1-1 UK - Amazon.co.uk]

=How to get the audiobook for free!=

The most well-known method for getting a specific audiobook you want for free is by using the Audible's free trial. This is Audible's primary way of introducing new users to its premium service, and it's very generous.

Typically, a standard Audible free trial lasts for 30 days. During this period, you get:

*1 Free Credit: This is the best part. This credit can be used to purchase '''''Under The Halo: Examining the Legacy of William Branham'''''. It is completely free.
*Access to the Plus Catalog: Beyond your credit, the trial also grants you unlimited access to the Audible Plus Catalog. This is a rotating collection of thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and Audible Originals that you can stream on demand without using a credit.

===Step-by-Step Guide to Claiming Your Free Audiobook===
#Navigate to the Audible free trial page. You'll often see banners for it on Amazon as well.
#Click the Try 3 months for $0.00 button to begin the sign-up process. You will need to sign in with your Amazon account. If you don't have one, you can create one for free.
#Although the trial is free, you will likely need to add a payment method (like a credit card). This is for security and to allow the subscription to auto-renew if you choose not to cancel. You will not be charged if you cancel before the 30-day trial period ends.
#Once your trial is active, browse the Audible library and find the book you want.
#On the book's page, you'll see the option to "Buy with 1 Credit." Select this, and '''''Under The Halo''''' is yours.

If you cancel your membership before the end of the 30 trial period, there are no charges, and you have acquired '''''Under The Halo''''' for free.

====Critical Question: Do You Keep ''Under the Halo'' After the Trial?====

This is a crucial point of confusion for many users. The answer is '''yes'''! '''''Under The Halo''''', which you bought with your free credit, is '''yours to keep forever''', even if you cancel your membership. It will remain in your Audible library permanently.

Audiobooks you listened to from the Plus Catalog are only accessible during your trial or with an active membership. If you cancel, you will lose access to these titles.

I should add that I am a huge fan of Audible and have been a paid member for a number of years. You can access a number of [[Resources that have helped us|our suggested books]] from Audible.

==Portuguese translation==

'''''Por Trás da Coluna de Fogo: Examinando o legado de William Branham''''' (the Portuguese edition of Under The Halo) is now available in print and electronic formats:

*[https://www.amazon.com/Por-Tr%C3%A1s-Coluna-Fogo-Examinando/dp/1069662704/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3LMSRCBDC99BM&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.MbUDhcskIZj_1108I_1GqA.YQ38dQGYGUpj01WLZQbyYS4KumITwYWfjddFmXAY7UY&dib_tag=se&keywords=Por+tra%CC%81s+da+Coluna+de+Fogo&qid=1775403069&s=digital-text&sprefix=por+tra%CC%81s+da+coluna+de+fogo%2Cdigital-text%2C204&sr=1-1-catcorr Amazon.com (Portuguese book)]
*[https://www.amazon.com.br/Por-Tr%C3%A1s-Coluna-Fogo-Examinando-ebook/dp/B0GHJHZYD9/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_pt_BR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=26S7Y5KOEAYDK&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.MhFn8I1Wr3E7rEVij1h1Ng.WHs0u6xybpvIArcMt7gHzozN67YpYpFhBy_I5xDYXv0&dib_tag=se&keywords=Por+tra%CC%81s+da+Coluna+de+Fogo&qid=1775403491&sprefix=por+tra%CC%81s+da+coluna+de+fogo%2Caps%2C125&sr=8-1 Amazon Brazil]

=Reviews=

<youtube>https://youtu.be/0yxXeU6Sez8?si=D-kAEHlKJaaL-Ycf</youtube>

==Kirkus review==

''Bergen takes a critical look at self-proclaimed prophet William Branham in this nonfiction work. ...Bergen’s text proves to be a very readable work of investigation. Even for those who have never heard of this evangelist, who died in 1965, the book provides an insightful look into a curious subset of Christianity. A thorough, inviting examination of an evangelist’s substantial spiritual claims.'' - [https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/rod-bergen/under-the-halo/ Kirkus Reviews]

{{Bottom of Page No Ref}}
[[Category:Books on William Branham]]

A critical analysis of Bill Rostron's presentation on the Cloud

2026-06-19T16:38:33Z

Admin: /* The Two Calculations Rostron Never Performed */

{{Top of Page}}
{{Template:Cloud}}

= Five Hours in Defense of a Make-Believe Story =
<blockquote>''"When it's all said and done you'll either have to say one or two things — I don't know what that is, it's a mystery — and brother Bill will say enough so that the world will have to admit we don't have an answer. But the Bride has an answer."'' — Pastor Luke Gibson, introducing Bill Rostron's series</blockquote>Bill Rostron is exactly the kind of person Message believers need making arguments on their behalf. He spent 46 years in the nuclear power industry doing quality assurance and root cause analysis. He knows how to build a chain of evidence. He takes his work seriously. And in his nearly six-hour series ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'' (March 2020), recorded at the Tabernacle of the Lord in Townville, South Carolina, he applies genuine technical skill to the question of whether a Thor rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base could have produced the famous cloud over Flagstaff on February 28, 1963.

The result is a presentation that is methodologically serious in parts, fatally flawed in others, and — most importantly — never once asks the question that actually matters.
----

== What Rostron Claims, and What He Admits He Can't Prove ==
Start with what Rostron himself says at the close of his series:<blockquote>''"All of the things we've said today doesn't prove that God did it, but it sure does prove that man didn't do it."''</blockquote>That's an honest statement. Credit where it's due. Rostron is not claiming to have scientifically proven a supernatural event. He's claiming to have eliminated the rocket as a natural cause.

But by the end of the evening, Pastor Gibson is telling the congregation that they don't need an answer — they already have one. The crowd is singing. The cloud has become proof of Revelation 10:1–7 and divine confirmation of William Branham's ministry. The gap between "man didn't do it" and "God did it" has been closed by emotional momentum, not logic.

This is the first and most important error of the entire presentation. Ruling out one natural explanation does not establish supernatural causation. That logical gap is not a technicality — it is the entire structure of the argument. Rostron builds a case against the rocket, and the congregation quietly converts his inconclusive findings into proof of the miraculous. No one in the room challenges this move. It should be challenged.
----

== The Self-Defeating Moisture Argument ==
Rostron spends significant time establishing a genuine point of atmospheric physics: natural moisture gets "wrung out" of the air as altitude increases, and by the time you reach the stratosphere and mesosphere, the water vapor content is so low — he puts it at about five parts per million — that cloud formation is essentially impossible under normal conditions.

He's right about this. Natural clouds do not generally form at 43 kilometers. This is not disputed. Noctilucent clouds can form at at approximately '''76 to 85 kilometers altitude.''' This is worth noting because Rostron borrows noctilucent cloud ''physics'' (twilight-only visibility due to extreme tenuousness) to explain the Flagstaff cloud's behavior, but he's applying the analogy to a cloud at a completely different altitude. The Flagstaff cloud sits in a region where neither ordinary clouds nor noctilucent clouds naturally form, which is exactly what makes the rocket explanation compelling. The Thor's explosion introduced water into an environment that had no business having a cloud at all, and the resulting ice crystal dispersal at 44 km would behave optically much like a noctilucent cloud: extremely tenuous, catching oblique sunlight, invisible against a bright sky, appearing only at twilight.

In other words, the noctilucent analogy actually ''helps'' the rocket hypothesis far more than it helps Rostron's argument. It explains the cloud's appearance and its daytime invisibility, while simultaneously demolishing his mass calculation, because a cloud that behaves like a noctilucent cloud requires noctilucent-level water content, not cirrus-level water content.

But Rostron then uses this fact to argue against the rocket hypothesis. Here's the problem: the rocket hypothesis does not require natural moisture. The entire premise of the rocket explanation is that the Thor, when destroyed at 44 kilometers, '''''introduced''''' water and combustion products into an environment that would not otherwise contain them. That's precisely why the cloud appeared where natural clouds don't.

Rostron's atmospheric moisture argument doesn't undermine the rocket hypothesis. It actually explains why the rocket hypothesis is ''necessary'' — because something had to put water up there. His own analysis establishes that the cloud required an external source of water, then pivots to arguing the rocket couldn't have been that source. But he never closes the loop on what that source was. He's eliminated natural formation and claimed to eliminate the rocket. What he hasn't done is identify a third candidate. "God did it" is not a third candidate in a root cause analysis — it's an admission that the analysis is over.
----

== The Mass Calculation: Critical Omissions ==
This is where Rostron's engineering rigour breaks down most clearly, in two separate ways.

=== Error One: The Wrong Rocket Component ===
Rostron's key quantitative argument runs as follows: he estimates the cloud required approximately 2.2 million pounds — which he later corrects to approximately 3 million pounds [4:18:44] — of water to form. He then turns his attention to the Castor-1 solid rocket boosters attached to the Thor. Based on his own dimensional measurements, he calculates roughly 12,000 pounds of solid propellant per booster [~2:59:38–3:01:50]. Three boosters, therefore about 36,000 pounds total. That's vastly less than 2.2 million pounds of water. Ergo, the rocket couldn't have done it.

The problem is that Rostron has analysed the wrong part of the rocket — and then stopped.

The Thrust Augmented Thor-Agena that was destroyed on February 28, 1963 was primarily a liquid-fueled vehicle. Its main engine burned RP-1 kerosene with liquid oxygen. The Castor-1 solid boosters were strap-on assist motors that augmented thrust during the initial phase of flight. Rostron lists the main engine propellants at [4:29:33]: liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene. He never calculates their water output.

We will return to what that calculation actually yields. But first, there is a separate problem with his booster analysis.

=== Error Two: The Booster Mass Overstatement ===
Rostron's figure of 12,000 pounds per Castor-1 booster came from his own back-of-the-envelope calculation based on physical dimensions. The published specifications tell a different story. The Castor-1 (TX-33-52) had a gross mass of approximately '''3,852 kilograms (8,492 pounds)''' per unit, with a propellant mass of '''3,317 kilograms (7,313 pounds)''' per unit. Rostron overstated the per-booster propellant load by roughly 64% compared to the published propellant mass figure.

He acknowledges this correction himself at [4:18:44], revising his total figure upward to approximately 3 million pounds — but the revision addresses the cloud's water requirement, not his error in the booster propellant estimate. Even with his overstated 12,000-pound-per-booster figure, the solid propellant total of ~36,000 pounds falls more than fifty times short of his 2.2-million-pound benchmark. The overstatement doesn't change the conclusion of his argument, but it demonstrates that a calculation he presents as rigorously engineered was built on unmeasured inputs.
----

== The Actual Launch Timeline: What Was Burning at 44 Kilometers ==
To understand why the main engine matters so much, it's necessary to trace what actually happened on February 28, 1963, based on primary sources.

The rocket in question was a '''Thrust Augmented Thor (TAT)-Agena D''' configuration. The TAT stage consisted of a Thor liquid-fueled core with three Castor-1 solid rocket motors clamped to its exterior at 120° intervals.

'''The flight sequence, based on NASA technical documentation and contemporary reporting:'''

'''The vehicle configuration''' was a two-stage stack. The TAT (Thor with three solid strap-on motors) formed the first stage. Atop it sat the '''Agena D second stage''', enclosed in a fibreglass clamshell shroud protecting the payload. The Agena's engine used two hypergolic propellants — unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) as fuel and inhibited red fuming nitric acid (IRFNA) as oxidizer. Hypergolic propellants ignite spontaneously on contact with each other; no ignition system is required. The Agena carried approximately '''14,900 kilograms (32,850 pounds)''' of propellant. It was designed to ignite only after Thor burnout and stage separation — an event that never occurred in this mission.

'''T+0 seconds — Liftoff.''' All engines ignite simultaneously: the Thor main engine (756 kilonewtons of thrust, burning liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene) and all three Castor-1 solid motors (each producing approximately 238 kilonewtons of thrust, for a combined solid boost of about 713 kN). The Agena second stage sits inert above, fully fuelled.

'''T+28 seconds — Solid motor full-thrust phase ends.''' According to the NASA post-flight report for the OGO-IV TAT-Agena mission (NASA TM X-1932), the solid motors "operate at full thrust for approximately 28 seconds and then decay to zero thrust in approximately the next 14 seconds." The motors are thrust-decaying from this point, but they are not yet exhausted.

'''T+42 seconds — Solid motor burnout.''' The solid propellant is fully consumed. The Castor-1 cases — now empty metal shells — remain physically clamped to the Thor's engine section. Per the same NASA document, "jettison of the expended solid motor cases occurs at about T+65 seconds." The rocket continues upward on main engine thrust alone, carrying the dead weight of three empty booster casings.

'''T+52 to T+60 seconds — Flight control malfunction.''' According to ''Missiles and Rockets'' magazine (March 11, 1963), the vehicle experienced a guidance or control failure and veered off its intended course before the T+65 second jettison sequence could execute.

'''T+52 to T+60 seconds — Range Safety Officer destroys the vehicle''', at approximately '''44 kilometers altitude''', before the scheduled booster jettison could occur. The destruct charges blew open the main liquid propellant tanks. The resulting explosion vaporized the vehicle, including the still-attached (but empty) Castor-1 casings — and the fully-loaded Agena second stage sitting above them. Because the Agena's UDMH and nitric acid are hypergolic, they ignited spontaneously the moment the destruct charges ruptured their tanks and the propellants made contact. The Agena's entire propellant load — never burned during the mission — combusted in the explosion at 44 kilometers.

There are therefore three distinct points to note: '''first''', the solid booster propellant had been completely exhausted for somewhere between 10 and 18 seconds before the explosion. '''Second''', what Rostron analysed — 36,000 pounds of solid propellant — was not present at 44 kilometers. Those motors had fired themselves out. The empty casings reached 44 kilometers as inert structural debris.

'''Third''', the propellants chemically active at 44 kilometers when the vehicle was destroyed came from two sources: the Thor main engine, still burning, and the Agena second stage, fully loaded and hypergolic.
----

== The Two Calculations Rostron Never Performed ==

=== Source One: The Thor Main Engine ===
The Thor main engine was designed for a burn duration of approximately '''165 seconds''' of powered flight. It burned liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene at a combined mass flow rate of roughly '''273 kilograms per second''', at an oxidizer-to-fuel ratio of approximately 2.25:1.

'''Total propellant loaded:'''

* RP-1 kerosene: approximately 13,874 kilograms (30,590 pounds)
* Liquid oxygen: approximately 31,217 kilograms (68,830 pounds)
* '''Total: approximately 45,091 kilograms (99,420 pounds)'''

At the time of destruction — estimated at T+52 to T+60 seconds, approximately 31–36% of the way through the engine's designed burn time — the following propellant remained in the tanks:
{| class="wikitable"
!Destruction time
!RP-1 remaining
!LOX remaining
!Total remaining
|-
|T+52s
|~9,506 kg (20,960 lbs)
|~21,389 kg (47,160 lbs)
|~30,895 kg (68,100 lbs)
|-
|T+60s
|~8,834 kg (19,480 lbs)
|~19,877 kg (43,830 lbs)
|~28,711 kg (63,300 lbs)
|}
'''Best estimate: approximately 29,000–31,000 kilograms (64,000–68,000 pounds) of unspent Thor propellant at the moment of destruction.'''

RP-1 is a refined kerosene with the approximate molecular formula C₁₂H₂₄. When burned with liquid oxygen, the combustion reaction is:

'''C₁₂H₂₄ + 18O₂ → 12CO₂ + 12H₂O'''

This yields a water production ratio of approximately '''1.286 kilograms of water per kilogram of RP-1 burned'''.

When the destruct charges ruptured the propellant tanks, the LOX and RP-1 mixed and combusted. Because the remaining propellants were in almost exactly the correct mixture ratio for complete combustion (a natural consequence of the engine having burned them at a fixed 2.25:1 ratio throughout the flight), combustion of the available RP-1 was largely complete.

'''Estimated water from Thor main engine:'''
{| class="wikitable"
!Destruction time
!RP-1 available
!Water produced
|-
|T+52s
|~9,506 kg
|'''~12,225 kg (26,960 lbs)'''
|-
|T+60s
|~8,834 kg
|'''~11,360 kg (25,050 lbs)'''
|}

=== Source Two: The Agena D Second Stage ===
Rostron lists the main engine liquid propellants at [4:29:33] and moves past them. He never mentions the second stage at all.

The Agena D was fully loaded with approximately '''14,900 kilograms (32,850 pounds)''' of propellant when the vehicle was destroyed. It had never been ignited — the Agena was not designed to fire until after Thor burnout and stage separation, which never occurred. Every kilogram of its propellant was still aboard at 44 kilometers.

The Agena burned UDMH (unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine, formula (CH₃)₂N₂H₂) with inhibited red fuming nitric acid as oxidizer. These are hypergolic propellants — they ignite spontaneously on contact, requiring no ignition system. When the destruct charges ruptured the Agena's tanks, the UDMH and nitric acid mixed and combusted immediately.

The destruct charges themselves were compact linear shaped charges using high explosives such as RDX. RDX detonates at approximately 8,750 m/s — significantly faster and more violent than TNT (~6,900 m/s). While the charges contained only modest quantities of explosive, their detonation produced an extremely rapid pressure wave that instantly ruptured the tank walls.

This high-speed blast wave violently dispersed the rocket fuel. In the extremely thin air at 44 km (air density ≈ 0.0028 kg/m³), aerodynamic drag on the resulting droplets and fragments is very weak. Computer modelling (quadratic-drag) shows that a ring-shaped cloud of the scale of the Arizona cloud (main ring ~43 km diameter) would expand to full size in roughly 20–30 seconds before drag dissipated the outward momentum. This rapid formation time precisely matches eyewitness accounts and photographic evidence of the cloud’s sudden appearance, and it accounts for the two distinct rings documented by McDonald (primary ring from the main tank rupture; fainter trailing ring from secondary structural debris).

UDMH combustion produces carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water. With UDMH comprising approximately 25–28% of the total propellant load by mass (roughly 3,700–4,200 kilograms), and a water yield of approximately '''1.2 kilograms of water per kilogram of UDMH burned''', the Agena's contribution is:<blockquote>~3,700–4,200 kg UDMH × 1.2 kg H₂O/kg = '''~4,400–5,000 kilograms of water (~9,700–11,000 lbs)'''</blockquote>

=== Combined Water Production ===
{| class="wikitable"
!Source
!Water produced
|-
|Thor main engine (RP-1, unspent at T+52–60s)
|~11,400–12,200 kg
|-
|Agena D second stage (UDMH, fully loaded, hypergolic)
|~4,400–5,000 kg
|-
|'''Total'''
|'''~15,800–17,200 kg (~34,800–37,900 lbs)'''
|}
This is the combined source term Rostron never calculated. Against his own cloud volume of 27 billion cubic meters, this water output is decisive — as the density comparison below makes clear.
----

== The Cloud Density Contradiction: Rostron's Framework Collapses His Own Math ==
The water calculation above becomes even more decisive when examined alongside what Rostron himself says about why the cloud was invisible during the day.

Throughout the presentation, Rostron correctly invokes the physics of noctilucent clouds to explain one of the cloud's most striking features: nobody saw it until sunset. He explains the physics accurately [~2:54:35, 4:59:14]. Noctilucent clouds are visible only at twilight because they are too tenuous to scatter enough light to be seen against a bright daytime sky. They only become visible once the background sky darkens and sunlight catches them from far below the horizon. He uses this same principle to explain why the Flagstaff cloud was invisible during the day and only appeared as the sun went down.

This is correct. But Rostron never follows that logic into his density calculation.

Noctilucent clouds are extraordinarily tenuous. Their ice water content is typically on the order of '''10⁻⁵ to 10⁻⁶ grams per cubic meter''' — roughly one thousand to one hundred thousand times less dense than an ordinary cirrus cloud. That tenuousness is precisely why they are invisible in daylight. A cirrus cloud, with its density of around 0.03 to 0.05 g/m³, is clearly visible in full sunlight. Something only visible during a narrow twilight window must be far, far thinner.

Rostron's mass calculation uses a cirrus cloud density of '''0.05 grams per cubic meter (1/20 gram per cubic meter)''' [~2:49:05]. That is how he arrives at his 2.2 million pound figure. But he has already established in the same presentation that the cloud behaved like a noctilucent cloud in terms of its visibility. You cannot simultaneously argue that a cloud is too tenuous to be seen in daylight ''and'' assume cirrus-level ice density when calculating how much water formed it. Those two claims contradict each other directly.

The numbers expose the contradiction precisely:

'''At cirrus density (0.05 g/m³) — Rostron's assumption:'''<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.05 g/m³ = 1,350,000,000 grams = '''1,350,000 kilograms (~2.98 million pounds)'''</blockquote>This is the figure Rostron uses to argue the rocket was inadequate.

'''At a conservative intermediate density (10⁻⁴ g/m³) — 500 times less dense than cirrus:'''<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.0001 g/m³ = 2,700,000 grams = '''2,700 kilograms (~5,950 pounds)'''</blockquote>'''At actual noctilucent cloud density (10⁻⁵ g/m³) — consistent with twilight-only visibility:'''<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.00001 g/m³ = 270,000 grams = '''270 kilograms (~595 pounds)'''</blockquote>The combined water output of the Thor main engine and the Agena second stage — approximately '''15,800 to 17,200 kilograms''' — exceeds:

* The noctilucent requirement (270 kg) by a factor of '''roughly 60'''
* The conservative intermediate requirement (2,700 kg) by a factor of '''roughly 6'''

The three solid booster casings contribute nothing, since their propellant was exhausted before the explosion.

The only way Rostron's mass calculation works is if you use cirrus cloud density. And using cirrus cloud density is logically incompatible with his own explanation for why the cloud wasn't visible during the day. A root cause analysis cannot select the physical properties of the cloud based on which properties support the desired conclusion. Either the cloud was dense enough to behave like a cirrus cloud — visible in daylight, requiring 2.98 million pounds of water — or it was tenuous enough to behave like a noctilucent cloud — invisible in daylight, requiring hundreds of pounds of water. It cannot be both.
----

== The Anachronistic Wind Data ==
One of the more striking methodological problems in the series is Rostron's use of earth.nullschool.net — a real-time global wind visualization website — to argue about what the winds were doing at high altitude on February 28, 1963.

He pulls up current wind patterns above Arizona, shows that the winds at 10 millibar altitude (roughly 30 km) are around 65 km/h in his analysis session's present, and argues these speeds are insufficient to carry rocket material from Vandenberg to Flagstaff in 3.5 hours. He acknowledges he's watched the website "over the years" and noted seasonal patterns, but uses a single present-day reading as if it characterises the wind field on a specific day more than sixty years earlier.

Wind patterns at stratospheric and mesospheric altitudes are highly variable. They change with season, with quasi-biennial oscillation cycles, with individual synoptic events. Knowing what the winds are doing today tells you nothing reliable about what they were doing on a specific day in February 1963.

Dr. McDonald, who actually collected observational data at the time, described the measured wind speeds as "tantalizingly close" to what would be required. Rostron cites this but dismisses it on the grounds that McDonald "couldn't figure out how it would work" — which is not the same as saying it couldn't work. McDonald was being scientifically conservative. Rostron is substituting present-day data for past atmospheric conditions. These are not equivalent moves.
----

== A Confusion About Wind Direction ==
Rostron also argues that the wind direction was wrong for the rocket hypothesis. He says the cloud was observed to be "moving towards the southeast," and from this calculates a required wind origin of about 310 degrees (northwest). He then claims that a northwest wind at Vandenberg would carry debris toward Baja California, not Flagstaff.

But Vandenberg Air Force Base is located to the ''west-northwest'' of Flagstaff. Flagstaff is roughly to the ''east-northeast'' of Vandenberg. A wind blowing from the northwest — pushing things toward the southeast — would carry material from Vandenberg's vicinity ''toward'' the direction of Arizona. Rostron's claim that such a wind would instead send debris toward Baja California appears to reflect a geographical confusion about the relative positions of these two locations. His own wind direction evidence may be consistent with the rocket hypothesis rather than contradictory to it.
----

== The Question Rostron Never Asks ==
Here is what is missing from five hours and fifty-four minutes of technically detailed presentation: any engagement with William Branham's own testimony about the cloud.

Rostron establishes — or attempts to establish — that the cloud was not produced by a Thor rocket. He never mentions that:

'''Branham claimed to be standing directly underneath the cloud when it appeared.''' He wasn't. The cloud appeared over Flagstaff. By Branham's own account of his activities on that trip, he was approximately 200 miles away near Sunset Mountain and Rattlesnake Mesa.

'''Branham stated that the cloud formed when the angels left him.''' The cloud appeared on February 28. Branham's own sermons describe the angelic visitation as occurring on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the departure of angels from a meeting that had not yet taken place.

'''Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his ministry until he was shown the photograph in ''Life'' Magazine''' — months after the cloud appeared. If he had witnessed angels ascending into the sky and forming that cloud, that silence is inexplicable.

'''A second cloud is visible in the scientific photographs.''' Documented in ''Science'' magazine (April 1963), a companion cloud appears to the northwest of the main cloud, consistent with debris dispersal from a single source. No version of the angelic account addresses a second cloud.

These are not peripheral criticisms. They are facts drawn from Branham's own recordings and from the documented scientific record at the time. Whether the cloud was caused by a rocket, a natural phenomenon, or something else entirely, Branham's own account of his involvement with it cannot be reconciled with the known facts. Rostron's entire analysis — even if every calculation were correct — only defends the possibility that the cloud was unusual. It does nothing to explain why Branham's story changed over time, why he placed himself at the cloud's formation when he was demonstrably 200 miles away, or why he first learned of the cloud from a magazine.
----

== What the Presentation Actually Establishes ==
To be precise about what Rostron's analysis shows and doesn't show:

He correctly demonstrates that natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers through ordinary atmospheric processes. This is real atmospheric science and he explains it clearly.

He correctly notes that the cloud was unusual and that McDonald found it difficult to explain within the data available to him in 1963.

He raises legitimate questions about whether the Castor-1 solid boosters ''alone'' could account for the cloud — but only by ignoring the vehicle's primary propulsion system, which happened to be actively burning when the rocket was destroyed, and by applying a cloud density drawn from a completely different class of cloud than the one he invokes to explain the cloud's visibility behavior.

What his analysis does not establish is that the rocket could not have caused the cloud. His wind speed argument uses data from the present day. His mass calculation omits the main engine and applies an internally contradictory density figure. His booster propellant estimate overstates the published specifications by 64%. His moisture argument supports rather than undermines the rocket hypothesis. And his conclusion — that supernatural causation is therefore implied — does not follow from his premises even if those premises were correct.

The actual calculation, done with the correct rocket components and an internally consistent cloud density:
{| class="wikitable"
!Cloud density
!Water required (27 billion m³ cloud)
!Total rocket water available
!Comparison
|-
|Cirrus — 0.05 g/m³ (Rostron's assumption)
|~1,350,000 kg
|~16,500 kg
|Rocket: ~1.2% of requirement
|-
|10⁻⁴ g/m³ (conservative; 500× less than cirrus)
|~2,700 kg
|~16,500 kg
|Rocket: '''~6× more than needed'''
|-
|Noctilucent — 10⁻⁵ g/m³ (consistent with twilight-only visibility)
|~270 kg
|~16,500 kg
|Rocket: '''~60× more than needed'''
|}
The only density at which the rocket "doesn't work" is cirrus density. And cirrus density is precisely the density that is incompatible with Rostron's own explanation for why no one saw the cloud during the day.
----

== A Word for Those Who Watched the Video ==
If you've sat through this series, or heard someone cite it, or had it shared with you as the definitive answer to critics of the Message, you deserve to know what it actually proved and what it didn't.

Rostron is a capable engineer who spent months on this project. He clearly cares deeply about his faith, and he is trying to be rigorous. That's admirable. But rigour has to go all the way through — including to the question of whether the person whose testimony you're defending actually told a consistent, verifiable story.

The scientific question of what caused the cloud is genuinely interesting. But the problem with Branham's cloud story was never primarily scientific. It was always about why a man who claimed to stand under a cloud was 200 miles away when it appeared, why the cloud preceded his vision's fulfillment by eight days, and why he never mentioned any of this until a magazine brought the photograph to his attention.

Those questions don't get answered by atmospheric physics. They get answered — or not answered — by Branham's own words.

The honest thing to do is listen to those words again, carefully, and ask whether the story holds together. Not because critics want it to fail, but because the truth matters. A faith built on a story that doesn't hold up isn't safer for not being examined. It's just more fragile.
----

== Sources and Technical References ==

* '''NASA TM X-1932''' (December 1969), Lewis Research Center: ''Thrust Augmented Thor-Agena performance report, OGO-IV mission (July 28, 1967)''. Confirms solid motor burn time (~42 seconds: 28 seconds full thrust + 14 seconds thrust decay), planned jettison at T+65 seconds, and main engine propellant specifications. <nowiki>https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19700003428/downloads/19700003428.pdf</nowiki>
* '''''Missiles and Rockets''''' magazine, March 11, 1963: Reports the TAT-Agena flight malfunction at T+52–60 seconds, before the T+65-second jettison sequence, resulting in range safety destruct with booster casings still attached.
* '''Wikipedia: List of Thor and Delta launches (1960–1969)''': Destruction altitude of 44 kilometers for the February 28, 1963 launch. <nowiki>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Thor_and_Delta_launches_(1960%E2%80%931969)</nowiki>
* '''Bill Rostron''', ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'', Parts 1–3, March 2020. Tabernacle of the Lord, Townville, South Carolina. Timestamp references in this article refer to elapsed time in the combined recording.<br />

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[[Category:Prophecies]]
[[Category:Visions]]
[[Category:Honesty and Credibility]]
[[Category:Supernatural vindication]]

A critical analysis of Bill Rostron's presentation on the Cloud

2026-06-19T15:37:13Z

Admin: /* Source Two: The Agena D Second Stage */

List of Issues with the Message

2026-06-19T14:29:14Z

Admin: /* False Doctrine and Misinformation Taught by Message Churches */

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{{URGENT}}
[[Image:Answers small.jpg|thumb|250px|right]]

This page is a '''master list of all of the issues that have come to our attention in respect to William Branham and his message'''. It summarizes, in the form of a list of questions, virtually all of the research we have conducted since 2004 with respect to William Branham.''' Click on any of the questions or colored links''' to read further details on the issue.

=The List of Questions=

The purpose of this list is to provide a short concise summary of all known issues that can be used as a quick reference guide when discussing any concerns relating to William Branham, his message or those that follow him. Our aim is to provide a detailed explanation for each issue, as well as our detailed research. To the extent that the specific question does not link to anything, it simply means we have not had the time to research the issue as yet.

===Our request & promise===

Please let us know of any factual errors on our website, either [[Contact information|by email]] or by [https://www.facebook.com/BelieveTheSign a message to us on our Facebook page]. If you provide us with evidence, we will correct any errors as quickly as possible.

Some followers of William Branham have suggested that it is wrong to highlight these issues. However, we believe it is not only right but that we are [[Are we wrong to highlight the problems with William Branham and his message?|required to tell people the information we have found.]]

If you do disagree with anything on this website, we would request that you '''[[A Scriptural Challenge to Followers of William Branham|please prove us wrong]]'''. Honestly, we don't want this website to contain any incorrect information. However, to date, we have only received a couple such requests and corrected the errors as soon as they were reported to us.

==Did any of William Branham's visions or prophecies fail?==

The scriptural test of a prophet is clear as outlined by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:

:''But if any prophet presumes to speak anything in my name that I have not authorized him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. Now if you say to yourselves, ‘How can we tell that a message is not from the LORD?’ — whenever a prophet speaks in my name and the prediction is not fulfilled, then I have not spoken it; the prophet has presumed to speak it, so you need not fear him.”<ref>Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005), Dt 18:20–22.</ref>

While at first we found this almost impossible to believe, '''we have been unable to locate a single unambiguous prophecy that was made in advance in a public forum (on tape) and that was later clearly fulfilled.''' However, there are numerous examples of visions that were made publicly which failed (were not fulfilled) and prophecies that changed drastically over time. If you click on the individual lines below, they will take you to a detailed explanation of each issue.

'''How can William Branham be a true prophet of God if he failed the test of Deut 18:20-22?'''

{{Prophetic Questions}}

==Was William Branham Credible?==

:'''If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.''' - ''Mark Twain''

The Bible plainly tells us what is expected of Christian leaders:

:''An elder must be blameless...<ref>Titus 1:6 (NET)</ref>

:''For the overseer must be blameless as one entrusted with God’s work...<ref>Titus 1:7 (NET)</ref>

:''The overseer then must be above reproach...<ref>1 Timothy 3:2 (NET)</ref>

:''And these also must be tested first and then let them serve as deacons if they are found blameless.<ref>1 Timothy 3:10 (NET)</ref>

William Branham portrayed himself as a simple, honest, uneducated man who was sent from God as a prophet to fore-run the second coming of Christ. However, many of the stories that he told have been proven to be untrue and many of the doctrines that he said he received directly from God were, in fact, plagiarized from other ministers. If you click on the individual items below, they will take you to a detailed explanation of each issue.

{{Credibility Questions}}

==Are William Branham's teachings in agreement with the Bible?==

If you study the message, you will find that William Branham departed significantly from the plain meaning of scripture in many things that he taught. If you click on the individual items below, they will take you to a detailed explanation of each issue.

{{Doctrinal Questions}}

==Strange, bizarre, or contradictory beliefs of William Branham==

{{Strange Teachings}}

==Other Issues Relating to William Branham's Message==

#[[Hagin Prophecy|Kenneth Hagin's Prophecy]]
#[[Deception by message followers]]
#[[The Vision of the Pentecostal Kitten|The Vision of the Message Kitten]]
#[[Why didn't people correct William Branham?]]
#Our review of Owen Jorgensen's biography - ''[[Supernatural: The Life of William Branham‎]]''
#Our response to [[A Biographer Answers Critics of William Branham|Owen Jorgensen's defense of William Branham]]
#[[An Open Letter to Owen Jorgensen]] by Luca Freeman
#Who is [[Voice of God Recordings]] and how much money do they have?
#[[Bad Fruit|Why is there so much "bad fruit"]] in the message?
#[[Billy Paul Branham]]
#[[Joseph Branham]]

==False Doctrine and Misinformation Taught by Message Churches==

These doctrines may not have been taught directly by William Branham (or at least we have not found quotes yet) but are widely held by Message ministers/believers and are taught in a variety of message churches (please note that they may not be found in all message churches).

#[[Is the Message a Cult?#William Branham's message > the Bible|ALL message churches place the words of William Branham above or at least equal to the Bible]].
#Excuses for the failure of the Municipal Bridge vision - [[The Municipal Bridge Vision#The men drowned in concrete|The sixteen men drowned in concrete]]
#The use of red herring arguments when [[Failed Prophecies]] are pointed out (see video)
#[[The Message|The message]] is Jesus Christ.
#[[Access to the blood]] can only be achieve through the message of the hour
#[[Progressive_Revelation|The doctrine of progressive revelation]]
#[[Vaylism|The heretical teachings of Lee Vayle]]
#[[Stories from the Message|True stories from message churches]]
#[[Luke 20:4-8]]
#[[Acts 3:21]]
#[[Anti-Intellectualism]]
#[[Spiritual Idolatry]]
#[["Blind Faith"]]
#[[Logic and the Message]]
#[[Reason and the Message|Thinking is discouraged]]
#The [[The King James Version of the Bible|KJV is the only inspired translation]] of the Bible.
#[[The Rules of the Message]]
#Are [[Blood Moons]] of importance today?
#Legalistic teachings related to [[The Celebration of Christmas]]
#Are Message churches the home of [[Modern day Pharisees?]]
#[[A critical analysis of Bill Rostron's presentation on the Cloud|Debunking Bill Rostron's defense of the Cloud]]

==Other issues related to message churches==

#[[A warning to those in the message]]
#[[Are Message Believers Christians?]]
#[[Message Urban Legends|'''Urban legends''' of the message]]
#[[The Status of Message Believers|What is the spiritual status of message believers]]?
#[[Questions and Answers with a Message Minister|Q&A with a message minister]]
#[[Bethel Tabernacle|An open letter to Jason Watkins]]

==But Message believers reject these teachings==

There are a few things that William Branham taught that followers of William Branham simply do not believe in any practical sense.

#[[The Message is Greater than the Bible|Is the message a cult?]]
#[[The Importance of a Right Spirit]]
#[[Draw a bigger circle]]
#The vision of the [[Plum and Apple Trees]]

==Responses to issues raised by Message followers==

Here are some responses to issues raised by message followers:
#[[The Jonah Defense]]
#[[Because he said so]]
#[[William Branham was just human]]
#[[Responding to Allistair Francis]]
#[[Questions and Answers with a Message Minister]]
#[[A response to Tim Pruitt's Defense of William Branham]]
#[[A response to Jason Watkins' letter to a believer who has left the message|Responding to Jason Watkins]]
#[[A response to Bill Ivy's Defense of the Message|A Response to Bill Ivy]]
#You can't see the Message because "[[It's a revelation]]"
#[[A response to Pastor Wisper Gwena]]
#[[The failure of message ministers to obey scripture]]
#[[The Importance of Vindication]]

=Now what? Where do I go from here?=

[[A Synopsis of the Message|If you have honestly looked at these questions and the research provided in our analysis of each issue]], you must question whether William Branham was a true prophet of God.

To help those who are now confronted with these issues and wonder what the next course of action should be we would recommend the following links:

#Listen to the [http://offtheshelf.life Off The Shelf] podcast!
#[[What should we believe?#What church should we go to?|Were should I go to church? Aren't denominations of the devil?]]
#[[What should we believe?|So what should I believe now?]]
#[[How to help those in the message|How do I help people who are still in the message?]] Do I tell them the message is wrong or is there a better way? [[How to help those in the message|How do I interact with my spouse/family member/friend]] who is still in the message?
#[[Reason and the Message#Jesus' reaction to someone who questioned him|What did Jesus say about asking questions?]]
#Should we abandon Christianity? Does it still make sense to follow Jesus after leaving the message?
##[[Is belief in God rational?]]
##[[Is the New Testament historically reliable?]]
#[[Testimonies of Former Followers]]
#[[Here we stand, corrected|'''You are not alone!!!''']]
#Further research on William Branham - [[Research Sources for William Branham and His Message]]
#[[A commentary on Christian cults|A video commentary on Christian cults]]
#[[Can we judge William Branham?]]
#If you are looking for non-message sources to help you grow spiritually - [[Resources that have helped us]]
#[[If you need help]]
#[[BelieveTheSign:What We Believe|What we believe]]
#If you want to ask us a question, you can [[Contact information|email us]].

We sincerely pray that this information has helped you on your spiritual journey. May the Holy Spirit lead you into the truth of Jesus Christ!

Shalom!

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A critical analysis of Bill Rostron's presentation on the Cloud

2026-06-19T14:27:40Z

Admin:

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{{Template:Cloud}}

= Five Hours in Defense of a Make-Believe Story =
<blockquote>''"When it's all said and done you'll either have to say one or two things — I don't know what that is, it's a mystery — and brother Bill will say enough so that the world will have to admit we don't have an answer. But the Bride has an answer."'' — Pastor Luke Gibson, introducing Bill Rostron's series</blockquote>Bill Rostron is exactly the kind of person Message believers need making arguments on their behalf. He spent 46 years in the nuclear power industry doing quality assurance and root cause analysis. He knows how to build a chain of evidence. He takes his work seriously. And in his nearly six-hour series ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'' (March 2020), recorded at the Tabernacle of the Lord in Townville, South Carolina, he applies genuine technical skill to the question of whether a Thor rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base could have produced the famous cloud over Flagstaff on February 28, 1963.

The result is a presentation that is methodologically serious in parts, fatally flawed in others, and — most importantly — never once asks the question that actually matters.
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== What Rostron Claims, and What He Admits He Can't Prove ==
Start with what Rostron himself says at the close of his series:<blockquote>''"All of the things we've said today doesn't prove that God did it, but it sure does prove that man didn't do it."''</blockquote>That's an honest statement. Credit where it's due. Rostron is not claiming to have scientifically proven a supernatural event. He's claiming to have eliminated the rocket as a natural cause.

But by the end of the evening, Pastor Gibson is telling the congregation that they don't need an answer — they already have one. The crowd is singing. The cloud has become proof of Revelation 10:1–7 and divine confirmation of William Branham's ministry. The gap between "man didn't do it" and "God did it" has been closed by emotional momentum, not logic.

This is the first and most important error of the entire presentation. Ruling out one natural explanation does not establish supernatural causation. That logical gap is not a technicality — it is the entire structure of the argument. Rostron builds a case against the rocket, and the congregation quietly converts his inconclusive findings into proof of the miraculous. No one in the room challenges this move. It should be challenged.
----

== The Self-Defeating Moisture Argument ==
Rostron spends significant time establishing a genuine point of atmospheric physics: natural moisture gets "wrung out" of the air as altitude increases, and by the time you reach the stratosphere and mesosphere, the water vapor content is so low — he puts it at about five parts per million — that cloud formation is essentially impossible under normal conditions.

He's right about this. Natural clouds do not generally form at 43 kilometers. This is not disputed. Noctilucent clouds can form at at approximately '''76 to 85 kilometers altitude.''' This is worth noting because Rostron borrows noctilucent cloud ''physics'' (twilight-only visibility due to extreme tenuousness) to explain the Flagstaff cloud's behavior, but he's applying the analogy to a cloud at a completely different altitude. The Flagstaff cloud sits in a region where neither ordinary clouds nor noctilucent clouds naturally form, which is exactly what makes the rocket explanation compelling. The Thor's explosion introduced water into an environment that had no business having a cloud at all, and the resulting ice crystal dispersal at 44 km would behave optically much like a noctilucent cloud: extremely tenuous, catching oblique sunlight, invisible against a bright sky, appearing only at twilight.

In other words, the noctilucent analogy actually ''helps'' the rocket hypothesis far more than it helps Rostron's argument. It explains the cloud's appearance and its daytime invisibility, while simultaneously demolishing his mass calculation, because a cloud that behaves like a noctilucent cloud requires noctilucent-level water content, not cirrus-level water content.

But Rostron then uses this fact to argue against the rocket hypothesis. Here's the problem: the rocket hypothesis does not require natural moisture. The entire premise of the rocket explanation is that the Thor, when destroyed at 44 kilometers, '''''introduced''''' water and combustion products into an environment that would not otherwise contain them. That's precisely why the cloud appeared where natural clouds don't.

Rostron's atmospheric moisture argument doesn't undermine the rocket hypothesis. It actually explains why the rocket hypothesis is ''necessary'' — because something had to put water up there. His own analysis establishes that the cloud required an external source of water, then pivots to arguing the rocket couldn't have been that source. But he never closes the loop on what that source was. He's eliminated natural formation and claimed to eliminate the rocket. What he hasn't done is identify a third candidate. "God did it" is not a third candidate in a root cause analysis — it's an admission that the analysis is over.
----

== The Mass Calculation: Critical Omissions ==
This is where Rostron's engineering rigour breaks down most clearly, in two separate ways.

=== Error One: The Wrong Rocket Component ===
Rostron's key quantitative argument runs as follows: he estimates the cloud required approximately 2.2 million pounds — which he later corrects to approximately 3 million pounds [4:18:44] — of water to form. He then turns his attention to the Castor-1 solid rocket boosters attached to the Thor. Based on his own dimensional measurements, he calculates roughly 12,000 pounds of solid propellant per booster [~2:59:38–3:01:50]. Three boosters, therefore about 36,000 pounds total. That's vastly less than 2.2 million pounds of water. Ergo, the rocket couldn't have done it.

The problem is that Rostron has analysed the wrong part of the rocket — and then stopped.

The Thrust Augmented Thor-Agena that was destroyed on February 28, 1963 was primarily a liquid-fueled vehicle. Its main engine burned RP-1 kerosene with liquid oxygen. The Castor-1 solid boosters were strap-on assist motors that augmented thrust during the initial phase of flight. Rostron lists the main engine propellants at [4:29:33]: liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene. He never calculates their water output.

We will return to what that calculation actually yields. But first, there is a separate problem with his booster analysis.

=== Error Two: The Booster Mass Overstatement ===
Rostron's figure of 12,000 pounds per Castor-1 booster came from his own back-of-the-envelope calculation based on physical dimensions. The published specifications tell a different story. The Castor-1 (TX-33-52) had a gross mass of approximately '''3,852 kilograms (8,492 pounds)''' per unit, with a propellant mass of '''3,317 kilograms (7,313 pounds)''' per unit. Rostron overstated the per-booster propellant load by roughly 64% compared to the published propellant mass figure.

He acknowledges this correction himself at [4:18:44], revising his total figure upward to approximately 3 million pounds — but the revision addresses the cloud's water requirement, not his error in the booster propellant estimate. Even with his overstated 12,000-pound-per-booster figure, the solid propellant total of ~36,000 pounds falls more than fifty times short of his 2.2-million-pound benchmark. The overstatement doesn't change the conclusion of his argument, but it demonstrates that a calculation he presents as rigorously engineered was built on unmeasured inputs.
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== The Actual Launch Timeline: What Was Burning at 44 Kilometers ==
To understand why the main engine matters so much, it's necessary to trace what actually happened on February 28, 1963, based on primary sources.

The rocket in question was a '''Thrust Augmented Thor (TAT)-Agena D''' configuration. The TAT stage consisted of a Thor liquid-fueled core with three Castor-1 solid rocket motors clamped to its exterior at 120° intervals.

'''The flight sequence, based on NASA technical documentation and contemporary reporting:'''

'''The vehicle configuration''' was a two-stage stack. The TAT (Thor with three solid strap-on motors) formed the first stage. Atop it sat the '''Agena D second stage''', enclosed in a fibreglass clamshell shroud protecting the payload. The Agena's engine used two hypergolic propellants — unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) as fuel and inhibited red fuming nitric acid (IRFNA) as oxidizer. Hypergolic propellants ignite spontaneously on contact with each other; no ignition system is required. The Agena carried approximately '''14,900 kilograms (32,850 pounds)''' of propellant. It was designed to ignite only after Thor burnout and stage separation — an event that never occurred in this mission.

'''T+0 seconds — Liftoff.''' All engines ignite simultaneously: the Thor main engine (756 kilonewtons of thrust, burning liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene) and all three Castor-1 solid motors (each producing approximately 238 kilonewtons of thrust, for a combined solid boost of about 713 kN). The Agena second stage sits inert above, fully fuelled.

'''T+28 seconds — Solid motor full-thrust phase ends.''' According to the NASA post-flight report for the OGO-IV TAT-Agena mission (NASA TM X-1932), the solid motors "operate at full thrust for approximately 28 seconds and then decay to zero thrust in approximately the next 14 seconds." The motors are thrust-decaying from this point, but they are not yet exhausted.

'''T+42 seconds — Solid motor burnout.''' The solid propellant is fully consumed. The Castor-1 cases — now empty metal shells — remain physically clamped to the Thor's engine section. Per the same NASA document, "jettison of the expended solid motor cases occurs at about T+65 seconds." The rocket continues upward on main engine thrust alone, carrying the dead weight of three empty booster casings.

'''T+52 to T+60 seconds — Flight control malfunction.''' According to ''Missiles and Rockets'' magazine (March 11, 1963), the vehicle experienced a guidance or control failure and veered off its intended course before the T+65 second jettison sequence could execute.

'''T+52 to T+60 seconds — Range Safety Officer destroys the vehicle''', at approximately '''44 kilometers altitude''', before the scheduled booster jettison could occur. The destruct charges blew open the main liquid propellant tanks. The resulting explosion vaporized the vehicle, including the still-attached (but empty) Castor-1 casings — and the fully-loaded Agena second stage sitting above them. Because the Agena's UDMH and nitric acid are hypergolic, they ignited spontaneously the moment the destruct charges ruptured their tanks and the propellants made contact. The Agena's entire propellant load — never burned during the mission — combusted in the explosion at 44 kilometers.

There are therefore three distinct points to note: '''first''', the solid booster propellant had been completely exhausted for somewhere between 10 and 18 seconds before the explosion. '''Second''', what Rostron analysed — 36,000 pounds of solid propellant — was not present at 44 kilometers. Those motors had fired themselves out. The empty casings reached 44 kilometers as inert structural debris.

'''Third''', the propellants chemically active at 44 kilometers when the vehicle was destroyed came from two sources: the Thor main engine, still burning, and the Agena second stage, fully loaded and hypergolic.
----

== The Two Calculations Rostron Never Performed ==

=== Source One: The Thor Main Engine ===
The Thor main engine was designed for a burn duration of approximately '''165 seconds''' of powered flight. It burned liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene at a combined mass flow rate of roughly '''273 kilograms per second''', at an oxidizer-to-fuel ratio of approximately 2.25:1.

'''Total propellant loaded:'''

* RP-1 kerosene: approximately 13,874 kilograms (30,590 pounds)
* Liquid oxygen: approximately 31,217 kilograms (68,830 pounds)
* '''Total: approximately 45,091 kilograms (99,420 pounds)'''

At the time of destruction — estimated at T+52 to T+60 seconds, approximately 31–36% of the way through the engine's designed burn time — the following propellant remained in the tanks:
{| class="wikitable"
!Destruction time
!RP-1 remaining
!LOX remaining
!Total remaining
|-
|T+52s
|~9,506 kg (20,960 lbs)
|~21,389 kg (47,160 lbs)
|~30,895 kg (68,100 lbs)
|-
|T+60s
|~8,834 kg (19,480 lbs)
|~19,877 kg (43,830 lbs)
|~28,711 kg (63,300 lbs)
|}
'''Best estimate: approximately 29,000–31,000 kilograms (64,000–68,000 pounds) of unspent Thor propellant at the moment of destruction.'''

RP-1 is a refined kerosene with the approximate molecular formula C₁₂H₂₄. When burned with liquid oxygen, the combustion reaction is:

'''C₁₂H₂₄ + 18O₂ → 12CO₂ + 12H₂O'''

This yields a water production ratio of approximately '''1.286 kilograms of water per kilogram of RP-1 burned'''.

When the destruct charges ruptured the propellant tanks, the LOX and RP-1 mixed and combusted. Because the remaining propellants were in almost exactly the correct mixture ratio for complete combustion (a natural consequence of the engine having burned them at a fixed 2.25:1 ratio throughout the flight), combustion of the available RP-1 was largely complete.

'''Estimated water from Thor main engine:'''
{| class="wikitable"
!Destruction time
!RP-1 available
!Water produced
|-
|T+52s
|~9,506 kg
|'''~12,225 kg (26,960 lbs)'''
|-
|T+60s
|~8,834 kg
|'''~11,360 kg (25,050 lbs)'''
|}

=== Source Two: The Agena D Second Stage ===
Rostron lists the main engine liquid propellants at [4:29:33] and moves past them. He never mentions the second stage at all.

The Agena D was fully loaded with approximately '''14,900 kilograms (32,850 pounds)''' of propellant when the vehicle was destroyed. It had never been ignited — the Agena was not designed to fire until after Thor burnout and stage separation, which never occurred. Every kilogram of its propellant was still aboard at 44 kilometers.

The Agena burned UDMH (unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine, formula (CH₃)₂N₂H₂) with inhibited red fuming nitric acid as oxidizer. These are hypergolic propellants — they ignite spontaneously on contact, requiring no ignition system. When the destruct charges ruptured the Agena's tanks, the UDMH and nitric acid mixed and combusted immediately.

UDMH combustion produces carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water. With UDMH comprising approximately 25–28% of the total propellant load by mass (roughly 3,700–4,200 kilograms), and a water yield of approximately '''1.2 kilograms of water per kilogram of UDMH burned''', the Agena's contribution is:<blockquote>~3,700–4,200 kg UDMH × 1.2 kg H₂O/kg = '''~4,400–5,000 kilograms of water (~9,700–11,000 lbs)'''</blockquote>

=== Combined Water Production ===
{| class="wikitable"
!Source
!Water produced
|-
|Thor main engine (RP-1, unspent at T+52–60s)
|~11,400–12,200 kg
|-
|Agena D second stage (UDMH, fully loaded, hypergolic)
|~4,400–5,000 kg
|-
|'''Total'''
|'''~15,800–17,200 kg (~34,800–37,900 lbs)'''
|}
This is the combined source term Rostron never calculated. Against his own cloud volume of 27 billion cubic meters, this water output is decisive — as the density comparison below makes clear.
----

== The Cloud Density Contradiction: Rostron's Framework Collapses His Own Math ==
The water calculation above becomes even more decisive when examined alongside what Rostron himself says about why the cloud was invisible during the day.

Throughout the presentation, Rostron correctly invokes the physics of noctilucent clouds to explain one of the cloud's most striking features: nobody saw it until sunset. He explains the physics accurately [~2:54:35, 4:59:14]. Noctilucent clouds are visible only at twilight because they are too tenuous to scatter enough light to be seen against a bright daytime sky. They only become visible once the background sky darkens and sunlight catches them from far below the horizon. He uses this same principle to explain why the Flagstaff cloud was invisible during the day and only appeared as the sun went down.

This is correct. But Rostron never follows that logic into his density calculation.

Noctilucent clouds are extraordinarily tenuous. Their ice water content is typically on the order of '''10⁻⁵ to 10⁻⁶ grams per cubic meter''' — roughly one thousand to one hundred thousand times less dense than an ordinary cirrus cloud. That tenuousness is precisely why they are invisible in daylight. A cirrus cloud, with its density of around 0.03 to 0.05 g/m³, is clearly visible in full sunlight. Something only visible during a narrow twilight window must be far, far thinner.

Rostron's mass calculation uses a cirrus cloud density of '''0.05 grams per cubic meter (1/20 gram per cubic meter)''' [~2:49:05]. That is how he arrives at his 2.2 million pound figure. But he has already established in the same presentation that the cloud behaved like a noctilucent cloud in terms of its visibility. You cannot simultaneously argue that a cloud is too tenuous to be seen in daylight ''and'' assume cirrus-level ice density when calculating how much water formed it. Those two claims contradict each other directly.

The numbers expose the contradiction precisely:

'''At cirrus density (0.05 g/m³) — Rostron's assumption:'''<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.05 g/m³ = 1,350,000,000 grams = '''1,350,000 kilograms (~2.98 million pounds)'''</blockquote>This is the figure Rostron uses to argue the rocket was inadequate.

'''At a conservative intermediate density (10⁻⁴ g/m³) — 500 times less dense than cirrus:'''<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.0001 g/m³ = 2,700,000 grams = '''2,700 kilograms (~5,950 pounds)'''</blockquote>'''At actual noctilucent cloud density (10⁻⁵ g/m³) — consistent with twilight-only visibility:'''<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.00001 g/m³ = 270,000 grams = '''270 kilograms (~595 pounds)'''</blockquote>The combined water output of the Thor main engine and the Agena second stage — approximately '''15,800 to 17,200 kilograms''' — exceeds:

* The noctilucent requirement (270 kg) by a factor of '''roughly 60'''
* The conservative intermediate requirement (2,700 kg) by a factor of '''roughly 6'''

The three solid booster casings contribute nothing, since their propellant was exhausted before the explosion.

The only way Rostron's mass calculation works is if you use cirrus cloud density. And using cirrus cloud density is logically incompatible with his own explanation for why the cloud wasn't visible during the day. A root cause analysis cannot select the physical properties of the cloud based on which properties support the desired conclusion. Either the cloud was dense enough to behave like a cirrus cloud — visible in daylight, requiring 2.98 million pounds of water — or it was tenuous enough to behave like a noctilucent cloud — invisible in daylight, requiring hundreds of pounds of water. It cannot be both.
----

== The Anachronistic Wind Data ==
One of the more striking methodological problems in the series is Rostron's use of earth.nullschool.net — a real-time global wind visualization website — to argue about what the winds were doing at high altitude on February 28, 1963.

He pulls up current wind patterns above Arizona, shows that the winds at 10 millibar altitude (roughly 30 km) are around 65 km/h in his analysis session's present, and argues these speeds are insufficient to carry rocket material from Vandenberg to Flagstaff in 3.5 hours. He acknowledges he's watched the website "over the years" and noted seasonal patterns, but uses a single present-day reading as if it characterises the wind field on a specific day more than sixty years earlier.

Wind patterns at stratospheric and mesospheric altitudes are highly variable. They change with season, with quasi-biennial oscillation cycles, with individual synoptic events. Knowing what the winds are doing today tells you nothing reliable about what they were doing on a specific day in February 1963.

Dr. McDonald, who actually collected observational data at the time, described the measured wind speeds as "tantalizingly close" to what would be required. Rostron cites this but dismisses it on the grounds that McDonald "couldn't figure out how it would work" — which is not the same as saying it couldn't work. McDonald was being scientifically conservative. Rostron is substituting present-day data for past atmospheric conditions. These are not equivalent moves.
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== A Confusion About Wind Direction ==
Rostron also argues that the wind direction was wrong for the rocket hypothesis. He says the cloud was observed to be "moving towards the southeast," and from this calculates a required wind origin of about 310 degrees (northwest). He then claims that a northwest wind at Vandenberg would carry debris toward Baja California, not Flagstaff.

But Vandenberg Air Force Base is located to the ''west-northwest'' of Flagstaff. Flagstaff is roughly to the ''east-northeast'' of Vandenberg. A wind blowing from the northwest — pushing things toward the southeast — would carry material from Vandenberg's vicinity ''toward'' the direction of Arizona. Rostron's claim that such a wind would instead send debris toward Baja California appears to reflect a geographical confusion about the relative positions of these two locations. His own wind direction evidence may be consistent with the rocket hypothesis rather than contradictory to it.
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== The Question Rostron Never Asks ==
Here is what is missing from five hours and fifty-four minutes of technically detailed presentation: any engagement with William Branham's own testimony about the cloud.

Rostron establishes — or attempts to establish — that the cloud was not produced by a Thor rocket. He never mentions that:

'''Branham claimed to be standing directly underneath the cloud when it appeared.''' He wasn't. The cloud appeared over Flagstaff. By Branham's own account of his activities on that trip, he was approximately 200 miles away near Sunset Mountain and Rattlesnake Mesa.

'''Branham stated that the cloud formed when the angels left him.''' The cloud appeared on February 28. Branham's own sermons describe the angelic visitation as occurring on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the departure of angels from a meeting that had not yet taken place.

'''Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his ministry until he was shown the photograph in ''Life'' Magazine''' — months after the cloud appeared. If he had witnessed angels ascending into the sky and forming that cloud, that silence is inexplicable.

'''A second cloud is visible in the scientific photographs.''' Documented in ''Science'' magazine (April 1963), a companion cloud appears to the northwest of the main cloud, consistent with debris dispersal from a single source. No version of the angelic account addresses a second cloud.

These are not peripheral criticisms. They are facts drawn from Branham's own recordings and from the documented scientific record at the time. Whether the cloud was caused by a rocket, a natural phenomenon, or something else entirely, Branham's own account of his involvement with it cannot be reconciled with the known facts. Rostron's entire analysis — even if every calculation were correct — only defends the possibility that the cloud was unusual. It does nothing to explain why Branham's story changed over time, why he placed himself at the cloud's formation when he was demonstrably 200 miles away, or why he first learned of the cloud from a magazine.
----

== What the Presentation Actually Establishes ==
To be precise about what Rostron's analysis shows and doesn't show:

He correctly demonstrates that natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers through ordinary atmospheric processes. This is real atmospheric science and he explains it clearly.

He correctly notes that the cloud was unusual and that McDonald found it difficult to explain within the data available to him in 1963.

He raises legitimate questions about whether the Castor-1 solid boosters ''alone'' could account for the cloud — but only by ignoring the vehicle's primary propulsion system, which happened to be actively burning when the rocket was destroyed, and by applying a cloud density drawn from a completely different class of cloud than the one he invokes to explain the cloud's visibility behavior.

What his analysis does not establish is that the rocket could not have caused the cloud. His wind speed argument uses data from the present day. His mass calculation omits the main engine and applies an internally contradictory density figure. His booster propellant estimate overstates the published specifications by 64%. His moisture argument supports rather than undermines the rocket hypothesis. And his conclusion — that supernatural causation is therefore implied — does not follow from his premises even if those premises were correct.

The actual calculation, done with the correct rocket components and an internally consistent cloud density:
{| class="wikitable"
!Cloud density
!Water required (27 billion m³ cloud)
!Total rocket water available
!Comparison
|-
|Cirrus — 0.05 g/m³ (Rostron's assumption)
|~1,350,000 kg
|~16,500 kg
|Rocket: ~1.2% of requirement
|-
|10⁻⁴ g/m³ (conservative; 500× less than cirrus)
|~2,700 kg
|~16,500 kg
|Rocket: '''~6× more than needed'''
|-
|Noctilucent — 10⁻⁵ g/m³ (consistent with twilight-only visibility)
|~270 kg
|~16,500 kg
|Rocket: '''~60× more than needed'''
|}
The only density at which the rocket "doesn't work" is cirrus density. And cirrus density is precisely the density that is incompatible with Rostron's own explanation for why no one saw the cloud during the day.
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== A Word for Those Who Watched the Video ==
If you've sat through this series, or heard someone cite it, or had it shared with you as the definitive answer to critics of the Message, you deserve to know what it actually proved and what it didn't.

Rostron is a capable engineer who spent months on this project. He clearly cares deeply about his faith, and he is trying to be rigorous. That's admirable. But rigour has to go all the way through — including to the question of whether the person whose testimony you're defending actually told a consistent, verifiable story.

The scientific question of what caused the cloud is genuinely interesting. But the problem with Branham's cloud story was never primarily scientific. It was always about why a man who claimed to stand under a cloud was 200 miles away when it appeared, why the cloud preceded his vision's fulfillment by eight days, and why he never mentioned any of this until a magazine brought the photograph to his attention.

Those questions don't get answered by atmospheric physics. They get answered — or not answered — by Branham's own words.

The honest thing to do is listen to those words again, carefully, and ask whether the story holds together. Not because critics want it to fail, but because the truth matters. A faith built on a story that doesn't hold up isn't safer for not being examined. It's just more fragile.
----

== Sources and Technical References ==

* '''NASA TM X-1932''' (December 1969), Lewis Research Center: ''Thrust Augmented Thor-Agena performance report, OGO-IV mission (July 28, 1967)''. Confirms solid motor burn time (~42 seconds: 28 seconds full thrust + 14 seconds thrust decay), planned jettison at T+65 seconds, and main engine propellant specifications. <nowiki>https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19700003428/downloads/19700003428.pdf</nowiki>
* '''''Missiles and Rockets''''' magazine, March 11, 1963: Reports the TAT-Agena flight malfunction at T+52–60 seconds, before the T+65-second jettison sequence, resulting in range safety destruct with booster casings still attached.
* '''Wikipedia: List of Thor and Delta launches (1960–1969)''': Destruction altitude of 44 kilometers for the February 28, 1963 launch. <nowiki>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Thor_and_Delta_launches_(1960%E2%80%931969)</nowiki>
* '''Bill Rostron''', ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'', Parts 1–3, March 2020. Tabernacle of the Lord, Townville, South Carolina. Timestamp references in this article refer to elapsed time in the combined recording.<br />

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[[Category:Prophecies]]
[[Category:Visions]]
[[Category:Honesty and Credibility]]
[[Category:Supernatural vindication]]

A critical analysis of Bill Rostron's presentation on the Cloud

2026-06-18T19:22:56Z

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{{Template:Cloud}}

= Five Hours in Defense of a Make-Believe Story =
<blockquote>''"When it's all said and done you'll either have to say one or two things — I don't know what that is, it's a mystery — and brother Bill will say enough so that the world will have to admit we don't have an answer. But the Bride has an answer."'' — Pastor Luke Gibson, introducing Bill Rostron's series</blockquote>Bill Rostron is exactly the kind of person Message believers need making arguments on their behalf. He spent 46 years in the nuclear power industry doing quality assurance and root cause analysis. He knows how to build a chain of evidence. He takes his work seriously. And in his nearly six-hour series ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'' (March 2020), recorded at the Tabernacle of the Lord in Townville, South Carolina, he applies genuine technical skill to the question of whether a Thor rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base could have produced the famous cloud over Flagstaff on February 28, 1963.

The result is a presentation that is methodologically serious in parts, fatally flawed in others, and — most importantly — never once asks the question that actually matters.
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== What Rostron Claims, and What He Admits He Can't Prove ==
Start with what Rostron himself says at the close of his series:<blockquote>''"All of the things we've said today doesn't prove that God did it, but it sure does prove that man didn't do it."''</blockquote>That's an honest statement. Credit where it's due. Rostron is not claiming to have scientifically proven a supernatural event. He's claiming to have eliminated the rocket as a natural cause.

But by the end of the evening, Pastor Gibson is telling the congregation that they don't need an answer — they already have one. The crowd is singing. The cloud has become proof of Revelation 10:1–7 and divine confirmation of William Branham's ministry. The gap between "man didn't do it" and "God did it" has been closed by emotional momentum, not logic.

This is the first and most important error of the entire presentation. Ruling out one natural explanation does not establish supernatural causation. That logical gap is not a technicality — it is the entire structure of the argument. Rostron builds a case against the rocket, and the congregation quietly converts his inconclusive findings into proof of the miraculous. No one in the room challenges this move. It should be challenged.
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== The Self-Defeating Moisture Argument ==
Rostron spends significant time establishing a genuine point of atmospheric physics: natural moisture gets "wrung out" of the air as altitude increases, and by the time you reach the stratosphere and mesosphere, the water vapor content is so low — he puts it at about five parts per million — that cloud formation is essentially impossible under normal conditions.

He's right about this. Natural clouds do not generally form at 43 kilometers. This is not disputed. Noctilucent clouds can form at at approximately '''76 to 85 kilometers altitude.''' This is worth noting because Rostron borrows noctilucent cloud ''physics'' (twilight-only visibility due to extreme tenuousness) to explain the Flagstaff cloud's behavior, but he's applying the analogy to a cloud at a completely different altitude. The Flagstaff cloud sits in a region where neither ordinary clouds nor noctilucent clouds naturally form, which is exactly what makes the rocket explanation compelling. The Thor's explosion introduced water into an environment that had no business having a cloud at all, and the resulting ice crystal dispersal at 44 km would behave optically much like a noctilucent cloud: extremely tenuous, catching oblique sunlight, invisible against a bright sky, appearing only at twilight.

In other words, the noctilucent analogy actually ''helps'' the rocket hypothesis far more than it helps Rostron's argument. It explains the cloud's appearance and its daytime invisibility, while simultaneously demolishing his mass calculation, because a cloud that behaves like a noctilucent cloud requires noctilucent-level water content, not cirrus-level water content.

But Rostron then uses this fact to argue against the rocket hypothesis. Here's the problem: the rocket hypothesis does not require natural moisture. The entire premise of the rocket explanation is that the Thor, when destroyed at 44 kilometers, '''''introduced''''' water and combustion products into an environment that would not otherwise contain them. That's precisely why the cloud appeared where natural clouds don't.

Rostron's atmospheric moisture argument doesn't undermine the rocket hypothesis. It actually explains why the rocket hypothesis is ''necessary'' — because something had to put water up there. His own analysis establishes that the cloud required an external source of water, then pivots to arguing the rocket couldn't have been that source. But he never closes the loop on what that source was. He's eliminated natural formation and claimed to eliminate the rocket. What he hasn't done is identify a third candidate. "God did it" is not a third candidate in a root cause analysis — it's an admission that the analysis is over.
----

== The Mass Calculation: Critical Omissions ==
This is where Rostron's engineering rigour breaks down most clearly, in two separate ways.

=== Error One: The Wrong Rocket Component ===
Rostron's key quantitative argument runs as follows: he estimates the cloud required approximately 2.2 million pounds — which he later corrects to approximately 3 million pounds [4:18:44] — of water to form. He then turns his attention to the Castor-1 solid rocket boosters attached to the Thor. Based on his own dimensional measurements, he calculates roughly 12,000 pounds of solid propellant per booster [~2:59:38–3:01:50]. Three boosters, therefore about 36,000 pounds total. That's vastly less than 2.2 million pounds of water. Ergo, the rocket couldn't have done it.

The problem is that Rostron has analysed the wrong part of the rocket — and then stopped.

The Thrust Augmented Thor-Agena that was destroyed on February 28, 1963 was primarily a liquid-fueled vehicle. Its main engine burned RP-1 kerosene with liquid oxygen. The Castor-1 solid boosters were strap-on assist motors that augmented thrust during the initial phase of flight. Rostron lists the main engine propellants at [4:29:33]: liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene. He never calculates their water output.

We will return to what that calculation actually yields. But first, there is a separate problem with his booster analysis.

=== Error Two: The Booster Mass Overstatement ===
Rostron's figure of 12,000 pounds per Castor-1 booster came from his own back-of-the-envelope calculation based on physical dimensions. The published specifications tell a different story. The Castor-1 (TX-33-52) had a gross mass of approximately '''3,852 kilograms (8,492 pounds)''' per unit, with a propellant mass of '''3,317 kilograms (7,313 pounds)''' per unit. Rostron overstated the per-booster propellant load by roughly 64% compared to the published propellant mass figure.

He acknowledges this correction himself at [4:18:44], revising his total figure upward to approximately 3 million pounds — but the revision addresses the cloud's water requirement, not his error in the booster propellant estimate. Even with his overstated 12,000-pound-per-booster figure, the solid propellant total of ~36,000 pounds falls more than fifty times short of his 2.2-million-pound benchmark. The overstatement doesn't change the conclusion of his argument, but it demonstrates that a calculation he presents as rigorously engineered was built on unmeasured inputs.
----

== The Actual Launch Timeline: What Was Burning at 44 Kilometers ==
To understand why the main engine matters so much, it's necessary to trace what actually happened on February 28, 1963, based on primary sources.

The rocket in question was a '''Thrust Augmented Thor (TAT)-Agena D''' configuration. The TAT stage consisted of a Thor liquid-fueled core with three Castor-1 solid rocket motors clamped to its exterior at 120° intervals.

'''The flight sequence, based on NASA technical documentation and contemporary reporting:'''

'''The vehicle configuration''' was a two-stage stack. The TAT (Thor with three solid strap-on motors) formed the first stage. Atop it sat the '''Agena D second stage''', enclosed in a fibreglass clamshell shroud protecting the payload. The Agena's engine used two hypergolic propellants — unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) as fuel and inhibited red fuming nitric acid (IRFNA) as oxidizer. Hypergolic propellants ignite spontaneously on contact with each other; no ignition system is required. The Agena carried approximately '''14,900 kilograms (32,850 pounds)''' of propellant. It was designed to ignite only after Thor burnout and stage separation — an event that never occurred in this mission.

'''T+0 seconds — Liftoff.''' All engines ignite simultaneously: the Thor main engine (756 kilonewtons of thrust, burning liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene) and all three Castor-1 solid motors (each producing approximately 238 kilonewtons of thrust, for a combined solid boost of about 713 kN). The Agena second stage sits inert above, fully fuelled.

'''T+28 seconds — Solid motor full-thrust phase ends.''' According to the NASA post-flight report for the OGO-IV TAT-Agena mission (NASA TM X-1932), the solid motors "operate at full thrust for approximately 28 seconds and then decay to zero thrust in approximately the next 14 seconds." The motors are thrust-decaying from this point, but they are not yet exhausted.

'''T+42 seconds — Solid motor burnout.''' The solid propellant is fully consumed. The Castor-1 cases — now empty metal shells — remain physically clamped to the Thor's engine section. Per the same NASA document, "jettison of the expended solid motor cases occurs at about T+65 seconds." The rocket continues upward on main engine thrust alone, carrying the dead weight of three empty booster casings.

'''T+52 to T+60 seconds — Flight control malfunction.''' According to ''Missiles and Rockets'' magazine (March 11, 1963), the vehicle experienced a guidance or control failure and veered off its intended course before the T+65 second jettison sequence could execute.

'''T+52 to T+60 seconds — Range Safety Officer destroys the vehicle''', at approximately '''44 kilometers altitude''', before the scheduled booster jettison could occur. The destruct charges blew open the main liquid propellant tanks. The resulting explosion vaporized the vehicle, including the still-attached (but empty) Castor-1 casings — and the fully-loaded Agena second stage sitting above them. Because the Agena's UDMH and nitric acid are hypergolic, they ignited spontaneously the moment the destruct charges ruptured their tanks and the propellants made contact. The Agena's entire propellant load — never burned during the mission — combusted in the explosion at 44 kilometers.

There are therefore three distinct points to note: '''first''', the solid booster propellant had been completely exhausted for somewhere between 10 and 18 seconds before the explosion. '''Second''', what Rostron analysed — 36,000 pounds of solid propellant — was not present at 44 kilometers. Those motors had fired themselves out. The empty casings reached 44 kilometers as inert structural debris.

'''Third''', the propellants chemically active at 44 kilometers when the vehicle was destroyed came from two sources: the Thor main engine, still burning, and the Agena second stage, fully loaded and hypergolic.
----

== The Two Calculations Rostron Never Performed ==

=== Source One: The Thor Main Engine ===
The Thor main engine was designed for a burn duration of approximately '''165 seconds''' of powered flight. It burned liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene at a combined mass flow rate of roughly '''273 kilograms per second''', at an oxidizer-to-fuel ratio of approximately 2.25:1.

'''Total propellant loaded:'''

* RP-1 kerosene: approximately 13,874 kilograms (30,590 pounds)
* Liquid oxygen: approximately 31,217 kilograms (68,830 pounds)
* '''Total: approximately 45,091 kilograms (99,420 pounds)'''

At the time of destruction — estimated at T+52 to T+60 seconds, approximately 31–36% of the way through the engine's designed burn time — the following propellant remained in the tanks:
{| class="wikitable"
!Destruction time
!RP-1 remaining
!LOX remaining
!Total remaining
|-
|T+52s
|~9,506 kg (20,960 lbs)
|~21,389 kg (47,160 lbs)
|~30,895 kg (68,100 lbs)
|-
|T+60s
|~8,834 kg (19,480 lbs)
|~19,877 kg (43,830 lbs)
|~28,711 kg (63,300 lbs)
|}
'''Best estimate: approximately 29,000–31,000 kilograms (64,000–68,000 pounds) of unspent Thor propellant at the moment of destruction.'''

RP-1 is a refined kerosene with the approximate molecular formula C₁₂H₂₄. When burned with liquid oxygen, the combustion reaction is:

'''C₁₂H₂₄ + 18O₂ → 12CO₂ + 12H₂O'''

This yields a water production ratio of approximately '''1.286 kilograms of water per kilogram of RP-1 burned'''.

When the destruct charges ruptured the propellant tanks, the LOX and RP-1 mixed and combusted. Because the remaining propellants were in almost exactly the correct mixture ratio for complete combustion (a natural consequence of the engine having burned them at a fixed 2.25:1 ratio throughout the flight), combustion of the available RP-1 was largely complete.

'''Estimated water from Thor main engine:'''
{| class="wikitable"
!Destruction time
!RP-1 available
!Water produced
|-
|T+52s
|~9,506 kg
|'''~12,225 kg (26,960 lbs)'''
|-
|T+60s
|~8,834 kg
|'''~11,360 kg (25,050 lbs)'''
|}

=== Source Two: The Agena D Second Stage ===
Rostron lists the main engine liquid propellants at [4:29:33] and moves past them. He never mentions the second stage at all.

The Agena D was fully loaded with approximately '''14,900 kilograms (32,850 pounds)''' of propellant when the vehicle was destroyed. It had never been ignited — the Agena was not designed to fire until after Thor burnout and stage separation, which never occurred. Every kilogram of its propellant was still aboard at 44 kilometers.

The Agena burned UDMH (unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine, formula (CH₃)₂N₂H₂) with inhibited red fuming nitric acid as oxidizer. These are hypergolic propellants — they ignite spontaneously on contact, requiring no ignition system. When the destruct charges ruptured the Agena's tanks, the UDMH and nitric acid mixed and combusted immediately.

UDMH combustion produces carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water. With UDMH comprising approximately 25–28% of the total propellant load by mass (roughly 3,700–4,200 kilograms), and a water yield of approximately '''1.2 kilograms of water per kilogram of UDMH burned''', the Agena's contribution is:<blockquote>~3,700–4,200 kg UDMH × 1.2 kg H₂O/kg = '''~4,400–5,000 kilograms of water (~9,700–11,000 lbs)'''</blockquote>

=== Combined Water Production ===
{| class="wikitable"
!Source
!Water produced
|-
|Thor main engine (RP-1, unspent at T+52–60s)
|~11,400–12,200 kg
|-
|Agena D second stage (UDMH, fully loaded, hypergolic)
|~4,400–5,000 kg
|-
|'''Total'''
|'''~15,800–17,200 kg (~34,800–37,900 lbs)'''
|}
This is the combined source term Rostron never calculated. Against his own cloud volume of 27 billion cubic meters, this water output is decisive — as the density comparison below makes clear.
----

== The Cloud Density Contradiction: Rostron's Framework Collapses His Own Math ==
The water calculation above becomes even more decisive when examined alongside what Rostron himself says about why the cloud was invisible during the day.

Throughout the presentation, Rostron correctly invokes the physics of noctilucent clouds to explain one of the cloud's most striking features: nobody saw it until sunset. He explains the physics accurately [~2:54:35, 4:59:14]. Noctilucent clouds are visible only at twilight because they are too tenuous to scatter enough light to be seen against a bright daytime sky. They only become visible once the background sky darkens and sunlight catches them from far below the horizon. He uses this same principle to explain why the Flagstaff cloud was invisible during the day and only appeared as the sun went down.

This is correct. But Rostron never follows that logic into his density calculation.

Noctilucent clouds are extraordinarily tenuous. Their ice water content is typically on the order of '''10⁻⁵ to 10⁻⁶ grams per cubic meter''' — roughly one thousand to one hundred thousand times less dense than an ordinary cirrus cloud. That tenuousness is precisely why they are invisible in daylight. A cirrus cloud, with its density of around 0.03 to 0.05 g/m³, is clearly visible in full sunlight. Something only visible during a narrow twilight window must be far, far thinner.

Rostron's mass calculation uses a cirrus cloud density of '''0.05 grams per cubic meter (1/20 gram per cubic meter)''' [~2:49:05]. That is how he arrives at his 2.2 million pound figure. But he has already established in the same presentation that the cloud behaved like a noctilucent cloud in terms of its visibility. You cannot simultaneously argue that a cloud is too tenuous to be seen in daylight ''and'' assume cirrus-level ice density when calculating how much water formed it. Those two claims contradict each other directly.

The numbers expose the contradiction precisely:

'''At cirrus density (0.05 g/m³) — Rostron's assumption:'''<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.05 g/m³ = 1,350,000,000 grams = '''1,350,000 kilograms (~2.98 million pounds)'''</blockquote>This is the figure Rostron uses to argue the rocket was inadequate.

'''At a conservative intermediate density (10⁻⁴ g/m³) — 500 times less dense than cirrus:'''<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.0001 g/m³ = 2,700,000 grams = '''2,700 kilograms (~5,950 pounds)'''</blockquote>'''At actual noctilucent cloud density (10⁻⁵ g/m³) — consistent with twilight-only visibility:'''<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.00001 g/m³ = 270,000 grams = '''270 kilograms (~595 pounds)'''</blockquote>The combined water output of the Thor main engine and the Agena second stage — approximately '''15,800 to 17,200 kilograms''' — exceeds:

* The noctilucent requirement (270 kg) by a factor of '''roughly 60'''
* The conservative intermediate requirement (2,700 kg) by a factor of '''roughly 6'''

The three solid booster casings contribute nothing, since their propellant was exhausted before the explosion.

The only way Rostron's mass calculation works is if you use cirrus cloud density. And using cirrus cloud density is logically incompatible with his own explanation for why the cloud wasn't visible during the day. A root cause analysis cannot select the physical properties of the cloud based on which properties support the desired conclusion. Either the cloud was dense enough to behave like a cirrus cloud — visible in daylight, requiring 2.98 million pounds of water — or it was tenuous enough to behave like a noctilucent cloud — invisible in daylight, requiring hundreds of pounds of water. It cannot be both.
----

== The Anachronistic Wind Data ==
One of the more striking methodological problems in the series is Rostron's use of earth.nullschool.net — a real-time global wind visualization website — to argue about what the winds were doing at high altitude on February 28, 1963.

He pulls up current wind patterns above Arizona, shows that the winds at 10 millibar altitude (roughly 30 km) are around 65 km/h in his analysis session's present, and argues these speeds are insufficient to carry rocket material from Vandenberg to Flagstaff in 3.5 hours. He acknowledges he's watched the website "over the years" and noted seasonal patterns, but uses a single present-day reading as if it characterises the wind field on a specific day more than sixty years earlier.

Wind patterns at stratospheric and mesospheric altitudes are highly variable. They change with season, with quasi-biennial oscillation cycles, with individual synoptic events. Knowing what the winds are doing today tells you nothing reliable about what they were doing on a specific day in February 1963.

Dr. McDonald, who actually collected observational data at the time, described the measured wind speeds as "tantalizingly close" to what would be required. Rostron cites this but dismisses it on the grounds that McDonald "couldn't figure out how it would work" — which is not the same as saying it couldn't work. McDonald was being scientifically conservative. Rostron is substituting present-day data for past atmospheric conditions. These are not equivalent moves.
----

== A Confusion About Wind Direction ==
Rostron also argues that the wind direction was wrong for the rocket hypothesis. He says the cloud was observed to be "moving towards the southeast," and from this calculates a required wind origin of about 310 degrees (northwest). He then claims that a northwest wind at Vandenberg would carry debris toward Baja California, not Flagstaff.

But Vandenberg Air Force Base is located to the ''west-northwest'' of Flagstaff. Flagstaff is roughly to the ''east-northeast'' of Vandenberg. A wind blowing from the northwest — pushing things toward the southeast — would carry material from Vandenberg's vicinity ''toward'' the direction of Arizona. Rostron's claim that such a wind would instead send debris toward Baja California appears to reflect a geographical confusion about the relative positions of these two locations. His own wind direction evidence may be consistent with the rocket hypothesis rather than contradictory to it.
----

== The Question Rostron Never Asks ==
Here is what is missing from five hours and fifty-four minutes of technically detailed presentation: any engagement with William Branham's own testimony about the cloud.

Rostron establishes — or attempts to establish — that the cloud was not produced by a Thor rocket. He never mentions that:

'''Branham claimed to be standing directly underneath the cloud when it appeared.''' He wasn't. The cloud appeared over Flagstaff. By Branham's own account of his activities on that trip, he was approximately 200 miles away near Sunset Mountain and Rattlesnake Mesa.

'''Branham stated that the cloud formed when the angels left him.''' The cloud appeared on February 28. Branham's own sermons describe the angelic visitation as occurring on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the departure of angels from a meeting that had not yet taken place.

'''Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his ministry until he was shown the photograph in ''Life'' Magazine''' — months after the cloud appeared. If he had witnessed angels ascending into the sky and forming that cloud, that silence is inexplicable.

'''A second cloud is visible in the scientific photographs.''' Documented in ''Science'' magazine (April 1963), a companion cloud appears to the northwest of the main cloud, consistent with debris dispersal from a single source. No version of the angelic account addresses a second cloud.

These are not peripheral criticisms. They are facts drawn from Branham's own recordings and from the documented scientific record at the time. Whether the cloud was caused by a rocket, a natural phenomenon, or something else entirely, Branham's own account of his involvement with it cannot be reconciled with the known facts. Rostron's entire analysis — even if every calculation were correct — only defends the possibility that the cloud was unusual. It does nothing to explain why Branham's story changed over time, why he placed himself at the cloud's formation when he was demonstrably 200 miles away, or why he first learned of the cloud from a magazine.
----

== What the Presentation Actually Establishes ==
To be precise about what Rostron's analysis shows and doesn't show:

He correctly demonstrates that natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers through ordinary atmospheric processes. This is real atmospheric science and he explains it clearly.

He correctly notes that the cloud was unusual and that McDonald found it difficult to explain within the data available to him in 1963.

He raises legitimate questions about whether the Castor-1 solid boosters ''alone'' could account for the cloud — but only by ignoring the vehicle's primary propulsion system, which happened to be actively burning when the rocket was destroyed, and by applying a cloud density drawn from a completely different class of cloud than the one he invokes to explain the cloud's visibility behavior.

What his analysis does not establish is that the rocket could not have caused the cloud. His wind speed argument uses data from the present day. His mass calculation omits the main engine and applies an internally contradictory density figure. His booster propellant estimate overstates the published specifications by 64%. His moisture argument supports rather than undermines the rocket hypothesis. And his conclusion — that supernatural causation is therefore implied — does not follow from his premises even if those premises were correct.

The actual calculation, done with the correct rocket components and an internally consistent cloud density:
{| class="wikitable"
!Cloud density
!Water required (27 billion m³ cloud)
!Total rocket water available
!Comparison
|-
|Cirrus — 0.05 g/m³ (Rostron's assumption)
|~1,350,000 kg
|~16,500 kg
|Rocket: ~1.2% of requirement
|-
|10⁻⁴ g/m³ (conservative; 500× less than cirrus)
|~2,700 kg
|~16,500 kg
|Rocket: '''~6× more than needed'''
|-
|Noctilucent — 10⁻⁵ g/m³ (consistent with twilight-only visibility)
|~270 kg
|~16,500 kg
|Rocket: '''~60× more than needed'''
|}
The only density at which the rocket "doesn't work" is cirrus density. And cirrus density is precisely the density that is incompatible with Rostron's own explanation for why no one saw the cloud during the day.
----

== A Word for Those Who Watched the Video ==
If you've sat through this series, or heard someone cite it, or had it shared with you as the definitive answer to critics of the Message, you deserve to know what it actually proved and what it didn't.

Rostron is a capable engineer who spent months on this project. He clearly cares deeply about his faith, and he is trying to be rigorous. That's admirable. But rigour has to go all the way through — including to the question of whether the person whose testimony you're defending actually told a consistent, verifiable story.

The scientific question of what caused the cloud is genuinely interesting. But the problem with Branham's cloud story was never primarily scientific. It was always about why a man who claimed to stand under a cloud was 200 miles away when it appeared, why the cloud preceded his vision's fulfillment by eight days, and why he never mentioned any of this until a magazine brought the photograph to his attention.

Those questions don't get answered by atmospheric physics. They get answered — or not answered — by Branham's own words.

The honest thing to do is listen to those words again, carefully, and ask whether the story holds together. Not because critics want it to fail, but because the truth matters. A faith built on a story that doesn't hold up isn't safer for not being examined. It's just more fragile.
----

== Sources and Technical References ==

* '''NASA TM X-1932''' (December 1969), Lewis Research Center: ''Thrust Augmented Thor-Agena performance report, OGO-IV mission (July 28, 1967)''. Confirms solid motor burn time (~42 seconds: 28 seconds full thrust + 14 seconds thrust decay), planned jettison at T+65 seconds, and main engine propellant specifications. <nowiki>https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19700003428/downloads/19700003428.pdf</nowiki>
* '''''Missiles and Rockets''''' magazine, March 11, 1963: Reports the TAT-Agena flight malfunction at T+52–60 seconds, before the T+65-second jettison sequence, resulting in range safety destruct with booster casings still attached.
* '''Wikipedia: List of Thor and Delta launches (1960–1969)''': Destruction altitude of 44 kilometers for the February 28, 1963 launch. <nowiki>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Thor_and_Delta_launches_(1960%E2%80%931969)</nowiki>
* '''Bill Rostron''', ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'', Parts 1–3, March 2020. Tabernacle of the Lord, Townville, South Carolina. Timestamp references in this article refer to elapsed time in the combined recording.<br />

=Evidence from the Branham Family=
{{Cloud Only Believe}}

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A critical analysis of Bill Rostron's presentation on the Cloud

2026-06-18T19:08:21Z

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= Five Hours in Defense of a Story Branham Never Told =
<blockquote>''"When it's all said and done you'll either have to say one or two things — I don't know what that is, it's a mystery — and brother Bill will say enough to that the world will have to admit we don't have an answer. But the Bride has an answer."'' — Pastor Luke Gibson, introducing Bill Rostron's series</blockquote>Bill Rostron is exactly the kind of person Message believers need making arguments on their behalf. He spent 46 years in the nuclear power industry doing quality assurance and root cause analysis. He knows how to build a chain of evidence. He takes his work seriously. And in his nearly six-hour series ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'' (March 2020), recorded at the Tabernacle of the Lord in Townville, South Carolina, he applies genuine technical skill to the question of whether a Thor rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base could have produced the famous cloud over Flagstaff on February 28, 1963.

The result is a presentation that is methodologically serious in parts, fatally flawed in others, and — most importantly — never once asks the question that actually matters.
----

== What Rostron Claims, and What He Admits He Can't Prove ==
Start with what Rostron himself says at the close of his series:<blockquote>''"All of the things we've said today doesn't prove that God did it, but it sure does prove that man didn't do it."''</blockquote>That's an honest statement. Credit where it's due. Rostron is not claiming to have scientifically proven a supernatural event. He's claiming to have eliminated the rocket as a natural cause.

But by the end of the evening, Pastor Gibson is telling the congregation that they don't need an answer — they already have one. The crowd is singing. The cloud has become proof of Revelation 10:1–7 and divine confirmation of William Branham's ministry. The gap between "man didn't do it" and "God did it" has been closed by emotional momentum, not logic.

This is the first and most important error of the entire presentation. Ruling out one natural explanation does not establish supernatural causation. That logical gap is not a technicality — it is the entire structure of the argument. Rostron builds a case against the rocket, and the congregation quietly converts his inconclusive findings into proof of the miraculous. No one in the room challenges this move. It should be challenged.
----

== The Self-Defeating Moisture Argument ==
Rostron spends a significant portion of Videos 1 and 2 establishing a genuine point of atmospheric physics: natural moisture gets "wrung out" of the air as altitude increases, and by the time you reach the stratosphere and mesosphere, the water vapor content is so low — he puts it at about five parts per million — that cloud formation is essentially impossible under normal conditions.

He's right about this. Natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers. This is not disputed.

But Rostron then uses this fact to argue against the rocket hypothesis. Here's the problem: the rocket hypothesis does not require natural moisture. The entire premise of the rocket explanation is that the Thor, when destroyed at 44 kilometers, ''introduced'' water and combustion products into an environment that would not otherwise contain them. That's precisely why the cloud appeared where natural clouds don't.

Rostron's atmospheric moisture argument doesn't undermine the rocket hypothesis. It actually explains why the rocket hypothesis is ''necessary'' — because something had to put water up there. His own analysis establishes that the cloud required an external source of water, then pivots to arguing the rocket couldn't have been that source. But he never closes the loop on what that source was. He's eliminated natural formation and claimed to eliminate the rocket. What he hasn't done is identify a third candidate. "God did it" is not a third candidate in a root cause analysis — it's an admission that the analysis is over.
----

== The Mass Calculation: Critical Omissions ==
This is where Rostron's engineering rigour breaks down most clearly, in two separate ways.

=== Error One: The Wrong Rocket Component ===
Rostron's key quantitative argument runs as follows: he estimates the cloud required approximately 2.2 million pounds — which he later corrects to approximately 3 million pounds [4:18:44] — of water to form. He then turns his attention to the Castor-1 solid rocket boosters attached to the Thor. Based on his own dimensional measurements, he calculates roughly 12,000 pounds of solid propellant per booster [~2:59:38–3:01:50]. Three boosters, therefore about 36,000 pounds total. That's vastly less than 2.2 million pounds of water. Ergo, the rocket couldn't have done it.

The problem is that Rostron has analysed the wrong part of the rocket — and then stopped.

The Thrust Augmented Thor-Agena that was destroyed on February 28, 1963 was primarily a liquid-fueled vehicle. Its main engine burned RP-1 kerosene with liquid oxygen. The Castor-1 solid boosters were strap-on assist motors that augmented thrust during the initial phase of flight. Rostron lists the main engine propellants at [4:29:33]: liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene. He never calculates their water output.

We will return to what that calculation actually yields. But first, there is a separate problem with his booster analysis.

=== Error Two: The Booster Mass Overstatement ===
Rostron's figure of 12,000 pounds per Castor-1 booster came from his own back-of-the-envelope calculation based on physical dimensions. The published specifications tell a different story. The Castor-1 (TX-33-52) had a gross mass of approximately '''3,852 kilograms (8,492 pounds)''' per unit, with a propellant mass of '''3,317 kilograms (7,313 pounds)''' per unit. Rostron overstated the per-booster propellant load by roughly 64% compared to the published propellant mass figure.

He acknowledges this correction himself at [4:18:44], revising his total figure upward to approximately 3 million pounds — but the revision addresses the cloud's water requirement, not his error in the booster propellant estimate. Even with his overstated 12,000-pound-per-booster figure, the solid propellant total of ~36,000 pounds falls more than fifty times short of his 2.2-million-pound benchmark. The overstatement doesn't change the conclusion of his argument, but it demonstrates that a calculation he presents as rigorously engineered was built on unmeasured inputs.
----

== The Actual Launch Timeline: What Was Burning at 44 Kilometers ==
To understand why the main engine matters so much, it's necessary to trace what actually happened on February 28, 1963, based on primary sources.

The rocket in question was a '''Thrust Augmented Thor (TAT)-Agena D''' configuration. The TAT stage consisted of a Thor liquid-fueled core with three Castor-1 solid rocket motors clamped to its exterior at 120° intervals.

'''The flight sequence, based on NASA technical documentation and contemporary reporting:'''

'''The vehicle configuration''' was a two-stage stack. The TAT (Thor with three solid strap-on motors) formed the first stage. Atop it sat the '''Agena D second stage''', enclosed in a fibreglass clamshell shroud protecting the payload. The Agena's engine used two hypergolic propellants — unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) as fuel and inhibited red fuming nitric acid (IRFNA) as oxidizer. Hypergolic propellants ignite spontaneously on contact with each other; no ignition system is required. The Agena carried approximately '''14,900 kilograms (32,850 pounds)''' of propellant. It was designed to ignite only after Thor burnout and stage separation — an event that never occurred in this mission.

'''T+0 seconds — Liftoff.''' All engines ignite simultaneously: the Thor main engine (756 kilonewtons of thrust, burning liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene) and all three Castor-1 solid motors (each producing approximately 238 kilonewtons of thrust, for a combined solid boost of about 713 kN). The Agena second stage sits inert above, fully fuelled.

'''T+28 seconds — Solid motor full-thrust phase ends.''' According to the NASA post-flight report for the OGO-IV TAT-Agena mission (NASA TM X-1932), the solid motors "operate at full thrust for approximately 28 seconds and then decay to zero thrust in approximately the next 14 seconds." The motors are thrust-decaying from this point, but they are not yet exhausted.

'''T+42 seconds — Solid motor burnout.''' The solid propellant is fully consumed. The Castor-1 cases — now empty metal shells — remain physically clamped to the Thor's engine section. Per the same NASA document, "jettison of the expended solid motor cases occurs at about T+65 seconds." The rocket continues upward on main engine thrust alone, carrying the dead weight of three empty booster casings.

'''T+52 to T+60 seconds — Flight control malfunction.''' According to ''Missiles and Rockets'' magazine (March 11, 1963), the vehicle experienced a guidance or control failure and veered off its intended course before the T+65 second jettison sequence could execute.

'''T+52 to T+60 seconds — Range Safety Officer destroys the vehicle''', at approximately '''44 kilometers altitude''', before the scheduled booster jettison could occur. The destruct charges blew open the main liquid propellant tanks. The resulting explosion vaporized the vehicle, including the still-attached (but empty) Castor-1 casings — and the fully-loaded Agena second stage sitting above them. Because the Agena's UDMH and nitric acid are hypergolic, they ignited spontaneously the moment the destruct charges ruptured their tanks and the propellants made contact. The Agena's entire propellant load — never burned during the mission — combusted in the explosion at 44 kilometers.

There are therefore three distinct points to note: '''first''', the solid booster propellant had been completely exhausted for somewhere between 10 and 18 seconds before the explosion. '''Second''', what Rostron analysed — 36,000 pounds of solid propellant — was not present at 44 kilometers in any chemically active form. Those motors had fired themselves out. The empty casings reached 44 kilometers as inert structural debris.

'''Third''', the propellants chemically active at 44 kilometers when the vehicle was destroyed came from two sources: the Thor main engine, still burning, and the Agena second stage, fully loaded and hypergolic.
----

== The Two Calculations Rostron Never Performed ==

=== Source One: The Thor Main Engine ===
The Thor main engine was designed for a burn duration of approximately '''165 seconds''' of powered flight. It burned liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene at a combined mass flow rate of roughly '''273 kilograms per second''', at an oxidizer-to-fuel ratio of approximately 2.25:1.

'''Total propellant loaded:'''

* RP-1 kerosene: approximately 13,874 kilograms (30,590 pounds)
* Liquid oxygen: approximately 31,217 kilograms (68,830 pounds)
* '''Total: approximately 45,091 kilograms (99,420 pounds)'''

At the time of destruction — estimated at T+52 to T+60 seconds, approximately 31–36% of the way through the engine's designed burn time — the following propellant remained in the tanks:
{| class="wikitable"
!Destruction time
!RP-1 remaining
!LOX remaining
!Total remaining
|-
|T+52s
|~9,506 kg (20,960 lbs)
|~21,389 kg (47,160 lbs)
|~30,895 kg (68,100 lbs)
|-
|T+60s
|~8,834 kg (19,480 lbs)
|~19,877 kg (43,830 lbs)
|~28,711 kg (63,300 lbs)
|}
'''Best estimate: approximately 29,000–31,000 kilograms (64,000–68,000 pounds) of unspent Thor propellant at the moment of destruction.'''

RP-1 is a refined kerosene with the approximate molecular formula C₁₂H₂₄. When burned with liquid oxygen, the combustion reaction is:

'''C₁₂H₂₄ + 18O₂ → 12CO₂ + 12H₂O'''

This yields a water production ratio of approximately '''1.286 kilograms of water per kilogram of RP-1 burned'''.

When the destruct charges ruptured the propellant tanks, the LOX and RP-1 mixed and combusted. Because the remaining propellants were in almost exactly the correct mixture ratio for complete combustion (a natural consequence of the engine having burned them at a fixed 2.25:1 ratio throughout the flight), combustion of the available RP-1 was largely complete.

'''Estimated water from Thor main engine:'''
{| class="wikitable"
!Destruction time
!RP-1 available
!Water produced
|-
|T+52s
|~9,506 kg
|'''~12,225 kg (26,960 lbs)'''
|-
|T+60s
|~8,834 kg
|'''~11,360 kg (25,050 lbs)'''
|}

=== Source Two: The Agena D Second Stage ===
Rostron lists the main engine liquid propellants at [4:29:33] and moves past them. He never mentions the second stage at all.

The Agena D was fully loaded with approximately '''14,900 kilograms (32,850 pounds)''' of propellant when the vehicle was destroyed. It had never been ignited — the Agena was not designed to fire until after Thor burnout and stage separation, which never occurred. Every kilogram of its propellant was still aboard at 44 kilometers.

The Agena burned UDMH (unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine, formula (CH₃)₂N₂H₂) with inhibited red fuming nitric acid as oxidizer. These are hypergolic propellants — they ignite spontaneously on contact, requiring no ignition system. When the destruct charges ruptured the Agena's tanks, the UDMH and nitric acid mixed and combusted immediately.

UDMH combustion produces carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water. With UDMH comprising approximately 25–28% of the total propellant load by mass (roughly 3,700–4,200 kilograms), and a water yield of approximately '''1.2 kilograms of water per kilogram of UDMH burned''', the Agena's contribution is:<blockquote>~3,700–4,200 kg UDMH × 1.2 kg H₂O/kg = '''~4,400–5,000 kilograms of water (~9,700–11,000 lbs)'''</blockquote>

=== Combined Water Production ===
{| class="wikitable"
!Source
!Water produced
|-
|Thor main engine (RP-1, unspent at T+52–60s)
|~11,400–12,200 kg
|-
|Agena D second stage (UDMH, fully loaded, hypergolic)
|~4,400–5,000 kg
|-
|'''Total'''
|'''~15,800–17,200 kg (~34,800–37,900 lbs)'''
|}
This is the combined source term Rostron never calculated. Against his own cloud volume of 27 billion cubic meters, this water output is decisive — as the density comparison below makes clear.
----

== The Cloud Density Contradiction: Rostron's Framework Collapses His Own Math ==
The water calculation above becomes even more decisive when examined alongside what Rostron himself says about why the cloud was invisible during the day.

Throughout the presentation, Rostron correctly invokes the physics of noctilucent clouds to explain one of the cloud's most striking features: nobody saw it until sunset. He explains the physics accurately [~2:54:35, 4:59:14]. Noctilucent clouds are visible only at twilight because they are too tenuous to scatter enough light to be seen against a bright daytime sky. They only become visible once the background sky darkens and sunlight catches them from far below the horizon. He uses this same principle to explain why the Flagstaff cloud was invisible during the day and only appeared as the sun went down.

This is correct. But Rostron never follows that logic into his density calculation.

Noctilucent clouds are extraordinarily tenuous. Their ice water content is typically on the order of '''10⁻⁵ to 10⁻⁶ grams per cubic meter''' — roughly one thousand to one hundred thousand times less dense than an ordinary cirrus cloud. That tenuousness is precisely why they are invisible in daylight. A cirrus cloud, with its density of around 0.03 to 0.05 g/m³, is clearly visible in full sunlight. Something only visible during a narrow twilight window must be far, far thinner.

Rostron's mass calculation uses a cirrus cloud density of '''0.05 grams per cubic meter (1/20 gram per cubic meter)''' [~2:49:05]. That is how he arrives at his 2.2 million pound figure. But he has already established in the same presentation that the cloud behaved like a noctilucent cloud in terms of its visibility. You cannot simultaneously argue that a cloud is too tenuous to be seen in daylight ''and'' assume cirrus-level ice density when calculating how much water formed it. Those two claims contradict each other directly.

The numbers expose the contradiction precisely:

'''At cirrus density (0.05 g/m³) — Rostron's assumption:'''<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.05 g/m³ = 1,350,000,000 grams = '''1,350,000 kilograms (~2.98 million pounds)'''</blockquote>This is the figure Rostron uses to argue the rocket was inadequate.

'''At a conservative intermediate density (10⁻⁴ g/m³) — 500 times less dense than cirrus:'''<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.0001 g/m³ = 2,700,000 grams = '''2,700 kilograms (~5,950 pounds)'''</blockquote>'''At actual noctilucent cloud density (10⁻⁵ g/m³) — consistent with twilight-only visibility:'''<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.00001 g/m³ = 270,000 grams = '''270 kilograms (~595 pounds)'''</blockquote>The combined water output of the Thor main engine and the Agena second stage — approximately '''15,800 to 17,200 kilograms''' — exceeds:

* The noctilucent requirement (270 kg) by a factor of '''roughly 60'''
* The conservative intermediate requirement (2,700 kg) by a factor of '''roughly 6'''

The three solid booster casings contribute nothing, since their propellant was exhausted before the explosion.

The only way Rostron's mass calculation works is if you use cirrus cloud density. And using cirrus cloud density is logically incompatible with his own explanation for why the cloud wasn't visible during the day. A root cause analysis cannot select the physical properties of the cloud based on which properties support the desired conclusion. Either the cloud was dense enough to behave like a cirrus cloud — visible in daylight, requiring 2.98 million pounds of water — or it was tenuous enough to behave like a noctilucent cloud — invisible in daylight, requiring hundreds of pounds of water. It cannot be both.
----

== The Anachronistic Wind Data ==
One of the more striking methodological problems in the series is Rostron's use of earth.nullschool.net — a real-time global wind visualization website — to argue about what the winds were doing at high altitude on February 28, 1963.

He pulls up current wind patterns above Arizona, shows that the winds at 10 millibar altitude (roughly 30 km) are around 65 km/h in his analysis session's present, and argues these speeds are insufficient to carry rocket material from Vandenberg to Flagstaff in 3.5 hours. He acknowledges he's watched the website "over the years" and noted seasonal patterns, but uses a single present-day reading as if it characterises the wind field on a specific day more than sixty years earlier.

Wind patterns at stratospheric and mesospheric altitudes are highly variable. They change with season, with quasi-biennial oscillation cycles, with individual synoptic events. Knowing what the winds are doing today tells you nothing reliable about what they were doing on a specific day in February 1963.

Dr. McDonald, who actually collected observational data at the time, described the measured wind speeds as "tantalizingly close" to what would be required. Rostron cites this but dismisses it on the grounds that McDonald "couldn't figure out how it would work" — which is not the same as saying it couldn't work. McDonald was being scientifically conservative. Rostron is substituting present-day data for past atmospheric conditions. These are not equivalent moves.
----

== A Confusion About Wind Direction ==
Rostron also argues that the wind direction was wrong for the rocket hypothesis. He says the cloud was observed to be "moving towards the southeast," and from this calculates a required wind origin of about 310 degrees (northwest). He then claims that a northwest wind at Vandenberg would carry debris toward Baja California, not Flagstaff.

But Vandenberg Air Force Base is located to the ''west-northwest'' of Flagstaff. Flagstaff is roughly to the ''east-northeast'' of Vandenberg. A wind blowing from the northwest — pushing things toward the southeast — would carry material from Vandenberg's vicinity ''toward'' the direction of Arizona. Rostron's claim that such a wind would instead send debris toward Baja California appears to reflect a geographical confusion about the relative positions of these two locations. His own wind direction evidence may be consistent with the rocket hypothesis rather than contradictory to it.
----

== The Question Rostron Never Asks ==
Here is what is missing from five hours and fifty-four minutes of technically detailed presentation: any engagement with William Branham's own testimony about the cloud.

Rostron establishes — or attempts to establish — that the cloud was not produced by a Thor rocket. He never mentions that:

'''Branham claimed to be standing directly underneath the cloud when it appeared.''' He wasn't. The cloud appeared over Flagstaff. By Branham's own account of his activities on that trip, he was approximately 200 miles away near Sunset Mountain and Rattlesnake Mesa.

'''Branham stated that the cloud formed when the angels left him.''' The cloud appeared on February 28. Branham's own sermons describe the angelic visitation as occurring on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the departure of angels from a meeting that had not yet taken place.

'''Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his ministry until he was shown the photograph in ''Life'' Magazine''' — months after the cloud appeared. If he had witnessed angels ascending into the sky and forming that cloud, that silence is inexplicable.

'''A second cloud is visible in the scientific photographs.''' Documented in ''Science'' magazine (April 1963), a companion cloud appears to the northwest of the main cloud, consistent with debris dispersal from a single source. No version of the angelic account addresses a second cloud.

These are not peripheral criticisms. They are facts drawn from Branham's own recordings and from the documented scientific record at the time. Whether the cloud was caused by a rocket, a natural phenomenon, or something else entirely, Branham's own account of his involvement with it cannot be reconciled with the known facts. Rostron's entire analysis — even if every calculation were correct — only defends the possibility that the cloud was unusual. It does nothing to explain why Branham's story changed over time, why he placed himself at the cloud's formation when he was demonstrably 200 miles away, or why he first learned of the cloud from a magazine.
----

== What the Presentation Actually Establishes ==
To be precise about what Rostron's analysis shows and doesn't show:

He correctly demonstrates that natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers through ordinary atmospheric processes. This is real atmospheric science and he explains it clearly.

He correctly notes that the cloud was unusual and that McDonald found it difficult to explain within the data available to him in 1963.

He raises legitimate questions about whether the Castor-1 solid boosters ''alone'' could account for the cloud — but only by ignoring the vehicle's primary propulsion system, which happened to be actively burning when the rocket was destroyed, and by applying a cloud density drawn from a completely different class of cloud than the one he invokes to explain the cloud's visibility behavior.

What his analysis does not establish is that the rocket could not have caused the cloud. His wind speed argument uses data from the present day. His mass calculation omits the main engine and applies an internally contradictory density figure. His booster propellant estimate overstates the published specifications by 64%. His moisture argument supports rather than undermines the rocket hypothesis. And his conclusion — that supernatural causation is therefore implied — does not follow from his premises even if those premises were correct.

The actual calculation, done with the correct rocket components and an internally consistent cloud density:
{| class="wikitable"
!Cloud density
!Water required (27 billion m³ cloud)
!Total rocket water available
!Comparison
|-
|Cirrus — 0.05 g/m³ (Rostron's assumption)
|~1,350,000 kg
|~16,500 kg
|Rocket: ~1.2% of requirement
|-
|10⁻⁴ g/m³ (conservative; 500× less than cirrus)
|~2,700 kg
|~16,500 kg
|Rocket: '''~6× more than needed'''
|-
|Noctilucent — 10⁻⁵ g/m³ (consistent with twilight-only visibility)
|~270 kg
|~16,500 kg
|Rocket: '''~60× more than needed'''
|}
The only density at which the rocket "doesn't work" is cirrus density. And cirrus density is precisely the density that is incompatible with Rostron's own explanation for why no one saw the cloud during the day.
----

== A Word for Those Who Watched the Video ==
If you've sat through this series, or heard someone cite it, or had it shared with you as the definitive answer to critics of the Message, you deserve to know what it actually proved and what it didn't.

Rostron is a capable engineer who spent months on this project. He clearly cares deeply about his faith, and he is trying to be rigorous. That's admirable. But rigour has to go all the way through — including to the question of whether the person whose testimony you're defending actually told a consistent, verifiable story.

The scientific question of what caused the cloud is genuinely interesting. But the problem with Branham's cloud story was never primarily scientific. It was always about why a man who claimed to stand under a cloud was 200 miles away when it appeared, why the cloud preceded his vision's fulfillment by eight days, and why he never mentioned any of this until a magazine brought the photograph to his attention.

Those questions don't get answered by atmospheric physics. They get answered — or not answered — by Branham's own words.

The honest thing to do is listen to those words again, carefully, and ask whether the story holds together. Not because critics want it to fail, but because the truth matters. A faith built on a story that doesn't hold up isn't safer for not being examined. It's just more fragile.
----

== Sources and Technical References ==

* '''NASA TM X-1932''' (December 1969), Lewis Research Center: ''Thrust Augmented Thor-Agena performance report, OGO-IV mission (July 28, 1967)''. Confirms solid motor burn time (~42 seconds: 28 seconds full thrust + 14 seconds thrust decay), planned jettison at T+65 seconds, and main engine propellant specifications. <nowiki>https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19700003428/downloads/19700003428.pdf</nowiki>
* '''''Missiles and Rockets''''' magazine, March 11, 1963: Reports the TAT-Agena flight malfunction at T+52–60 seconds, before the T+65-second jettison sequence, resulting in range safety destruct with booster casings still attached.
* '''Wikipedia: List of Thor and Delta launches (1960–1969)''': Destruction altitude of 44 kilometers for the February 28, 1963 launch. <nowiki>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Thor_and_Delta_launches_(1960%E2%80%931969)</nowiki>
* '''Bill Rostron''', ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'', Parts 1–3, March 2020. Tabernacle of the Lord, Townville, South Carolina. Timestamp references in this article refer to elapsed time in the combined recording.<br />

=Evidence from the Branham Family=
{{Cloud Only Believe}}

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The Cause of the Cloud

2026-06-18T18:55:52Z

Admin: /* The Scientific Explanation */

The Cause of the Cloud

2026-06-18T18:49:13Z

Admin: /* The Scientific Explanation */

The Cause of the Cloud

2026-06-18T18:47:55Z

Admin: /* The Scientific Explanation */

The Cause of the Cloud

2026-06-18T17:20:29Z

Admin: /* Dr. McDonald's Re-Assessment */

The Cause of the Cloud

2026-06-18T17:19:40Z

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The Cause of the Cloud

2026-06-18T17:16:20Z

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A critical analysis of Bill Rostron's presentation on the Cloud

2026-06-18T17:10:03Z

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= Five Hours in Defense of a Story Branham Never Told =
<blockquote>''"When it's all said and done you'll either have to say one or two things — I don't know what that is, it's a mystery — and brother Bill will say enough to that the world will have to admit we don't have an answer. But the Bride has an answer."'' — Pastor Luke Gibson, introducing Bill Rostron's series</blockquote>Bill Rostron is exactly the kind of person Message believers need making arguments on their behalf. He spent 46 years in the nuclear power industry doing quality assurance and root cause analysis. He knows how to build a chain of evidence. He takes his work seriously. And in his nearly six-hour series ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'' (March 2020), recorded at the Tabernacle of the Lord in Townville, South Carolina, he applies genuine technical skill to the question of whether a Thor rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base could have produced the famous cloud over Flagstaff on February 28, 1963.

The result is a presentation that is methodologically serious in parts, fatally flawed in others, and — most importantly — never once asks the question that actually matters.
----

== What Rostron Claims, and What He Admits He Can't Prove ==
Start with what Rostron himself says at the close of his series:<blockquote>''"All of the things we've said today doesn't prove that God did it, but it sure does prove that man didn't do it."''</blockquote>That's an honest statement. Credit where it's due. Rostron is not claiming to have scientifically proven a supernatural event. He's claiming to have eliminated the rocket as a natural cause.

But by the end of the evening, Pastor Gibson is telling the congregation that they don't need an answer — they already have one. The crowd is singing. The cloud has become proof of Revelation 10:1–7 and divine confirmation of William Branham's ministry. The gap between "man didn't do it" and "God did it" has been closed by emotional momentum, not logic.

This is the first and most important error of the entire presentation. Ruling out one natural explanation does not establish supernatural causation. That logical gap is not a technicality — it is the entire structure of the argument. Rostron builds a case against the rocket, and the congregation quietly converts his inconclusive findings into proof of the miraculous. No one in the room challenges this move. It should be challenged.
----

== The Self-Defeating Moisture Argument ==
Rostron spends a significant portion of Videos 1 and 2 establishing a genuine point of atmospheric physics: natural moisture gets "wrung out" of the air as altitude increases, and by the time you reach the stratosphere and mesosphere, the water vapor content is so low — he puts it at about five parts per million — that cloud formation is essentially impossible under normal conditions.

He's right about this. Natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers. This is not disputed.

But Rostron then uses this fact to argue against the rocket hypothesis. Here's the problem: the rocket hypothesis does not require natural moisture. The entire premise of the rocket explanation is that the Thor, when destroyed at 44 kilometers, ''introduced'' water and combustion products into an environment that would not otherwise contain them. That's precisely why the cloud appeared where natural clouds don't.

Rostron's atmospheric moisture argument doesn't undermine the rocket hypothesis. It actually explains why the rocket hypothesis is ''necessary'' — because something had to put water up there. His own analysis establishes that the cloud required an external source of water, then pivots to arguing the rocket couldn't have been that source. But he never closes the loop on what that source was. He's eliminated natural formation and claimed to eliminate the rocket. What he hasn't done is identify a third candidate. "God did it" is not a third candidate in a root cause analysis — it's an admission that the analysis is over.
----

== The Mass Calculation: Critical Omissions ==
This is where Rostron's engineering rigour breaks down most clearly, in two separate ways.

=== Error One: The Wrong Rocket Component ===
Rostron's key quantitative argument runs as follows: he estimates the cloud required approximately 2.2 million pounds — which he later corrects to approximately 3 million pounds [4:18:44] — of water to form. He then turns his attention to the Castor-1 solid rocket boosters attached to the Thor. Based on his own dimensional measurements, he calculates roughly 12,000 pounds of solid propellant per booster [~2:59:38–3:01:50]. Three boosters, therefore about 36,000 pounds total. That's vastly less than 2.2 million pounds of water. Ergo, the rocket couldn't have done it.

The problem is that Rostron has analysed the wrong part of the rocket — and then stopped.

The Thrust Augmented Thor-Agena that was destroyed on February 28, 1963 was primarily a liquid-fueled vehicle. Its main engine burned RP-1 kerosene with liquid oxygen. The Castor-1 solid boosters were strap-on assist motors that augmented thrust during the initial phase of flight. Rostron lists the main engine propellants at [4:29:33]: liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene. He never calculates their water output.

We will return to what that calculation actually yields. But first, there is a separate problem with his booster analysis.

=== Error Two: The Booster Mass Overstatement ===
Rostron's figure of 12,000 pounds per Castor-1 booster came from his own back-of-the-envelope calculation based on physical dimensions. The published specifications tell a different story. The Castor-1 (TX-33-52) had a gross mass of approximately '''3,852 kilograms (8,492 pounds)''' per unit, with a propellant mass of '''3,317 kilograms (7,313 pounds)''' per unit. Rostron overstated the per-booster propellant load by roughly 64% compared to the published propellant mass figure.

He acknowledges this correction himself at [4:18:44], revising his total figure upward to approximately 3 million pounds — but the revision addresses the cloud's water requirement, not his error in the booster propellant estimate. Even with his overstated 12,000-pound-per-booster figure, the solid propellant total of ~36,000 pounds falls more than fifty times short of his 2.2-million-pound benchmark. The overstatement doesn't change the conclusion of his argument, but it demonstrates that a calculation he presents as rigorously engineered was built on unmeasured inputs.
----

== The Actual Launch Timeline: What Was Burning at 44 Kilometers ==
To understand why the main engine matters so much, it's necessary to trace what actually happened on February 28, 1963, based on primary sources.

The rocket in question was a '''Thrust Augmented Thor (TAT)-Agena D''' configuration. The TAT stage consisted of a Thor liquid-fueled core with three Castor-1 solid rocket motors clamped to its exterior at 120° intervals.

'''The flight sequence, based on NASA technical documentation and contemporary reporting:'''

'''T+0 seconds — Liftoff.''' All engines ignite simultaneously: the Thor main engine (756 kilonewtons of thrust, burning liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene) and all three Castor-1 solid motors (each producing approximately 238 kilonewtons of thrust, for a combined solid boost of about 713 kN).

'''T+28 seconds — Solid motor full-thrust phase ends.''' According to the NASA post-flight report for the OGO-IV TAT-Agena mission (NASA TM X-1932), the solid motors "operate at full thrust for approximately 28 seconds and then decay to zero thrust in approximately the next 14 seconds." The motors are thrust-decaying from this point, but they are not yet exhausted.

'''T+42 seconds — Solid motor burnout.''' The solid propellant is fully consumed. The Castor-1 cases — now empty metal shells — remain physically clamped to the Thor's engine section. Per the same NASA document, "jettison of the expended solid motor cases occurs at about T+65 seconds." The rocket continues upward on main engine thrust alone, carrying the dead weight of three empty booster casings.

'''T+52 to T+60 seconds — Flight control malfunction.''' According to ''Missiles and Rockets'' magazine (March 11, 1963), the vehicle experienced a guidance or control failure and veered off its intended course before the T+65 second jettison sequence could execute.

'''T+52 to T+60 seconds — Range Safety Officer destroys the vehicle''', at approximately '''44 kilometers altitude''', before the scheduled booster jettison could occur. The destruct charges blew open the main liquid propellant tanks. The resulting explosion vaporized the vehicle, including the still-attached (but empty) Castor-1 casings.

This is the critical point: '''the solid booster propellant had been completely exhausted for somewhere between 10 and 18 seconds before the explosion.''' What Rostron analysed — 36,000 pounds of solid propellant — was not present at 44 kilometers in any chemically active form. Those motors had fired themselves out at approximately 20–25 kilometers altitude. The empty casings reached 44 kilometers as inert structural debris.

The propellant that ''was'' actively burning at 44 kilometers when the vehicle was destroyed belonged entirely to the Thor main engine.
----

== The Main Engine: The Calculation Rostron Never Performed ==
The Thor main engine was designed for a burn duration of approximately '''165 seconds''' of powered flight. It burned liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene at a combined mass flow rate of roughly '''273 kilograms per second''', at an oxidizer-to-fuel ratio of approximately 2.25:1.

'''Total propellant loaded:'''

* RP-1 kerosene: approximately 13,874 kilograms (30,590 pounds)
* Liquid oxygen: approximately 31,217 kilograms (68,830 pounds)
* '''Total: approximately 45,091 kilograms (99,420 pounds)'''

At the time of destruction — estimated at T+52 to T+60 seconds, approximately 31–36% of the way through the engine's designed burn time — the following propellant remained in the tanks:
{| class="wikitable"
!Destruction time
!RP-1 remaining
!LOX remaining
!Total remaining
|-
|T+52s
|~9,506 kg (20,960 lbs)
|~21,389 kg (47,160 lbs)
|~30,895 kg (68,100 lbs)
|-
|T+60s
|~8,834 kg (19,480 lbs)
|~19,877 kg (43,830 lbs)
|~28,711 kg (63,300 lbs)
|}
'''Best estimate: approximately 29,000–31,000 kilograms (64,000–68,000 pounds) of unspent propellant at the moment of destruction.'''

=== Water Production from RP-1 Combustion ===
RP-1 is a refined kerosene with the approximate molecular formula C₁₂H₂₄. When burned with liquid oxygen, the combustion reaction is:

'''C₁₂H₂₄ + 18O₂ → 12CO₂ + 12H₂O'''

This yields a water production ratio of approximately '''1.286 kilograms of water per kilogram of RP-1 burned'''.

When the range safety officer's destruct charges ruptured the propellant tanks, the LOX and RP-1 mixed and combusted in the explosion. Because the remaining propellants were in almost exactly the correct mixture ratio for complete combustion (a natural consequence of the engine having burned them at a fixed 2.25:1 ratio throughout the flight), combustion of the available RP-1 was largely complete.

'''Estimated water produced:'''
{| class="wikitable"
!Destruction time
!RP-1 available
!Water produced
|-
|T+52s
|~9,506 kg
|'''~12,225 kg (26,960 lbs)'''
|-
|T+60s
|~8,834 kg
|'''~11,360 kg (25,050 lbs)'''
|}
'''Best estimate: approximately 11,000 to 12,200 kilograms (25,000 to 27,000 pounds) of water from the main engine combustion alone, at 44 kilometers altitude.'''

This is calculation Rostron never made. He lists the liquid propellants at [4:29:33] and moves past them without comment.
----

== The Cloud Density Contradiction: Rostron's Framework Collapses His Own Math ==
The water calculation above becomes even more decisive when examined alongside what Rostron himself says about why the cloud was invisible during the day.

Throughout the presentation, Rostron correctly invokes the physics of noctilucent clouds to explain one of the cloud's most striking features: nobody saw it until sunset. He explains the physics accurately [~2:54:35, 4:59:14]. Noctilucent clouds are visible only at twilight because they are too tenuous to scatter enough light to be seen against a bright daytime sky. They only become visible once the background sky darkens and sunlight catches them from far below the horizon. He uses this same principle to explain why the Flagstaff cloud was invisible during the day and only appeared as the sun went down.

This is correct. But Rostron never follows that logic into his density calculation.

Noctilucent clouds are extraordinarily tenuous. Their ice water content is typically on the order of '''10⁻⁵ to 10⁻⁶ grams per cubic meter''' — roughly one thousand to one hundred thousand times less dense than an ordinary cirrus cloud. That tenuousness is precisely why they are invisible in daylight. A cirrus cloud, with its density of around 0.03 to 0.05 g/m³, is clearly visible in full sunlight. Something only visible during a narrow twilight window must be far, far thinner.

Rostron's mass calculation uses a cirrus cloud density of '''0.05 grams per cubic meter (1/20 gram per cubic meter)''' [~2:49:05]. That is how he arrives at his 2.2 million pound figure. But he has already established in the same presentation that the cloud behaved like a noctilucent cloud in terms of its visibility. You cannot simultaneously argue that a cloud is too tenuous to be seen in daylight ''and'' assume cirrus-level ice density when calculating how much water formed it. Those two claims contradict each other directly.

The numbers expose the contradiction precisely:

'''At cirrus density (0.05 g/m³) — Rostron's assumption:'''<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.05 g/m³ = 1,350,000,000 grams = '''1,350,000 kilograms (~2.98 million pounds)'''</blockquote>This is the figure Rostron uses to argue the rocket was inadequate.

'''At a conservative intermediate density (10⁻⁴ g/m³) — 500 times less dense than cirrus:'''<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.0001 g/m³ = 2,700,000 grams = '''2,700 kilograms (~5,950 pounds)'''</blockquote>'''At actual noctilucent cloud density (10⁻⁵ g/m³) — consistent with twilight-only visibility:'''<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.00001 g/m³ = 270,000 grams = '''270 kilograms (~595 pounds)'''</blockquote>The main engine's water output alone — approximately 11,000 to 12,200 kilograms — exceeds:

* The noctilucent requirement (270 kg) by a factor of '''40 to 45'''
* The conservative intermediate requirement (2,700 kg) by a factor of '''4 to 5'''
* The three empty solid booster casings contribute nothing further, since their propellant was exhausted before the explosion

The only way Rostron's mass calculation works is if you use cirrus cloud density. And using cirrus cloud density is logically incompatible with his own explanation for why the cloud wasn't visible during the day. A root cause analysis cannot select the physical properties of the cloud based on which properties support the desired conclusion. Either the cloud was dense enough to behave like a cirrus cloud — visible in daylight, requiring 2.98 million pounds of water — or it was tenuous enough to behave like a noctilucent cloud — invisible in daylight, requiring hundreds of pounds of water. It cannot be both.
----

== The Anachronistic Wind Data ==
One of the more striking methodological problems in the series is Rostron's use of earth.nullschool.net — a real-time global wind visualization website — to argue about what the winds were doing at high altitude on February 28, 1963.

He pulls up current wind patterns above Arizona, shows that the winds at 10 millibar altitude (roughly 30 km) are around 65 km/h in his analysis session's present, and argues these speeds are insufficient to carry rocket material from Vandenberg to Flagstaff in 3.5 hours. He acknowledges he's watched the website "over the years" and noted seasonal patterns, but uses a single present-day reading as if it characterises the wind field on a specific day more than sixty years earlier.

Wind patterns at stratospheric and mesospheric altitudes are highly variable. They change with season, with quasi-biennial oscillation cycles, with individual synoptic events. Knowing what the winds are doing today tells you nothing reliable about what they were doing on a specific day in February 1963.

Dr. McDonald, who actually collected observational data at the time, described the measured wind speeds as "tantalizingly close" to what would be required. Rostron cites this but dismisses it on the grounds that McDonald "couldn't figure out how it would work" — which is not the same as saying it couldn't work. McDonald was being scientifically conservative. Rostron is substituting present-day data for past atmospheric conditions. These are not equivalent moves.
----

== A Confusion About Wind Direction ==
Rostron also argues that the wind direction was wrong for the rocket hypothesis. He says the cloud was observed to be "moving towards the southeast," and from this calculates a required wind origin of about 310 degrees (northwest). He then claims that a northwest wind at Vandenberg would carry debris toward Baja California, not Flagstaff.

But Vandenberg Air Force Base is located to the ''west-northwest'' of Flagstaff. Flagstaff is roughly to the ''east-northeast'' of Vandenberg. A wind blowing from the northwest — pushing things toward the southeast — would carry material from Vandenberg's vicinity ''toward'' the direction of Arizona. Rostron's claim that such a wind would instead send debris toward Baja California appears to reflect a geographical confusion about the relative positions of these two locations. His own wind direction evidence may be consistent with the rocket hypothesis rather than contradictory to it.
----

== The Question Rostron Never Asks ==
Here is what is missing from five hours and fifty-four minutes of technically detailed presentation: any engagement with William Branham's own testimony about the cloud.

Rostron establishes — or attempts to establish — that the cloud was not produced by a Thor rocket. He never mentions that:

'''Branham claimed to be standing directly underneath the cloud when it appeared.''' He wasn't. The cloud appeared over Flagstaff. By Branham's own account of his activities on that trip, he was approximately 200 miles away near Sunset Mountain and Rattlesnake Mesa.

'''Branham stated that the cloud formed when the angels left him.''' The cloud appeared on February 28. Branham's own sermons describe the angelic visitation as occurring on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the departure of angels from a meeting that had not yet taken place.

'''Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his ministry until he was shown the photograph in ''Life'' Magazine''' — months after the cloud appeared. If he had witnessed angels ascending into the sky and forming that cloud, that silence is inexplicable.

'''A second cloud is visible in the scientific photographs.''' Documented in ''Science'' magazine (April 1963), a companion cloud appears to the northwest of the main cloud, consistent with debris dispersal from a single source. No version of the angelic account addresses a second cloud.

These are not peripheral criticisms. They are facts drawn from Branham's own recordings and from the documented scientific record at the time. Whether the cloud was caused by a rocket, a natural phenomenon, or something else entirely, Branham's own account of his involvement with it cannot be reconciled with the known facts. Rostron's entire analysis — even if every calculation were correct — only defends the possibility that the cloud was unusual. It does nothing to explain why Branham's story changed over time, why he placed himself at the cloud's formation when he was demonstrably 200 miles away, or why he first learned of the cloud from a magazine.
----

== What the Presentation Actually Establishes ==
To be precise about what Rostron's analysis shows and doesn't show:

He correctly demonstrates that natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers through ordinary atmospheric processes. This is real atmospheric science and he explains it clearly.

He correctly notes that the cloud was unusual and that McDonald found it difficult to explain within the data available to him in 1963.

He raises legitimate questions about whether the Castor-1 solid boosters ''alone'' could account for the cloud — but only by ignoring the vehicle's primary propulsion system, which happened to be actively burning when the rocket was destroyed, and by applying a cloud density drawn from a completely different class of cloud than the one he invokes to explain the cloud's visibility behavior.

What his analysis does not establish is that the rocket could not have caused the cloud. His wind speed argument uses data from the present day. His mass calculation omits the main engine and applies an internally contradictory density figure. His booster propellant estimate overstates the published specifications by 64%. His moisture argument supports rather than undermines the rocket hypothesis. And his conclusion — that supernatural causation is therefore implied — does not follow from his premises even if those premises were correct.

The actual calculation, done with the correct rocket component and an internally consistent cloud density:
{| class="wikitable"
!Cloud density
!Water required (27 billion m³ cloud)
!Main engine water available
!Comparison
|-
|Cirrus — 0.05 g/m³ (Rostron's assumption)
|~1,350,000 kg
|~11,800 kg
|Main engine: 0.9% of requirement
|-
|10⁻⁴ g/m³ (conservative; 500× less than cirrus)
|~2,700 kg
|~11,800 kg
|Main engine: '''4–5× more than needed'''
|-
|Noctilucent — 10⁻⁵ g/m³ (consistent with twilight-only visibility)
|~270 kg
|~11,800 kg
|Main engine: '''40–45× more than needed'''
|}
The only density at which the rocket "doesn't work" is cirrus density. And cirrus density is precisely the density that is incompatible with Rostron's own explanation for why no one saw the cloud during the day.
----

== A Word for Those Who Watched Rostron's Video ==
If you've sat through this series, or heard someone cite it, or had it shared with you as the definitive answer to critics of the Message, you deserve to know what it actually proved and what it didn't.

Rostron is a capable technician who spent months on this project. He clearly cares deeply about his faith, and he is trying to be rigorous. That's admirable. But rigour has to go all the way through — including to the question of whether the person whose testimony you're defending actually told a consistent, verifiable story.

The scientific question of what caused the cloud is genuinely interesting. But the problem with Branham's cloud story was never primarily scientific. It was always about why a man who claimed to stand under a cloud was 200 miles away when it appeared, why the cloud preceded his vision's fulfillment by eight days, and why he never mentioned any of this until a magazine brought the photograph to his attention.

Those questions don't get answered by atmospheric physics. They get answered — or not answered — by Branham's own words.

The honest thing to do is listen to those words again, carefully, and ask whether the story holds together. Not because critics want it to fail, but because the truth matters. A faith built on a story that doesn't hold up isn't safer for not being examined. It's just more fragile.
----

== Sources and Technical References ==

* '''NASA TM X-1932''' (December 1969), Lewis Research Center: ''Thrust Augmented Thor-Agena performance report, OGO-IV mission (July 28, 1967)''. Confirms solid motor burn time (~42 seconds: 28 seconds full thrust + 14 seconds thrust decay), planned jettison at T+65 seconds, and main engine propellant specifications. <nowiki>https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19700003428/downloads/19700003428.pdf</nowiki>
* '''''Missiles and Rockets''''' magazine, March 11, 1963: Reports the TAT-Agena flight malfunction at T+52–60 seconds, before the T+65-second jettison sequence, resulting in range safety destruct with booster casings still attached.
* '''Wikipedia: List of Thor and Delta launches (1960–1969)''': Destruction altitude of 44 kilometers for the February 28, 1963 launch. <nowiki>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Thor_and_Delta_launches_(1960%E2%80%931969)</nowiki>
* '''Bill Rostron''', ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'', Parts 1–3, March 2020. Tabernacle of the Lord, Townville, South Carolina. Timestamp references in this article refer to elapsed time in the combined recording.

=Evidence from the Branham Family=
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A critical analysis of Bill Rostron's presentation on the Cloud

2026-06-18T16:59:52Z

Admin: /* The TAT Agena D: Staging Sequence, Altitudes, and What Rostron Actually Said */

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=Evidence from the Branham Family=
{{Cloud Only Believe}}

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[[Category:Prophecies]]
[[Category:Visions]]
[[Category:Honesty and Credibility]]
[[Category:Supernatural vindication]]

A critical analysis of Bill Rostron's presentation on the Cloud

2026-06-18T16:07:05Z

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=Responding to Bill Rostron=
<blockquote>''"When it's all said and done you'll either have to say one or two things — I don't know what that is, it's a mystery — and brother Bill will say enough to that the world will have to admit we don't have an answer. But the Bride has an answer."'' — Pastor Luke Gibson, introducing Bill Rostron's series</blockquote>
== Five Hours in Defense of a Story Branham Never Told ==
Bill Rostron is exactly the kind of person Message believers need making arguments on their behalf. He spent 46 years in the nuclear power industry doing quality assurance and root cause analysis. He knows how to build a chain of evidence. He takes his work seriously. And in his nearly six-hour series ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'' (March 2020), recorded at the Tabernacle of the Lord in Townville, South Carolina, he applies genuine technical skill to the question of whether a Thor rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base could have produced the famous cloud over Flagstaff on February 28, 1963.

The result is a presentation that is methodologically serious in parts, fatally flawed in others, and — most importantly — never once asks the question that actually matters.
----

== What Rostron Claims, and What He Admits He Can't Prove ==
Start with what Rostron himself says at the close of his series:<blockquote>''"All of the things we've said today doesn't prove that God did it, but it sure does prove that man didn't do it."''</blockquote>That's an honest statement. Credit where it's due. Rostron is not claiming to have scientifically proven a supernatural event. He's claiming to have eliminated the rocket as a natural cause.

But by the end of the evening, Pastor Gibson is telling the congregation that they don't need an answer — they already have one. The crowd is singing. The cloud has become proof of Revelation 10:1–7 and divine confirmation of William Branham's ministry. The gap between "man didn't do it" and "God did it" has been closed by emotional momentum, not logic.

This is the first and most important error of the entire presentation. Ruling out one natural explanation does not establish supernatural causation. That logical gap is not a technicality — it is the entire structure of the argument. Rostron builds a case against the rocket, and the congregation quietly converts his inconclusive findings into proof of the miraculous. No one in the room challenges this move. It should be challenged.
----

== The Self-Defeating Moisture Argument ==
Rostron spends a significant portion of Video 1 and Video 2 establishing a genuine point of atmospheric physics: natural moisture gets "wrung out" of the air as altitude increases, and by the time you reach the stratosphere and mesosphere, the water vapor content is so low — he puts it at about five parts per million — that cloud formation is essentially impossible under normal conditions.

He's right about this. Natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers. This is not disputed.

But Rostron then uses this fact to argue against the rocket hypothesis. Here's the problem: the rocket hypothesis does not require natural moisture. The entire premise of the rocket explanation is that the Thor, when destroyed at 44 kilometers, ''introduced'' water and combustion products into an environment that would not otherwise contain them. That's precisely why the cloud appeared where natural clouds don't.

Rostron's atmospheric moisture argument doesn't undermine the rocket hypothesis. It actually explains why the rocket hypothesis is ''necessary'' — because something had to put water up there. His own analysis establishes that the cloud required an external source of water, then pivots to arguing the rocket couldn't have been that source. But he never actually closes the loop on the water source question. He's eliminated natural formation and claimed to eliminate the rocket. What he hasn't done is identify where a non-supernatural source of water would come from. The argument proves too much: if no natural process could produce the cloud and the rocket couldn't either, he needs a third candidate. "God did it" is not a third candidate in a root cause analysis — it's an admission that the analysis is over.
----

== The Mass Calculation: A Critical Omission ==
This is where Rostron's engineering rigour breaks down most clearly.

His key quantitative argument is this: he estimates the cloud required approximately 2.2 million pounds (about 1 million kilograms) of water to form. He then points to the Castor-1 solid rocket boosters attached to the Thor and notes they contained roughly 12,000 pounds of solid propellant each. Three boosters, therefore about 34,000–36,000 pounds total. That's vastly less than 2.2 million pounds of water. Ergo, the rocket couldn't have done it.

The problem is that Rostron has analysed the wrong part of the rocket.

The Thrust Augmented Thor that was destroyed on February 28, 1963 was a liquid-fueled missile. Its main engine burned RP-1 kerosene with liquid oxygen — not solid propellant. The Castor-1 solid boosters were strapped-on assist motors that burned for approximately 37–40 seconds during the initial ascent, reaching around 10–15 kilometers altitude, after which they were jettisoned. By the time the range safety officer destroyed the vehicle at 44 kilometers, those solid boosters had been gone for over two minutes.

The main Thor engine — the liquid-fueled engine still burning when the rocket was destroyed — is where the water was coming from. RP-1 kerosene combusted with liquid oxygen produces two products: carbon dioxide and water. The stoichiometry is straightforward. For every kilogram of RP-1 burned, approximately 1.3–1.4 kilograms of water is produced. The Thor carried roughly 22,000 kilograms of RP-1 and 34,000 kilograms of liquid oxygen. Even if only a fraction of those propellants remained unburned at time of destruction and were subsequently dispersed and burned by the explosion, the potential water output dwarfs the solid booster contribution that Rostron calculated.

Rostron never calculates this. In a presentation framed as "root cause analysis" and "going back to first principles," he simply ignores the primary propellant system of the primary stage. A nuclear quality assurance process would flag this immediately: you haven't analysed the dominant source term.

He does show a striking Space Shuttle exhaust cloud (STS-131) as a visual comparison, but the comparison is misleading. That photograph was taken five minutes after launch, during active burning. The 1963 cloud appeared three and a half hours after the rocket's destruction. Of course they look different. Arguing that rocket exhaust in active flight looks unlike a dispersed, wind-shaped cloud hours later proves nothing about whether the rocket caused the cloud.
----

== The Cloud Density Contradiction: Rostron's Framework Collapses His Own Math ==
There is a deeper problem with the mass calculation that Rostron doesn't notice — because it requires him to apply his own logic consistently, which he doesn't.

Throughout the presentation, Rostron correctly invokes the analogy of noctilucent clouds to explain one of the cloud's most striking features: why nobody saw it until sunset. He explains the physics accurately. Noctilucent clouds are visible only at twilight because they are too faint to scatter enough light to be visible against a bright daytime sky. They only appear once the background sky darkens and sunlight catches them from below the horizon. He uses this same principle to explain why the Flagstaff cloud was invisible during the day and only appeared as the sun went down.

This is the correct explanation. But Rostron never follows that logic into his density calculation.

Noctilucent clouds are extraordinarily tenuous. Their ice water content is typically on the order of '''10⁻⁵ to 10⁻⁶ grams per cubic meter''' — roughly one thousand to one hundred thousand times less dense than an ordinary cirrus cloud. That tenuousness is not incidental to how they behave. It ''is'' why they can't be seen in daylight. A cirrus cloud, with its density of around 0.03 to 0.05 g/m³, is clearly visible in full sunlight. Something only visible during a narrow twilight window, when the background sky is dark and the sun's rays are hitting it from far below the horizon, has to be far, far thinner than a cirrus cloud.

Rostron's mass calculation uses a cirrus cloud density of '''1/20 gram per cubic meter (0.05 g/m³)'''. That's how he arrives at his 2.2 million pound figure. But he has already established — in the same presentation — that the cloud behaved like a noctilucent cloud in terms of its visibility. You cannot simultaneously claim a cloud is too tenuous to be seen in daylight ''and'' assume cirrus-level ice density when calculating how much water formed it. Those two claims are mutually exclusive.

The numbers make this stark. At cirrus density (0.05 g/m³), Rostron calculates roughly 1.35 million kilograms of water needed. Now apply a density consistent with something only visible at twilight — say, 10⁻⁴ g/m³, which is still five hundred times denser than a typical noctilucent cloud and thus a very conservative estimate:<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.0001 g/m³ = '''2,700 kilograms — about 5,950 pounds'''</blockquote>At actual noctilucent cloud densities (10⁻⁵ g/m³):<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.00001 g/m³ = '''270 kilograms — about 595 pounds'''</blockquote>Not 2.2 million pounds. Hundreds of pounds. The Thor rocket's main liquid-fueled engine — which Rostron ignored entirely — produced combustion byproducts including water on the order of tens of thousands of kilograms. Even the Castor-1 solid boosters that Rostron himself analysed exceed this threshold by a significant margin.

Rostron uses noctilucent cloud physics when it helps explain daytime invisibility, then quietly reverts to cirrus cloud density when he needs a large number for his water mass argument. A root cause analysis doesn't get to choose which physical properties apply and when. Either the cloud was dense enough to behave like a cirrus cloud (visible in daylight, requiring ~2.2 million pounds of water) or it was tenuous enough to behave like a noctilucent cloud (invisible in daylight, requiring a tiny fraction of that). It cannot be both.
----

== The Anachronistic Wind Data ==
One of the more striking methodological errors in the series is Rostron's use of earth.nullschool.net — a real-time global wind visualization website — to argue about what the winds were doing at high altitude on February 28, 1963.

He pulls up current wind patterns above Arizona, shows that the winds at 10 millibar altitude (roughly 100,000 feet, or about 30 km) are around 65 km/h in the analysis session's present, and argues these speeds are insufficient to carry rocket debris from Vandenberg to Flagstaff in 3.5 hours. He acknowledges he's watched the website "over the years" and noted seasonal patterns, but then uses a single day's reading as if it characterises the wind field on a specific day six decades earlier.

Wind patterns at stratospheric and mesospheric altitudes are highly variable. They change with season, with quasi-biennial oscillation cycles, with individual synoptic events. Knowing what the winds are doing today tells you nothing reliable about what they were doing on a specific day in February 1963. Dr. McDonald, who actually collected observational data at the time, described the measured wind speeds as "tantalizingly close" to what would be required. Rostron cites this but dismisses it on the grounds that McDonald "couldn't figure out how it would work" — which is not the same as saying it couldn't have worked. McDonald was being scientifically conservative. Rostron is using present-day wind data to argue about past atmospheric conditions. These are not equivalent moves.
----

== A Confusion About Wind Direction ==
Rostron also argues that the wind direction was wrong for the rocket hypothesis. He says the cloud was observed to be "moving towards the southeast," and from this calculates a required wind origin of about 310 degrees (northwest). He then claims that a northwest wind at Vandenberg would carry debris toward Baja California, not Flagstaff.

But Vandenberg Air Force Base is located to the ''west-northwest'' of Flagstaff. Flagstaff is roughly to the ''east-northeast'' of Vandenberg. A wind blowing from the northwest — pushing things toward the southeast — would carry material from Vandenberg's vicinity ''toward'' the direction of Arizona. Rostron's claim that such a wind would instead send debris "into Mexico in Baja California" appears to reflect a geographical confusion about the relative positions of these locations. Rather than disproving the rocket hypothesis, his own wind direction data may be consistent with it.
----

== The Question Rostron Never Asks ==
Here is what is missing from five hours and fifty-four minutes of technically detailed presentation: any engagement with William Branham's own testimony about the cloud.

Rostron establishes (or attempts to establish) that the cloud was not produced by a Thor rocket. He never mentions that:

'''Branham claimed to be standing directly underneath the cloud when it appeared.''' He wasn't. The cloud appeared over Flagstaff. By Branham's own account of his activities on that trip, he was approximately 200 miles away near Sunset Mountain and Rattlesnake Mesa.

'''Branham stated that the cloud formed when the angels left him.''' The cloud appeared on February 28. Branham's own sermons describe the angelic visitation as occurring on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the departure of angels from a meeting that had not yet taken place.

'''Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his ministry until he was shown the photograph in Life Magazine''' — months after the cloud appeared. If he had witnessed the angels ascending into the sky and forming that cloud, that silence is inexplicable.

'''A second cloud is visible in the scientific photographs.''' Documented in ''Science Magazine'' (April 1963), this companion cloud appears to the northwest of the main cloud, consistent with debris dispersal from a single source. No version of the angelic account accounts for a second cloud.

These are not peripheral criticisms. They are facts drawn from Branham's own recordings and from the eyewitness documentation available at the time. Whether the cloud was caused by a rocket, a natural phenomenon, or something else entirely, Branham's own account of his involvement with it cannot be reconciled with the documented facts. Rostron's entire analysis — even if every calculation were correct — only defends the possibility that the cloud was unusual. It does nothing to explain why Branham's story about the cloud changed over time, why he placed himself at its formation when he demonstrably wasn't there, or why he first learned of the cloud from a magazine.
----

== What the Presentation Actually Establishes ==
To be precise about what Rostron's analysis shows and doesn't show:

He correctly demonstrates that natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers through ordinary atmospheric processes. This is real atmospheric science and he explains it clearly.

He correctly notes that the cloud was unusual and that McDonald found it difficult to explain WHEN FIRST CONFRONTED with the data available to him in 1963. However, MacDonald's story changed by the time of his response in 1967.

He raises legitimate questions about whether the Castor-1 solid boosters alone could account for the cloud's size. This is a fair point, though he reaches it by ignoring the primary propulsion system. He also ignores the amount of water vapour required for noctilucent clouds.

What his analysis does not establish is that the rocket could not have caused the cloud. His wind speed calculation uses anachronistic data. His mass calculation omits the main engine. His moisture argument '''supports''' rather than undermines the rocket hypothesis. And his conclusion — that supernatural causation is therefore implied — does not follow from his premises even if those premises were correct.
----

== A Word for Those Who Are Watching ==
If you've sat through this series, or heard someone cite it, or had it shared with you as the definitive answer to critics of the Message, you deserve to know what it actually proved and what it didn't.

Rostron is a capable engineer who spent months on this project. He clearly cares deeply about his faith, and he is trying to be rigorous. That's admirable. But rigour has to go all the way through — including to the question of whether the person whose testimony you're defending actually told a consistent, verifiable story. The scientific question of what caused the cloud is genuinely interesting but Rostron fails to disprove the rocket argment... in fact, he helps to prove it.

But the problem with Branham's cloud story was never primarily scientific. It was always about why a man who claimed to stand under a cloud was 200 miles away when it appeared, why the cloud preceded his vision's fulfillment by eight days, and why he never mentioned any of this until a magazine brought the photograph to his attention.

Those questions don't get answered by atmospheric physics. They get answered — or not answered — by Branham's own words.

The honest thing to do is listen to those words again, carefully, and ask whether the story holds together. Not because critics want it to fail, but because the truth matters. A faith built on a story that doesn't hold up isn't safer for not being examined. It's just more fragile.
----

== The TAT Agena D: Staging Sequence, Altitudes, and What Rostron Actually Said ==

=== What the Sources Say<ref>Here are the sources if you would like to check them:

* Castor 1 – Astronautix
* Castor (rocket stage) – Wikipedia
* Thor (rocket family) – Wikipedia
* Thor-Agena – Wikipedia
* PGM-17 Thor – Wikipedia
* Thor-SLV2A Agena-D – Gunter's Space Page
* Space Launchers – Delta (braeunig.us)</ref> ===
'''The vehicle had three distinct propulsion systems:'''

'''1. Castor-1 solid strap-on boosters (× 3)''' Per Astronautix and Wikipedia – Castor (rocket stage):

* Manufacturer: Thiokol (Morton Thiokol)
* Gross mass: '''3,852 kg (8,492 lb) each'''
* Propellant mass: '''3,317 kg (7,313 lb) each''' (gross minus 535 kg unfuelled casing)
* Burn time: '''27 seconds'''
* Thrust: 286 kN (64,295 lbf) each at sea level
* Lit at ground level simultaneously with the main engine; jettisoned after burnout

Three boosters: ~9,951 kg total propellant (~21,940 lb). Burnout at T+27 seconds.

'''Altitude at Castor-1 jettison:''' No source gives an explicit figure for the TAT configuration. Based on the 27-second burn time from ground level, a rough kinematic estimate (1.5–2g net upward acceleration) gives approximately '''4–8 km'''. A useful benchmark from another Thor destruction event: the Starfish Prime test had the Thor at ~9.1–10.7 km at T+59 seconds without solid strap-ons. With extra initial thrust from the Castors but a shorter burn, jettison altitude for the TAT is realistically in the '''5–8 km''' range — well below the troposphere/stratosphere boundary (~12 km) and far below the 44 km destruction point. (Wikipedia – PGM-17 Thor)

'''2. Main Thor liquid-fueled stage (DSV-2C / MB-3-III)''' Per Wikipedia – PGM-17 Thor:

* Engine: Rocketdyne LR79-NA-9 (MB-3-III)
* Propellants: '''LOX + RP-1 kerosene'''
* Total vehicle propellant load: approximately '''100,000 lb''' (vehicle gross mass 109,800 lb minus 6,889 lb empty weight)
* Main engine burn time: '''165 seconds'''
* Thrust at liftoff: 150,000 lbf (670 kN); vacuum: 170,000 lbf

The rocket was destroyed by the Range Safety Officer at '''44 km altitude''' on February 28, 1963. (Wikipedia – Thor-Agena) At 165 seconds designed burn time, and assuming destruction occurred somewhere between T+90 and T+150 seconds (given the rocket had traveled from ground to 44 km), '''the main engine was unambiguously still burning when the vehicle was destroyed.''' The Castor-1 boosters had been gone for over a minute.

The combustion chemistry of RP-1/LOX is straightforward: approximately 1.3–1.4 kg of water produced per kg of RP-1 burned, plus CO₂. The Thor carried roughly 30,000–35,000 kg of RP-1 at launch (based on propellant mass and ~2.25:1 LOX/fuel ratio). Even if only a fraction of that remained unburned at time of destruction, the water-producing potential of the main engine vastly exceeds anything the solid boosters could produce.

'''3. Agena D second stage''' Per Gunter's Space Page – Thor-SLV2A Agena-D and Rostron's own transcript ([4:29:44]):

* Fuel: ~32,850 lb of nitric acid + UDMH (a hypergolic fuel)
* This stage never ignited — the vehicle was destroyed in the first stage burn.

----

=== What Rostron Says (with Transcript Timestamps) ===
'''On the solid boosters''' — '''[2:59:38] and [4:31:00–4:31:44]:'''<blockquote>''"Those are the Castor-1 boosters made by the Morton Thiokol company... they contain... about 12,000 pounds of solid rocket material. There's three of them, so that's 36,000 pounds total."''</blockquote>Rostron calculated this by taking the physical dimensions of the Castor-1 and estimating its propellant volume at 90% fill. He arrived at '''~5,400 kg (~12,000 lbs) per booster'''. The published gross mass is 3,852 kg (8,492 lb), and the propellant-only mass is 3,317 kg (7,313 lb). Rostron's figure is '''41–63% higher than the actual specification''', because he derived it from geometry rather than looking up the published data. Three boosters at the correct propellant mass gives ~21,940 lb, not 36,000 lb — still, of course, vastly less than his 2.2 million pound requirement.

'''Crucially, Rostron never mentions the Castor-1 burn time of 27 seconds or estimates when the boosters separated.''' He treats the solid boosters as "the claim" — the thing critics pointed to — and calculates only their chemistry. He never addresses the timeline question of where those boosters were in the flight sequence relative to the 44 km destruction point.

'''On the main Thor engine''' — '''[4:29:33–4:29:36]:'''<blockquote>''"The main rocket is 110,000 pounds of kerosene and liquid oxygen fuel."''</blockquote>Rostron names it. He lists it. He then immediately pivots to the Agena D second stage fuel and the Castor-1 chemistry, and '''never calculates the water output of the main engine.''' At '''[5:22:29–5:22:53]''', he acknowledges that the Soyuz — which uses the same RP-1 fuel as the Thor — produces "mostly carbon dioxide and water" as combustion products. He uses Soyuz exhaust plume dissipation time as his closing argument against the rocket hypothesis, but again without calculating actual water mass for the Thor's own main engine.

'''On the destruction altitude''' — Rostron never states the altitude at which the Castor-1 boosters separated. He also never explicitly states that the main engine was still burning when the vehicle was destroyed at 44 km. This omission is the heart of the error: the solid boosters he spent hours analyzing had been jettisoned at roughly 5–8 km altitude, approximately '''36–39 km below''' where the cloud-forming explosion occurred.
----

=== Summary of the Discrepancy ===
{| class="wikitable"
!Factor
!Published Technical Data
!What Rostron Analyzed
|-
|Castor-1 gross mass (each)
|3,852 kg / 8,492 lb
|~5,400 kg / ~12,000 lb (overstated ~40%)
|-
|Castor-1 propellant (each)
|3,317 kg / 7,313 lb
|Used gross mass figure
|-
|Castor-1 burn time
|'''27 seconds'''
|Not mentioned
|-
|Castor jettison altitude
|~5–8 km (estimated)
|Not mentioned
|-
|Destruction altitude
|'''44 km'''
|Correctly stated
|-
|Main engine fuel
|~100,000 lb LOX/RP-1, '''165-second burn'''
|Named but never calculated
|-
|Main engine status at 44 km
|'''Still burning'''
|Never addressed
|-
|Water from main engine combustion
|~1.4 kg/kg RP-1 burned
|Acknowledged (via Soyuz) but never calculated for Thor
|}
The practical consequence: Rostron compared 36,000 lbs of solid propellant against a 2.2–3 million pound water requirement, and called it a decisive refutation. The actual comparison that should have been made — the water output of 100,000 lbs of LOX/RP-1 burning at altitude, at the moment of destruction — never appears anywhere in six hours of presentation.
----

=Evidence from the Branham Family=
{{Cloud Only Believe}}

{{Bottom of Page}}
[[Category:Prophecies]]
[[Category:Visions]]
[[Category:Honesty and Credibility]]
[[Category:Supernatural vindication]]

A critical analysis of Bill Rostron's presentation on the Cloud

2026-06-18T16:04:28Z

Admin: /* A Word for Those Who Are Watching */

{{Top of Page}}
{{Template:Cloud}}

=Responding to Bill Rostron=
<blockquote>''"When it's all said and done you'll either have to say one or two things — I don't know what that is, it's a mystery — and brother Bill will say enough to that the world will have to admit we don't have an answer. But the Bride has an answer."'' — Pastor Luke Gibson, introducing Bill Rostron's series</blockquote>
== Five Hours in Defense of a Story Branham Never Told ==
Bill Rostron is exactly the kind of person Message believers need making arguments on their behalf. He spent 46 years in the nuclear power industry doing quality assurance and root cause analysis. He knows how to build a chain of evidence. He takes his work seriously. And in his nearly six-hour series ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'' (March 2020), recorded at the Tabernacle of the Lord in Townville, South Carolina, he applies genuine technical skill to the question of whether a Thor rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base could have produced the famous cloud over Flagstaff on February 28, 1963.

The result is a presentation that is methodologically serious in parts, fatally flawed in others, and — most importantly — never once asks the question that actually matters.
----

== What Rostron Claims, and What He Admits He Can't Prove ==
Start with what Rostron himself says at the close of his series:<blockquote>''"All of the things we've said today doesn't prove that God did it, but it sure does prove that man didn't do it."''</blockquote>That's an honest statement. Credit where it's due. Rostron is not claiming to have scientifically proven a supernatural event. He's claiming to have eliminated the rocket as a natural cause.

But by the end of the evening, Pastor Gibson is telling the congregation that they don't need an answer — they already have one. The crowd is singing. The cloud has become proof of Revelation 10:1–7 and divine confirmation of William Branham's ministry. The gap between "man didn't do it" and "God did it" has been closed by emotional momentum, not logic.

This is the first and most important error of the entire presentation. Ruling out one natural explanation does not establish supernatural causation. That logical gap is not a technicality — it is the entire structure of the argument. Rostron builds a case against the rocket, and the congregation quietly converts his inconclusive findings into proof of the miraculous. No one in the room challenges this move. It should be challenged.
----

== The Self-Defeating Moisture Argument ==
Rostron spends a significant portion of Video 1 and Video 2 establishing a genuine point of atmospheric physics: natural moisture gets "wrung out" of the air as altitude increases, and by the time you reach the stratosphere and mesosphere, the water vapor content is so low — he puts it at about five parts per million — that cloud formation is essentially impossible under normal conditions.

He's right about this. Natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers. This is not disputed.

But Rostron then uses this fact to argue against the rocket hypothesis. Here's the problem: the rocket hypothesis does not require natural moisture. The entire premise of the rocket explanation is that the Thor, when destroyed at 44 kilometers, ''introduced'' water and combustion products into an environment that would not otherwise contain them. That's precisely why the cloud appeared where natural clouds don't.

Rostron's atmospheric moisture argument doesn't undermine the rocket hypothesis. It actually explains why the rocket hypothesis is ''necessary'' — because something had to put water up there. His own analysis establishes that the cloud required an external source of water, then pivots to arguing the rocket couldn't have been that source. But he never actually closes the loop on the water source question. He's eliminated natural formation and claimed to eliminate the rocket. What he hasn't done is identify where a non-supernatural source of water would come from. The argument proves too much: if no natural process could produce the cloud and the rocket couldn't either, he needs a third candidate. "God did it" is not a third candidate in a root cause analysis — it's an admission that the analysis is over.
----

== The Mass Calculation: A Critical Omission ==
This is where Rostron's engineering rigour breaks down most clearly.

His key quantitative argument is this: he estimates the cloud required approximately 2.2 million pounds (about 1 million kilograms) of water to form. He then points to the Castor-1 solid rocket boosters attached to the Thor and notes they contained roughly 12,000 pounds of solid propellant each. Three boosters, therefore about 34,000–36,000 pounds total. That's vastly less than 2.2 million pounds of water. Ergo, the rocket couldn't have done it.

The problem is that Rostron has analysed the wrong part of the rocket.

The Thrust Augmented Thor that was destroyed on February 28, 1963 was a liquid-fueled missile. Its main engine burned RP-1 kerosene with liquid oxygen — not solid propellant. The Castor-1 solid boosters were strapped-on assist motors that burned for approximately 37–40 seconds during the initial ascent, reaching around 10–15 kilometers altitude, after which they were jettisoned. By the time the range safety officer destroyed the vehicle at 44 kilometers, those solid boosters had been gone for over two minutes.

The main Thor engine — the liquid-fueled engine still burning when the rocket was destroyed — is where the water was coming from. RP-1 kerosene combusted with liquid oxygen produces two products: carbon dioxide and water. The stoichiometry is straightforward. For every kilogram of RP-1 burned, approximately 1.3–1.4 kilograms of water is produced. The Thor carried roughly 22,000 kilograms of RP-1 and 34,000 kilograms of liquid oxygen. Even if only a fraction of those propellants remained unburned at time of destruction and were subsequently dispersed and burned by the explosion, the potential water output dwarfs the solid booster contribution that Rostron calculated.

Rostron never calculates this. In a presentation framed as "root cause analysis" and "going back to first principles," he simply ignores the primary propellant system of the primary stage. A nuclear quality assurance process would flag this immediately: you haven't analysed the dominant source term.

He does show a striking Space Shuttle exhaust cloud (STS-131) as a visual comparison, but the comparison is misleading. That photograph was taken five minutes after launch, during active burning. The 1963 cloud appeared three and a half hours after the rocket's destruction. Of course they look different. Arguing that rocket exhaust in active flight looks unlike a dispersed, wind-shaped cloud hours later proves nothing about whether the rocket caused the cloud.
----

== The Cloud Density Contradiction: Rostron's Framework Collapses His Own Math ==
There is a deeper problem with the mass calculation that Rostron doesn't notice — because it requires him to apply his own logic consistently, which he doesn't.

Throughout the presentation, Rostron correctly invokes the analogy of noctilucent clouds to explain one of the cloud's most striking features: why nobody saw it until sunset. He explains the physics accurately. Noctilucent clouds are visible only at twilight because they are too faint to scatter enough light to be visible against a bright daytime sky. They only appear once the background sky darkens and sunlight catches them from below the horizon. He uses this same principle to explain why the Flagstaff cloud was invisible during the day and only appeared as the sun went down.

This is the correct explanation. But Rostron never follows that logic into his density calculation.

Noctilucent clouds are extraordinarily tenuous. Their ice water content is typically on the order of '''10⁻⁵ to 10⁻⁶ grams per cubic meter''' — roughly one thousand to one hundred thousand times less dense than an ordinary cirrus cloud. That tenuousness is not incidental to how they behave. It ''is'' why they can't be seen in daylight. A cirrus cloud, with its density of around 0.03 to 0.05 g/m³, is clearly visible in full sunlight. Something only visible during a narrow twilight window, when the background sky is dark and the sun's rays are hitting it from far below the horizon, has to be far, far thinner than a cirrus cloud.

Rostron's mass calculation uses a cirrus cloud density of '''1/20 gram per cubic meter (0.05 g/m³)'''. That's how he arrives at his 2.2 million pound figure. But he has already established — in the same presentation — that the cloud behaved like a noctilucent cloud in terms of its visibility. You cannot simultaneously claim a cloud is too tenuous to be seen in daylight ''and'' assume cirrus-level ice density when calculating how much water formed it. Those two claims are mutually exclusive.

The numbers make this stark. At cirrus density (0.05 g/m³), Rostron calculates roughly 1.35 million kilograms of water needed. Now apply a density consistent with something only visible at twilight — say, 10⁻⁴ g/m³, which is still five hundred times denser than a typical noctilucent cloud and thus a very conservative estimate:<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.0001 g/m³ = '''2,700 kilograms — about 5,950 pounds'''</blockquote>At actual noctilucent cloud densities (10⁻⁵ g/m³):<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.00001 g/m³ = '''270 kilograms — about 595 pounds'''</blockquote>Not 2.2 million pounds. Hundreds of pounds. The Thor rocket's main liquid-fueled engine — which Rostron ignored entirely — produced combustion byproducts including water on the order of tens of thousands of kilograms. Even the Castor-1 solid boosters that Rostron himself analysed exceed this threshold by a significant margin.

Rostron uses noctilucent cloud physics when it helps explain daytime invisibility, then quietly reverts to cirrus cloud density when he needs a large number for his water mass argument. A root cause analysis doesn't get to choose which physical properties apply and when. Either the cloud was dense enough to behave like a cirrus cloud (visible in daylight, requiring ~2.2 million pounds of water) or it was tenuous enough to behave like a noctilucent cloud (invisible in daylight, requiring a tiny fraction of that). It cannot be both.
----

== The Anachronistic Wind Data ==
One of the more striking methodological errors in the series is Rostron's use of earth.nullschool.net — a real-time global wind visualization website — to argue about what the winds were doing at high altitude on February 28, 1963.

He pulls up current wind patterns above Arizona, shows that the winds at 10 millibar altitude (roughly 100,000 feet, or about 30 km) are around 65 km/h in the analysis session's present, and argues these speeds are insufficient to carry rocket debris from Vandenberg to Flagstaff in 3.5 hours. He acknowledges he's watched the website "over the years" and noted seasonal patterns, but then uses a single day's reading as if it characterises the wind field on a specific day six decades earlier.

Wind patterns at stratospheric and mesospheric altitudes are highly variable. They change with season, with quasi-biennial oscillation cycles, with individual synoptic events. Knowing what the winds are doing today tells you nothing reliable about what they were doing on a specific day in February 1963. Dr. McDonald, who actually collected observational data at the time, described the measured wind speeds as "tantalizingly close" to what would be required. Rostron cites this but dismisses it on the grounds that McDonald "couldn't figure out how it would work" — which is not the same as saying it couldn't have worked. McDonald was being scientifically conservative. Rostron is using present-day wind data to argue about past atmospheric conditions. These are not equivalent moves.
----

== A Confusion About Wind Direction ==
Rostron also argues that the wind direction was wrong for the rocket hypothesis. He says the cloud was observed to be "moving towards the southeast," and from this calculates a required wind origin of about 310 degrees (northwest). He then claims that a northwest wind at Vandenberg would carry debris toward Baja California, not Flagstaff.

But Vandenberg Air Force Base is located to the ''west-northwest'' of Flagstaff. Flagstaff is roughly to the ''east-northeast'' of Vandenberg. A wind blowing from the northwest — pushing things toward the southeast — would carry material from Vandenberg's vicinity ''toward'' the direction of Arizona. Rostron's claim that such a wind would instead send debris "into Mexico in Baja California" appears to reflect a geographical confusion about the relative positions of these locations. Rather than disproving the rocket hypothesis, his own wind direction data may be consistent with it.
----

== The Question Rostron Never Asks ==
Here is what is missing from five hours and fifty-four minutes of technically detailed presentation: any engagement with William Branham's own testimony about the cloud.

Rostron establishes (or attempts to establish) that the cloud was not produced by a Thor rocket. He never mentions that:

'''Branham claimed to be standing directly underneath the cloud when it appeared.''' He wasn't. The cloud appeared over Flagstaff. By Branham's own account of his activities on that trip, he was approximately 200 miles away near Sunset Mountain and Rattlesnake Mesa.

'''Branham stated that the cloud formed when the angels left him.''' The cloud appeared on February 28. Branham's own sermons describe the angelic visitation as occurring on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the departure of angels from a meeting that had not yet taken place.

'''Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his ministry until he was shown the photograph in Life Magazine''' — months after the cloud appeared. If he had witnessed the angels ascending into the sky and forming that cloud, that silence is inexplicable.

'''A second cloud is visible in the scientific photographs.''' Documented in ''Science Magazine'' (April 1963), this companion cloud appears to the northwest of the main cloud, consistent with debris dispersal from a single source. No version of the angelic account accounts for a second cloud.

These are not peripheral criticisms. They are facts drawn from Branham's own recordings and from the eyewitness documentation available at the time. Whether the cloud was caused by a rocket, a natural phenomenon, or something else entirely, Branham's own account of his involvement with it cannot be reconciled with the documented facts. Rostron's entire analysis — even if every calculation were correct — only defends the possibility that the cloud was unusual. It does nothing to explain why Branham's story about the cloud changed over time, why he placed himself at its formation when he demonstrably wasn't there, or why he first learned of the cloud from a magazine.
----

== What the Presentation Actually Establishes ==
To be precise about what Rostron's analysis shows and doesn't show:

He correctly demonstrates that natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers through ordinary atmospheric processes. This is real atmospheric science and he explains it clearly.

He correctly notes that the cloud was unusual and that McDonald found it difficult to explain WHEN FIRST CONFRONTED with the data available to him in 1963. However, MacDonald's story changed by the time of his response in 1967.

He raises legitimate questions about whether the Castor-1 solid boosters alone could account for the cloud's size. This is a fair point, though he reaches it by ignoring the primary propulsion system. He also ignores the amount of water vapour required for noctilucent clouds.

What his analysis does not establish is that the rocket could not have caused the cloud. His wind speed calculation uses anachronistic data. His mass calculation omits the main engine. His moisture argument '''supports''' rather than undermines the rocket hypothesis. And his conclusion — that supernatural causation is therefore implied — does not follow from his premises even if those premises were correct.
----

== A Word for Those Who Are Watching ==
If you've sat through this series, or heard someone cite it, or had it shared with you as the definitive answer to critics of the Message, you deserve to know what it actually proved and what it didn't.

Rostron is a capable engineer who spent months on this project. He clearly cares deeply about his faith, and he is trying to be rigorous. That's admirable. But rigour has to go all the way through — including to the question of whether the person whose testimony you're defending actually told a consistent, verifiable story. The scientific question of what caused the cloud is genuinely interesting but Rostron fails to disprove the rocket argment... in fact, he helps to prove it.

But the problem with Branham's cloud story was never primarily scientific. It was always about why a man who claimed to stand under a cloud was 200 miles away when it appeared, why the cloud preceded his vision's fulfillment by eight days, and why he never mentioned any of this until a magazine brought the photograph to his attention.

Those questions don't get answered by atmospheric physics. They get answered — or not answered — by Branham's own words.

The honest thing to do is listen to those words again, carefully, and ask whether the story holds together. Not because critics want it to fail, but because the truth matters. A faith built on a story that doesn't hold up isn't safer for not being examined. It's just more fragile.
----

== The TAT Agena D: Staging Sequence, Altitudes, and What Rostron Actually Said ==

=== What the Sources Say ===
'''The vehicle had three distinct propulsion systems:'''

'''1. Castor-1 solid strap-on boosters (× 3)''' Per Astronautix and Wikipedia – Castor (rocket stage):

* Manufacturer: Thiokol (Morton Thiokol)
* Gross mass: '''3,852 kg (8,492 lb) each'''
* Propellant mass: '''3,317 kg (7,313 lb) each''' (gross minus 535 kg unfuelled casing)
* Burn time: '''27 seconds'''
* Thrust: 286 kN (64,295 lbf) each at sea level
* Lit at ground level simultaneously with the main engine; jettisoned after burnout

Three boosters: ~9,951 kg total propellant (~21,940 lb). Burnout at T+27 seconds.

'''Altitude at Castor-1 jettison:''' No source gives an explicit figure for the TAT configuration. Based on the 27-second burn time from ground level, a rough kinematic estimate (1.5–2g net upward acceleration) gives approximately '''4–8 km'''. A useful benchmark from another Thor destruction event: the Starfish Prime test had the Thor at ~9.1–10.7 km at T+59 seconds without solid strap-ons. With extra initial thrust from the Castors but a shorter burn, jettison altitude for the TAT is realistically in the '''5–8 km''' range — well below the troposphere/stratosphere boundary (~12 km) and far below the 44 km destruction point. (Wikipedia – PGM-17 Thor)

'''2. Main Thor liquid-fueled stage (DSV-2C / MB-3-III)''' Per Wikipedia – PGM-17 Thor:

* Engine: Rocketdyne LR79-NA-9 (MB-3-III)
* Propellants: '''LOX + RP-1 kerosene'''
* Total vehicle propellant load: approximately '''100,000 lb''' (vehicle gross mass 109,800 lb minus 6,889 lb empty weight)
* Main engine burn time: '''165 seconds'''
* Thrust at liftoff: 150,000 lbf (670 kN); vacuum: 170,000 lbf

The rocket was destroyed by the Range Safety Officer at '''44 km altitude''' on February 28, 1963. (Wikipedia – Thor-Agena) At 165 seconds designed burn time, and assuming destruction occurred somewhere between T+90 and T+150 seconds (given the rocket had traveled from ground to 44 km), '''the main engine was unambiguously still burning when the vehicle was destroyed.''' The Castor-1 boosters had been gone for over a minute.

The combustion chemistry of RP-1/LOX is straightforward: approximately 1.3–1.4 kg of water produced per kg of RP-1 burned, plus CO₂. The Thor carried roughly 30,000–35,000 kg of RP-1 at launch (based on propellant mass and ~2.25:1 LOX/fuel ratio). Even if only a fraction of that remained unburned at time of destruction, the water-producing potential of the main engine vastly exceeds anything the solid boosters could produce.

'''3. Agena D second stage''' Per Gunter's Space Page – Thor-SLV2A Agena-D and Rostron's own transcript ([4:29:44]):

* Fuel: ~32,850 lb of nitric acid + UDMH (a hypergolic fuel)
* This stage never ignited — the vehicle was destroyed in the first stage burn.

----

=== What Rostron Says (with Transcript Timestamps) ===
'''On the solid boosters''' — '''[2:59:38] and [4:31:00–4:31:44]:'''<blockquote>''"Those are the Castor-1 boosters made by the Morton Thiokol company... they contain... about 12,000 pounds of solid rocket material. There's three of them, so that's 36,000 pounds total."''</blockquote>Rostron calculated this by taking the physical dimensions of the Castor-1 and estimating its propellant volume at 90% fill. He arrived at '''~5,400 kg (~12,000 lbs) per booster'''. The published gross mass is 3,852 kg (8,492 lb), and the propellant-only mass is 3,317 kg (7,313 lb). Rostron's figure is '''41–63% higher than the actual specification''', because he derived it from geometry rather than looking up the published data. Three boosters at the correct propellant mass gives ~21,940 lb, not 36,000 lb — still, of course, vastly less than his 2.2 million pound requirement.

'''Crucially, Rostron never mentions the Castor-1 burn time of 27 seconds or estimates when the boosters separated.''' He treats the solid boosters as "the claim" — the thing critics pointed to — and calculates only their chemistry. He never addresses the timeline question of where those boosters were in the flight sequence relative to the 44 km destruction point.

'''On the main Thor engine''' — '''[4:29:33–4:29:36]:'''<blockquote>''"The main rocket is 110,000 pounds of kerosene and liquid oxygen fuel."''</blockquote>Rostron names it. He lists it. He then immediately pivots to the Agena D second stage fuel and the Castor-1 chemistry, and '''never calculates the water output of the main engine.''' At '''[5:22:29–5:22:53]''', he acknowledges that the Soyuz — which uses the same RP-1 fuel as the Thor — produces "mostly carbon dioxide and water" as combustion products. He uses Soyuz exhaust plume dissipation time as his closing argument against the rocket hypothesis, but again without calculating actual water mass for the Thor's own main engine.

'''On the destruction altitude''' — Rostron never states the altitude at which the Castor-1 boosters separated. He also never explicitly states that the main engine was still burning when the vehicle was destroyed at 44 km. This omission is the heart of the error: the solid boosters he spent hours analyzing had been jettisoned at roughly 5–8 km altitude, approximately '''36–39 km below''' where the cloud-forming explosion occurred.
----

=== Summary of the Discrepancy ===
{| class="wikitable"
!Factor
!Published Technical Data
!What Rostron Analyzed
|-
|Castor-1 gross mass (each)
|3,852 kg / 8,492 lb
|~5,400 kg / ~12,000 lb (overstated ~40%)
|-
|Castor-1 propellant (each)
|3,317 kg / 7,313 lb
|Used gross mass figure
|-
|Castor-1 burn time
|'''27 seconds'''
|Not mentioned
|-
|Castor jettison altitude
|~5–8 km (estimated)
|Not mentioned
|-
|Destruction altitude
|'''44 km'''
|Correctly stated
|-
|Main engine fuel
|~100,000 lb LOX/RP-1, '''165-second burn'''
|Named but never calculated
|-
|Main engine status at 44 km
|'''Still burning'''
|Never addressed
|-
|Water from main engine combustion
|~1.4 kg/kg RP-1 burned
|Acknowledged (via Soyuz) but never calculated for Thor
|}
The practical consequence: Rostron compared 36,000 lbs of solid propellant against a 2.2–3 million pound water requirement, and called it a decisive refutation. The actual comparison that should have been made — the water output of 100,000 lbs of LOX/RP-1 burning at altitude, at the moment of destruction — never appears anywhere in six hours of presentation.
----Sources:

* Castor 1 – Astronautix
* Castor (rocket stage) – Wikipedia
* Thor (rocket family) – Wikipedia
* Thor-Agena – Wikipedia
* PGM-17 Thor – Wikipedia
* Thor-SLV2A Agena-D – Gunter's Space Page
* Space Launchers – Delta (braeunig.us)

=Evidence from the Branham Family=
{{Cloud Only Believe}}

{{Bottom of Page}}
[[Category:Prophecies]]
[[Category:Visions]]
[[Category:Honesty and Credibility]]
[[Category:Supernatural vindication]]

A critical analysis of Bill Rostron's presentation on the Cloud

2026-06-18T15:42:13Z

Admin:

{{Top of Page}}
{{Template:Cloud}}

=Responding to Bill Rostron=
<blockquote>''"When it's all said and done you'll either have to say one or two things — I don't know what that is, it's a mystery — and brother Bill will say enough to that the world will have to admit we don't have an answer. But the Bride has an answer."'' — Pastor Luke Gibson, introducing Bill Rostron's series</blockquote>
== Five Hours in Defense of a Story Branham Never Told ==
Bill Rostron is exactly the kind of person Message believers need making arguments on their behalf. He spent 46 years in the nuclear power industry doing quality assurance and root cause analysis. He knows how to build a chain of evidence. He takes his work seriously. And in his nearly six-hour series ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'' (March 2020), recorded at the Tabernacle of the Lord in Townville, South Carolina, he applies genuine technical skill to the question of whether a Thor rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base could have produced the famous cloud over Flagstaff on February 28, 1963.

The result is a presentation that is methodologically serious in parts, fatally flawed in others, and — most importantly — never once asks the question that actually matters.
----

== What Rostron Claims, and What He Admits He Can't Prove ==
Start with what Rostron himself says at the close of his series:<blockquote>''"All of the things we've said today doesn't prove that God did it, but it sure does prove that man didn't do it."''</blockquote>That's an honest statement. Credit where it's due. Rostron is not claiming to have scientifically proven a supernatural event. He's claiming to have eliminated the rocket as a natural cause.

But by the end of the evening, Pastor Gibson is telling the congregation that they don't need an answer — they already have one. The crowd is singing. The cloud has become proof of Revelation 10:1–7 and divine confirmation of William Branham's ministry. The gap between "man didn't do it" and "God did it" has been closed by emotional momentum, not logic.

This is the first and most important error of the entire presentation. Ruling out one natural explanation does not establish supernatural causation. That logical gap is not a technicality — it is the entire structure of the argument. Rostron builds a case against the rocket, and the congregation quietly converts his inconclusive findings into proof of the miraculous. No one in the room challenges this move. It should be challenged.
----

== The Self-Defeating Moisture Argument ==
Rostron spends a significant portion of Video 1 and Video 2 establishing a genuine point of atmospheric physics: natural moisture gets "wrung out" of the air as altitude increases, and by the time you reach the stratosphere and mesosphere, the water vapor content is so low — he puts it at about five parts per million — that cloud formation is essentially impossible under normal conditions.

He's right about this. Natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers. This is not disputed.

But Rostron then uses this fact to argue against the rocket hypothesis. Here's the problem: the rocket hypothesis does not require natural moisture. The entire premise of the rocket explanation is that the Thor, when destroyed at 44 kilometers, ''introduced'' water and combustion products into an environment that would not otherwise contain them. That's precisely why the cloud appeared where natural clouds don't.

Rostron's atmospheric moisture argument doesn't undermine the rocket hypothesis. It actually explains why the rocket hypothesis is ''necessary'' — because something had to put water up there. His own analysis establishes that the cloud required an external source of water, then pivots to arguing the rocket couldn't have been that source. But he never actually closes the loop on the water source question. He's eliminated natural formation and claimed to eliminate the rocket. What he hasn't done is identify where a non-supernatural source of water would come from. The argument proves too much: if no natural process could produce the cloud and the rocket couldn't either, he needs a third candidate. "God did it" is not a third candidate in a root cause analysis — it's an admission that the analysis is over.
----

== The Mass Calculation: A Critical Omission ==
This is where Rostron's engineering rigour breaks down most clearly.

His key quantitative argument is this: he estimates the cloud required approximately 2.2 million pounds (about 1 million kilograms) of water to form. He then points to the Castor-1 solid rocket boosters attached to the Thor and notes they contained roughly 12,000 pounds of solid propellant each. Three boosters, therefore about 34,000–36,000 pounds total. That's vastly less than 2.2 million pounds of water. Ergo, the rocket couldn't have done it.

The problem is that Rostron has analysed the wrong part of the rocket.

The Thrust Augmented Thor that was destroyed on February 28, 1963 was a liquid-fueled missile. Its main engine burned RP-1 kerosene with liquid oxygen — not solid propellant. The Castor-1 solid boosters were strapped-on assist motors that burned for approximately 37–40 seconds during the initial ascent, reaching around 10–15 kilometers altitude, after which they were jettisoned. By the time the range safety officer destroyed the vehicle at 44 kilometers, those solid boosters had been gone for over two minutes.

The main Thor engine — the liquid-fueled engine still burning when the rocket was destroyed — is where the water was coming from. RP-1 kerosene combusted with liquid oxygen produces two products: carbon dioxide and water. The stoichiometry is straightforward. For every kilogram of RP-1 burned, approximately 1.3–1.4 kilograms of water is produced. The Thor carried roughly 22,000 kilograms of RP-1 and 34,000 kilograms of liquid oxygen. Even if only a fraction of those propellants remained unburned at time of destruction and were subsequently dispersed and burned by the explosion, the potential water output dwarfs the solid booster contribution that Rostron calculated.

Rostron never calculates this. In a presentation framed as "root cause analysis" and "going back to first principles," he simply ignores the primary propellant system of the primary stage. A nuclear quality assurance process would flag this immediately: you haven't analysed the dominant source term.

He does show a striking Space Shuttle exhaust cloud (STS-131) as a visual comparison, but the comparison is misleading. That photograph was taken five minutes after launch, during active burning. The 1963 cloud appeared three and a half hours after the rocket's destruction. Of course they look different. Arguing that rocket exhaust in active flight looks unlike a dispersed, wind-shaped cloud hours later proves nothing about whether the rocket caused the cloud.
----

== The Cloud Density Contradiction: Rostron's Framework Collapses His Own Math ==
There is a deeper problem with the mass calculation that Rostron doesn't notice — because it requires him to apply his own logic consistently, which he doesn't.

Throughout the presentation, Rostron correctly invokes the analogy of noctilucent clouds to explain one of the cloud's most striking features: why nobody saw it until sunset. He explains the physics accurately. Noctilucent clouds are visible only at twilight because they are too faint to scatter enough light to be visible against a bright daytime sky. They only appear once the background sky darkens and sunlight catches them from below the horizon. He uses this same principle to explain why the Flagstaff cloud was invisible during the day and only appeared as the sun went down.

This is the correct explanation. But Rostron never follows that logic into his density calculation.

Noctilucent clouds are extraordinarily tenuous. Their ice water content is typically on the order of '''10⁻⁵ to 10⁻⁶ grams per cubic meter''' — roughly one thousand to one hundred thousand times less dense than an ordinary cirrus cloud. That tenuousness is not incidental to how they behave. It ''is'' why they can't be seen in daylight. A cirrus cloud, with its density of around 0.03 to 0.05 g/m³, is clearly visible in full sunlight. Something only visible during a narrow twilight window, when the background sky is dark and the sun's rays are hitting it from far below the horizon, has to be far, far thinner than a cirrus cloud.

Rostron's mass calculation uses a cirrus cloud density of '''1/20 gram per cubic meter (0.05 g/m³)'''. That's how he arrives at his 2.2 million pound figure. But he has already established — in the same presentation — that the cloud behaved like a noctilucent cloud in terms of its visibility. You cannot simultaneously claim a cloud is too tenuous to be seen in daylight ''and'' assume cirrus-level ice density when calculating how much water formed it. Those two claims are mutually exclusive.

The numbers make this stark. At cirrus density (0.05 g/m³), Rostron calculates roughly 1.35 million kilograms of water needed. Now apply a density consistent with something only visible at twilight — say, 10⁻⁴ g/m³, which is still five hundred times denser than a typical noctilucent cloud and thus a very conservative estimate:<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.0001 g/m³ = '''2,700 kilograms — about 5,950 pounds'''</blockquote>At actual noctilucent cloud densities (10⁻⁵ g/m³):<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.00001 g/m³ = '''270 kilograms — about 595 pounds'''</blockquote>Not 2.2 million pounds. Hundreds of pounds. The Thor rocket's main liquid-fueled engine — which Rostron ignored entirely — produced combustion byproducts including water on the order of tens of thousands of kilograms. Even the Castor-1 solid boosters that Rostron himself analysed exceed this threshold by a significant margin.

Rostron uses noctilucent cloud physics when it helps explain daytime invisibility, then quietly reverts to cirrus cloud density when he needs a large number for his water mass argument. A root cause analysis doesn't get to choose which physical properties apply and when. Either the cloud was dense enough to behave like a cirrus cloud (visible in daylight, requiring ~2.2 million pounds of water) or it was tenuous enough to behave like a noctilucent cloud (invisible in daylight, requiring a tiny fraction of that). It cannot be both.
----

== The Anachronistic Wind Data ==
One of the more striking methodological errors in the series is Rostron's use of earth.nullschool.net — a real-time global wind visualization website — to argue about what the winds were doing at high altitude on February 28, 1963.

He pulls up current wind patterns above Arizona, shows that the winds at 10 millibar altitude (roughly 100,000 feet, or about 30 km) are around 65 km/h in the analysis session's present, and argues these speeds are insufficient to carry rocket debris from Vandenberg to Flagstaff in 3.5 hours. He acknowledges he's watched the website "over the years" and noted seasonal patterns, but then uses a single day's reading as if it characterises the wind field on a specific day six decades earlier.

Wind patterns at stratospheric and mesospheric altitudes are highly variable. They change with season, with quasi-biennial oscillation cycles, with individual synoptic events. Knowing what the winds are doing today tells you nothing reliable about what they were doing on a specific day in February 1963. Dr. McDonald, who actually collected observational data at the time, described the measured wind speeds as "tantalizingly close" to what would be required. Rostron cites this but dismisses it on the grounds that McDonald "couldn't figure out how it would work" — which is not the same as saying it couldn't have worked. McDonald was being scientifically conservative. Rostron is using present-day wind data to argue about past atmospheric conditions. These are not equivalent moves.
----

== A Confusion About Wind Direction ==
Rostron also argues that the wind direction was wrong for the rocket hypothesis. He says the cloud was observed to be "moving towards the southeast," and from this calculates a required wind origin of about 310 degrees (northwest). He then claims that a northwest wind at Vandenberg would carry debris toward Baja California, not Flagstaff.

But Vandenberg Air Force Base is located to the ''west-northwest'' of Flagstaff. Flagstaff is roughly to the ''east-northeast'' of Vandenberg. A wind blowing from the northwest — pushing things toward the southeast — would carry material from Vandenberg's vicinity ''toward'' the direction of Arizona. Rostron's claim that such a wind would instead send debris "into Mexico in Baja California" appears to reflect a geographical confusion about the relative positions of these locations. Rather than disproving the rocket hypothesis, his own wind direction data may be consistent with it.
----

== The Question Rostron Never Asks ==
Here is what is missing from five hours and fifty-four minutes of technically detailed presentation: any engagement with William Branham's own testimony about the cloud.

Rostron establishes (or attempts to establish) that the cloud was not produced by a Thor rocket. He never mentions that:

'''Branham claimed to be standing directly underneath the cloud when it appeared.''' He wasn't. The cloud appeared over Flagstaff. By Branham's own account of his activities on that trip, he was approximately 200 miles away near Sunset Mountain and Rattlesnake Mesa.

'''Branham stated that the cloud formed when the angels left him.''' The cloud appeared on February 28. Branham's own sermons describe the angelic visitation as occurring on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the departure of angels from a meeting that had not yet taken place.

'''Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his ministry until he was shown the photograph in Life Magazine''' — months after the cloud appeared. If he had witnessed the angels ascending into the sky and forming that cloud, that silence is inexplicable.

'''A second cloud is visible in the scientific photographs.''' Documented in ''Science Magazine'' (April 1963), this companion cloud appears to the northwest of the main cloud, consistent with debris dispersal from a single source. No version of the angelic account accounts for a second cloud.

These are not peripheral criticisms. They are facts drawn from Branham's own recordings and from the eyewitness documentation available at the time. Whether the cloud was caused by a rocket, a natural phenomenon, or something else entirely, Branham's own account of his involvement with it cannot be reconciled with the documented facts. Rostron's entire analysis — even if every calculation were correct — only defends the possibility that the cloud was unusual. It does nothing to explain why Branham's story about the cloud changed over time, why he placed himself at its formation when he demonstrably wasn't there, or why he first learned of the cloud from a magazine.
----

== What the Presentation Actually Establishes ==
To be precise about what Rostron's analysis shows and doesn't show:

He correctly demonstrates that natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers through ordinary atmospheric processes. This is real atmospheric science and he explains it clearly.

He correctly notes that the cloud was unusual and that McDonald found it difficult to explain WHEN FIRST CONFRONTED with the data available to him in 1963. However, MacDonald's story changed by the time of his response in 1967.

He raises legitimate questions about whether the Castor-1 solid boosters alone could account for the cloud's size. This is a fair point, though he reaches it by ignoring the primary propulsion system. He also ignores the amount of water vapour required for noctilucent clouds.

What his analysis does not establish is that the rocket could not have caused the cloud. His wind speed calculation uses anachronistic data. His mass calculation omits the main engine. His moisture argument '''supports''' rather than undermines the rocket hypothesis. And his conclusion — that supernatural causation is therefore implied — does not follow from his premises even if those premises were correct.
----

== A Word for Those Who Are Watching ==
If you've sat through this series, or heard someone cite it, or had it shared with you as the definitive answer to critics of the Message, you deserve to know what it actually proved and what it didn't.

Rostron is a capable engineer who spent months on this project. He clearly cares deeply about his faith, and he is trying to be rigorous. That's admirable. But rigour has to go all the way through — including to the question of whether the person whose testimony you're defending actually told a consistent, verifiable story. The scientific question of what caused the cloud is genuinely interesting but Rostron fails to disprove the rocket argment... in fact, he helps to prove it.

But the problem with Branham's cloud story was never primarily scientific. It was always about why a man who claimed to stand under a cloud was 200 miles away when it appeared, why the cloud preceded his vision's fulfillment by eight days, and why he never mentioned any of this until a magazine brought the photograph to his attention.

Those questions don't get answered by atmospheric physics. They get answered — or not answered — by Branham's own words.

The honest thing to do is listen to those words again, carefully, and ask whether the story holds together. Not because critics want it to fail, but because the truth matters. A faith built on a story that doesn't hold up isn't safer for not being examined. It's just more fragile.
----

=Evidence from the Branham Family=
{{Cloud Only Believe}}

{{Bottom of Page}}
[[Category:Prophecies]]
[[Category:Visions]]
[[Category:Honesty and Credibility]]
[[Category:Supernatural vindication]]

A critical analysis of Bill Rostron's presentation on the Cloud

2026-06-18T15:41:11Z

Admin: Created page with "{{Top of Page}} {{Template:Cloud}} =Evidence from the Branham Family= {{Cloud Only Believe}} {{Bottom of Page}} Category:Prophecies Category:Visions Category:Honesty and Credibility Category:Supernatural vindication"

Template:Cloud

2026-06-18T15:40:02Z

Admin:

<div style="text-align:center;margin-left:0px;padding-bottom:5px">
'''The Cloud:''' [[The Facts on the Cloud|Just the Facts]] • [[The Cloud|Intro]] • [[Prophecy of the Cloud|Prophesied?]] • [[Rattlesnake Mesa|Location?]] • [[The Cause of the Cloud|Cause?]] • [[A critical analysis of Bill Rostron's presentation on the Cloud|Rostron Debunked]] • [[The Timing of Cloud Events|Timing?]]
</span></div>

Logic and the Message

2026-06-17T20:27:38Z

Admin: /* Other logical errors or issues you may run into */

{{Top of Page}}
{{Template:Reason and the Message}}
The rules of logic are like the rules of mathematics or physics. One plus one equals two, and a lie cannot be part of the truth. These rules follow a rational structure because God designed the universe to have a rational structure.

Likewise, a Christian does not have to suspend logic or reason to arrive at a position of faith. Rather, logic or reason are often the reason for faith. For example, Message Believers believe faithfully in a man they consider to be a vindicated prophet. But take away the proof of vindication (or the reason for faith) and faith begins to crumble.

Listed below are a number of statements that have been made about this website, each of which is an illogical attack. Most of these statements were made by ministers to keep their congregations in the dark.
[[File:Logic.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Don't confuse the issue with facts!]]

=Ad hominem=

"Ad hominem" in Latin literally means ''‘to the person’''. It is an attack not against the position that the person holds but against the person themselves

Here is an example of an ad hominem argument that was presented by a message minister:

::“''You watch, its these carnal, spiritual babies, that couldn’t get the pastor to do what they wanted, it’s them that’s out there attacking the word of the hour. Don’t you lend an ear to that garbage!''”

An ad hominem attack attempts to counter an opponent’s claims by attacking the character, motives, or other attributes of those on the other side of an argument or position, rather than addressing the argument itself.

The example above not only fails to address any of the issues that have been raised, but it also lumps all ex-message believers into a narrow, negative stereotype that is, by its very generality, reckless, irresponsible, and false.

=Equivocation=

Equivocation is an informal logical fallacy. It is the misleading use of a term with more than one meaning or sense (by glossing over which meaning is intended at a particular time). It generally occurs with words or phrases that have multiple meanings.

Example:

:''It's so sad when people have known the truth, walked in it for years, and then they walk away from the truth.''

In this case, "truth" is used to refer to William Branham's message when, in fact, whether or not the message is truth is the issue that is being disputed.

=False dilemma or false dichotomy=

Artificially reducing a set of possibilities to two, usually while casting one of the two in such a negative light that the “obvious” choice is the other one.

::“''There, you see all of these contradictions in the Bible. I can’t explain them, can you? So are you going to throw your Bible away? If you’re going to leave the message over something like that, just go ahead and throw your Bible away''.”

This is a manipulative favorite when speaking to bible-believing Christians. The pastor knows they believe the Bible and aren’t going to throw it away, therefore many will make a decision that they are also, not going to leave the message, for no reason at all! The apparent contradictions in the Bible can and have been logically explained, while many questions about the message appear to be a result of William Branham's [[Credibility|credibility]] or [[The Municipal Bridge Vision|failed prophecies]].

=Moving the Goalposts=

The method of moving the criteria for “proof” out of the range of whatever evidence currently exists. If new evidence comes to light meeting the prior criteria, the goalpost is pushed further back. Sometimes impossible criteria are set up at the start for the purpose of denying an undesirable conclusion.

::“''You weren’t there when the cloud happened, so you don’t know how it happened''.”

Since we can’t go back in time and “be there”, there is no possible way to prove it didn’t happen as William Branham said, though the evidence in this particular case is so strong, you could actually argue not only for an overwhelming inductive case, but also for an empirical, deductive refutation of his claim, because of the law of non-contradiction.

::''The law of non-contradiction says that no two contradictory statements can both be true at the same time and in the same sense. Now, if someone tried to deny this and said, “The law of non-contradiction is false,” he would have a problem. Without the law of non-contradiction, there is no such thing as true or false, because this law itself draws the line between true and false.''<ref>Norman L. Geisler and Ronald M. Brooks, Come, Let Us Reason: An Introduction to Logical Thinking (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1990), 16.</ref> All logic depends on this simple principle. Scripture very clearly affirms the law of non-contradiction:

:::John 2:21 - ''No lie is of the truth.''

:::2 Timothy 2:13 - ''He (God) cannot deny himself.''

:::Titus 1:2 - ''God . . . cannot lie.''

::Therefore even God's Word must be in harmony with the law of non-contradiction.

While there can be truth in a lie, there can be no lie in the truth.

=The Red Herring=
<youtube width='440' height='320'>http://youtu.be/WjjTMBNDU2M</youtube>

A red herring is an issue or fact that is introduced to deliberately mislead or distract a person from the actual concern that is being questioned. A red herring is a logical fallacy that leads people towards a false conclusion. A red herring might be intentionally used as part of a rhetorical strategy (i.e. there are no real arguments against the position being put forward), or it could be inadvertently used during argumentation as a result of poor logic.

Voice of God Recordings explanation of why William Branham's failed prophecies are not important relies totally on red herring arguments:

:''Are you going to forsake the entire Bible and your Christianity because you can’t make the Gospels logically agree? ...

:''Do you trust what you read in the national media or worse, on private webpages, over what you hear from the prophet of God? If you do, then we would like to remind you of another story that spread throughout the country about the body of Jesus...

:''This time in history is called the information age. Everything must be proven by worldly knowledge or it won’t be believed. A quick search on the internet will turn up hundreds of criticisms of the Bible, and some even question the very existence of Jesus Christ. The enemy uses the same tactics against Brother Branham by questioning everything from his commission by the Angel to the supernatural cloud, hoping something will stick.<ref>Voice of God Recordings, Catch the Vision update, 2012, Vol. 2</ref>

In this case, attacks on the Bible are equated to attacks on William Branham and his message, even though they are entirely different. The problem is that each issue, all of those related to the Bible and each of those related to William Branham and his message, must be dealt with on their own merits. As a result, the issues relating to William Branham - [[The Prophecies of William Branham|the accuracy of his prophecies]], his [[Credibility|credibility]] and [[List of Issues with the Message#Are William Branham's teachings in agreement with the Bible?|whether his teachings are in agreement with scripture]] - must be looked at independently and not confused or tied to the completely unrelated issue of Biblical accuracy. We dealt with the [[Failed Prophecies|so-called "biblical inaccuracies" in another article]] and show that they are not what Voice of God Recordings stated that they were.

=Reductio ad absurdum=

Reducing the premise in an argument so that it leads to an absurd conclusion.

::“''You don’t believe it because you didn’t see it? Well, in that case, you don’t have proof that you have a brain, and certainly don’t have proof that there is a God!''”

The premise has been artificially reduced to ‘you don’t believe because you didn’t see it’. In reality there is a mountain of inductive evidence for the existence of your brain and God, and a mountain of inductive evidence to refute many message claims.

=Slippery Slope=

Argues that to accept A means that you must accept B, or Z, or some other extreme.

::“''You go clicking around on them websites and listening to the devil’s lies, you might just find yourself being an enemy of God, stuck with no way back''.”

Do I really have to explain why this is stupid? Which fallacy do I address first, the illogical connection between looking at a website and being an enemy of God, or the assertion that a website contains the “devil’s lies” without a single shred of evidence to back up such a monstrous claim?

=Straw Man=
[[Image:Facepalm statue.jpeg|right|thumb|250px]]
The basic form of a strawman argument is:

*Person 1 holds a specific belief.
*Person 2 restates person 1’s position in a distorted way.
*Person 2 attacks the distorted version of Person 1's belief.
*Therefore, Person 1's belief is false.

Person 2 attempts to argue against a belief by attacking a different position than the one his opponent actually holds - one that is easier to refute.

An example of a person defending the message against criticisms raised on this website:

::“''These people attacking the message would have you believe that you should go back to the harlot… back to the denominational slop you came out of''.”

This is not the position of any message critic that I am aware of. The truth is simply that people in the message are following a false prophet and therefore are in error. Where they go when and if they leave the message is a matter of prayerful consideration, and is inherently individual. By the way, equating all churches with harlots and slop for the simple fact that they belong to a denomination is also fallacious - in case common sense didn’t kick in automatically, as it should.

Some examples of specific straw man arguments that we have encountered:

*[[The_Trinity#William Branham's Critique of the Trinity|William Branham's Critique of the Trinity]]
*[[Is God fair?|Argument against Christianity]]

=Category error=

A category mistake is when things from one category of ideas or items are confused with an unrelated category of items or ideas. This is an “apple-and-oranges” error because it mixes up two ideas that don’t belong together. It says, “Accept this (apple) because it falls into that (orange) category.”

What kinds of things get confused? Just about anything. But a good example might be the categories of color and taste: “What does blue taste like?” As you can tell, this is a meaningless question, because colors don’t have taste. This kind of mistake happens often in questions about God, because he is often in a category all by himself.

*“Who were Adam’s parents?”
*“Who made God?”
*“What caused Lucifer to sin?”
*“What happened the moment before time began?”

In each of these cases, there is a mistake of asking, “What came before the first?” or “What caused the first cause?” If it is first, then nothing came before. The category ‘before’ does not apply to the category ‘first.’ It is logically impossible. God is the first cause of all things; he is eternal and uncreated. Adam and Eve were the first parents. Lucifer caused his own sin by his own will; nothing outside of him made him do it. There was no moment before time began; there was no time before the first moment of time. There was just eternity.<ref>Norman L. Geisler and Ronald M. Brooks, Come, Let Us Reason: An Introduction to Logical Thinking (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1990), 108–109.</ref>

=Other logical errors or issues you may run into=

==Logical Fallacies==

* '''Dismissal Without Reasoning''': Rejecting a claim without providing any counterargument or evidence.
* '''Ad Hominem (Reverse)''': Attacking the source (scholarly institutions) as inherently untrustworthy instead of addressing the data.
* '''Begging the Question''': Assuming one's own conclusion is true ("I know better") to prove that the opposing evidence must be false. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

==The Cognitive Biases==

* '''Dunning-Kruger Effect''': A psychological phenomenon where people with limited knowledge overestimate their own expertise.
* '''Confirmation Bias''': Filtering out objective facts that contradict personal beliefs.
* '''Egocentric Bias''': Relying too heavily on one's own perspective and experiences over objective data. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

==The Invincible Ignorance Fallacy==

This occurs when a person simply '''refuses to engage''' with evidence. They repeat their original assertion regardless of how much proof is presented against it.

{{Bottom of Page}}
[[Category:Doctrines]]
[[Category:Legalism]]
[[Category:Critical analysis of William Branham‏‎]]
[[Category:The Message]]

Logic and the Message

2026-06-17T20:26:39Z

Admin: /* Other logical errors or issues you may run into */

{{Top of Page}}
{{Template:Reason and the Message}}
The rules of logic are like the rules of mathematics or physics. One plus one equals two, and a lie cannot be part of the truth. These rules follow a rational structure because God designed the universe to have a rational structure.

Likewise, a Christian does not have to suspend logic or reason to arrive at a position of faith. Rather, logic or reason are often the reason for faith. For example, Message Believers believe faithfully in a man they consider to be a vindicated prophet. But take away the proof of vindication (or the reason for faith) and faith begins to crumble.

Listed below are a number of statements that have been made about this website, each of which is an illogical attack. Most of these statements were made by ministers to keep their congregations in the dark.
[[File:Logic.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Don't confuse the issue with facts!]]

=Ad hominem=

"Ad hominem" in Latin literally means ''‘to the person’''. It is an attack not against the position that the person holds but against the person themselves

Here is an example of an ad hominem argument that was presented by a message minister:

::“''You watch, its these carnal, spiritual babies, that couldn’t get the pastor to do what they wanted, it’s them that’s out there attacking the word of the hour. Don’t you lend an ear to that garbage!''”

An ad hominem attack attempts to counter an opponent’s claims by attacking the character, motives, or other attributes of those on the other side of an argument or position, rather than addressing the argument itself.

The example above not only fails to address any of the issues that have been raised, but it also lumps all ex-message believers into a narrow, negative stereotype that is, by its very generality, reckless, irresponsible, and false.

=Equivocation=

Equivocation is an informal logical fallacy. It is the misleading use of a term with more than one meaning or sense (by glossing over which meaning is intended at a particular time). It generally occurs with words or phrases that have multiple meanings.

Example:

:''It's so sad when people have known the truth, walked in it for years, and then they walk away from the truth.''

In this case, "truth" is used to refer to William Branham's message when, in fact, whether or not the message is truth is the issue that is being disputed.

=False dilemma or false dichotomy=

Artificially reducing a set of possibilities to two, usually while casting one of the two in such a negative light that the “obvious” choice is the other one.

::“''There, you see all of these contradictions in the Bible. I can’t explain them, can you? So are you going to throw your Bible away? If you’re going to leave the message over something like that, just go ahead and throw your Bible away''.”

This is a manipulative favorite when speaking to bible-believing Christians. The pastor knows they believe the Bible and aren’t going to throw it away, therefore many will make a decision that they are also, not going to leave the message, for no reason at all! The apparent contradictions in the Bible can and have been logically explained, while many questions about the message appear to be a result of William Branham's [[Credibility|credibility]] or [[The Municipal Bridge Vision|failed prophecies]].

=Moving the Goalposts=

The method of moving the criteria for “proof” out of the range of whatever evidence currently exists. If new evidence comes to light meeting the prior criteria, the goalpost is pushed further back. Sometimes impossible criteria are set up at the start for the purpose of denying an undesirable conclusion.

::“''You weren’t there when the cloud happened, so you don’t know how it happened''.”

Since we can’t go back in time and “be there”, there is no possible way to prove it didn’t happen as William Branham said, though the evidence in this particular case is so strong, you could actually argue not only for an overwhelming inductive case, but also for an empirical, deductive refutation of his claim, because of the law of non-contradiction.

::''The law of non-contradiction says that no two contradictory statements can both be true at the same time and in the same sense. Now, if someone tried to deny this and said, “The law of non-contradiction is false,” he would have a problem. Without the law of non-contradiction, there is no such thing as true or false, because this law itself draws the line between true and false.''<ref>Norman L. Geisler and Ronald M. Brooks, Come, Let Us Reason: An Introduction to Logical Thinking (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1990), 16.</ref> All logic depends on this simple principle. Scripture very clearly affirms the law of non-contradiction:

:::John 2:21 - ''No lie is of the truth.''

:::2 Timothy 2:13 - ''He (God) cannot deny himself.''

:::Titus 1:2 - ''God . . . cannot lie.''

::Therefore even God's Word must be in harmony with the law of non-contradiction.

While there can be truth in a lie, there can be no lie in the truth.

=The Red Herring=
<youtube width='440' height='320'>http://youtu.be/WjjTMBNDU2M</youtube>

A red herring is an issue or fact that is introduced to deliberately mislead or distract a person from the actual concern that is being questioned. A red herring is a logical fallacy that leads people towards a false conclusion. A red herring might be intentionally used as part of a rhetorical strategy (i.e. there are no real arguments against the position being put forward), or it could be inadvertently used during argumentation as a result of poor logic.

Voice of God Recordings explanation of why William Branham's failed prophecies are not important relies totally on red herring arguments:

:''Are you going to forsake the entire Bible and your Christianity because you can’t make the Gospels logically agree? ...

:''Do you trust what you read in the national media or worse, on private webpages, over what you hear from the prophet of God? If you do, then we would like to remind you of another story that spread throughout the country about the body of Jesus...

:''This time in history is called the information age. Everything must be proven by worldly knowledge or it won’t be believed. A quick search on the internet will turn up hundreds of criticisms of the Bible, and some even question the very existence of Jesus Christ. The enemy uses the same tactics against Brother Branham by questioning everything from his commission by the Angel to the supernatural cloud, hoping something will stick.<ref>Voice of God Recordings, Catch the Vision update, 2012, Vol. 2</ref>

In this case, attacks on the Bible are equated to attacks on William Branham and his message, even though they are entirely different. The problem is that each issue, all of those related to the Bible and each of those related to William Branham and his message, must be dealt with on their own merits. As a result, the issues relating to William Branham - [[The Prophecies of William Branham|the accuracy of his prophecies]], his [[Credibility|credibility]] and [[List of Issues with the Message#Are William Branham's teachings in agreement with the Bible?|whether his teachings are in agreement with scripture]] - must be looked at independently and not confused or tied to the completely unrelated issue of Biblical accuracy. We dealt with the [[Failed Prophecies|so-called "biblical inaccuracies" in another article]] and show that they are not what Voice of God Recordings stated that they were.

=Reductio ad absurdum=

Reducing the premise in an argument so that it leads to an absurd conclusion.

::“''You don’t believe it because you didn’t see it? Well, in that case, you don’t have proof that you have a brain, and certainly don’t have proof that there is a God!''”

The premise has been artificially reduced to ‘you don’t believe because you didn’t see it’. In reality there is a mountain of inductive evidence for the existence of your brain and God, and a mountain of inductive evidence to refute many message claims.

=Slippery Slope=

Argues that to accept A means that you must accept B, or Z, or some other extreme.

::“''You go clicking around on them websites and listening to the devil’s lies, you might just find yourself being an enemy of God, stuck with no way back''.”

Do I really have to explain why this is stupid? Which fallacy do I address first, the illogical connection between looking at a website and being an enemy of God, or the assertion that a website contains the “devil’s lies” without a single shred of evidence to back up such a monstrous claim?

=Straw Man=
[[Image:Facepalm statue.jpeg|right|thumb|250px]]
The basic form of a strawman argument is:

*Person 1 holds a specific belief.
*Person 2 restates person 1’s position in a distorted way.
*Person 2 attacks the distorted version of Person 1's belief.
*Therefore, Person 1's belief is false.

Person 2 attempts to argue against a belief by attacking a different position than the one his opponent actually holds - one that is easier to refute.

An example of a person defending the message against criticisms raised on this website:

::“''These people attacking the message would have you believe that you should go back to the harlot… back to the denominational slop you came out of''.”

This is not the position of any message critic that I am aware of. The truth is simply that people in the message are following a false prophet and therefore are in error. Where they go when and if they leave the message is a matter of prayerful consideration, and is inherently individual. By the way, equating all churches with harlots and slop for the simple fact that they belong to a denomination is also fallacious - in case common sense didn’t kick in automatically, as it should.

Some examples of specific straw man arguments that we have encountered:

*[[The_Trinity#William Branham's Critique of the Trinity|William Branham's Critique of the Trinity]]
*[[Is God fair?|Argument against Christianity]]

=Category error=

A category mistake is when things from one category of ideas or items are confused with an unrelated category of items or ideas. This is an “apple-and-oranges” error because it mixes up two ideas that don’t belong together. It says, “Accept this (apple) because it falls into that (orange) category.”

What kinds of things get confused? Just about anything. But a good example might be the categories of color and taste: “What does blue taste like?” As you can tell, this is a meaningless question, because colors don’t have taste. This kind of mistake happens often in questions about God, because he is often in a category all by himself.

*“Who were Adam’s parents?”
*“Who made God?”
*“What caused Lucifer to sin?”
*“What happened the moment before time began?”

In each of these cases, there is a mistake of asking, “What came before the first?” or “What caused the first cause?” If it is first, then nothing came before. The category ‘before’ does not apply to the category ‘first.’ It is logically impossible. God is the first cause of all things; he is eternal and uncreated. Adam and Eve were the first parents. Lucifer caused his own sin by his own will; nothing outside of him made him do it. There was no moment before time began; there was no time before the first moment of time. There was just eternity.<ref>Norman L. Geisler and Ronald M. Brooks, Come, Let Us Reason: An Introduction to Logical Thinking (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1990), 108–109.</ref>

=Other logical errors or issues you may run into=

The Logical Fallacies

* '''Dismissal Without Reasoning''': Rejecting a claim without providing any counterargument or evidence.
* '''Ad Hominem (Reverse)''': Attacking the source (scholarly institutions) as inherently untrustworthy instead of addressing the data.
* '''Begging the Question''': Assuming one's own conclusion is true ("I know better") to prove that the opposing evidence must be false. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

The Cognitive Biases

* '''Dunning-Kruger Effect''': A psychological phenomenon where people with limited knowledge overestimate their own expertise.
* '''Confirmation Bias''': Filtering out objective facts that contradict personal beliefs.
* '''Egocentric Bias''': Relying too heavily on one's own perspective and experiences over objective data. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

The Invincible Ignorance Fallacy

This is the most precise term for this situation. It occurs when a person simply '''refuses to engage''' with evidence. They repeat their original assertion regardless of how much proof is presented against it. [1, 2]

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Logic and the Message

2026-06-17T20:26:09Z

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The rules of logic are like the rules of mathematics or physics. One plus one equals two, and a lie cannot be part of the truth. These rules follow a rational structure because God designed the universe to have a rational structure.

Likewise, a Christian does not have to suspend logic or reason to arrive at a position of faith. Rather, logic or reason are often the reason for faith. For example, Message Believers believe faithfully in a man they consider to be a vindicated prophet. But take away the proof of vindication (or the reason for faith) and faith begins to crumble.

Listed below are a number of statements that have been made about this website, each of which is an illogical attack. Most of these statements were made by ministers to keep their congregations in the dark.
[[File:Logic.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Don't confuse the issue with facts!]]

=Ad hominem=

"Ad hominem" in Latin literally means ''‘to the person’''. It is an attack not against the position that the person holds but against the person themselves

Here is an example of an ad hominem argument that was presented by a message minister:

::“''You watch, its these carnal, spiritual babies, that couldn’t get the pastor to do what they wanted, it’s them that’s out there attacking the word of the hour. Don’t you lend an ear to that garbage!''”

An ad hominem attack attempts to counter an opponent’s claims by attacking the character, motives, or other attributes of those on the other side of an argument or position, rather than addressing the argument itself.

The example above not only fails to address any of the issues that have been raised, but it also lumps all ex-message believers into a narrow, negative stereotype that is, by its very generality, reckless, irresponsible, and false.

=Equivocation=

Equivocation is an informal logical fallacy. It is the misleading use of a term with more than one meaning or sense (by glossing over which meaning is intended at a particular time). It generally occurs with words or phrases that have multiple meanings.

Example:

:''It's so sad when people have known the truth, walked in it for years, and then they walk away from the truth.''

In this case, "truth" is used to refer to William Branham's message when, in fact, whether or not the message is truth is the issue that is being disputed.

=False dilemma or false dichotomy=

Artificially reducing a set of possibilities to two, usually while casting one of the two in such a negative light that the “obvious” choice is the other one.

::“''There, you see all of these contradictions in the Bible. I can’t explain them, can you? So are you going to throw your Bible away? If you’re going to leave the message over something like that, just go ahead and throw your Bible away''.”

This is a manipulative favorite when speaking to bible-believing Christians. The pastor knows they believe the Bible and aren’t going to throw it away, therefore many will make a decision that they are also, not going to leave the message, for no reason at all! The apparent contradictions in the Bible can and have been logically explained, while many questions about the message appear to be a result of William Branham's [[Credibility|credibility]] or [[The Municipal Bridge Vision|failed prophecies]].

=Moving the Goalposts=

The method of moving the criteria for “proof” out of the range of whatever evidence currently exists. If new evidence comes to light meeting the prior criteria, the goalpost is pushed further back. Sometimes impossible criteria are set up at the start for the purpose of denying an undesirable conclusion.

::“''You weren’t there when the cloud happened, so you don’t know how it happened''.”

Since we can’t go back in time and “be there”, there is no possible way to prove it didn’t happen as William Branham said, though the evidence in this particular case is so strong, you could actually argue not only for an overwhelming inductive case, but also for an empirical, deductive refutation of his claim, because of the law of non-contradiction.

::''The law of non-contradiction says that no two contradictory statements can both be true at the same time and in the same sense. Now, if someone tried to deny this and said, “The law of non-contradiction is false,” he would have a problem. Without the law of non-contradiction, there is no such thing as true or false, because this law itself draws the line between true and false.''<ref>Norman L. Geisler and Ronald M. Brooks, Come, Let Us Reason: An Introduction to Logical Thinking (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1990), 16.</ref> All logic depends on this simple principle. Scripture very clearly affirms the law of non-contradiction:

:::John 2:21 - ''No lie is of the truth.''

:::2 Timothy 2:13 - ''He (God) cannot deny himself.''

:::Titus 1:2 - ''God . . . cannot lie.''

::Therefore even God's Word must be in harmony with the law of non-contradiction.

While there can be truth in a lie, there can be no lie in the truth.

=The Red Herring=
<youtube width='440' height='320'>http://youtu.be/WjjTMBNDU2M</youtube>

A red herring is an issue or fact that is introduced to deliberately mislead or distract a person from the actual concern that is being questioned. A red herring is a logical fallacy that leads people towards a false conclusion. A red herring might be intentionally used as part of a rhetorical strategy (i.e. there are no real arguments against the position being put forward), or it could be inadvertently used during argumentation as a result of poor logic.

Voice of God Recordings explanation of why William Branham's failed prophecies are not important relies totally on red herring arguments:

:''Are you going to forsake the entire Bible and your Christianity because you can’t make the Gospels logically agree? ...

:''Do you trust what you read in the national media or worse, on private webpages, over what you hear from the prophet of God? If you do, then we would like to remind you of another story that spread throughout the country about the body of Jesus...

:''This time in history is called the information age. Everything must be proven by worldly knowledge or it won’t be believed. A quick search on the internet will turn up hundreds of criticisms of the Bible, and some even question the very existence of Jesus Christ. The enemy uses the same tactics against Brother Branham by questioning everything from his commission by the Angel to the supernatural cloud, hoping something will stick.<ref>Voice of God Recordings, Catch the Vision update, 2012, Vol. 2</ref>

In this case, attacks on the Bible are equated to attacks on William Branham and his message, even though they are entirely different. The problem is that each issue, all of those related to the Bible and each of those related to William Branham and his message, must be dealt with on their own merits. As a result, the issues relating to William Branham - [[The Prophecies of William Branham|the accuracy of his prophecies]], his [[Credibility|credibility]] and [[List of Issues with the Message#Are William Branham's teachings in agreement with the Bible?|whether his teachings are in agreement with scripture]] - must be looked at independently and not confused or tied to the completely unrelated issue of Biblical accuracy. We dealt with the [[Failed Prophecies|so-called "biblical inaccuracies" in another article]] and show that they are not what Voice of God Recordings stated that they were.

=Reductio ad absurdum=

Reducing the premise in an argument so that it leads to an absurd conclusion.

::“''You don’t believe it because you didn’t see it? Well, in that case, you don’t have proof that you have a brain, and certainly don’t have proof that there is a God!''”

The premise has been artificially reduced to ‘you don’t believe because you didn’t see it’. In reality there is a mountain of inductive evidence for the existence of your brain and God, and a mountain of inductive evidence to refute many message claims.

=Slippery Slope=

Argues that to accept A means that you must accept B, or Z, or some other extreme.

::“''You go clicking around on them websites and listening to the devil’s lies, you might just find yourself being an enemy of God, stuck with no way back''.”

Do I really have to explain why this is stupid? Which fallacy do I address first, the illogical connection between looking at a website and being an enemy of God, or the assertion that a website contains the “devil’s lies” without a single shred of evidence to back up such a monstrous claim?

=Straw Man=
[[Image:Facepalm statue.jpeg|right|thumb|250px]]
The basic form of a strawman argument is:

*Person 1 holds a specific belief.
*Person 2 restates person 1’s position in a distorted way.
*Person 2 attacks the distorted version of Person 1's belief.
*Therefore, Person 1's belief is false.

Person 2 attempts to argue against a belief by attacking a different position than the one his opponent actually holds - one that is easier to refute.

An example of a person defending the message against criticisms raised on this website:

::“''These people attacking the message would have you believe that you should go back to the harlot… back to the denominational slop you came out of''.”

This is not the position of any message critic that I am aware of. The truth is simply that people in the message are following a false prophet and therefore are in error. Where they go when and if they leave the message is a matter of prayerful consideration, and is inherently individual. By the way, equating all churches with harlots and slop for the simple fact that they belong to a denomination is also fallacious - in case common sense didn’t kick in automatically, as it should.

Some examples of specific straw man arguments that we have encountered:

*[[The_Trinity#William Branham's Critique of the Trinity|William Branham's Critique of the Trinity]]
*[[Is God fair?|Argument against Christianity]]

=Category error=

A category mistake is when things from one category of ideas or items are confused with an unrelated category of items or ideas. This is an “apple-and-oranges” error because it mixes up two ideas that don’t belong together. It says, “Accept this (apple) because it falls into that (orange) category.”

What kinds of things get confused? Just about anything. But a good example might be the categories of color and taste: “What does blue taste like?” As you can tell, this is a meaningless question, because colors don’t have taste. This kind of mistake happens often in questions about God, because he is often in a category all by himself.

*“Who were Adam’s parents?”
*“Who made God?”
*“What caused Lucifer to sin?”
*“What happened the moment before time began?”

In each of these cases, there is a mistake of asking, “What came before the first?” or “What caused the first cause?” If it is first, then nothing came before. The category ‘before’ does not apply to the category ‘first.’ It is logically impossible. God is the first cause of all things; he is eternal and uncreated. Adam and Eve were the first parents. Lucifer caused his own sin by his own will; nothing outside of him made him do it. There was no moment before time began; there was no time before the first moment of time. There was just eternity.<ref>Norman L. Geisler and Ronald M. Brooks, Come, Let Us Reason: An Introduction to Logical Thinking (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1990), 108–109.</ref>

=Other logical errors or issues you may run into=

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The Cause of the Cloud

2026-06-17T16:02:51Z

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{{Template:Cloud}}
<div style="border-bottom:2px #B87333 solid; text-align:lrft; padding:1px; margin:1px;"><font color='#800000' size='+1'>'''The Cloud (Part 2) - What Caused The Cloud?'''.</font> </div>
<youtube>http://youtu.be/ne_eJ9osvnc</youtube>
[[Image:Cloud-Large.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Page 112 of the May 1963 edition of Life Magazine]]

= The Arizona Cloud of February 28, 1963 =
At around sunset on February 28, 1963, an unusual cloud appeared in the vicinity of Flagstaff, Arizona and remained sunlit for 28 minutes after sunset. It attracted significant scientific attention, appearing in the [[Life Magazine May1963 (Page 112)|May 1963 edition of Life Magazine]], ''Science Magazine'' (April 19, 1963), ''Weatherwise Magazine'' (June 1963), and an independent scientific report issued May 31, 1963.

Dr. James E. McDonald of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona initially estimated the cloud's altitude at approximately 35 kilometers, later revising that figure to approximately 43 kilometers (141,000 feet). Despite his investigation, no conclusive public explanation was offered at the time.
----

== What Does the Cloud Mean? ==
Followers of William Branham's message view the cloud as supernatural — the fulfillment of a December 1962 vision in which Branham foresaw seven angels meeting him outside Tucson, Arizona (see [[Prophecy of the Cloud]]).. They connect it to his subsequent opening of the Seven Seals and regard it as divine confirmation of his prophetic ministry.

Critics take a different view entirely. They argue the cloud has a straightforward natural explanation: it was the debris from a Thor rocket intentionally destroyed over Vandenberg Air Force Base earlier that same day. More significantly, critics argue that Branham's own testimony about being present at the cloud's formation is demonstrably false — a story that emerged only after he saw the ''Life Magazine'' photograph, and that directly contradicts verifiable facts about the cloud's location and timing.
----

== The Scientific Explanation ==
On February 28, 1963, a thrust-assisted Thor rocket was launched from pad 75-3-5 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying a Keyhole 4 military surveillance satellite.<ref name=":0">http://www.astronautix.com/thisday/febary28.htm</ref> The rocket veered off course and was intentionally destroyed<ref name=":1">http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/lvs/tatgenad.htm</ref> at an altitude of 44 kilometers (144,000 feet) at 1:52 p.m.<ref name=":2">McDonald, Dr. James E, Cloud-Ring in the Upper Stratosphere, ''Weatherwise'', June 1963, Page 100</ref>

Several lines of evidence connect the rocket to the cloud:

# '''Same day.''' The rocket was destroyed on the same day the cloud appeared.
# '''Same altitude.''' The rocket was destroyed at 44 kilometers; the cloud was independently estimated at 43 kilometers — a near-exact match.
# '''Consistent wind speeds.''' No wind speed data was recorded at Vandenberg on that specific day, but Dr. McDonald noted that wind speeds measured at comparable altitudes at other times were "tantalizingly close" to what would have been required to carry debris from Vandenberg to Flagstaff. Since wind speeds vary by location and altitude, these measurements are consistent with a transport scenario, not proof against one.
# '''Military confirmation.''' When launch records were later declassified, the United States Air Force released documentation confirming that the cloud resulted from a military rocket operation.<ref>Jackson, Jeff G., 30th Space Wing History, Department of the Air Force, January 26, 1995, Vandenburg AFB, California</ref>
[[Image:NasaMakesACloud.jpg|thumb|370px|In March 2012 NASA made some clouds in the morning sky with a shape and height similar to the February 1963 cloud.]]
Dr. McDonald initially noted that clouds do not normally form at mesospheric altitudes — but subsequent research demonstrated that visible exhaust clouds from rocket launches can indeed reach into the mesosphere.<ref>http://www.spokenwordchurch.com/themessageresourcelibrary/Articles/Cloud%20Article%20-%20Dr%20McDonalds%20Cloud%20Investigation%20Supplement%201963.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/rktr1j.htm</ref> NASA has since created similar high-altitude clouds in chemical experiments, and some closely resemble the shape photographed on February 28 — appearing without any visible exhaust trail back to the launch site.<ref>http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/03/pictures/120327-nasa-rockets-clouds-wallops-jet-stream-edge-space-science/#/nasa-rocket-launch-strange-clouds-blue_50490_600x450.jpg</ref>

Today, rocket launches from Vandenberg are routinely documented on video. Depending on atmospheric conditions, they can be seen from Tucson and beyond, leaving mesospheric clouds that remain illuminated well after sunset.<ref>http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=SGBuQL-FvGI</ref><ref>http://spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/cosmic/launch.html and http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/rktr1j.htm</ref> This kind of direct visual evidence was simply unavailable in 1963.

Scientists also linked similar clouds appearing later in 1963 to rocket launches:<blockquote>''A bright noctilucent cloud was observed and photographed northwest of Tucson on 15 June 1963. Results of computations indicate that the cloud was at a height of 71 kilometers. The cloud appears to have resulted from the launching of a Scout space vehicle.''<ref>[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/141/3586/1176.abstract Science Magazine, September 1963: Vol. 141, no. 3586, pp. 1176-1178, DOI: 10.1126/science.141.3586.1176, ''Low-Latitude Noctilucent Cloud of 15 June 1963'', Aden B. Meinel1, Barbara Middlehurst, Ewen Whitaker]</ref></blockquote><blockquote>''Measurement of the filamentary noctilucent cloud of 2 November 1963 yields a height of 56 km. Study of the motion and orientation of the cloud confirms the hypothesis that these unusual clouds appearing in the southwestern states are produced by the launching of rocket vehicles from the Pacific Missile Range.''<ref>[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/143/3601/38.abstract Science Magazine, January 1964: Vol. 143, no. 3601, pp. 38-39, DOI:0.1126/science.143.3601.38, Low-Latitude Noctilucent Cloud of 2 November 1963, Aden B. Meinel, Carolyn P. Meinel]</ref></blockquote>

=== Why Didn't Dr. McDonald Publish a Final Report? ===
Dr. McDonald was senior physicist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and professor of meteorology at the University of Arizona. He was also well known for his serious investigation of UFO reports — which makes him an unlikely candidate to shelve a genuinely unexplained phenomenon simply out of disinterest. The most natural explanation for his failure to publish a final report is that he arrived at a sufficient explanation — the rocket — and didn't consider that conclusion publishable as a scientific finding. A researcher who made his reputation pursuing phenomena that defied conventional science would not have quietly dropped the subject if it remained genuinely mysterious.

What is extremely interesting is Dr. McDonald's 1967 response to Pearry Green's view of the supernatural nature of the Cloud.
----

== Dr. McDonald's Re-Assessment ==
[[File:19670405 Mysterious Cloud Formation Vanishes Under Examination.jpg|right|250px]]
In April 1967, Dr. McDonald wrote a letter to ''The Arizona Republic'' that leaves no ambiguity about his conclusions:
----''THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC — Wednesday, April 5, 1967''

'''Mysterious Cloud Formation Vanishes Under Examination'''

Editor, The Arizona Republic:

The March 26 issue of your Sunday supplement, ''Arizona'', carried an article by Reporter Dave Davies, entitled "The Cloud," concerning a very unusual stratospheric cloud formation that appeared over Flagstaff on Feb. 28, 1963.

My investigations of that cloud are quoted in part, but a number of aspects of my findings were omitted or overlooked, so that the supernatural and religious construction that has been put on that event was improperly supported.

I am quoted as "frankly skeptical," as if to suggest that I am half-convinced, half-unconvinced by the occult interpretation. I am, in fact, wholly unconvinced and regard the entire business as quite distressing.

IT IS NOT CORRECT that the cloud "swept northward across Arizona." It moved in from almost due west. If Mr. Sothman saw anything which he thought to be a "strange circular-shaped cloud rise into the air" over Branham's head, he is clearly talking about some other cloud than that of Feb. 28 over Flagstaff.

Sothman is quoted as asserting that "it was kind of small at first, but the higher it rose the bigger it became." The observations of scores of reliable witnesses disinclined to pseudo-religious interpretations attest to the fact that the Flagstaff cloud appeared and disappeared without significant overall size or shape change.

Rev. Pearry Green, cited in the article, asserted to me (in a phone conversation in which I pointed out many discrepancies in the occult interpretation he and others seek to place on this event) that the "seven angels," after speaking to Rev. Branham, flew up into the sky and assumed the form of this cloud which, he claims, outlined the face of Christ to Branham.

AS A MATTER of fact, the photograph which accompanied the recent article as alleged documentation of this angelic revelation constitutes a projection entirely different from that which an observer would have seen in Branham's reported location in the Sunset Mountain area.

From the latter area, as also from Tucson where I myself saw it, the cloud bore absolutely no resemblance to any face. Rev. Mr. Green asserts that "facial features" can be seen in the inside of the cloud. When I told him no such features are detectable on the original prints, and when I asked for sample copies of the prints which he claimed showed such features, I never received any copies to examine.

And the amusing matter of the satellite cloud, west of Flagstaff, which shows on numerous photos taken from eastern Arizona and New Mexico, but which Branham's group did not know about until I confronted Green with it, seems to go a long way towards exposing the irrationality of the religious interpretations.

DAVIES OMITTED all mention of data I gave him on the detonation of a rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base at almost precisely the elevation of that cloud, about four hours earlier that day. Although there do indeed remain difficulties in explaining that cloud, supernaturalism ought not be even a last resort.

Let's keep the Middle Ages back where they belong.

''JAMES E. MCDONALD, Professor, UofA, Institute of Atmospheric Physics''
----

== Why Wasn't the Cloud Visible Before Sunset? ==
The cloud sat at approximately 43 kilometers altitude — well into the mesosphere. At that height, it remained illuminated by direct sunlight even after the sun dropped below the horizon for ground observers. This is exactly the same optical geometry that makes noctilucent clouds visible at twilight: the lower atmosphere falls into shadow first, while objects at very high altitude continue to catch oblique sunlight for some time afterward. The 28-minute post-sunset illumination period is entirely consistent with a mesospheric cloud and requires no supernatural explanation.

This also accounts for why the cloud wasn't noticed earlier. High-altitude clouds of this type are too faint to be seen against a bright daytime sky. They become visible only once the background sky darkens enough at dusk. A cloud present at 43 kilometers since 1:52 p.m. could easily have gone unobserved until twilight.
----

== The Second Cloud ==
[[Image:April 1963 Science Magazine page 1.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 292]]
[[Image:63 04 Science Vol 140 Page 2.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 293]]
[[Image:63 04 Science Vol 140 Page 3.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 294]]
The April 1963 ''Science Magazine'' article documented a second cloud visible in photographs taken from eastern Arizona and New Mexico, appearing to the northwest of the main cloud. Dr. McDonald raised this himself in his 1967 letter, noting that Branham's group was unaware of it until he confronted Pearry Green with the photographic evidence.

This poses a direct problem for the supernatural interpretation. If the main cloud formed from angels ascending after their meeting with Branham, what produced the second cloud? A companion cloud is exactly what one would expect from a rocket debris field dispersed across diverging high-altitude wind currents. It fits no version of the angelic account.
----

=Responding to Bill Rostron=
<blockquote>''"When it's all said and done you'll either have to say one or two things — I don't know what that is, it's a mystery — and brother Bill will say enough to that the world will have to admit we don't have an answer. But the Bride has an answer."'' — Pastor Luke Gibson, introducing Bill Rostron's series</blockquote>
== Five Hours in Defense of a Story Branham Never Told ==
Bill Rostron is exactly the kind of person Message believers need making arguments on their behalf. He spent 46 years in the nuclear power industry doing quality assurance and root cause analysis. He knows how to build a chain of evidence. He takes his work seriously. And in his nearly six-hour series ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'' (March 2020), recorded at the Tabernacle of the Lord in Townville, South Carolina, he applies genuine technical skill to the question of whether a Thor rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base could have produced the famous cloud over Flagstaff on February 28, 1963.

The result is a presentation that is methodologically serious in parts, fatally flawed in others, and — most importantly — never once asks the question that actually matters.
----

== What Rostron Claims, and What He Admits He Can't Prove ==
Start with what Rostron himself says at the close of his series:<blockquote>''"All of the things we've said today doesn't prove that God did it, but it sure does prove that man didn't do it."''</blockquote>That's an honest statement. Credit where it's due. Rostron is not claiming to have scientifically proven a supernatural event. He's claiming to have eliminated the rocket as a natural cause.

But by the end of the evening, Pastor Gibson is telling the congregation that they don't need an answer — they already have one. The crowd is singing. The cloud has become proof of Revelation 10:1–7 and divine confirmation of William Branham's ministry. The gap between "man didn't do it" and "God did it" has been closed by emotional momentum, not logic.

This is the first and most important error of the entire presentation. Ruling out one natural explanation does not establish supernatural causation. That logical gap is not a technicality — it is the entire structure of the argument. Rostron builds a case against the rocket, and the congregation quietly converts his inconclusive findings into proof of the miraculous. No one in the room challenges this move. It should be challenged.
----

== The Self-Defeating Moisture Argument ==
Rostron spends a significant portion of Video 1 and Video 2 establishing a genuine point of atmospheric physics: natural moisture gets "wrung out" of the air as altitude increases, and by the time you reach the stratosphere and mesosphere, the water vapor content is so low — he puts it at about five parts per million — that cloud formation is essentially impossible under normal conditions.

He's right about this. Natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers. This is not disputed.

But Rostron then uses this fact to argue against the rocket hypothesis. Here's the problem: the rocket hypothesis does not require natural moisture. The entire premise of the rocket explanation is that the Thor, when destroyed at 44 kilometers, ''introduced'' water and combustion products into an environment that would not otherwise contain them. That's precisely why the cloud appeared where natural clouds don't.

Rostron's atmospheric moisture argument doesn't undermine the rocket hypothesis. It actually explains why the rocket hypothesis is ''necessary'' — because something had to put water up there. His own analysis establishes that the cloud required an external source of water, then pivots to arguing the rocket couldn't have been that source. But he never actually closes the loop on the water source question. He's eliminated natural formation and claimed to eliminate the rocket. What he hasn't done is identify where a non-supernatural source of water would come from. The argument proves too much: if no natural process could produce the cloud and the rocket couldn't either, he needs a third candidate. "God did it" is not a third candidate in a root cause analysis — it's an admission that the analysis is over.
----

== The Mass Calculation: A Critical Omission ==
This is where Rostron's engineering rigour breaks down most clearly.

His key quantitative argument is this: he estimates the cloud required approximately 2.2 million pounds (about 1 million kilograms) of water to form. He then points to the Castor-1 solid rocket boosters attached to the Thor and notes they contained roughly 12,000 pounds of solid propellant each. Three boosters, therefore about 34,000–36,000 pounds total. That's vastly less than 2.2 million pounds of water. Ergo, the rocket couldn't have done it.

The problem is that Rostron has analysed the wrong part of the rocket.

The Thrust Augmented Thor that was destroyed on February 28, 1963 was a liquid-fueled missile. Its main engine burned RP-1 kerosene with liquid oxygen — not solid propellant. The Castor-1 solid boosters were strapped-on assist motors that burned for approximately 37–40 seconds during the initial ascent, reaching around 10–15 kilometers altitude, after which they were jettisoned. By the time the range safety officer destroyed the vehicle at 44 kilometers, those solid boosters had been gone for over two minutes.

The main Thor engine — the liquid-fueled engine still burning when the rocket was destroyed — is where the water was coming from. RP-1 kerosene combusted with liquid oxygen produces two products: carbon dioxide and water. The stoichiometry is straightforward. For every kilogram of RP-1 burned, approximately 1.3–1.4 kilograms of water is produced. The Thor carried roughly 22,000 kilograms of RP-1 and 34,000 kilograms of liquid oxygen. Even if only a fraction of those propellants remained unburned at time of destruction and were subsequently dispersed and burned by the explosion, the potential water output dwarfs the solid booster contribution that Rostron calculated.

Rostron never calculates this. In a presentation framed as "root cause analysis" and "going back to first principles," he simply ignores the primary propellant system of the primary stage. A nuclear quality assurance process would flag this immediately: you haven't analysed the dominant source term.

He does show a striking Space Shuttle exhaust cloud (STS-131) as a visual comparison, but the comparison is misleading. That photograph was taken five minutes after launch, during active burning. The 1963 cloud appeared three and a half hours after the rocket's destruction. Of course they look different. Arguing that rocket exhaust in active flight looks unlike a dispersed, wind-shaped cloud hours later proves nothing about whether the rocket caused the cloud.
----

== The Cloud Density Contradiction: Rostron's Framework Collapses His Own Math ==
There is a deeper problem with the mass calculation that Rostron doesn't notice — because it requires him to apply his own logic consistently, which he doesn't.

Throughout the presentation, Rostron correctly invokes the analogy of noctilucent clouds to explain one of the cloud's most striking features: why nobody saw it until sunset. He explains the physics accurately. Noctilucent clouds are visible only at twilight because they are too faint to scatter enough light to be visible against a bright daytime sky. They only appear once the background sky darkens and sunlight catches them from below the horizon. He uses this same principle to explain why the Flagstaff cloud was invisible during the day and only appeared as the sun went down.

This is the correct explanation. But Rostron never follows that logic into his density calculation.

Noctilucent clouds are extraordinarily tenuous. Their ice water content is typically on the order of '''10⁻⁵ to 10⁻⁶ grams per cubic meter''' — roughly one thousand to one hundred thousand times less dense than an ordinary cirrus cloud. That tenuousness is not incidental to how they behave. It ''is'' why they can't be seen in daylight. A cirrus cloud, with its density of around 0.03 to 0.05 g/m³, is clearly visible in full sunlight. Something only visible during a narrow twilight window, when the background sky is dark and the sun's rays are hitting it from far below the horizon, has to be far, far thinner than a cirrus cloud.

Rostron's mass calculation uses a cirrus cloud density of '''1/20 gram per cubic meter (0.05 g/m³)'''. That's how he arrives at his 2.2 million pound figure. But he has already established — in the same presentation — that the cloud behaved like a noctilucent cloud in terms of its visibility. You cannot simultaneously claim a cloud is too tenuous to be seen in daylight ''and'' assume cirrus-level ice density when calculating how much water formed it. Those two claims are mutually exclusive.

The numbers make this stark. At cirrus density (0.05 g/m³), Rostron calculates roughly 1.35 million kilograms of water needed. Now apply a density consistent with something only visible at twilight — say, 10⁻⁴ g/m³, which is still five hundred times denser than a typical noctilucent cloud and thus a very conservative estimate:<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.0001 g/m³ = '''2,700 kilograms — about 5,950 pounds'''</blockquote>At actual noctilucent cloud densities (10⁻⁵ g/m³):<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.00001 g/m³ = '''270 kilograms — about 595 pounds'''</blockquote>Not 2.2 million pounds. Hundreds of pounds. The Thor rocket's main liquid-fueled engine — which Rostron ignored entirely — produced combustion byproducts including water on the order of tens of thousands of kilograms. Even the Castor-1 solid boosters that Rostron himself analysed exceed this threshold by a significant margin.

Rostron uses noctilucent cloud physics when it helps explain daytime invisibility, then quietly reverts to cirrus cloud density when he needs a large number for his water mass argument. A root cause analysis doesn't get to choose which physical properties apply and when. Either the cloud was dense enough to behave like a cirrus cloud (visible in daylight, requiring ~2.2 million pounds of water) or it was tenuous enough to behave like a noctilucent cloud (invisible in daylight, requiring a tiny fraction of that). It cannot be both.
----

== The Anachronistic Wind Data ==
One of the more striking methodological errors in the series is Rostron's use of earth.nullschool.net — a real-time global wind visualization website — to argue about what the winds were doing at high altitude on February 28, 1963.

He pulls up current wind patterns above Arizona, shows that the winds at 10 millibar altitude (roughly 100,000 feet, or about 30 km) are around 65 km/h in the analysis session's present, and argues these speeds are insufficient to carry rocket debris from Vandenberg to Flagstaff in 3.5 hours. He acknowledges he's watched the website "over the years" and noted seasonal patterns, but then uses a single day's reading as if it characterises the wind field on a specific day six decades earlier.

Wind patterns at stratospheric and mesospheric altitudes are highly variable. They change with season, with quasi-biennial oscillation cycles, with individual synoptic events. Knowing what the winds are doing today tells you nothing reliable about what they were doing on a specific day in February 1963. Dr. McDonald, who actually collected observational data at the time, described the measured wind speeds as "tantalizingly close" to what would be required. Rostron cites this but dismisses it on the grounds that McDonald "couldn't figure out how it would work" — which is not the same as saying it couldn't have worked. McDonald was being scientifically conservative. Rostron is using present-day wind data to argue about past atmospheric conditions. These are not equivalent moves.
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== A Confusion About Wind Direction ==
Rostron also argues that the wind direction was wrong for the rocket hypothesis. He says the cloud was observed to be "moving towards the southeast," and from this calculates a required wind origin of about 310 degrees (northwest). He then claims that a northwest wind at Vandenberg would carry debris toward Baja California, not Flagstaff.

But Vandenberg Air Force Base is located to the ''west-northwest'' of Flagstaff. Flagstaff is roughly to the ''east-northeast'' of Vandenberg. A wind blowing from the northwest — pushing things toward the southeast — would carry material from Vandenberg's vicinity ''toward'' the direction of Arizona. Rostron's claim that such a wind would instead send debris "into Mexico in Baja California" appears to reflect a geographical confusion about the relative positions of these locations. Rather than disproving the rocket hypothesis, his own wind direction data may be consistent with it.
----

== The Question Rostron Never Asks ==
Here is what is missing from five hours and fifty-four minutes of technically detailed presentation: any engagement with William Branham's own testimony about the cloud.

Rostron establishes (or attempts to establish) that the cloud was not produced by a Thor rocket. He never mentions that:

'''Branham claimed to be standing directly underneath the cloud when it appeared.''' He wasn't. The cloud appeared over Flagstaff. By Branham's own account of his activities on that trip, he was approximately 200 miles away near Sunset Mountain and Rattlesnake Mesa.

'''Branham stated that the cloud formed when the angels left him.''' The cloud appeared on February 28. Branham's own sermons describe the angelic visitation as occurring on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the departure of angels from a meeting that had not yet taken place.

'''Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his ministry until he was shown the photograph in Life Magazine''' — months after the cloud appeared. If he had witnessed the angels ascending into the sky and forming that cloud, that silence is inexplicable.

'''A second cloud is visible in the scientific photographs.''' Documented in ''Science Magazine'' (April 1963), this companion cloud appears to the northwest of the main cloud, consistent with debris dispersal from a single source. No version of the angelic account accounts for a second cloud.

These are not peripheral criticisms. They are facts drawn from Branham's own recordings and from the eyewitness documentation available at the time. Whether the cloud was caused by a rocket, a natural phenomenon, or something else entirely, Branham's own account of his involvement with it cannot be reconciled with the documented facts. Rostron's entire analysis — even if every calculation were correct — only defends the possibility that the cloud was unusual. It does nothing to explain why Branham's story about the cloud changed over time, why he placed himself at its formation when he demonstrably wasn't there, or why he first learned of the cloud from a magazine.
----

== What the Presentation Actually Establishes ==
To be precise about what Rostron's analysis shows and doesn't show:

He correctly demonstrates that natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers through ordinary atmospheric processes. This is real atmospheric science and he explains it clearly.

He correctly notes that the cloud was unusual and that McDonald found it difficult to explain WHEN FIRST CONFRONTED with the data available to him in 1963. However, MacDonald's story changed by the time of his response in 1967.

He raises legitimate questions about whether the Castor-1 solid boosters alone could account for the cloud's size. This is a fair point, though he reaches it by ignoring the primary propulsion system. He also ignores the amount of water vapour required for noctilucent clouds.

What his analysis does not establish is that the rocket could not have caused the cloud. His wind speed calculation uses anachronistic data. His mass calculation omits the main engine. His moisture argument '''supports''' rather than undermines the rocket hypothesis. And his conclusion — that supernatural causation is therefore implied — does not follow from his premises even if those premises were correct.
----

== A Word for Those Who Are Watching ==
If you've sat through this series, or heard someone cite it, or had it shared with you as the definitive answer to critics of the Message, you deserve to know what it actually proved and what it didn't.

Rostron is a capable engineer who spent months on this project. He clearly cares deeply about his faith, and he is trying to be rigorous. That's admirable. But rigour has to go all the way through — including to the question of whether the person whose testimony you're defending actually told a consistent, verifiable story. The scientific question of what caused the cloud is genuinely interesting but Rostron fails to disprove the rocket argment... in fact, he helps to prove it.

But the problem with Branham's cloud story was never primarily scientific. It was always about why a man who claimed to stand under a cloud was 200 miles away when it appeared, why the cloud preceded his vision's fulfillment by eight days, and why he never mentioned any of this until a magazine brought the photograph to his attention.

Those questions don't get answered by atmospheric physics. They get answered — or not answered — by Branham's own words.

The honest thing to do is listen to those words again, carefully, and ask whether the story holds together. Not because critics want it to fail, but because the truth matters. A faith built on a story that doesn't hold up isn't safer for not being examined. It's just more fragile.
----
= Problems with the Spiritual Interpretation =
The chronological and geographical facts present serious, unresolved difficulties for those who believe the cloud was a supernatural sign connected to Branham's angelic visitation.

'''1. Location mismatch.''' The cloud appeared near Flagstaff. Branham's reported angelic visitation occurred at Rattlesnake Mesa near Sunset Mountain — roughly 200 miles away. If the cloud was meant to mark the event, it appeared in the wrong place.

'''2. Branham claimed to be standing under it.''' He said this explicitly and repeatedly. He was approximately 200 miles from where the cloud actually appeared.

'''3. The timing is backwards.''' Branham stated that the cloud formed as the angels left him. The cloud appeared on February 28. By his own account, the angelic visitation happened on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the result of an event that had not yet occurred.

'''4. No mention until the magazine.''' Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his angelic visitation until after someone showed him the ''Life Magazine'' photograph. If he had been present at the cloud's formation — or even aware of its significance — this silence is inexplicable.

'''5. The magazine's location.''' Branham claimed the magazine article was describing the same location where he was hunting. It was not.

'''6. The face in the cloud.''' Message believers have claimed the photograph shows a face. Dr. McDonald examined the original prints and found no such features. When he asked Pearry Green for copies of the prints that supposedly showed them, none were ever provided.

'''7. Which direction was the face looking?''' If the cloud bore the face of Christ, the photograph shows it oriented toward Las Vegas — not toward Branham's location.

Some message ministers have attempted to resolve the timing problem by claiming Branham said privately that the angels had been waiting a week before he arrived. This doesn't hold up. The statement appears nowhere in Branham's recorded sermons and cannot be verified. More critically, it directly contradicts Branham's own public account — that the cloud formed when the angels ''left'', not when they arrived. A private, unrecorded explanation that contradicts the public record should carry very little weight.
----

== Key Documents ==
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/63+02+28+Cloud+Launch+Record.jpg Declassified 1963 02 28 Thor launch record]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/63+02+28+Declassified+AF+doc+re+Pitch+Pine.pdf Declassified 1963 02 28 Pitch Pine launch record]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/80+06+05+U+of+A+Cloud+Letter+.jpg University of Arizona letter of June 5, 1980]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/95+01+26+AF+re+cloud+1.jpg 1995 01 26 Air Force letter - page 1] and [https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/95+01+26+AF+re+cloud+2.jpg page 2]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/96+08+23+Meinel+letter+re+cloud.jpg 1996 08 23 letter from Mrs. Meinel]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/96+09+10+MacDonald.jpg 1996 09 10 letter from Mrs. MacDonald]
=Video Script=

At dusk on February 28, 1963, a cloud appeared in the skies above Flagstaff, Arizona and remained sunlit for 28 minutes after sunset. It was highlighted in the May 1963 edition of Life Magazine. William Branham explained that the cloud was part of the fulfillment of a vision that he had in December 1962.

IT.IS.THE.RISING.OF.THE.SUN_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-12 SUNDAY_ 65-0418M
:''Later, the Angels appeared as was prophesied. And at the same time, a great cluster of Light left where I was standing, and moved thirty miles high in the air, and around the circle, like the wings of the Angels, and drawed into the skies a shape of a pyramid in the same constellation of Angels that appeared.

:''Science took the picture, all the way from Mexico, as it moved from northern Arizona, where the Holy Spirit said I would be standing, "forty miles northeast of Tucson." And it went into the air, and Life magazine packed the pictures,

William Branham said that the angels appeared to him while he was standing in northern Arizona, and that when they left him they created a cloud that was pictured in the Life Magazine.

There are a few problems with this.

First, forty miles northeast of Tucson is not northern Arizona. Go get a map and measure it for yourself.
The southern tip of the cloud was just north of Flagstaff when the photo was taken. Flagstaff is in northern Arizona, and Tucson is in Southern Arizona.

Second, the cloud that appeared in Life Magazine was photographed one week before William Branham went hunting. William Branham’s daughter Rebecca Smith confirmed this in an article she wrote called “Return to Sunset”, which was published in the “Only Believe” magazine.

Finally, William Branham was hunting in the morning, and the cloud appeared in the evening.

So if the cloud was not caused by angels leaving Brother Branham, as he claimed during this sermon, caused it to appear?

In the Life Magazine article, Dr. James McDonald stated that he was not aware of any rocket explosions that day.
However, he later wrote a supplemental report where he discusses the explosion of a THOR rocket that had been launched from Vandenburg Airforce base in California earlier that day.

So we looked at the story of the rocket to try to see how likely it was that this explosion caused the cloud and here's what we found.

On February 28, 1963, a Thrust assisted Thor Agenda D rocket was launched from Vandenberg air force base in California. The rocket was carrying a military spy satellite.

The rocket malfunctioned and was intentionally destroyed at 1:52 in the afternoon at an estimated height of 44 kilometers.

The height of the cloud that appeared over Flagstaff later that same day was estimated to be about 43 kilometers miles high. Is this just a random coincidence?

In order to travel the required distance from California to Arizona, the cloud would have to be travelling at 135 miles per hour that afternoon. But Dr. James McDonald wrote that the wind speed recorded by scientists was, "tantalizingly close" to the 135 mile an hour wind speed required to carry the cloud from Vandenberg to Flagstaff.

The prevailing winds in California blow from west to east. It is also not unusual for Jetstream winds to vary in speed as you go from north to south. Windspeeds on March 1st, 1963 at an altitude of 43 kilometers were 90 miles an hour at White Sands, New Mexico and 125 miles per hour at Point Mugu, California.

Winds and atmospheric conditions are notoriously unpredictable. However, rocket trails from launches at Vandenberg air force base are regularly seen in Arizona… and even as far east as Oklahoma City.

On March 27, 2012, NASA launched 5 suborbital sounding rockets which released a chemical tracer that created milky white clouds 60 miles above the earth. They did this to learn about wind-speeds in the Mesosphere. The pictures that they took reveal circular clouds similar to the February 28, 1963 cloud.

Someone imposed the picture of Jesus from Hoffman’s painting “Christ at 33” into the photo of the 1963 cloud. The painting first had to be reversed to do this. If you are not a message believer, you are likely offended by this picture.

Still, you can take the same picture from Hoffman’s painting and impose it on the clouds from March 2012, without reversing it.
If you are a message believer, you are likely offended by this picture.

But, whether you are looking at the 1963 cloud or the 2012 cloud, you have to manipulate the image to make the picture fit.

Questions have been raised as to why the cloud was not seen between Vandenberg and Flagstaff. However, noctilucent clouds are very thin and are only visible at dawn or dusk. They cannot be seen until the sky starts to darken overhead as it does at sunset. That is why the Cloud “appeared” over Flagstaff in the evening and was not seen between California and Flagstff.

Based on all of the facts available, it is not only plausible but highly likely that the cloud over Flagstaff was formed by the high altitude destruction of the Thor rocket over Vandenberg Air force base.

However, our examination of the cloud is not over. We will next look at whether the cloud could be in any way related to the events which occurred at Rattlesnake Mesa.

=Evidence from the Branham Family=
{{Cloud Only Believe}}

{{Bottom of Page}}
[[Category:Prophecies]]
[[Category:Visions]]
[[Category:Honesty and Credibility]]
[[Category:Supernatural vindication]]

The Cause of the Cloud

2026-06-17T15:54:10Z

Admin: /* A Word for Those Who Are Watching */

{{Top of Page}}
{{Template:Cloud}}
<div style="border-bottom:2px #B87333 solid; text-align:lrft; padding:1px; margin:1px;"><font color='#800000' size='+1'>'''The Cloud (Part 2) - What Caused The Cloud?'''.</font> </div>
<youtube>http://youtu.be/ne_eJ9osvnc</youtube>
[[Image:Cloud-Large.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Page 112 of the May 1963 edition of Life Magazine]]

= The Arizona Cloud of February 28, 1963 =
At around sunset on February 28, 1963, an unusual cloud appeared in the vicinity of Flagstaff, Arizona and remained sunlit for 28 minutes after sunset. It attracted significant scientific attention, appearing in the [[Life Magazine May1963 (Page 112)|May 1963 edition of Life Magazine]], ''Science Magazine'' (April 19, 1963), ''Weatherwise Magazine'' (June 1963), and an independent scientific report issued May 31, 1963.

Dr. James E. McDonald of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona initially estimated the cloud's altitude at approximately 35 kilometers, later revising that figure to approximately 43 kilometers (141,000 feet). Despite his investigation, no conclusive public explanation was offered at the time.
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== What Does the Cloud Mean? ==
Followers of William Branham's message view the cloud as supernatural — the fulfillment of a December 1962 vision in which Branham foresaw seven angels meeting him outside Tucson, Arizona (see [[Prophecy of the Cloud]]).. They connect it to his subsequent opening of the Seven Seals and regard it as divine confirmation of his prophetic ministry.

Critics take a different view entirely. They argue the cloud has a straightforward natural explanation: it was the debris from a Thor rocket intentionally destroyed over Vandenberg Air Force Base earlier that same day. More significantly, critics argue that Branham's own testimony about being present at the cloud's formation is demonstrably false — a story that emerged only after he saw the ''Life Magazine'' photograph, and that directly contradicts verifiable facts about the cloud's location and timing.
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== The Scientific Explanation ==
On February 28, 1963, a thrust-assisted Thor rocket was launched from pad 75-3-5 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying a Keyhole 4 military surveillance satellite.<ref name=":0">http://www.astronautix.com/thisday/febary28.htm</ref> The rocket veered off course and was intentionally destroyed<ref name=":1">http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/lvs/tatgenad.htm</ref> at an altitude of 44 kilometers (144,000 feet) at 1:52 p.m.<ref name=":2">McDonald, Dr. James E, Cloud-Ring in the Upper Stratosphere, ''Weatherwise'', June 1963, Page 100</ref>

Several lines of evidence connect the rocket to the cloud:

# '''Same day.''' The rocket was destroyed on the same day the cloud appeared.
# '''Same altitude.''' The rocket was destroyed at 44 kilometers; the cloud was independently estimated at 43 kilometers — a near-exact match.
# '''Consistent wind speeds.''' No wind speed data was recorded at Vandenberg on that specific day, but Dr. McDonald noted that wind speeds measured at comparable altitudes at other times were "tantalizingly close" to what would have been required to carry debris from Vandenberg to Flagstaff. Since wind speeds vary by location and altitude, these measurements are consistent with a transport scenario, not proof against one.
# '''Military confirmation.''' When launch records were later declassified, the United States Air Force released documentation confirming that the cloud resulted from a military rocket operation.<ref>Jackson, Jeff G., 30th Space Wing History, Department of the Air Force, January 26, 1995, Vandenburg AFB, California</ref>
[[Image:NasaMakesACloud.jpg|thumb|370px|In March 2012 NASA made some clouds in the morning sky with a shape and height similar to the February 1963 cloud.]]
Dr. McDonald initially noted that clouds do not normally form at mesospheric altitudes — but subsequent research demonstrated that visible exhaust clouds from rocket launches can indeed reach into the mesosphere.<ref>http://www.spokenwordchurch.com/themessageresourcelibrary/Articles/Cloud%20Article%20-%20Dr%20McDonalds%20Cloud%20Investigation%20Supplement%201963.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/rktr1j.htm</ref> NASA has since created similar high-altitude clouds in chemical experiments, and some closely resemble the shape photographed on February 28 — appearing without any visible exhaust trail back to the launch site.<ref>http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/03/pictures/120327-nasa-rockets-clouds-wallops-jet-stream-edge-space-science/#/nasa-rocket-launch-strange-clouds-blue_50490_600x450.jpg</ref>

Today, rocket launches from Vandenberg are routinely documented on video. Depending on atmospheric conditions, they can be seen from Tucson and beyond, leaving mesospheric clouds that remain illuminated well after sunset.<ref>http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=SGBuQL-FvGI</ref><ref>http://spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/cosmic/launch.html and http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/rktr1j.htm</ref> This kind of direct visual evidence was simply unavailable in 1963.

Scientists also linked similar clouds appearing later in 1963 to rocket launches:<blockquote>''A bright noctilucent cloud was observed and photographed northwest of Tucson on 15 June 1963. Results of computations indicate that the cloud was at a height of 71 kilometers. The cloud appears to have resulted from the launching of a Scout space vehicle.''<ref>[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/141/3586/1176.abstract Science Magazine, September 1963: Vol. 141, no. 3586, pp. 1176-1178, DOI: 10.1126/science.141.3586.1176, ''Low-Latitude Noctilucent Cloud of 15 June 1963'', Aden B. Meinel1, Barbara Middlehurst, Ewen Whitaker]</ref></blockquote><blockquote>''Measurement of the filamentary noctilucent cloud of 2 November 1963 yields a height of 56 km. Study of the motion and orientation of the cloud confirms the hypothesis that these unusual clouds appearing in the southwestern states are produced by the launching of rocket vehicles from the Pacific Missile Range.''<ref>[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/143/3601/38.abstract Science Magazine, January 1964: Vol. 143, no. 3601, pp. 38-39, DOI:0.1126/science.143.3601.38, Low-Latitude Noctilucent Cloud of 2 November 1963, Aden B. Meinel, Carolyn P. Meinel]</ref></blockquote>

=== Why Didn't Dr. McDonald Publish a Final Report? ===
Dr. McDonald was senior physicist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and professor of meteorology at the University of Arizona. He was also well known for his serious investigation of UFO reports — which makes him an unlikely candidate to shelve a genuinely unexplained phenomenon simply out of disinterest. The most natural explanation for his failure to publish a final report is that he arrived at a sufficient explanation — the rocket — and didn't consider that conclusion publishable as a scientific finding. A researcher who made his reputation pursuing phenomena that defied conventional science would not have quietly dropped the subject if it remained genuinely mysterious.
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== Dr. McDonald's Own Assessment ==
[[File:19670405 Mysterious Cloud Formation Vanishes Under Examination.jpg|right|250px]]
In April 1967, Dr. McDonald wrote a letter to ''The Arizona Republic'' that leaves no ambiguity about his conclusions:
----''THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC — Wednesday, April 5, 1967''

'''Mysterious Cloud Formation Vanishes Under Examination'''

Editor, The Arizona Republic:

The March 26 issue of your Sunday supplement, ''Arizona'', carried an article by Reporter Dave Davies, entitled "The Cloud," concerning a very unusual stratospheric cloud formation that appeared over Flagstaff on Feb. 28, 1963.

My investigations of that cloud are quoted in part, but a number of aspects of my findings were omitted or overlooked, so that the supernatural and religious construction that has been put on that event was improperly supported.

I am quoted as "frankly skeptical," as if to suggest that I am half-convinced, half-unconvinced by the occult interpretation. I am, in fact, wholly unconvinced and regard the entire business as quite distressing.

IT IS NOT CORRECT that the cloud "swept northward across Arizona." It moved in from almost due west. If Mr. Sothman saw anything which he thought to be a "strange circular-shaped cloud rise into the air" over Branham's head, he is clearly talking about some other cloud than that of Feb. 28 over Flagstaff.

Sothman is quoted as asserting that "it was kind of small at first, but the higher it rose the bigger it became." The observations of scores of reliable witnesses disinclined to pseudo-religious interpretations attest to the fact that the Flagstaff cloud appeared and disappeared without significant overall size or shape change.

Rev. Pearry Green, cited in the article, asserted to me (in a phone conversation in which I pointed out many discrepancies in the occult interpretation he and others seek to place on this event) that the "seven angels," after speaking to Rev. Branham, flew up into the sky and assumed the form of this cloud which, he claims, outlined the face of Christ to Branham.

AS A MATTER of fact, the photograph which accompanied the recent article as alleged documentation of this angelic revelation constitutes a projection entirely different from that which an observer would have seen in Branham's reported location in the Sunset Mountain area.

From the latter area, as also from Tucson where I myself saw it, the cloud bore absolutely no resemblance to any face. Rev. Mr. Green asserts that "facial features" can be seen in the inside of the cloud. When I told him no such features are detectable on the original prints, and when I asked for sample copies of the prints which he claimed showed such features, I never received any copies to examine.

And the amusing matter of the satellite cloud, west of Flagstaff, which shows on numerous photos taken from eastern Arizona and New Mexico, but which Branham's group did not know about until I confronted Green with it, seems to go a long way towards exposing the irrationality of the religious interpretations.

DAVIES OMITTED all mention of data I gave him on the detonation of a rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base at almost precisely the elevation of that cloud, about four hours earlier that day. Although there do indeed remain difficulties in explaining that cloud, supernaturalism ought not be even a last resort.

Let's keep the Middle Ages back where they belong.

''JAMES E. MCDONALD, Professor, UofA, Institute of Atmospheric Physics''
----

== Why Wasn't the Cloud Visible Before Sunset? ==
The cloud sat at approximately 43 kilometers altitude — well into the mesosphere. At that height, it remained illuminated by direct sunlight even after the sun dropped below the horizon for ground observers. This is exactly the same optical geometry that makes noctilucent clouds visible at twilight: the lower atmosphere falls into shadow first, while objects at very high altitude continue to catch oblique sunlight for some time afterward. The 28-minute post-sunset illumination period is entirely consistent with a mesospheric cloud and requires no supernatural explanation.

This also accounts for why the cloud wasn't noticed earlier. High-altitude clouds of this type are too faint to be seen against a bright daytime sky. They become visible only once the background sky darkens enough at dusk. A cloud present at 43 kilometers since 1:52 p.m. could easily have gone unobserved until twilight.
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== The Second Cloud ==
[[Image:April 1963 Science Magazine page 1.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 292]]
[[Image:63 04 Science Vol 140 Page 2.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 293]]
[[Image:63 04 Science Vol 140 Page 3.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 294]]
The April 1963 ''Science Magazine'' article documented a second cloud visible in photographs taken from eastern Arizona and New Mexico, appearing to the northwest of the main cloud. Dr. McDonald raised this himself in his 1967 letter, noting that Branham's group was unaware of it until he confronted Pearry Green with the photographic evidence.

This poses a direct problem for the supernatural interpretation. If the main cloud formed from angels ascending after their meeting with Branham, what produced the second cloud? A companion cloud is exactly what one would expect from a rocket debris field dispersed across diverging high-altitude wind currents. It fits no version of the angelic account.
----

=Responding to Bill Rostron=
<blockquote>''"When it's all said and done you'll either have to say one or two things — I don't know what that is, it's a mystery — and brother Bill will say enough to that the world will have to admit we don't have an answer. But the Bride has an answer."'' — Pastor Luke Gibson, introducing Bill Rostron's series</blockquote>
== Five Hours in Defense of a Story Branham Never Told ==
Bill Rostron is exactly the kind of person Message believers need making arguments on their behalf. He spent 46 years in the nuclear power industry doing quality assurance and root cause analysis. He knows how to build a chain of evidence. He takes his work seriously. And in his nearly six-hour series ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'' (March 2020), recorded at the Tabernacle of the Lord in Townville, South Carolina, he applies genuine technical skill to the question of whether a Thor rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base could have produced the famous cloud over Flagstaff on February 28, 1963.

The result is a presentation that is methodologically serious in parts, fatally flawed in others, and — most importantly — never once asks the question that actually matters.
----

== What Rostron Claims, and What He Admits He Can't Prove ==
Start with what Rostron himself says at the close of his series:<blockquote>''"All of the things we've said today doesn't prove that God did it, but it sure does prove that man didn't do it."''</blockquote>That's an honest statement. Credit where it's due. Rostron is not claiming to have scientifically proven a supernatural event. He's claiming to have eliminated the rocket as a natural cause.

But by the end of the evening, Pastor Gibson is telling the congregation that they don't need an answer — they already have one. The crowd is singing. The cloud has become proof of Revelation 10:1–7 and divine confirmation of William Branham's ministry. The gap between "man didn't do it" and "God did it" has been closed by emotional momentum, not logic.

This is the first and most important error of the entire presentation. Ruling out one natural explanation does not establish supernatural causation. That logical gap is not a technicality — it is the entire structure of the argument. Rostron builds a case against the rocket, and the congregation quietly converts his inconclusive findings into proof of the miraculous. No one in the room challenges this move. It should be challenged.
----

== The Self-Defeating Moisture Argument ==
Rostron spends a significant portion of Video 1 and Video 2 establishing a genuine point of atmospheric physics: natural moisture gets "wrung out" of the air as altitude increases, and by the time you reach the stratosphere and mesosphere, the water vapor content is so low — he puts it at about five parts per million — that cloud formation is essentially impossible under normal conditions.

He's right about this. Natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers. This is not disputed.

But Rostron then uses this fact to argue against the rocket hypothesis. Here's the problem: the rocket hypothesis does not require natural moisture. The entire premise of the rocket explanation is that the Thor, when destroyed at 44 kilometers, ''introduced'' water and combustion products into an environment that would not otherwise contain them. That's precisely why the cloud appeared where natural clouds don't.

Rostron's atmospheric moisture argument doesn't undermine the rocket hypothesis. It actually explains why the rocket hypothesis is ''necessary'' — because something had to put water up there. His own analysis establishes that the cloud required an external source of water, then pivots to arguing the rocket couldn't have been that source. But he never actually closes the loop on the water source question. He's eliminated natural formation and claimed to eliminate the rocket. What he hasn't done is identify where a non-supernatural source of water would come from. The argument proves too much: if no natural process could produce the cloud and the rocket couldn't either, he needs a third candidate. "God did it" is not a third candidate in a root cause analysis — it's an admission that the analysis is over.
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== The Mass Calculation: A Critical Omission ==
This is where Rostron's engineering rigour breaks down most clearly.

His key quantitative argument is this: he estimates the cloud required approximately 2.2 million pounds (about 1 million kilograms) of water to form. He then points to the Castor-1 solid rocket boosters attached to the Thor and notes they contained roughly 12,000 pounds of solid propellant each. Three boosters, therefore about 34,000–36,000 pounds total. That's vastly less than 2.2 million pounds of water. Ergo, the rocket couldn't have done it.

The problem is that Rostron has analysed the wrong part of the rocket.

The Thrust Augmented Thor that was destroyed on February 28, 1963 was a liquid-fueled missile. Its main engine burned RP-1 kerosene with liquid oxygen — not solid propellant. The Castor-1 solid boosters were strapped-on assist motors that burned for approximately 37–40 seconds during the initial ascent, reaching around 10–15 kilometers altitude, after which they were jettisoned. By the time the range safety officer destroyed the vehicle at 44 kilometers, those solid boosters had been gone for over two minutes.

The main Thor engine — the liquid-fueled engine still burning when the rocket was destroyed — is where the water was coming from. RP-1 kerosene combusted with liquid oxygen produces two products: carbon dioxide and water. The stoichiometry is straightforward. For every kilogram of RP-1 burned, approximately 1.3–1.4 kilograms of water is produced. The Thor carried roughly 22,000 kilograms of RP-1 and 34,000 kilograms of liquid oxygen. Even if only a fraction of those propellants remained unburned at time of destruction and were subsequently dispersed and burned by the explosion, the potential water output dwarfs the solid booster contribution that Rostron calculated.

Rostron never calculates this. In a presentation framed as "root cause analysis" and "going back to first principles," he simply ignores the primary propellant system of the primary stage. A nuclear quality assurance process would flag this immediately: you haven't analysed the dominant source term.

He does show a striking Space Shuttle exhaust cloud (STS-131) as a visual comparison, but the comparison is misleading. That photograph was taken five minutes after launch, during active burning. The 1963 cloud appeared three and a half hours after the rocket's destruction. Of course they look different. Arguing that rocket exhaust in active flight looks unlike a dispersed, wind-shaped cloud hours later proves nothing about whether the rocket caused the cloud.
----

== The Cloud Density Contradiction: Rostron's Framework Collapses His Own Math ==
There is a deeper problem with the mass calculation that Rostron doesn't notice — because it requires him to apply his own logic consistently, which he doesn't.

Throughout the presentation, Rostron correctly invokes the analogy of noctilucent clouds to explain one of the cloud's most striking features: why nobody saw it until sunset. He explains the physics accurately. Noctilucent clouds are visible only at twilight because they are too faint to scatter enough light to be visible against a bright daytime sky. They only appear once the background sky darkens and sunlight catches them from below the horizon. He uses this same principle to explain why the Flagstaff cloud was invisible during the day and only appeared as the sun went down.

This is the correct explanation. But Rostron never follows that logic into his density calculation.

Noctilucent clouds are extraordinarily tenuous. Their ice water content is typically on the order of '''10⁻⁵ to 10⁻⁶ grams per cubic meter''' — roughly one thousand to one hundred thousand times less dense than an ordinary cirrus cloud. That tenuousness is not incidental to how they behave. It ''is'' why they can't be seen in daylight. A cirrus cloud, with its density of around 0.03 to 0.05 g/m³, is clearly visible in full sunlight. Something only visible during a narrow twilight window, when the background sky is dark and the sun's rays are hitting it from far below the horizon, has to be far, far thinner than a cirrus cloud.

Rostron's mass calculation uses a cirrus cloud density of '''1/20 gram per cubic meter (0.05 g/m³)'''. That's how he arrives at his 2.2 million pound figure. But he has already established — in the same presentation — that the cloud behaved like a noctilucent cloud in terms of its visibility. You cannot simultaneously claim a cloud is too tenuous to be seen in daylight ''and'' assume cirrus-level ice density when calculating how much water formed it. Those two claims are mutually exclusive.

The numbers make this stark. At cirrus density (0.05 g/m³), Rostron calculates roughly 1.35 million kilograms of water needed. Now apply a density consistent with something only visible at twilight — say, 10⁻⁴ g/m³, which is still five hundred times denser than a typical noctilucent cloud and thus a very conservative estimate:<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.0001 g/m³ = '''2,700 kilograms — about 5,950 pounds'''</blockquote>At actual noctilucent cloud densities (10⁻⁵ g/m³):<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.00001 g/m³ = '''270 kilograms — about 595 pounds'''</blockquote>Not 2.2 million pounds. Hundreds of pounds. The Thor rocket's main liquid-fueled engine — which Rostron ignored entirely — produced combustion byproducts including water on the order of tens of thousands of kilograms. Even the Castor-1 solid boosters that Rostron himself analysed exceed this threshold by a significant margin.

Rostron uses noctilucent cloud physics when it helps explain daytime invisibility, then quietly reverts to cirrus cloud density when he needs a large number for his water mass argument. A root cause analysis doesn't get to choose which physical properties apply and when. Either the cloud was dense enough to behave like a cirrus cloud (visible in daylight, requiring ~2.2 million pounds of water) or it was tenuous enough to behave like a noctilucent cloud (invisible in daylight, requiring a tiny fraction of that). It cannot be both.
----

== The Anachronistic Wind Data ==
One of the more striking methodological errors in the series is Rostron's use of earth.nullschool.net — a real-time global wind visualization website — to argue about what the winds were doing at high altitude on February 28, 1963.

He pulls up current wind patterns above Arizona, shows that the winds at 10 millibar altitude (roughly 100,000 feet, or about 30 km) are around 65 km/h in the analysis session's present, and argues these speeds are insufficient to carry rocket debris from Vandenberg to Flagstaff in 3.5 hours. He acknowledges he's watched the website "over the years" and noted seasonal patterns, but then uses a single day's reading as if it characterises the wind field on a specific day six decades earlier.

Wind patterns at stratospheric and mesospheric altitudes are highly variable. They change with season, with quasi-biennial oscillation cycles, with individual synoptic events. Knowing what the winds are doing today tells you nothing reliable about what they were doing on a specific day in February 1963. Dr. McDonald, who actually collected observational data at the time, described the measured wind speeds as "tantalizingly close" to what would be required. Rostron cites this but dismisses it on the grounds that McDonald "couldn't figure out how it would work" — which is not the same as saying it couldn't have worked. McDonald was being scientifically conservative. Rostron is using present-day wind data to argue about past atmospheric conditions. These are not equivalent moves.
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== A Confusion About Wind Direction ==
Rostron also argues that the wind direction was wrong for the rocket hypothesis. He says the cloud was observed to be "moving towards the southeast," and from this calculates a required wind origin of about 310 degrees (northwest). He then claims that a northwest wind at Vandenberg would carry debris toward Baja California, not Flagstaff.

But Vandenberg Air Force Base is located to the ''west-northwest'' of Flagstaff. Flagstaff is roughly to the ''east-northeast'' of Vandenberg. A wind blowing from the northwest — pushing things toward the southeast — would carry material from Vandenberg's vicinity ''toward'' the direction of Arizona. Rostron's claim that such a wind would instead send debris "into Mexico in Baja California" appears to reflect a geographical confusion about the relative positions of these locations. Rather than disproving the rocket hypothesis, his own wind direction data may be consistent with it.
----

== The Question Rostron Never Asks ==
Here is what is missing from five hours and fifty-four minutes of technically detailed presentation: any engagement with William Branham's own testimony about the cloud.

Rostron establishes (or attempts to establish) that the cloud was not produced by a Thor rocket. He never mentions that:

'''Branham claimed to be standing directly underneath the cloud when it appeared.''' He wasn't. The cloud appeared over Flagstaff. By Branham's own account of his activities on that trip, he was approximately 200 miles away near Sunset Mountain and Rattlesnake Mesa.

'''Branham stated that the cloud formed when the angels left him.''' The cloud appeared on February 28. Branham's own sermons describe the angelic visitation as occurring on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the departure of angels from a meeting that had not yet taken place.

'''Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his ministry until he was shown the photograph in Life Magazine''' — months after the cloud appeared. If he had witnessed the angels ascending into the sky and forming that cloud, that silence is inexplicable.

'''A second cloud is visible in the scientific photographs.''' Documented in ''Science Magazine'' (April 1963), this companion cloud appears to the northwest of the main cloud, consistent with debris dispersal from a single source. No version of the angelic account accounts for a second cloud.

These are not peripheral criticisms. They are facts drawn from Branham's own recordings and from the eyewitness documentation available at the time. Whether the cloud was caused by a rocket, a natural phenomenon, or something else entirely, Branham's own account of his involvement with it cannot be reconciled with the documented facts. Rostron's entire analysis — even if every calculation were correct — only defends the possibility that the cloud was unusual. It does nothing to explain why Branham's story about the cloud changed over time, why he placed himself at its formation when he demonstrably wasn't there, or why he first learned of the cloud from a magazine.
----

== What the Presentation Actually Establishes ==
To be precise about what Rostron's analysis shows and doesn't show:

He correctly demonstrates that natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers through ordinary atmospheric processes. This is real atmospheric science and he explains it clearly.

He correctly notes that the cloud was unusual and that McDonald found it difficult to explain WHEN FIRST CONFRONTED with the data available to him in 1963. However, MacDonald's story changed by the time of his response in 1967.

He raises legitimate questions about whether the Castor-1 solid boosters alone could account for the cloud's size. This is a fair point, though he reaches it by ignoring the primary propulsion system. He also ignores the amount of water vapour required for noctilucent clouds.

What his analysis does not establish is that the rocket could not have caused the cloud. His wind speed calculation uses anachronistic data. His mass calculation omits the main engine. His moisture argument '''supports''' rather than undermines the rocket hypothesis. And his conclusion — that supernatural causation is therefore implied — does not follow from his premises even if those premises were correct.
----

== A Word for Those Who Are Watching ==
If you've sat through this series, or heard someone cite it, or had it shared with you as the definitive answer to critics of the Message, you deserve to know what it actually proved and what it didn't.

Rostron is a capable engineer who spent months on this project. He clearly cares deeply about his faith, and he is trying to be rigorous. That's admirable. But rigour has to go all the way through — including to the question of whether the person whose testimony you're defending actually told a consistent, verifiable story. The scientific question of what caused the cloud is genuinely interesting but Rostron fails to disprove the rocket argment... in fact, he helps to prove it.

But the problem with Branham's cloud story was never primarily scientific. It was always about why a man who claimed to stand under a cloud was 200 miles away when it appeared, why the cloud preceded his vision's fulfillment by eight days, and why he never mentioned any of this until a magazine brought the photograph to his attention.

Those questions don't get answered by atmospheric physics. They get answered — or not answered — by Branham's own words.

The honest thing to do is listen to those words again, carefully, and ask whether the story holds together. Not because critics want it to fail, but because the truth matters. A faith built on a story that doesn't hold up isn't safer for not being examined. It's just more fragile.
----
= Problems with the Spiritual Interpretation =
The chronological and geographical facts present serious, unresolved difficulties for those who believe the cloud was a supernatural sign connected to Branham's angelic visitation.

'''1. Location mismatch.''' The cloud appeared near Flagstaff. Branham's reported angelic visitation occurred at Rattlesnake Mesa near Sunset Mountain — roughly 200 miles away. If the cloud was meant to mark the event, it appeared in the wrong place.

'''2. Branham claimed to be standing under it.''' He said this explicitly and repeatedly. He was approximately 200 miles from where the cloud actually appeared.

'''3. The timing is backwards.''' Branham stated that the cloud formed as the angels left him. The cloud appeared on February 28. By his own account, the angelic visitation happened on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the result of an event that had not yet occurred.

'''4. No mention until the magazine.''' Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his angelic visitation until after someone showed him the ''Life Magazine'' photograph. If he had been present at the cloud's formation — or even aware of its significance — this silence is inexplicable.

'''5. The magazine's location.''' Branham claimed the magazine article was describing the same location where he was hunting. It was not.

'''6. The face in the cloud.''' Message believers have claimed the photograph shows a face. Dr. McDonald examined the original prints and found no such features. When he asked Pearry Green for copies of the prints that supposedly showed them, none were ever provided.

'''7. Which direction was the face looking?''' If the cloud bore the face of Christ, the photograph shows it oriented toward Las Vegas — not toward Branham's location.

Some message ministers have attempted to resolve the timing problem by claiming Branham said privately that the angels had been waiting a week before he arrived. This doesn't hold up. The statement appears nowhere in Branham's recorded sermons and cannot be verified. More critically, it directly contradicts Branham's own public account — that the cloud formed when the angels ''left'', not when they arrived. A private, unrecorded explanation that contradicts the public record should carry very little weight.
----

== Key Documents ==
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/63+02+28+Cloud+Launch+Record.jpg Declassified 1963 02 28 Thor launch record]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/63+02+28+Declassified+AF+doc+re+Pitch+Pine.pdf Declassified 1963 02 28 Pitch Pine launch record]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/80+06+05+U+of+A+Cloud+Letter+.jpg University of Arizona letter of June 5, 1980]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/95+01+26+AF+re+cloud+1.jpg 1995 01 26 Air Force letter - page 1] and [https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/95+01+26+AF+re+cloud+2.jpg page 2]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/96+08+23+Meinel+letter+re+cloud.jpg 1996 08 23 letter from Mrs. Meinel]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/96+09+10+MacDonald.jpg 1996 09 10 letter from Mrs. MacDonald]
=Video Script=

At dusk on February 28, 1963, a cloud appeared in the skies above Flagstaff, Arizona and remained sunlit for 28 minutes after sunset. It was highlighted in the May 1963 edition of Life Magazine. William Branham explained that the cloud was part of the fulfillment of a vision that he had in December 1962.

IT.IS.THE.RISING.OF.THE.SUN_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-12 SUNDAY_ 65-0418M
:''Later, the Angels appeared as was prophesied. And at the same time, a great cluster of Light left where I was standing, and moved thirty miles high in the air, and around the circle, like the wings of the Angels, and drawed into the skies a shape of a pyramid in the same constellation of Angels that appeared.

:''Science took the picture, all the way from Mexico, as it moved from northern Arizona, where the Holy Spirit said I would be standing, "forty miles northeast of Tucson." And it went into the air, and Life magazine packed the pictures,

William Branham said that the angels appeared to him while he was standing in northern Arizona, and that when they left him they created a cloud that was pictured in the Life Magazine.

There are a few problems with this.

First, forty miles northeast of Tucson is not northern Arizona. Go get a map and measure it for yourself.
The southern tip of the cloud was just north of Flagstaff when the photo was taken. Flagstaff is in northern Arizona, and Tucson is in Southern Arizona.

Second, the cloud that appeared in Life Magazine was photographed one week before William Branham went hunting. William Branham’s daughter Rebecca Smith confirmed this in an article she wrote called “Return to Sunset”, which was published in the “Only Believe” magazine.

Finally, William Branham was hunting in the morning, and the cloud appeared in the evening.

So if the cloud was not caused by angels leaving Brother Branham, as he claimed during this sermon, caused it to appear?

In the Life Magazine article, Dr. James McDonald stated that he was not aware of any rocket explosions that day.
However, he later wrote a supplemental report where he discusses the explosion of a THOR rocket that had been launched from Vandenburg Airforce base in California earlier that day.

So we looked at the story of the rocket to try to see how likely it was that this explosion caused the cloud and here's what we found.

On February 28, 1963, a Thrust assisted Thor Agenda D rocket was launched from Vandenberg air force base in California. The rocket was carrying a military spy satellite.

The rocket malfunctioned and was intentionally destroyed at 1:52 in the afternoon at an estimated height of 44 kilometers.

The height of the cloud that appeared over Flagstaff later that same day was estimated to be about 43 kilometers miles high. Is this just a random coincidence?

In order to travel the required distance from California to Arizona, the cloud would have to be travelling at 135 miles per hour that afternoon. But Dr. James McDonald wrote that the wind speed recorded by scientists was, "tantalizingly close" to the 135 mile an hour wind speed required to carry the cloud from Vandenberg to Flagstaff.

The prevailing winds in California blow from west to east. It is also not unusual for Jetstream winds to vary in speed as you go from north to south. Windspeeds on March 1st, 1963 at an altitude of 43 kilometers were 90 miles an hour at White Sands, New Mexico and 125 miles per hour at Point Mugu, California.

Winds and atmospheric conditions are notoriously unpredictable. However, rocket trails from launches at Vandenberg air force base are regularly seen in Arizona… and even as far east as Oklahoma City.

On March 27, 2012, NASA launched 5 suborbital sounding rockets which released a chemical tracer that created milky white clouds 60 miles above the earth. They did this to learn about wind-speeds in the Mesosphere. The pictures that they took reveal circular clouds similar to the February 28, 1963 cloud.

Someone imposed the picture of Jesus from Hoffman’s painting “Christ at 33” into the photo of the 1963 cloud. The painting first had to be reversed to do this. If you are not a message believer, you are likely offended by this picture.

Still, you can take the same picture from Hoffman’s painting and impose it on the clouds from March 2012, without reversing it.
If you are a message believer, you are likely offended by this picture.

But, whether you are looking at the 1963 cloud or the 2012 cloud, you have to manipulate the image to make the picture fit.

Questions have been raised as to why the cloud was not seen between Vandenberg and Flagstaff. However, noctilucent clouds are very thin and are only visible at dawn or dusk. They cannot be seen until the sky starts to darken overhead as it does at sunset. That is why the Cloud “appeared” over Flagstaff in the evening and was not seen between California and Flagstff.

Based on all of the facts available, it is not only plausible but highly likely that the cloud over Flagstaff was formed by the high altitude destruction of the Thor rocket over Vandenberg Air force base.

However, our examination of the cloud is not over. We will next look at whether the cloud could be in any way related to the events which occurred at Rattlesnake Mesa.

=Evidence from the Branham Family=
{{Cloud Only Believe}}

{{Bottom of Page}}
[[Category:Prophecies]]
[[Category:Visions]]
[[Category:Honesty and Credibility]]
[[Category:Supernatural vindication]]

The Cause of the Cloud

2026-06-17T15:53:16Z

Admin: /* Problems with the Spiritual Interpretation */

{{Top of Page}}
{{Template:Cloud}}
<div style="border-bottom:2px #B87333 solid; text-align:lrft; padding:1px; margin:1px;"><font color='#800000' size='+1'>'''The Cloud (Part 2) - What Caused The Cloud?'''.</font> </div>
<youtube>http://youtu.be/ne_eJ9osvnc</youtube>
[[Image:Cloud-Large.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Page 112 of the May 1963 edition of Life Magazine]]

= The Arizona Cloud of February 28, 1963 =
At around sunset on February 28, 1963, an unusual cloud appeared in the vicinity of Flagstaff, Arizona and remained sunlit for 28 minutes after sunset. It attracted significant scientific attention, appearing in the [[Life Magazine May1963 (Page 112)|May 1963 edition of Life Magazine]], ''Science Magazine'' (April 19, 1963), ''Weatherwise Magazine'' (June 1963), and an independent scientific report issued May 31, 1963.

Dr. James E. McDonald of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona initially estimated the cloud's altitude at approximately 35 kilometers, later revising that figure to approximately 43 kilometers (141,000 feet). Despite his investigation, no conclusive public explanation was offered at the time.
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== What Does the Cloud Mean? ==
Followers of William Branham's message view the cloud as supernatural — the fulfillment of a December 1962 vision in which Branham foresaw seven angels meeting him outside Tucson, Arizona (see [[Prophecy of the Cloud]]).. They connect it to his subsequent opening of the Seven Seals and regard it as divine confirmation of his prophetic ministry.

Critics take a different view entirely. They argue the cloud has a straightforward natural explanation: it was the debris from a Thor rocket intentionally destroyed over Vandenberg Air Force Base earlier that same day. More significantly, critics argue that Branham's own testimony about being present at the cloud's formation is demonstrably false — a story that emerged only after he saw the ''Life Magazine'' photograph, and that directly contradicts verifiable facts about the cloud's location and timing.
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== The Scientific Explanation ==
On February 28, 1963, a thrust-assisted Thor rocket was launched from pad 75-3-5 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying a Keyhole 4 military surveillance satellite.<ref name=":0">http://www.astronautix.com/thisday/febary28.htm</ref> The rocket veered off course and was intentionally destroyed<ref name=":1">http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/lvs/tatgenad.htm</ref> at an altitude of 44 kilometers (144,000 feet) at 1:52 p.m.<ref name=":2">McDonald, Dr. James E, Cloud-Ring in the Upper Stratosphere, ''Weatherwise'', June 1963, Page 100</ref>

Several lines of evidence connect the rocket to the cloud:

# '''Same day.''' The rocket was destroyed on the same day the cloud appeared.
# '''Same altitude.''' The rocket was destroyed at 44 kilometers; the cloud was independently estimated at 43 kilometers — a near-exact match.
# '''Consistent wind speeds.''' No wind speed data was recorded at Vandenberg on that specific day, but Dr. McDonald noted that wind speeds measured at comparable altitudes at other times were "tantalizingly close" to what would have been required to carry debris from Vandenberg to Flagstaff. Since wind speeds vary by location and altitude, these measurements are consistent with a transport scenario, not proof against one.
# '''Military confirmation.''' When launch records were later declassified, the United States Air Force released documentation confirming that the cloud resulted from a military rocket operation.<ref>Jackson, Jeff G., 30th Space Wing History, Department of the Air Force, January 26, 1995, Vandenburg AFB, California</ref>
[[Image:NasaMakesACloud.jpg|thumb|370px|In March 2012 NASA made some clouds in the morning sky with a shape and height similar to the February 1963 cloud.]]
Dr. McDonald initially noted that clouds do not normally form at mesospheric altitudes — but subsequent research demonstrated that visible exhaust clouds from rocket launches can indeed reach into the mesosphere.<ref>http://www.spokenwordchurch.com/themessageresourcelibrary/Articles/Cloud%20Article%20-%20Dr%20McDonalds%20Cloud%20Investigation%20Supplement%201963.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/rktr1j.htm</ref> NASA has since created similar high-altitude clouds in chemical experiments, and some closely resemble the shape photographed on February 28 — appearing without any visible exhaust trail back to the launch site.<ref>http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/03/pictures/120327-nasa-rockets-clouds-wallops-jet-stream-edge-space-science/#/nasa-rocket-launch-strange-clouds-blue_50490_600x450.jpg</ref>

Today, rocket launches from Vandenberg are routinely documented on video. Depending on atmospheric conditions, they can be seen from Tucson and beyond, leaving mesospheric clouds that remain illuminated well after sunset.<ref>http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=SGBuQL-FvGI</ref><ref>http://spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/cosmic/launch.html and http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/rktr1j.htm</ref> This kind of direct visual evidence was simply unavailable in 1963.

Scientists also linked similar clouds appearing later in 1963 to rocket launches:<blockquote>''A bright noctilucent cloud was observed and photographed northwest of Tucson on 15 June 1963. Results of computations indicate that the cloud was at a height of 71 kilometers. The cloud appears to have resulted from the launching of a Scout space vehicle.''<ref>[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/141/3586/1176.abstract Science Magazine, September 1963: Vol. 141, no. 3586, pp. 1176-1178, DOI: 10.1126/science.141.3586.1176, ''Low-Latitude Noctilucent Cloud of 15 June 1963'', Aden B. Meinel1, Barbara Middlehurst, Ewen Whitaker]</ref></blockquote><blockquote>''Measurement of the filamentary noctilucent cloud of 2 November 1963 yields a height of 56 km. Study of the motion and orientation of the cloud confirms the hypothesis that these unusual clouds appearing in the southwestern states are produced by the launching of rocket vehicles from the Pacific Missile Range.''<ref>[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/143/3601/38.abstract Science Magazine, January 1964: Vol. 143, no. 3601, pp. 38-39, DOI:0.1126/science.143.3601.38, Low-Latitude Noctilucent Cloud of 2 November 1963, Aden B. Meinel, Carolyn P. Meinel]</ref></blockquote>

=== Why Didn't Dr. McDonald Publish a Final Report? ===
Dr. McDonald was senior physicist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and professor of meteorology at the University of Arizona. He was also well known for his serious investigation of UFO reports — which makes him an unlikely candidate to shelve a genuinely unexplained phenomenon simply out of disinterest. The most natural explanation for his failure to publish a final report is that he arrived at a sufficient explanation — the rocket — and didn't consider that conclusion publishable as a scientific finding. A researcher who made his reputation pursuing phenomena that defied conventional science would not have quietly dropped the subject if it remained genuinely mysterious.
----

== Dr. McDonald's Own Assessment ==
[[File:19670405 Mysterious Cloud Formation Vanishes Under Examination.jpg|right|250px]]
In April 1967, Dr. McDonald wrote a letter to ''The Arizona Republic'' that leaves no ambiguity about his conclusions:
----''THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC — Wednesday, April 5, 1967''

'''Mysterious Cloud Formation Vanishes Under Examination'''

Editor, The Arizona Republic:

The March 26 issue of your Sunday supplement, ''Arizona'', carried an article by Reporter Dave Davies, entitled "The Cloud," concerning a very unusual stratospheric cloud formation that appeared over Flagstaff on Feb. 28, 1963.

My investigations of that cloud are quoted in part, but a number of aspects of my findings were omitted or overlooked, so that the supernatural and religious construction that has been put on that event was improperly supported.

I am quoted as "frankly skeptical," as if to suggest that I am half-convinced, half-unconvinced by the occult interpretation. I am, in fact, wholly unconvinced and regard the entire business as quite distressing.

IT IS NOT CORRECT that the cloud "swept northward across Arizona." It moved in from almost due west. If Mr. Sothman saw anything which he thought to be a "strange circular-shaped cloud rise into the air" over Branham's head, he is clearly talking about some other cloud than that of Feb. 28 over Flagstaff.

Sothman is quoted as asserting that "it was kind of small at first, but the higher it rose the bigger it became." The observations of scores of reliable witnesses disinclined to pseudo-religious interpretations attest to the fact that the Flagstaff cloud appeared and disappeared without significant overall size or shape change.

Rev. Pearry Green, cited in the article, asserted to me (in a phone conversation in which I pointed out many discrepancies in the occult interpretation he and others seek to place on this event) that the "seven angels," after speaking to Rev. Branham, flew up into the sky and assumed the form of this cloud which, he claims, outlined the face of Christ to Branham.

AS A MATTER of fact, the photograph which accompanied the recent article as alleged documentation of this angelic revelation constitutes a projection entirely different from that which an observer would have seen in Branham's reported location in the Sunset Mountain area.

From the latter area, as also from Tucson where I myself saw it, the cloud bore absolutely no resemblance to any face. Rev. Mr. Green asserts that "facial features" can be seen in the inside of the cloud. When I told him no such features are detectable on the original prints, and when I asked for sample copies of the prints which he claimed showed such features, I never received any copies to examine.

And the amusing matter of the satellite cloud, west of Flagstaff, which shows on numerous photos taken from eastern Arizona and New Mexico, but which Branham's group did not know about until I confronted Green with it, seems to go a long way towards exposing the irrationality of the religious interpretations.

DAVIES OMITTED all mention of data I gave him on the detonation of a rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base at almost precisely the elevation of that cloud, about four hours earlier that day. Although there do indeed remain difficulties in explaining that cloud, supernaturalism ought not be even a last resort.

Let's keep the Middle Ages back where they belong.

''JAMES E. MCDONALD, Professor, UofA, Institute of Atmospheric Physics''
----

== Why Wasn't the Cloud Visible Before Sunset? ==
The cloud sat at approximately 43 kilometers altitude — well into the mesosphere. At that height, it remained illuminated by direct sunlight even after the sun dropped below the horizon for ground observers. This is exactly the same optical geometry that makes noctilucent clouds visible at twilight: the lower atmosphere falls into shadow first, while objects at very high altitude continue to catch oblique sunlight for some time afterward. The 28-minute post-sunset illumination period is entirely consistent with a mesospheric cloud and requires no supernatural explanation.

This also accounts for why the cloud wasn't noticed earlier. High-altitude clouds of this type are too faint to be seen against a bright daytime sky. They become visible only once the background sky darkens enough at dusk. A cloud present at 43 kilometers since 1:52 p.m. could easily have gone unobserved until twilight.
----

== The Second Cloud ==
[[Image:April 1963 Science Magazine page 1.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 292]]
[[Image:63 04 Science Vol 140 Page 2.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 293]]
[[Image:63 04 Science Vol 140 Page 3.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 294]]
The April 1963 ''Science Magazine'' article documented a second cloud visible in photographs taken from eastern Arizona and New Mexico, appearing to the northwest of the main cloud. Dr. McDonald raised this himself in his 1967 letter, noting that Branham's group was unaware of it until he confronted Pearry Green with the photographic evidence.

This poses a direct problem for the supernatural interpretation. If the main cloud formed from angels ascending after their meeting with Branham, what produced the second cloud? A companion cloud is exactly what one would expect from a rocket debris field dispersed across diverging high-altitude wind currents. It fits no version of the angelic account.
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=Responding to Bill Rostron=
<blockquote>''"When it's all said and done you'll either have to say one or two things — I don't know what that is, it's a mystery — and brother Bill will say enough to that the world will have to admit we don't have an answer. But the Bride has an answer."'' — Pastor Luke Gibson, introducing Bill Rostron's series</blockquote>
== Five Hours in Defense of a Story Branham Never Told ==
Bill Rostron is exactly the kind of person Message believers need making arguments on their behalf. He spent 46 years in the nuclear power industry doing quality assurance and root cause analysis. He knows how to build a chain of evidence. He takes his work seriously. And in his nearly six-hour series ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'' (March 2020), recorded at the Tabernacle of the Lord in Townville, South Carolina, he applies genuine technical skill to the question of whether a Thor rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base could have produced the famous cloud over Flagstaff on February 28, 1963.

The result is a presentation that is methodologically serious in parts, fatally flawed in others, and — most importantly — never once asks the question that actually matters.
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== What Rostron Claims, and What He Admits He Can't Prove ==
Start with what Rostron himself says at the close of his series:<blockquote>''"All of the things we've said today doesn't prove that God did it, but it sure does prove that man didn't do it."''</blockquote>That's an honest statement. Credit where it's due. Rostron is not claiming to have scientifically proven a supernatural event. He's claiming to have eliminated the rocket as a natural cause.

But by the end of the evening, Pastor Gibson is telling the congregation that they don't need an answer — they already have one. The crowd is singing. The cloud has become proof of Revelation 10:1–7 and divine confirmation of William Branham's ministry. The gap between "man didn't do it" and "God did it" has been closed by emotional momentum, not logic.

This is the first and most important error of the entire presentation. Ruling out one natural explanation does not establish supernatural causation. That logical gap is not a technicality — it is the entire structure of the argument. Rostron builds a case against the rocket, and the congregation quietly converts his inconclusive findings into proof of the miraculous. No one in the room challenges this move. It should be challenged.
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== The Self-Defeating Moisture Argument ==
Rostron spends a significant portion of Video 1 and Video 2 establishing a genuine point of atmospheric physics: natural moisture gets "wrung out" of the air as altitude increases, and by the time you reach the stratosphere and mesosphere, the water vapor content is so low — he puts it at about five parts per million — that cloud formation is essentially impossible under normal conditions.

He's right about this. Natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers. This is not disputed.

But Rostron then uses this fact to argue against the rocket hypothesis. Here's the problem: the rocket hypothesis does not require natural moisture. The entire premise of the rocket explanation is that the Thor, when destroyed at 44 kilometers, ''introduced'' water and combustion products into an environment that would not otherwise contain them. That's precisely why the cloud appeared where natural clouds don't.

Rostron's atmospheric moisture argument doesn't undermine the rocket hypothesis. It actually explains why the rocket hypothesis is ''necessary'' — because something had to put water up there. His own analysis establishes that the cloud required an external source of water, then pivots to arguing the rocket couldn't have been that source. But he never actually closes the loop on the water source question. He's eliminated natural formation and claimed to eliminate the rocket. What he hasn't done is identify where a non-supernatural source of water would come from. The argument proves too much: if no natural process could produce the cloud and the rocket couldn't either, he needs a third candidate. "God did it" is not a third candidate in a root cause analysis — it's an admission that the analysis is over.
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== The Mass Calculation: A Critical Omission ==
This is where Rostron's engineering rigour breaks down most clearly.

His key quantitative argument is this: he estimates the cloud required approximately 2.2 million pounds (about 1 million kilograms) of water to form. He then points to the Castor-1 solid rocket boosters attached to the Thor and notes they contained roughly 12,000 pounds of solid propellant each. Three boosters, therefore about 34,000–36,000 pounds total. That's vastly less than 2.2 million pounds of water. Ergo, the rocket couldn't have done it.

The problem is that Rostron has analysed the wrong part of the rocket.

The Thrust Augmented Thor that was destroyed on February 28, 1963 was a liquid-fueled missile. Its main engine burned RP-1 kerosene with liquid oxygen — not solid propellant. The Castor-1 solid boosters were strapped-on assist motors that burned for approximately 37–40 seconds during the initial ascent, reaching around 10–15 kilometers altitude, after which they were jettisoned. By the time the range safety officer destroyed the vehicle at 44 kilometers, those solid boosters had been gone for over two minutes.

The main Thor engine — the liquid-fueled engine still burning when the rocket was destroyed — is where the water was coming from. RP-1 kerosene combusted with liquid oxygen produces two products: carbon dioxide and water. The stoichiometry is straightforward. For every kilogram of RP-1 burned, approximately 1.3–1.4 kilograms of water is produced. The Thor carried roughly 22,000 kilograms of RP-1 and 34,000 kilograms of liquid oxygen. Even if only a fraction of those propellants remained unburned at time of destruction and were subsequently dispersed and burned by the explosion, the potential water output dwarfs the solid booster contribution that Rostron calculated.

Rostron never calculates this. In a presentation framed as "root cause analysis" and "going back to first principles," he simply ignores the primary propellant system of the primary stage. A nuclear quality assurance process would flag this immediately: you haven't analysed the dominant source term.

He does show a striking Space Shuttle exhaust cloud (STS-131) as a visual comparison, but the comparison is misleading. That photograph was taken five minutes after launch, during active burning. The 1963 cloud appeared three and a half hours after the rocket's destruction. Of course they look different. Arguing that rocket exhaust in active flight looks unlike a dispersed, wind-shaped cloud hours later proves nothing about whether the rocket caused the cloud.
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== The Cloud Density Contradiction: Rostron's Framework Collapses His Own Math ==
There is a deeper problem with the mass calculation that Rostron doesn't notice — because it requires him to apply his own logic consistently, which he doesn't.

Throughout the presentation, Rostron correctly invokes the analogy of noctilucent clouds to explain one of the cloud's most striking features: why nobody saw it until sunset. He explains the physics accurately. Noctilucent clouds are visible only at twilight because they are too faint to scatter enough light to be visible against a bright daytime sky. They only appear once the background sky darkens and sunlight catches them from below the horizon. He uses this same principle to explain why the Flagstaff cloud was invisible during the day and only appeared as the sun went down.

This is the correct explanation. But Rostron never follows that logic into his density calculation.

Noctilucent clouds are extraordinarily tenuous. Their ice water content is typically on the order of '''10⁻⁵ to 10⁻⁶ grams per cubic meter''' — roughly one thousand to one hundred thousand times less dense than an ordinary cirrus cloud. That tenuousness is not incidental to how they behave. It ''is'' why they can't be seen in daylight. A cirrus cloud, with its density of around 0.03 to 0.05 g/m³, is clearly visible in full sunlight. Something only visible during a narrow twilight window, when the background sky is dark and the sun's rays are hitting it from far below the horizon, has to be far, far thinner than a cirrus cloud.

Rostron's mass calculation uses a cirrus cloud density of '''1/20 gram per cubic meter (0.05 g/m³)'''. That's how he arrives at his 2.2 million pound figure. But he has already established — in the same presentation — that the cloud behaved like a noctilucent cloud in terms of its visibility. You cannot simultaneously claim a cloud is too tenuous to be seen in daylight ''and'' assume cirrus-level ice density when calculating how much water formed it. Those two claims are mutually exclusive.

The numbers make this stark. At cirrus density (0.05 g/m³), Rostron calculates roughly 1.35 million kilograms of water needed. Now apply a density consistent with something only visible at twilight — say, 10⁻⁴ g/m³, which is still five hundred times denser than a typical noctilucent cloud and thus a very conservative estimate:<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.0001 g/m³ = '''2,700 kilograms — about 5,950 pounds'''</blockquote>At actual noctilucent cloud densities (10⁻⁵ g/m³):<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.00001 g/m³ = '''270 kilograms — about 595 pounds'''</blockquote>Not 2.2 million pounds. Hundreds of pounds. The Thor rocket's main liquid-fueled engine — which Rostron ignored entirely — produced combustion byproducts including water on the order of tens of thousands of kilograms. Even the Castor-1 solid boosters that Rostron himself analysed exceed this threshold by a significant margin.

Rostron uses noctilucent cloud physics when it helps explain daytime invisibility, then quietly reverts to cirrus cloud density when he needs a large number for his water mass argument. A root cause analysis doesn't get to choose which physical properties apply and when. Either the cloud was dense enough to behave like a cirrus cloud (visible in daylight, requiring ~2.2 million pounds of water) or it was tenuous enough to behave like a noctilucent cloud (invisible in daylight, requiring a tiny fraction of that). It cannot be both.
----

== The Anachronistic Wind Data ==
One of the more striking methodological errors in the series is Rostron's use of earth.nullschool.net — a real-time global wind visualization website — to argue about what the winds were doing at high altitude on February 28, 1963.

He pulls up current wind patterns above Arizona, shows that the winds at 10 millibar altitude (roughly 100,000 feet, or about 30 km) are around 65 km/h in the analysis session's present, and argues these speeds are insufficient to carry rocket debris from Vandenberg to Flagstaff in 3.5 hours. He acknowledges he's watched the website "over the years" and noted seasonal patterns, but then uses a single day's reading as if it characterises the wind field on a specific day six decades earlier.

Wind patterns at stratospheric and mesospheric altitudes are highly variable. They change with season, with quasi-biennial oscillation cycles, with individual synoptic events. Knowing what the winds are doing today tells you nothing reliable about what they were doing on a specific day in February 1963. Dr. McDonald, who actually collected observational data at the time, described the measured wind speeds as "tantalizingly close" to what would be required. Rostron cites this but dismisses it on the grounds that McDonald "couldn't figure out how it would work" — which is not the same as saying it couldn't have worked. McDonald was being scientifically conservative. Rostron is using present-day wind data to argue about past atmospheric conditions. These are not equivalent moves.
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== A Confusion About Wind Direction ==
Rostron also argues that the wind direction was wrong for the rocket hypothesis. He says the cloud was observed to be "moving towards the southeast," and from this calculates a required wind origin of about 310 degrees (northwest). He then claims that a northwest wind at Vandenberg would carry debris toward Baja California, not Flagstaff.

But Vandenberg Air Force Base is located to the ''west-northwest'' of Flagstaff. Flagstaff is roughly to the ''east-northeast'' of Vandenberg. A wind blowing from the northwest — pushing things toward the southeast — would carry material from Vandenberg's vicinity ''toward'' the direction of Arizona. Rostron's claim that such a wind would instead send debris "into Mexico in Baja California" appears to reflect a geographical confusion about the relative positions of these locations. Rather than disproving the rocket hypothesis, his own wind direction data may be consistent with it.
----

== The Question Rostron Never Asks ==
Here is what is missing from five hours and fifty-four minutes of technically detailed presentation: any engagement with William Branham's own testimony about the cloud.

Rostron establishes (or attempts to establish) that the cloud was not produced by a Thor rocket. He never mentions that:

'''Branham claimed to be standing directly underneath the cloud when it appeared.''' He wasn't. The cloud appeared over Flagstaff. By Branham's own account of his activities on that trip, he was approximately 200 miles away near Sunset Mountain and Rattlesnake Mesa.

'''Branham stated that the cloud formed when the angels left him.''' The cloud appeared on February 28. Branham's own sermons describe the angelic visitation as occurring on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the departure of angels from a meeting that had not yet taken place.

'''Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his ministry until he was shown the photograph in Life Magazine''' — months after the cloud appeared. If he had witnessed the angels ascending into the sky and forming that cloud, that silence is inexplicable.

'''A second cloud is visible in the scientific photographs.''' Documented in ''Science Magazine'' (April 1963), this companion cloud appears to the northwest of the main cloud, consistent with debris dispersal from a single source. No version of the angelic account accounts for a second cloud.

These are not peripheral criticisms. They are facts drawn from Branham's own recordings and from the eyewitness documentation available at the time. Whether the cloud was caused by a rocket, a natural phenomenon, or something else entirely, Branham's own account of his involvement with it cannot be reconciled with the documented facts. Rostron's entire analysis — even if every calculation were correct — only defends the possibility that the cloud was unusual. It does nothing to explain why Branham's story about the cloud changed over time, why he placed himself at its formation when he demonstrably wasn't there, or why he first learned of the cloud from a magazine.
----

== What the Presentation Actually Establishes ==
To be precise about what Rostron's analysis shows and doesn't show:

He correctly demonstrates that natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers through ordinary atmospheric processes. This is real atmospheric science and he explains it clearly.

He correctly notes that the cloud was unusual and that McDonald found it difficult to explain WHEN FIRST CONFRONTED with the data available to him in 1963. However, MacDonald's story changed by the time of his response in 1967.

He raises legitimate questions about whether the Castor-1 solid boosters alone could account for the cloud's size. This is a fair point, though he reaches it by ignoring the primary propulsion system. He also ignores the amount of water vapour required for noctilucent clouds.

What his analysis does not establish is that the rocket could not have caused the cloud. His wind speed calculation uses anachronistic data. His mass calculation omits the main engine. His moisture argument '''supports''' rather than undermines the rocket hypothesis. And his conclusion — that supernatural causation is therefore implied — does not follow from his premises even if those premises were correct.
----

== A Word for Those Who Are Watching ==
If you've sat through this series, or heard someone cite it, or had it shared with you as the definitive answer to critics of the Message, you deserve to know what it actually proved and what it didn't.

Rostron is a capable engineer who spent months on this project. He clearly cares deeply about his faith, and he is trying to be rigorous. That's admirable. But rigour has to go all the way through — including to the question of whether the person whose testimony you're defending actually told a consistent, verifiable story. The scientific question of what caused the cloud is genuinely interesting but Rostron fails to disprove the rocket argment... in fact, he helps to prove it.

But the problem with Branham's cloud story was never primarily scientific. It was always about why a man who claimed to stand under a cloud was 200 miles away when it appeared, why the cloud preceded his vision's fulfillment by eight days, and why he never mentioned any of this until a magazine brought the photograph to his attention.

Those questions don't get answered by atmospheric physics. They get answered — or not answered — by Branham's own words.

The honest thing to do is listen to those words again, carefully, and ask whether the story holds together. Not because critics want it to fail, but because the truth matters. A faith built on a story that doesn't hold up isn't safer for not being examined. It's just more fragile.

= Problems with the Spiritual Interpretation =
The chronological and geographical facts present serious, unresolved difficulties for those who believe the cloud was a supernatural sign connected to Branham's angelic visitation.

'''1. Location mismatch.''' The cloud appeared near Flagstaff. Branham's reported angelic visitation occurred at Rattlesnake Mesa near Sunset Mountain — roughly 200 miles away. If the cloud was meant to mark the event, it appeared in the wrong place.

'''2. Branham claimed to be standing under it.''' He said this explicitly and repeatedly. He was approximately 200 miles from where the cloud actually appeared.

'''3. The timing is backwards.''' Branham stated that the cloud formed as the angels left him. The cloud appeared on February 28. By his own account, the angelic visitation happened on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the result of an event that had not yet occurred.

'''4. No mention until the magazine.''' Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his angelic visitation until after someone showed him the ''Life Magazine'' photograph. If he had been present at the cloud's formation — or even aware of its significance — this silence is inexplicable.

'''5. The magazine's location.''' Branham claimed the magazine article was describing the same location where he was hunting. It was not.

'''6. The face in the cloud.''' Message believers have claimed the photograph shows a face. Dr. McDonald examined the original prints and found no such features. When he asked Pearry Green for copies of the prints that supposedly showed them, none were ever provided.

'''7. Which direction was the face looking?''' If the cloud bore the face of Christ, the photograph shows it oriented toward Las Vegas — not toward Branham's location.

Some message ministers have attempted to resolve the timing problem by claiming Branham said privately that the angels had been waiting a week before he arrived. This doesn't hold up. The statement appears nowhere in Branham's recorded sermons and cannot be verified. More critically, it directly contradicts Branham's own public account — that the cloud formed when the angels ''left'', not when they arrived. A private, unrecorded explanation that contradicts the public record should carry very little weight.
----

== Key Documents ==
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/63+02+28+Cloud+Launch+Record.jpg Declassified 1963 02 28 Thor launch record]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/63+02+28+Declassified+AF+doc+re+Pitch+Pine.pdf Declassified 1963 02 28 Pitch Pine launch record]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/80+06+05+U+of+A+Cloud+Letter+.jpg University of Arizona letter of June 5, 1980]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/95+01+26+AF+re+cloud+1.jpg 1995 01 26 Air Force letter - page 1] and [https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/95+01+26+AF+re+cloud+2.jpg page 2]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/96+08+23+Meinel+letter+re+cloud.jpg 1996 08 23 letter from Mrs. Meinel]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/96+09+10+MacDonald.jpg 1996 09 10 letter from Mrs. MacDonald]
=Video Script=

At dusk on February 28, 1963, a cloud appeared in the skies above Flagstaff, Arizona and remained sunlit for 28 minutes after sunset. It was highlighted in the May 1963 edition of Life Magazine. William Branham explained that the cloud was part of the fulfillment of a vision that he had in December 1962.

IT.IS.THE.RISING.OF.THE.SUN_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-12 SUNDAY_ 65-0418M
:''Later, the Angels appeared as was prophesied. And at the same time, a great cluster of Light left where I was standing, and moved thirty miles high in the air, and around the circle, like the wings of the Angels, and drawed into the skies a shape of a pyramid in the same constellation of Angels that appeared.

:''Science took the picture, all the way from Mexico, as it moved from northern Arizona, where the Holy Spirit said I would be standing, "forty miles northeast of Tucson." And it went into the air, and Life magazine packed the pictures,

William Branham said that the angels appeared to him while he was standing in northern Arizona, and that when they left him they created a cloud that was pictured in the Life Magazine.

There are a few problems with this.

First, forty miles northeast of Tucson is not northern Arizona. Go get a map and measure it for yourself.
The southern tip of the cloud was just north of Flagstaff when the photo was taken. Flagstaff is in northern Arizona, and Tucson is in Southern Arizona.

Second, the cloud that appeared in Life Magazine was photographed one week before William Branham went hunting. William Branham’s daughter Rebecca Smith confirmed this in an article she wrote called “Return to Sunset”, which was published in the “Only Believe” magazine.

Finally, William Branham was hunting in the morning, and the cloud appeared in the evening.

So if the cloud was not caused by angels leaving Brother Branham, as he claimed during this sermon, caused it to appear?

In the Life Magazine article, Dr. James McDonald stated that he was not aware of any rocket explosions that day.
However, he later wrote a supplemental report where he discusses the explosion of a THOR rocket that had been launched from Vandenburg Airforce base in California earlier that day.

So we looked at the story of the rocket to try to see how likely it was that this explosion caused the cloud and here's what we found.

On February 28, 1963, a Thrust assisted Thor Agenda D rocket was launched from Vandenberg air force base in California. The rocket was carrying a military spy satellite.

The rocket malfunctioned and was intentionally destroyed at 1:52 in the afternoon at an estimated height of 44 kilometers.

The height of the cloud that appeared over Flagstaff later that same day was estimated to be about 43 kilometers miles high. Is this just a random coincidence?

In order to travel the required distance from California to Arizona, the cloud would have to be travelling at 135 miles per hour that afternoon. But Dr. James McDonald wrote that the wind speed recorded by scientists was, "tantalizingly close" to the 135 mile an hour wind speed required to carry the cloud from Vandenberg to Flagstaff.

The prevailing winds in California blow from west to east. It is also not unusual for Jetstream winds to vary in speed as you go from north to south. Windspeeds on March 1st, 1963 at an altitude of 43 kilometers were 90 miles an hour at White Sands, New Mexico and 125 miles per hour at Point Mugu, California.

Winds and atmospheric conditions are notoriously unpredictable. However, rocket trails from launches at Vandenberg air force base are regularly seen in Arizona… and even as far east as Oklahoma City.

On March 27, 2012, NASA launched 5 suborbital sounding rockets which released a chemical tracer that created milky white clouds 60 miles above the earth. They did this to learn about wind-speeds in the Mesosphere. The pictures that they took reveal circular clouds similar to the February 28, 1963 cloud.

Someone imposed the picture of Jesus from Hoffman’s painting “Christ at 33” into the photo of the 1963 cloud. The painting first had to be reversed to do this. If you are not a message believer, you are likely offended by this picture.

Still, you can take the same picture from Hoffman’s painting and impose it on the clouds from March 2012, without reversing it.
If you are a message believer, you are likely offended by this picture.

But, whether you are looking at the 1963 cloud or the 2012 cloud, you have to manipulate the image to make the picture fit.

Questions have been raised as to why the cloud was not seen between Vandenberg and Flagstaff. However, noctilucent clouds are very thin and are only visible at dawn or dusk. They cannot be seen until the sky starts to darken overhead as it does at sunset. That is why the Cloud “appeared” over Flagstaff in the evening and was not seen between California and Flagstff.

Based on all of the facts available, it is not only plausible but highly likely that the cloud over Flagstaff was formed by the high altitude destruction of the Thor rocket over Vandenberg Air force base.

However, our examination of the cloud is not over. We will next look at whether the cloud could be in any way related to the events which occurred at Rattlesnake Mesa.

=Evidence from the Branham Family=
{{Cloud Only Believe}}

{{Bottom of Page}}
[[Category:Prophecies]]
[[Category:Visions]]
[[Category:Honesty and Credibility]]
[[Category:Supernatural vindication]]

The Cause of the Cloud

2026-06-17T15:52:43Z

Admin: /* The Mass Calculation: A Critical Omission */

{{Top of Page}}
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<div style="border-bottom:2px #B87333 solid; text-align:lrft; padding:1px; margin:1px;"><font color='#800000' size='+1'>'''The Cloud (Part 2) - What Caused The Cloud?'''.</font> </div>
<youtube>http://youtu.be/ne_eJ9osvnc</youtube>
[[Image:Cloud-Large.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Page 112 of the May 1963 edition of Life Magazine]]

= The Arizona Cloud of February 28, 1963 =
At around sunset on February 28, 1963, an unusual cloud appeared in the vicinity of Flagstaff, Arizona and remained sunlit for 28 minutes after sunset. It attracted significant scientific attention, appearing in the [[Life Magazine May1963 (Page 112)|May 1963 edition of Life Magazine]], ''Science Magazine'' (April 19, 1963), ''Weatherwise Magazine'' (June 1963), and an independent scientific report issued May 31, 1963.

Dr. James E. McDonald of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona initially estimated the cloud's altitude at approximately 35 kilometers, later revising that figure to approximately 43 kilometers (141,000 feet). Despite his investigation, no conclusive public explanation was offered at the time.
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== What Does the Cloud Mean? ==
Followers of William Branham's message view the cloud as supernatural — the fulfillment of a December 1962 vision in which Branham foresaw seven angels meeting him outside Tucson, Arizona (see [[Prophecy of the Cloud]]).. They connect it to his subsequent opening of the Seven Seals and regard it as divine confirmation of his prophetic ministry.

Critics take a different view entirely. They argue the cloud has a straightforward natural explanation: it was the debris from a Thor rocket intentionally destroyed over Vandenberg Air Force Base earlier that same day. More significantly, critics argue that Branham's own testimony about being present at the cloud's formation is demonstrably false — a story that emerged only after he saw the ''Life Magazine'' photograph, and that directly contradicts verifiable facts about the cloud's location and timing.
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== The Scientific Explanation ==
On February 28, 1963, a thrust-assisted Thor rocket was launched from pad 75-3-5 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying a Keyhole 4 military surveillance satellite.<ref name=":0">http://www.astronautix.com/thisday/febary28.htm</ref> The rocket veered off course and was intentionally destroyed<ref name=":1">http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/lvs/tatgenad.htm</ref> at an altitude of 44 kilometers (144,000 feet) at 1:52 p.m.<ref name=":2">McDonald, Dr. James E, Cloud-Ring in the Upper Stratosphere, ''Weatherwise'', June 1963, Page 100</ref>

Several lines of evidence connect the rocket to the cloud:

# '''Same day.''' The rocket was destroyed on the same day the cloud appeared.
# '''Same altitude.''' The rocket was destroyed at 44 kilometers; the cloud was independently estimated at 43 kilometers — a near-exact match.
# '''Consistent wind speeds.''' No wind speed data was recorded at Vandenberg on that specific day, but Dr. McDonald noted that wind speeds measured at comparable altitudes at other times were "tantalizingly close" to what would have been required to carry debris from Vandenberg to Flagstaff. Since wind speeds vary by location and altitude, these measurements are consistent with a transport scenario, not proof against one.
# '''Military confirmation.''' When launch records were later declassified, the United States Air Force released documentation confirming that the cloud resulted from a military rocket operation.<ref>Jackson, Jeff G., 30th Space Wing History, Department of the Air Force, January 26, 1995, Vandenburg AFB, California</ref>
[[Image:NasaMakesACloud.jpg|thumb|370px|In March 2012 NASA made some clouds in the morning sky with a shape and height similar to the February 1963 cloud.]]
Dr. McDonald initially noted that clouds do not normally form at mesospheric altitudes — but subsequent research demonstrated that visible exhaust clouds from rocket launches can indeed reach into the mesosphere.<ref>http://www.spokenwordchurch.com/themessageresourcelibrary/Articles/Cloud%20Article%20-%20Dr%20McDonalds%20Cloud%20Investigation%20Supplement%201963.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/rktr1j.htm</ref> NASA has since created similar high-altitude clouds in chemical experiments, and some closely resemble the shape photographed on February 28 — appearing without any visible exhaust trail back to the launch site.<ref>http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/03/pictures/120327-nasa-rockets-clouds-wallops-jet-stream-edge-space-science/#/nasa-rocket-launch-strange-clouds-blue_50490_600x450.jpg</ref>

Today, rocket launches from Vandenberg are routinely documented on video. Depending on atmospheric conditions, they can be seen from Tucson and beyond, leaving mesospheric clouds that remain illuminated well after sunset.<ref>http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=SGBuQL-FvGI</ref><ref>http://spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/cosmic/launch.html and http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/rktr1j.htm</ref> This kind of direct visual evidence was simply unavailable in 1963.

Scientists also linked similar clouds appearing later in 1963 to rocket launches:<blockquote>''A bright noctilucent cloud was observed and photographed northwest of Tucson on 15 June 1963. Results of computations indicate that the cloud was at a height of 71 kilometers. The cloud appears to have resulted from the launching of a Scout space vehicle.''<ref>[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/141/3586/1176.abstract Science Magazine, September 1963: Vol. 141, no. 3586, pp. 1176-1178, DOI: 10.1126/science.141.3586.1176, ''Low-Latitude Noctilucent Cloud of 15 June 1963'', Aden B. Meinel1, Barbara Middlehurst, Ewen Whitaker]</ref></blockquote><blockquote>''Measurement of the filamentary noctilucent cloud of 2 November 1963 yields a height of 56 km. Study of the motion and orientation of the cloud confirms the hypothesis that these unusual clouds appearing in the southwestern states are produced by the launching of rocket vehicles from the Pacific Missile Range.''<ref>[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/143/3601/38.abstract Science Magazine, January 1964: Vol. 143, no. 3601, pp. 38-39, DOI:0.1126/science.143.3601.38, Low-Latitude Noctilucent Cloud of 2 November 1963, Aden B. Meinel, Carolyn P. Meinel]</ref></blockquote>

=== Why Didn't Dr. McDonald Publish a Final Report? ===
Dr. McDonald was senior physicist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and professor of meteorology at the University of Arizona. He was also well known for his serious investigation of UFO reports — which makes him an unlikely candidate to shelve a genuinely unexplained phenomenon simply out of disinterest. The most natural explanation for his failure to publish a final report is that he arrived at a sufficient explanation — the rocket — and didn't consider that conclusion publishable as a scientific finding. A researcher who made his reputation pursuing phenomena that defied conventional science would not have quietly dropped the subject if it remained genuinely mysterious.
----

== Dr. McDonald's Own Assessment ==
[[File:19670405 Mysterious Cloud Formation Vanishes Under Examination.jpg|right|250px]]
In April 1967, Dr. McDonald wrote a letter to ''The Arizona Republic'' that leaves no ambiguity about his conclusions:
----''THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC — Wednesday, April 5, 1967''

'''Mysterious Cloud Formation Vanishes Under Examination'''

Editor, The Arizona Republic:

The March 26 issue of your Sunday supplement, ''Arizona'', carried an article by Reporter Dave Davies, entitled "The Cloud," concerning a very unusual stratospheric cloud formation that appeared over Flagstaff on Feb. 28, 1963.

My investigations of that cloud are quoted in part, but a number of aspects of my findings were omitted or overlooked, so that the supernatural and religious construction that has been put on that event was improperly supported.

I am quoted as "frankly skeptical," as if to suggest that I am half-convinced, half-unconvinced by the occult interpretation. I am, in fact, wholly unconvinced and regard the entire business as quite distressing.

IT IS NOT CORRECT that the cloud "swept northward across Arizona." It moved in from almost due west. If Mr. Sothman saw anything which he thought to be a "strange circular-shaped cloud rise into the air" over Branham's head, he is clearly talking about some other cloud than that of Feb. 28 over Flagstaff.

Sothman is quoted as asserting that "it was kind of small at first, but the higher it rose the bigger it became." The observations of scores of reliable witnesses disinclined to pseudo-religious interpretations attest to the fact that the Flagstaff cloud appeared and disappeared without significant overall size or shape change.

Rev. Pearry Green, cited in the article, asserted to me (in a phone conversation in which I pointed out many discrepancies in the occult interpretation he and others seek to place on this event) that the "seven angels," after speaking to Rev. Branham, flew up into the sky and assumed the form of this cloud which, he claims, outlined the face of Christ to Branham.

AS A MATTER of fact, the photograph which accompanied the recent article as alleged documentation of this angelic revelation constitutes a projection entirely different from that which an observer would have seen in Branham's reported location in the Sunset Mountain area.

From the latter area, as also from Tucson where I myself saw it, the cloud bore absolutely no resemblance to any face. Rev. Mr. Green asserts that "facial features" can be seen in the inside of the cloud. When I told him no such features are detectable on the original prints, and when I asked for sample copies of the prints which he claimed showed such features, I never received any copies to examine.

And the amusing matter of the satellite cloud, west of Flagstaff, which shows on numerous photos taken from eastern Arizona and New Mexico, but which Branham's group did not know about until I confronted Green with it, seems to go a long way towards exposing the irrationality of the religious interpretations.

DAVIES OMITTED all mention of data I gave him on the detonation of a rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base at almost precisely the elevation of that cloud, about four hours earlier that day. Although there do indeed remain difficulties in explaining that cloud, supernaturalism ought not be even a last resort.

Let's keep the Middle Ages back where they belong.

''JAMES E. MCDONALD, Professor, UofA, Institute of Atmospheric Physics''
----

== Why Wasn't the Cloud Visible Before Sunset? ==
The cloud sat at approximately 43 kilometers altitude — well into the mesosphere. At that height, it remained illuminated by direct sunlight even after the sun dropped below the horizon for ground observers. This is exactly the same optical geometry that makes noctilucent clouds visible at twilight: the lower atmosphere falls into shadow first, while objects at very high altitude continue to catch oblique sunlight for some time afterward. The 28-minute post-sunset illumination period is entirely consistent with a mesospheric cloud and requires no supernatural explanation.

This also accounts for why the cloud wasn't noticed earlier. High-altitude clouds of this type are too faint to be seen against a bright daytime sky. They become visible only once the background sky darkens enough at dusk. A cloud present at 43 kilometers since 1:52 p.m. could easily have gone unobserved until twilight.
----

== The Second Cloud ==
[[Image:April 1963 Science Magazine page 1.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 292]]
[[Image:63 04 Science Vol 140 Page 2.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 293]]
[[Image:63 04 Science Vol 140 Page 3.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 294]]
The April 1963 ''Science Magazine'' article documented a second cloud visible in photographs taken from eastern Arizona and New Mexico, appearing to the northwest of the main cloud. Dr. McDonald raised this himself in his 1967 letter, noting that Branham's group was unaware of it until he confronted Pearry Green with the photographic evidence.

This poses a direct problem for the supernatural interpretation. If the main cloud formed from angels ascending after their meeting with Branham, what produced the second cloud? A companion cloud is exactly what one would expect from a rocket debris field dispersed across diverging high-altitude wind currents. It fits no version of the angelic account.
----

=Responding to Bill Rostron=
<blockquote>''"When it's all said and done you'll either have to say one or two things — I don't know what that is, it's a mystery — and brother Bill will say enough to that the world will have to admit we don't have an answer. But the Bride has an answer."'' — Pastor Luke Gibson, introducing Bill Rostron's series</blockquote>
== Five Hours in Defense of a Story Branham Never Told ==
Bill Rostron is exactly the kind of person Message believers need making arguments on their behalf. He spent 46 years in the nuclear power industry doing quality assurance and root cause analysis. He knows how to build a chain of evidence. He takes his work seriously. And in his nearly six-hour series ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'' (March 2020), recorded at the Tabernacle of the Lord in Townville, South Carolina, he applies genuine technical skill to the question of whether a Thor rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base could have produced the famous cloud over Flagstaff on February 28, 1963.

The result is a presentation that is methodologically serious in parts, fatally flawed in others, and — most importantly — never once asks the question that actually matters.
----

== What Rostron Claims, and What He Admits He Can't Prove ==
Start with what Rostron himself says at the close of his series:<blockquote>''"All of the things we've said today doesn't prove that God did it, but it sure does prove that man didn't do it."''</blockquote>That's an honest statement. Credit where it's due. Rostron is not claiming to have scientifically proven a supernatural event. He's claiming to have eliminated the rocket as a natural cause.

But by the end of the evening, Pastor Gibson is telling the congregation that they don't need an answer — they already have one. The crowd is singing. The cloud has become proof of Revelation 10:1–7 and divine confirmation of William Branham's ministry. The gap between "man didn't do it" and "God did it" has been closed by emotional momentum, not logic.

This is the first and most important error of the entire presentation. Ruling out one natural explanation does not establish supernatural causation. That logical gap is not a technicality — it is the entire structure of the argument. Rostron builds a case against the rocket, and the congregation quietly converts his inconclusive findings into proof of the miraculous. No one in the room challenges this move. It should be challenged.
----

== The Self-Defeating Moisture Argument ==
Rostron spends a significant portion of Video 1 and Video 2 establishing a genuine point of atmospheric physics: natural moisture gets "wrung out" of the air as altitude increases, and by the time you reach the stratosphere and mesosphere, the water vapor content is so low — he puts it at about five parts per million — that cloud formation is essentially impossible under normal conditions.

He's right about this. Natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers. This is not disputed.

But Rostron then uses this fact to argue against the rocket hypothesis. Here's the problem: the rocket hypothesis does not require natural moisture. The entire premise of the rocket explanation is that the Thor, when destroyed at 44 kilometers, ''introduced'' water and combustion products into an environment that would not otherwise contain them. That's precisely why the cloud appeared where natural clouds don't.

Rostron's atmospheric moisture argument doesn't undermine the rocket hypothesis. It actually explains why the rocket hypothesis is ''necessary'' — because something had to put water up there. His own analysis establishes that the cloud required an external source of water, then pivots to arguing the rocket couldn't have been that source. But he never actually closes the loop on the water source question. He's eliminated natural formation and claimed to eliminate the rocket. What he hasn't done is identify where a non-supernatural source of water would come from. The argument proves too much: if no natural process could produce the cloud and the rocket couldn't either, he needs a third candidate. "God did it" is not a third candidate in a root cause analysis — it's an admission that the analysis is over.
----

== The Mass Calculation: A Critical Omission ==
This is where Rostron's engineering rigour breaks down most clearly.

His key quantitative argument is this: he estimates the cloud required approximately 2.2 million pounds (about 1 million kilograms) of water to form. He then points to the Castor-1 solid rocket boosters attached to the Thor and notes they contained roughly 12,000 pounds of solid propellant each. Three boosters, therefore about 34,000–36,000 pounds total. That's vastly less than 2.2 million pounds of water. Ergo, the rocket couldn't have done it.

The problem is that Rostron has analysed the wrong part of the rocket.

The Thrust Augmented Thor that was destroyed on February 28, 1963 was a liquid-fueled missile. Its main engine burned RP-1 kerosene with liquid oxygen — not solid propellant. The Castor-1 solid boosters were strapped-on assist motors that burned for approximately 37–40 seconds during the initial ascent, reaching around 10–15 kilometers altitude, after which they were jettisoned. By the time the range safety officer destroyed the vehicle at 44 kilometers, those solid boosters had been gone for over two minutes.

The main Thor engine — the liquid-fueled engine still burning when the rocket was destroyed — is where the water was coming from. RP-1 kerosene combusted with liquid oxygen produces two products: carbon dioxide and water. The stoichiometry is straightforward. For every kilogram of RP-1 burned, approximately 1.3–1.4 kilograms of water is produced. The Thor carried roughly 22,000 kilograms of RP-1 and 34,000 kilograms of liquid oxygen. Even if only a fraction of those propellants remained unburned at time of destruction and were subsequently dispersed and burned by the explosion, the potential water output dwarfs the solid booster contribution that Rostron calculated.

Rostron never calculates this. In a presentation framed as "root cause analysis" and "going back to first principles," he simply ignores the primary propellant system of the primary stage. A nuclear quality assurance process would flag this immediately: you haven't analysed the dominant source term.

He does show a striking Space Shuttle exhaust cloud (STS-131) as a visual comparison, but the comparison is misleading. That photograph was taken five minutes after launch, during active burning. The 1963 cloud appeared three and a half hours after the rocket's destruction. Of course they look different. Arguing that rocket exhaust in active flight looks unlike a dispersed, wind-shaped cloud hours later proves nothing about whether the rocket caused the cloud.
----

== The Cloud Density Contradiction: Rostron's Framework Collapses His Own Math ==
There is a deeper problem with the mass calculation that Rostron doesn't notice — because it requires him to apply his own logic consistently, which he doesn't.

Throughout the presentation, Rostron correctly invokes the analogy of noctilucent clouds to explain one of the cloud's most striking features: why nobody saw it until sunset. He explains the physics accurately. Noctilucent clouds are visible only at twilight because they are too faint to scatter enough light to be visible against a bright daytime sky. They only appear once the background sky darkens and sunlight catches them from below the horizon. He uses this same principle to explain why the Flagstaff cloud was invisible during the day and only appeared as the sun went down.

This is the correct explanation. But Rostron never follows that logic into his density calculation.

Noctilucent clouds are extraordinarily tenuous. Their ice water content is typically on the order of '''10⁻⁵ to 10⁻⁶ grams per cubic meter''' — roughly one thousand to one hundred thousand times less dense than an ordinary cirrus cloud. That tenuousness is not incidental to how they behave. It ''is'' why they can't be seen in daylight. A cirrus cloud, with its density of around 0.03 to 0.05 g/m³, is clearly visible in full sunlight. Something only visible during a narrow twilight window, when the background sky is dark and the sun's rays are hitting it from far below the horizon, has to be far, far thinner than a cirrus cloud.

Rostron's mass calculation uses a cirrus cloud density of '''1/20 gram per cubic meter (0.05 g/m³)'''. That's how he arrives at his 2.2 million pound figure. But he has already established — in the same presentation — that the cloud behaved like a noctilucent cloud in terms of its visibility. You cannot simultaneously claim a cloud is too tenuous to be seen in daylight ''and'' assume cirrus-level ice density when calculating how much water formed it. Those two claims are mutually exclusive.

The numbers make this stark. At cirrus density (0.05 g/m³), Rostron calculates roughly 1.35 million kilograms of water needed. Now apply a density consistent with something only visible at twilight — say, 10⁻⁴ g/m³, which is still five hundred times denser than a typical noctilucent cloud and thus a very conservative estimate:<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.0001 g/m³ = '''2,700 kilograms — about 5,950 pounds'''</blockquote>At actual noctilucent cloud densities (10⁻⁵ g/m³):<blockquote>27 billion m³ × 0.00001 g/m³ = '''270 kilograms — about 595 pounds'''</blockquote>Not 2.2 million pounds. Hundreds of pounds. The Thor rocket's main liquid-fueled engine — which Rostron ignored entirely — produced combustion byproducts including water on the order of tens of thousands of kilograms. Even the Castor-1 solid boosters that Rostron himself analysed exceed this threshold by a significant margin.

Rostron uses noctilucent cloud physics when it helps explain daytime invisibility, then quietly reverts to cirrus cloud density when he needs a large number for his water mass argument. A root cause analysis doesn't get to choose which physical properties apply and when. Either the cloud was dense enough to behave like a cirrus cloud (visible in daylight, requiring ~2.2 million pounds of water) or it was tenuous enough to behave like a noctilucent cloud (invisible in daylight, requiring a tiny fraction of that). It cannot be both.
----

== The Anachronistic Wind Data ==
One of the more striking methodological errors in the series is Rostron's use of earth.nullschool.net — a real-time global wind visualization website — to argue about what the winds were doing at high altitude on February 28, 1963.

He pulls up current wind patterns above Arizona, shows that the winds at 10 millibar altitude (roughly 100,000 feet, or about 30 km) are around 65 km/h in the analysis session's present, and argues these speeds are insufficient to carry rocket debris from Vandenberg to Flagstaff in 3.5 hours. He acknowledges he's watched the website "over the years" and noted seasonal patterns, but then uses a single day's reading as if it characterises the wind field on a specific day six decades earlier.

Wind patterns at stratospheric and mesospheric altitudes are highly variable. They change with season, with quasi-biennial oscillation cycles, with individual synoptic events. Knowing what the winds are doing today tells you nothing reliable about what they were doing on a specific day in February 1963. Dr. McDonald, who actually collected observational data at the time, described the measured wind speeds as "tantalizingly close" to what would be required. Rostron cites this but dismisses it on the grounds that McDonald "couldn't figure out how it would work" — which is not the same as saying it couldn't have worked. McDonald was being scientifically conservative. Rostron is using present-day wind data to argue about past atmospheric conditions. These are not equivalent moves.
----

== A Confusion About Wind Direction ==
Rostron also argues that the wind direction was wrong for the rocket hypothesis. He says the cloud was observed to be "moving towards the southeast," and from this calculates a required wind origin of about 310 degrees (northwest). He then claims that a northwest wind at Vandenberg would carry debris toward Baja California, not Flagstaff.

But Vandenberg Air Force Base is located to the ''west-northwest'' of Flagstaff. Flagstaff is roughly to the ''east-northeast'' of Vandenberg. A wind blowing from the northwest — pushing things toward the southeast — would carry material from Vandenberg's vicinity ''toward'' the direction of Arizona. Rostron's claim that such a wind would instead send debris "into Mexico in Baja California" appears to reflect a geographical confusion about the relative positions of these locations. Rather than disproving the rocket hypothesis, his own wind direction data may be consistent with it.
----

== The Question Rostron Never Asks ==
Here is what is missing from five hours and fifty-four minutes of technically detailed presentation: any engagement with William Branham's own testimony about the cloud.

Rostron establishes (or attempts to establish) that the cloud was not produced by a Thor rocket. He never mentions that:

'''Branham claimed to be standing directly underneath the cloud when it appeared.''' He wasn't. The cloud appeared over Flagstaff. By Branham's own account of his activities on that trip, he was approximately 200 miles away near Sunset Mountain and Rattlesnake Mesa.

'''Branham stated that the cloud formed when the angels left him.''' The cloud appeared on February 28. Branham's own sermons describe the angelic visitation as occurring on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the departure of angels from a meeting that had not yet taken place.

'''Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his ministry until he was shown the photograph in Life Magazine''' — months after the cloud appeared. If he had witnessed the angels ascending into the sky and forming that cloud, that silence is inexplicable.

'''A second cloud is visible in the scientific photographs.''' Documented in ''Science Magazine'' (April 1963), this companion cloud appears to the northwest of the main cloud, consistent with debris dispersal from a single source. No version of the angelic account accounts for a second cloud.

These are not peripheral criticisms. They are facts drawn from Branham's own recordings and from the eyewitness documentation available at the time. Whether the cloud was caused by a rocket, a natural phenomenon, or something else entirely, Branham's own account of his involvement with it cannot be reconciled with the documented facts. Rostron's entire analysis — even if every calculation were correct — only defends the possibility that the cloud was unusual. It does nothing to explain why Branham's story about the cloud changed over time, why he placed himself at its formation when he demonstrably wasn't there, or why he first learned of the cloud from a magazine.
----

== What the Presentation Actually Establishes ==
To be precise about what Rostron's analysis shows and doesn't show:

He correctly demonstrates that natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers through ordinary atmospheric processes. This is real atmospheric science and he explains it clearly.

He correctly notes that the cloud was unusual and that McDonald found it difficult to explain WHEN FIRST CONFRONTED with the data available to him in 1963. However, MacDonald's story changed by the time of his response in 1967.

He raises legitimate questions about whether the Castor-1 solid boosters alone could account for the cloud's size. This is a fair point, though he reaches it by ignoring the primary propulsion system. He also ignores the amount of water vapour required for noctilucent clouds.

What his analysis does not establish is that the rocket could not have caused the cloud. His wind speed calculation uses anachronistic data. His mass calculation omits the main engine. His moisture argument '''supports''' rather than undermines the rocket hypothesis. And his conclusion — that supernatural causation is therefore implied — does not follow from his premises even if those premises were correct.
----

== A Word for Those Who Are Watching ==
If you've sat through this series, or heard someone cite it, or had it shared with you as the definitive answer to critics of the Message, you deserve to know what it actually proved and what it didn't.

Rostron is a capable engineer who spent months on this project. He clearly cares deeply about his faith, and he is trying to be rigorous. That's admirable. But rigour has to go all the way through — including to the question of whether the person whose testimony you're defending actually told a consistent, verifiable story. The scientific question of what caused the cloud is genuinely interesting but Rostron fails to disprove the rocket argment... in fact, he helps to prove it.

But the problem with Branham's cloud story was never primarily scientific. It was always about why a man who claimed to stand under a cloud was 200 miles away when it appeared, why the cloud preceded his vision's fulfillment by eight days, and why he never mentioned any of this until a magazine brought the photograph to his attention.

Those questions don't get answered by atmospheric physics. They get answered — or not answered — by Branham's own words.

The honest thing to do is listen to those words again, carefully, and ask whether the story holds together. Not because critics want it to fail, but because the truth matters. A faith built on a story that doesn't hold up isn't safer for not being examined. It's just more fragile.

== Problems with the Spiritual Interpretation ==
The chronological and geographical facts present serious, unresolved difficulties for those who believe the cloud was a supernatural sign connected to Branham's angelic visitation.

'''1. Location mismatch.''' The cloud appeared near Flagstaff. Branham's reported angelic visitation occurred at Rattlesnake Mesa near Sunset Mountain — roughly 200 miles away. If the cloud was meant to mark the event, it appeared in the wrong place.

'''2. Branham claimed to be standing under it.''' He said this explicitly and repeatedly. He was approximately 200 miles from where the cloud actually appeared.

'''3. The timing is backwards.''' Branham stated that the cloud formed as the angels left him. The cloud appeared on February 28. By his own account, the angelic visitation happened on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the result of an event that had not yet occurred.

'''4. No mention until the magazine.''' Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his angelic visitation until after someone showed him the ''Life Magazine'' photograph. If he had been present at the cloud's formation — or even aware of its significance — this silence is inexplicable.

'''5. The magazine's location.''' Branham claimed the magazine article was describing the same location where he was hunting. It was not.

'''6. The face in the cloud.''' Message believers have claimed the photograph shows a face. Dr. McDonald examined the original prints and found no such features. When he asked Pearry Green for copies of the prints that supposedly showed them, none were ever provided.

'''7. Which direction was the face looking?''' If the cloud bore the face of Christ, the photograph shows it oriented toward Las Vegas — not toward Branham's location.

Some message ministers have attempted to resolve the timing problem by claiming Branham said privately that the angels had been waiting a week before he arrived. This doesn't hold up. The statement appears nowhere in Branham's recorded sermons and cannot be verified. More critically, it directly contradicts Branham's own public account — that the cloud formed when the angels ''left'', not when they arrived. A private, unrecorded explanation that contradicts the public record should carry very little weight.
----

== Key Documents ==
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/63+02+28+Cloud+Launch+Record.jpg Declassified 1963 02 28 Thor launch record]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/63+02+28+Declassified+AF+doc+re+Pitch+Pine.pdf Declassified 1963 02 28 Pitch Pine launch record]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/80+06+05+U+of+A+Cloud+Letter+.jpg University of Arizona letter of June 5, 1980]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/95+01+26+AF+re+cloud+1.jpg 1995 01 26 Air Force letter - page 1] and [https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/95+01+26+AF+re+cloud+2.jpg page 2]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/96+08+23+Meinel+letter+re+cloud.jpg 1996 08 23 letter from Mrs. Meinel]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/96+09+10+MacDonald.jpg 1996 09 10 letter from Mrs. MacDonald]
=Video Script=

At dusk on February 28, 1963, a cloud appeared in the skies above Flagstaff, Arizona and remained sunlit for 28 minutes after sunset. It was highlighted in the May 1963 edition of Life Magazine. William Branham explained that the cloud was part of the fulfillment of a vision that he had in December 1962.

IT.IS.THE.RISING.OF.THE.SUN_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-12 SUNDAY_ 65-0418M
:''Later, the Angels appeared as was prophesied. And at the same time, a great cluster of Light left where I was standing, and moved thirty miles high in the air, and around the circle, like the wings of the Angels, and drawed into the skies a shape of a pyramid in the same constellation of Angels that appeared.

:''Science took the picture, all the way from Mexico, as it moved from northern Arizona, where the Holy Spirit said I would be standing, "forty miles northeast of Tucson." And it went into the air, and Life magazine packed the pictures,

William Branham said that the angels appeared to him while he was standing in northern Arizona, and that when they left him they created a cloud that was pictured in the Life Magazine.

There are a few problems with this.

First, forty miles northeast of Tucson is not northern Arizona. Go get a map and measure it for yourself.
The southern tip of the cloud was just north of Flagstaff when the photo was taken. Flagstaff is in northern Arizona, and Tucson is in Southern Arizona.

Second, the cloud that appeared in Life Magazine was photographed one week before William Branham went hunting. William Branham’s daughter Rebecca Smith confirmed this in an article she wrote called “Return to Sunset”, which was published in the “Only Believe” magazine.

Finally, William Branham was hunting in the morning, and the cloud appeared in the evening.

So if the cloud was not caused by angels leaving Brother Branham, as he claimed during this sermon, caused it to appear?

In the Life Magazine article, Dr. James McDonald stated that he was not aware of any rocket explosions that day.
However, he later wrote a supplemental report where he discusses the explosion of a THOR rocket that had been launched from Vandenburg Airforce base in California earlier that day.

So we looked at the story of the rocket to try to see how likely it was that this explosion caused the cloud and here's what we found.

On February 28, 1963, a Thrust assisted Thor Agenda D rocket was launched from Vandenberg air force base in California. The rocket was carrying a military spy satellite.

The rocket malfunctioned and was intentionally destroyed at 1:52 in the afternoon at an estimated height of 44 kilometers.

The height of the cloud that appeared over Flagstaff later that same day was estimated to be about 43 kilometers miles high. Is this just a random coincidence?

In order to travel the required distance from California to Arizona, the cloud would have to be travelling at 135 miles per hour that afternoon. But Dr. James McDonald wrote that the wind speed recorded by scientists was, "tantalizingly close" to the 135 mile an hour wind speed required to carry the cloud from Vandenberg to Flagstaff.

The prevailing winds in California blow from west to east. It is also not unusual for Jetstream winds to vary in speed as you go from north to south. Windspeeds on March 1st, 1963 at an altitude of 43 kilometers were 90 miles an hour at White Sands, New Mexico and 125 miles per hour at Point Mugu, California.

Winds and atmospheric conditions are notoriously unpredictable. However, rocket trails from launches at Vandenberg air force base are regularly seen in Arizona… and even as far east as Oklahoma City.

On March 27, 2012, NASA launched 5 suborbital sounding rockets which released a chemical tracer that created milky white clouds 60 miles above the earth. They did this to learn about wind-speeds in the Mesosphere. The pictures that they took reveal circular clouds similar to the February 28, 1963 cloud.

Someone imposed the picture of Jesus from Hoffman’s painting “Christ at 33” into the photo of the 1963 cloud. The painting first had to be reversed to do this. If you are not a message believer, you are likely offended by this picture.

Still, you can take the same picture from Hoffman’s painting and impose it on the clouds from March 2012, without reversing it.
If you are a message believer, you are likely offended by this picture.

But, whether you are looking at the 1963 cloud or the 2012 cloud, you have to manipulate the image to make the picture fit.

Questions have been raised as to why the cloud was not seen between Vandenberg and Flagstaff. However, noctilucent clouds are very thin and are only visible at dawn or dusk. They cannot be seen until the sky starts to darken overhead as it does at sunset. That is why the Cloud “appeared” over Flagstaff in the evening and was not seen between California and Flagstff.

Based on all of the facts available, it is not only plausible but highly likely that the cloud over Flagstaff was formed by the high altitude destruction of the Thor rocket over Vandenberg Air force base.

However, our examination of the cloud is not over. We will next look at whether the cloud could be in any way related to the events which occurred at Rattlesnake Mesa.

=Evidence from the Branham Family=
{{Cloud Only Believe}}

{{Bottom of Page}}
[[Category:Prophecies]]
[[Category:Visions]]
[[Category:Honesty and Credibility]]
[[Category:Supernatural vindication]]

The Cause of the Cloud

2026-06-17T15:41:26Z

Admin: /* Responding to Bill Rostron's Pseudoscience */

{{Top of Page}}
{{Template:Cloud}}
<div style="border-bottom:2px #B87333 solid; text-align:lrft; padding:1px; margin:1px;"><font color='#800000' size='+1'>'''The Cloud (Part 2) - What Caused The Cloud?'''.</font> </div>
<youtube>http://youtu.be/ne_eJ9osvnc</youtube>
[[Image:Cloud-Large.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Page 112 of the May 1963 edition of Life Magazine]]

= The Arizona Cloud of February 28, 1963 =
At around sunset on February 28, 1963, an unusual cloud appeared in the vicinity of Flagstaff, Arizona and remained sunlit for 28 minutes after sunset. It attracted significant scientific attention, appearing in the [[Life Magazine May1963 (Page 112)|May 1963 edition of Life Magazine]], ''Science Magazine'' (April 19, 1963), ''Weatherwise Magazine'' (June 1963), and an independent scientific report issued May 31, 1963.

Dr. James E. McDonald of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona initially estimated the cloud's altitude at approximately 35 kilometers, later revising that figure to approximately 43 kilometers (141,000 feet). Despite his investigation, no conclusive public explanation was offered at the time.
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== What Does the Cloud Mean? ==
Followers of William Branham's message view the cloud as supernatural — the fulfillment of a December 1962 vision in which Branham foresaw seven angels meeting him outside Tucson, Arizona (see [[Prophecy of the Cloud]]).. They connect it to his subsequent opening of the Seven Seals and regard it as divine confirmation of his prophetic ministry.

Critics take a different view entirely. They argue the cloud has a straightforward natural explanation: it was the debris from a Thor rocket intentionally destroyed over Vandenberg Air Force Base earlier that same day. More significantly, critics argue that Branham's own testimony about being present at the cloud's formation is demonstrably false — a story that emerged only after he saw the ''Life Magazine'' photograph, and that directly contradicts verifiable facts about the cloud's location and timing.
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== The Scientific Explanation ==
On February 28, 1963, a thrust-assisted Thor rocket was launched from pad 75-3-5 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying a Keyhole 4 military surveillance satellite.<ref name=":0">http://www.astronautix.com/thisday/febary28.htm</ref> The rocket veered off course and was intentionally destroyed<ref name=":1">http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/lvs/tatgenad.htm</ref> at an altitude of 44 kilometers (144,000 feet) at 1:52 p.m.<ref name=":2">McDonald, Dr. James E, Cloud-Ring in the Upper Stratosphere, ''Weatherwise'', June 1963, Page 100</ref>

Several lines of evidence connect the rocket to the cloud:

# '''Same day.''' The rocket was destroyed on the same day the cloud appeared.
# '''Same altitude.''' The rocket was destroyed at 44 kilometers; the cloud was independently estimated at 43 kilometers — a near-exact match.
# '''Consistent wind speeds.''' No wind speed data was recorded at Vandenberg on that specific day, but Dr. McDonald noted that wind speeds measured at comparable altitudes at other times were "tantalizingly close" to what would have been required to carry debris from Vandenberg to Flagstaff. Since wind speeds vary by location and altitude, these measurements are consistent with a transport scenario, not proof against one.
# '''Military confirmation.''' When launch records were later declassified, the United States Air Force released documentation confirming that the cloud resulted from a military rocket operation.<ref>Jackson, Jeff G., 30th Space Wing History, Department of the Air Force, January 26, 1995, Vandenburg AFB, California</ref>
[[Image:NasaMakesACloud.jpg|thumb|370px|In March 2012 NASA made some clouds in the morning sky with a shape and height similar to the February 1963 cloud.]]
Dr. McDonald initially noted that clouds do not normally form at mesospheric altitudes — but subsequent research demonstrated that visible exhaust clouds from rocket launches can indeed reach into the mesosphere.<ref>http://www.spokenwordchurch.com/themessageresourcelibrary/Articles/Cloud%20Article%20-%20Dr%20McDonalds%20Cloud%20Investigation%20Supplement%201963.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/rktr1j.htm</ref> NASA has since created similar high-altitude clouds in chemical experiments, and some closely resemble the shape photographed on February 28 — appearing without any visible exhaust trail back to the launch site.<ref>http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/03/pictures/120327-nasa-rockets-clouds-wallops-jet-stream-edge-space-science/#/nasa-rocket-launch-strange-clouds-blue_50490_600x450.jpg</ref>

Today, rocket launches from Vandenberg are routinely documented on video. Depending on atmospheric conditions, they can be seen from Tucson and beyond, leaving mesospheric clouds that remain illuminated well after sunset.<ref>http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=SGBuQL-FvGI</ref><ref>http://spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/cosmic/launch.html and http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/rktr1j.htm</ref> This kind of direct visual evidence was simply unavailable in 1963.

Scientists also linked similar clouds appearing later in 1963 to rocket launches:<blockquote>''A bright noctilucent cloud was observed and photographed northwest of Tucson on 15 June 1963. Results of computations indicate that the cloud was at a height of 71 kilometers. The cloud appears to have resulted from the launching of a Scout space vehicle.''<ref>[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/141/3586/1176.abstract Science Magazine, September 1963: Vol. 141, no. 3586, pp. 1176-1178, DOI: 10.1126/science.141.3586.1176, ''Low-Latitude Noctilucent Cloud of 15 June 1963'', Aden B. Meinel1, Barbara Middlehurst, Ewen Whitaker]</ref></blockquote><blockquote>''Measurement of the filamentary noctilucent cloud of 2 November 1963 yields a height of 56 km. Study of the motion and orientation of the cloud confirms the hypothesis that these unusual clouds appearing in the southwestern states are produced by the launching of rocket vehicles from the Pacific Missile Range.''<ref>[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/143/3601/38.abstract Science Magazine, January 1964: Vol. 143, no. 3601, pp. 38-39, DOI:0.1126/science.143.3601.38, Low-Latitude Noctilucent Cloud of 2 November 1963, Aden B. Meinel, Carolyn P. Meinel]</ref></blockquote>

=== Why Didn't Dr. McDonald Publish a Final Report? ===
Dr. McDonald was senior physicist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and professor of meteorology at the University of Arizona. He was also well known for his serious investigation of UFO reports — which makes him an unlikely candidate to shelve a genuinely unexplained phenomenon simply out of disinterest. The most natural explanation for his failure to publish a final report is that he arrived at a sufficient explanation — the rocket — and didn't consider that conclusion publishable as a scientific finding. A researcher who made his reputation pursuing phenomena that defied conventional science would not have quietly dropped the subject if it remained genuinely mysterious.
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== Dr. McDonald's Own Assessment ==
[[File:19670405 Mysterious Cloud Formation Vanishes Under Examination.jpg|right|250px]]
In April 1967, Dr. McDonald wrote a letter to ''The Arizona Republic'' that leaves no ambiguity about his conclusions:
----''THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC — Wednesday, April 5, 1967''

'''Mysterious Cloud Formation Vanishes Under Examination'''

Editor, The Arizona Republic:

The March 26 issue of your Sunday supplement, ''Arizona'', carried an article by Reporter Dave Davies, entitled "The Cloud," concerning a very unusual stratospheric cloud formation that appeared over Flagstaff on Feb. 28, 1963.

My investigations of that cloud are quoted in part, but a number of aspects of my findings were omitted or overlooked, so that the supernatural and religious construction that has been put on that event was improperly supported.

I am quoted as "frankly skeptical," as if to suggest that I am half-convinced, half-unconvinced by the occult interpretation. I am, in fact, wholly unconvinced and regard the entire business as quite distressing.

IT IS NOT CORRECT that the cloud "swept northward across Arizona." It moved in from almost due west. If Mr. Sothman saw anything which he thought to be a "strange circular-shaped cloud rise into the air" over Branham's head, he is clearly talking about some other cloud than that of Feb. 28 over Flagstaff.

Sothman is quoted as asserting that "it was kind of small at first, but the higher it rose the bigger it became." The observations of scores of reliable witnesses disinclined to pseudo-religious interpretations attest to the fact that the Flagstaff cloud appeared and disappeared without significant overall size or shape change.

Rev. Pearry Green, cited in the article, asserted to me (in a phone conversation in which I pointed out many discrepancies in the occult interpretation he and others seek to place on this event) that the "seven angels," after speaking to Rev. Branham, flew up into the sky and assumed the form of this cloud which, he claims, outlined the face of Christ to Branham.

AS A MATTER of fact, the photograph which accompanied the recent article as alleged documentation of this angelic revelation constitutes a projection entirely different from that which an observer would have seen in Branham's reported location in the Sunset Mountain area.

From the latter area, as also from Tucson where I myself saw it, the cloud bore absolutely no resemblance to any face. Rev. Mr. Green asserts that "facial features" can be seen in the inside of the cloud. When I told him no such features are detectable on the original prints, and when I asked for sample copies of the prints which he claimed showed such features, I never received any copies to examine.

And the amusing matter of the satellite cloud, west of Flagstaff, which shows on numerous photos taken from eastern Arizona and New Mexico, but which Branham's group did not know about until I confronted Green with it, seems to go a long way towards exposing the irrationality of the religious interpretations.

DAVIES OMITTED all mention of data I gave him on the detonation of a rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base at almost precisely the elevation of that cloud, about four hours earlier that day. Although there do indeed remain difficulties in explaining that cloud, supernaturalism ought not be even a last resort.

Let's keep the Middle Ages back where they belong.

''JAMES E. MCDONALD, Professor, UofA, Institute of Atmospheric Physics''
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== Why Wasn't the Cloud Visible Before Sunset? ==
The cloud sat at approximately 43 kilometers altitude — well into the mesosphere. At that height, it remained illuminated by direct sunlight even after the sun dropped below the horizon for ground observers. This is exactly the same optical geometry that makes noctilucent clouds visible at twilight: the lower atmosphere falls into shadow first, while objects at very high altitude continue to catch oblique sunlight for some time afterward. The 28-minute post-sunset illumination period is entirely consistent with a mesospheric cloud and requires no supernatural explanation.

This also accounts for why the cloud wasn't noticed earlier. High-altitude clouds of this type are too faint to be seen against a bright daytime sky. They become visible only once the background sky darkens enough at dusk. A cloud present at 43 kilometers since 1:52 p.m. could easily have gone unobserved until twilight.
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== The Second Cloud ==
[[Image:April 1963 Science Magazine page 1.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 292]]
[[Image:63 04 Science Vol 140 Page 2.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 293]]
[[Image:63 04 Science Vol 140 Page 3.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 294]]
The April 1963 ''Science Magazine'' article documented a second cloud visible in photographs taken from eastern Arizona and New Mexico, appearing to the northwest of the main cloud. Dr. McDonald raised this himself in his 1967 letter, noting that Branham's group was unaware of it until he confronted Pearry Green with the photographic evidence.

This poses a direct problem for the supernatural interpretation. If the main cloud formed from angels ascending after their meeting with Branham, what produced the second cloud? A companion cloud is exactly what one would expect from a rocket debris field dispersed across diverging high-altitude wind currents. It fits no version of the angelic account.
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=Responding to Bill Rostron=
<blockquote>''"When it's all said and done you'll either have to say one or two things — I don't know what that is, it's a mystery — and brother Bill will say enough to that the world will have to admit we don't have an answer. But the Bride has an answer."'' — Pastor Luke Gibson, introducing Bill Rostron's series</blockquote>
== Five Hours in Defense of a Story Branham Never Told ==
Bill Rostron is exactly the kind of person Message believers need making arguments on their behalf. He spent 46 years in the nuclear power industry doing quality assurance and root cause analysis. He knows how to build a chain of evidence. He takes his work seriously. And in his nearly six-hour series ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'' (March 2020), recorded at the Tabernacle of the Lord in Townville, South Carolina, he applies genuine technical skill to the question of whether a Thor rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base could have produced the famous cloud over Flagstaff on February 28, 1963.

The result is a presentation that is methodologically serious in parts, fatally flawed in others, and — most importantly — never once asks the question that actually matters.
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== What Rostron Claims, and What He Admits He Can't Prove ==
Start with what Rostron himself says at the close of his series:<blockquote>''"All of the things we've said today doesn't prove that God did it, but it sure does prove that man didn't do it."''</blockquote>That's an honest statement. Credit where it's due. Rostron is not claiming to have scientifically proven a supernatural event. He's claiming to have eliminated the rocket as a natural cause.

But by the end of the evening, Pastor Gibson is telling the congregation that they don't need an answer — they already have one. The crowd is singing. The cloud has become proof of Revelation 10:1–7 and divine confirmation of William Branham's ministry. The gap between "man didn't do it" and "God did it" has been closed by emotional momentum, not logic.

This is the first and most important error of the entire presentation. Ruling out one natural explanation does not establish supernatural causation. That logical gap is not a technicality — it is the entire structure of the argument. Rostron builds a case against the rocket, and the congregation quietly converts his inconclusive findings into proof of the miraculous. No one in the room challenges this move. It should be challenged.
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== The Self-Defeating Moisture Argument ==
Rostron spends a significant portion of Video 1 and Video 2 establishing a genuine point of atmospheric physics: natural moisture gets "wrung out" of the air as altitude increases, and by the time you reach the stratosphere and mesosphere, the water vapor content is so low — he puts it at about five parts per million — that cloud formation is essentially impossible under normal conditions.

He's right about this. Natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers. This is not disputed.

But Rostron then uses this fact to argue against the rocket hypothesis. Here's the problem: the rocket hypothesis does not require natural moisture. The entire premise of the rocket explanation is that the Thor, when destroyed at 44 kilometers, ''introduced'' water and combustion products into an environment that would not otherwise contain them. That's precisely why the cloud appeared where natural clouds don't.

Rostron's atmospheric moisture argument doesn't undermine the rocket hypothesis. It actually explains why the rocket hypothesis is ''necessary'' — because something had to put water up there. His own analysis establishes that the cloud required an external source of water, then pivots to arguing the rocket couldn't have been that source. But he never actually closes the loop on the water source question. He's eliminated natural formation and claimed to eliminate the rocket. What he hasn't done is identify where a non-supernatural source of water would come from. The argument proves too much: if no natural process could produce the cloud and the rocket couldn't either, he needs a third candidate. "God did it" is not a third candidate in a root cause analysis — it's an admission that the analysis is over.
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== The Mass Calculation: A Critical Omission ==
This is where Rostron's engineering rigour breaks down most clearly.

His key quantitative argument is this: he estimates the cloud required approximately 2.2 million pounds (about 1 million kilograms) of water to form. He then points to the Castor-1 solid rocket boosters attached to the Thor and notes they contained roughly 12,000 pounds of solid propellant each. Three boosters, therefore about 34,000–36,000 pounds total. That's vastly less than 2.2 million pounds of water. Ergo, the rocket couldn't have done it.

The problem is that Rostron has analysed the wrong part of the rocket.

The Thrust Augmented Thor that was destroyed on February 28, 1963 was a liquid-fueled missile. Its main engine burned RP-1 kerosene with liquid oxygen — not solid propellant. The Castor-1 solid boosters were strapped-on assist motors that burned for approximately 37–40 seconds during the initial ascent, reaching around 10–15 kilometers altitude, after which they were jettisoned. By the time the range safety officer destroyed the vehicle at 44 kilometers, those solid boosters had been gone for over two minutes.

The main Thor engine — the liquid-fueled engine still burning when the rocket was destroyed — is where the water was coming from. RP-1 kerosene combusted with liquid oxygen produces two products: carbon dioxide and water. The stoichiometry is straightforward. For every kilogram of RP-1 burned, approximately 1.3–1.4 kilograms of water is produced. The Thor carried roughly 22,000 kilograms of RP-1 and 34,000 kilograms of liquid oxygen. Even if only a fraction of those propellants remained unburned at time of destruction and were subsequently dispersed and burned by the explosion, the potential water output dwarfs the solid booster contribution that Rostron calculated.

Rostron never calculates this. In a presentation framed as "root cause analysis" and "going back to first principles," he simply ignores the primary propellant system of the primary stage. A nuclear quality assurance process would flag this immediately: you haven't analysed the dominant source term.

He does show a striking Space Shuttle exhaust cloud (STS-131) as a visual comparison, but the comparison is misleading. That photograph was taken five minutes after launch, during active burning. The 1963 cloud appeared three and a half hours after the rocket's destruction. Of course they look different. Arguing that rocket exhaust in active flight looks unlike a dispersed, wind-shaped cloud hours later proves nothing about whether the rocket caused the cloud.
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== The Anachronistic Wind Data ==
One of the more striking methodological errors in the series is Rostron's use of earth.nullschool.net — a real-time global wind visualization website — to argue about what the winds were doing at high altitude on February 28, 1963.

He pulls up current wind patterns above Arizona, shows that the winds at 10 millibar altitude (roughly 100,000 feet, or about 30 km) are around 65 km/h in the analysis session's present, and argues these speeds are insufficient to carry rocket debris from Vandenberg to Flagstaff in 3.5 hours. He acknowledges he's watched the website "over the years" and noted seasonal patterns, but then uses a single day's reading as if it characterises the wind field on a specific day six decades earlier.

Wind patterns at stratospheric and mesospheric altitudes are highly variable. They change with season, with quasi-biennial oscillation cycles, with individual synoptic events. Knowing what the winds are doing today tells you nothing reliable about what they were doing on a specific day in February 1963. Dr. McDonald, who actually collected observational data at the time, described the measured wind speeds as "tantalizingly close" to what would be required. Rostron cites this but dismisses it on the grounds that McDonald "couldn't figure out how it would work" — which is not the same as saying it couldn't have worked. McDonald was being scientifically conservative. Rostron is using present-day wind data to argue about past atmospheric conditions. These are not equivalent moves.
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== A Confusion About Wind Direction ==
Rostron also argues that the wind direction was wrong for the rocket hypothesis. He says the cloud was observed to be "moving towards the southeast," and from this calculates a required wind origin of about 310 degrees (northwest). He then claims that a northwest wind at Vandenberg would carry debris toward Baja California, not Flagstaff.

But Vandenberg Air Force Base is located to the ''west-northwest'' of Flagstaff. Flagstaff is roughly to the ''east-northeast'' of Vandenberg. A wind blowing from the northwest — pushing things toward the southeast — would carry material from Vandenberg's vicinity ''toward'' the direction of Arizona. Rostron's claim that such a wind would instead send debris "into Mexico in Baja California" appears to reflect a geographical confusion about the relative positions of these locations. Rather than disproving the rocket hypothesis, his own wind direction data may be consistent with it.
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== The Question Rostron Never Asks ==
Here is what is missing from five hours and fifty-four minutes of technically detailed presentation: any engagement with William Branham's own testimony about the cloud.

Rostron establishes (or attempts to establish) that the cloud was not produced by a Thor rocket. He never mentions that:

'''Branham claimed to be standing directly underneath the cloud when it appeared.''' He wasn't. The cloud appeared over Flagstaff. By Branham's own account of his activities on that trip, he was approximately 200 miles away near Sunset Mountain and Rattlesnake Mesa.

'''Branham stated that the cloud formed when the angels left him.''' The cloud appeared on February 28. Branham's own sermons describe the angelic visitation as occurring on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the departure of angels from a meeting that had not yet taken place.

'''Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his ministry until he was shown the photograph in Life Magazine''' — months after the cloud appeared. If he had witnessed the angels ascending into the sky and forming that cloud, that silence is inexplicable.

'''A second cloud is visible in the scientific photographs.''' Documented in ''Science Magazine'' (April 1963), this companion cloud appears to the northwest of the main cloud, consistent with debris dispersal from a single source. No version of the angelic account accounts for a second cloud.

These are not peripheral criticisms. They are facts drawn from Branham's own recordings and from the eyewitness documentation available at the time. Whether the cloud was caused by a rocket, a natural phenomenon, or something else entirely, Branham's own account of his involvement with it cannot be reconciled with the documented facts. Rostron's entire analysis — even if every calculation were correct — only defends the possibility that the cloud was unusual. It does nothing to explain why Branham's story about the cloud changed over time, why he placed himself at its formation when he demonstrably wasn't there, or why he first learned of the cloud from a magazine.
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== What the Presentation Actually Establishes ==
To be precise about what Rostron's analysis shows and doesn't show:

He correctly demonstrates that natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers through ordinary atmospheric processes. This is real atmospheric science and he explains it clearly.

He correctly notes that the cloud was unusual and that McDonald found it difficult to explain within the data available to him in 1963.

He raises legitimate questions about whether the Castor-1 solid boosters alone could account for the cloud's size. This is a fair point, though he reaches it by ignoring the primary propulsion system.

What his analysis does not establish is that the rocket could not have caused the cloud. His wind speed calculation uses anachronistic data. His mass calculation omits the main engine. His moisture argument supports rather than undermines the rocket hypothesis. And his conclusion — that supernatural causation is therefore implied — does not follow from his premises even if those premises were correct.
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== A Word for Those Who Are Watching ==
If you've sat through this series, or heard someone cite it, or had it shared with you as the definitive answer to critics of the Message, you deserve to know what it actually proved and what it didn't.

Rostron is a capable engineer who spent months on this project. He clearly cares deeply about his faith, and he is trying to be rigorous. That's admirable. But rigour has to go all the way through — including to the question of whether the person whose testimony you're defending actually told a consistent, verifiable story. The scientific question of what caused the cloud is genuinely interesting. But the problem with Branham's cloud story was never primarily scientific. It was always about why a man who claimed to stand under a cloud was 200 miles away when it appeared, why the cloud preceded his vision's fulfillment by eight days, and why he never mentioned any of this until a magazine brought the photograph to his attention.

Those questions don't get answered by atmospheric physics. They get answered — or not answered — by Branham's own words.

The honest thing to do is listen to those words again, carefully, and ask whether the story holds together. Not because critics want it to fail, but because the truth matters. A faith built on a story that doesn't hold up isn't safer for not being examined. It's just more fragile.

== Problems with the Spiritual Interpretation ==
The chronological and geographical facts present serious, unresolved difficulties for those who believe the cloud was a supernatural sign connected to Branham's angelic visitation.

'''1. Location mismatch.''' The cloud appeared near Flagstaff. Branham's reported angelic visitation occurred at Rattlesnake Mesa near Sunset Mountain — roughly 200 miles away. If the cloud was meant to mark the event, it appeared in the wrong place.

'''2. Branham claimed to be standing under it.''' He said this explicitly and repeatedly. He was approximately 200 miles from where the cloud actually appeared.

'''3. The timing is backwards.''' Branham stated that the cloud formed as the angels left him. The cloud appeared on February 28. By his own account, the angelic visitation happened on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the result of an event that had not yet occurred.

'''4. No mention until the magazine.''' Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his angelic visitation until after someone showed him the ''Life Magazine'' photograph. If he had been present at the cloud's formation — or even aware of its significance — this silence is inexplicable.

'''5. The magazine's location.''' Branham claimed the magazine article was describing the same location where he was hunting. It was not.

'''6. The face in the cloud.''' Message believers have claimed the photograph shows a face. Dr. McDonald examined the original prints and found no such features. When he asked Pearry Green for copies of the prints that supposedly showed them, none were ever provided.

'''7. Which direction was the face looking?''' If the cloud bore the face of Christ, the photograph shows it oriented toward Las Vegas — not toward Branham's location.

Some message ministers have attempted to resolve the timing problem by claiming Branham said privately that the angels had been waiting a week before he arrived. This doesn't hold up. The statement appears nowhere in Branham's recorded sermons and cannot be verified. More critically, it directly contradicts Branham's own public account — that the cloud formed when the angels ''left'', not when they arrived. A private, unrecorded explanation that contradicts the public record should carry very little weight.
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== Key Documents ==
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/63+02+28+Cloud+Launch+Record.jpg Declassified 1963 02 28 Thor launch record]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/63+02+28+Declassified+AF+doc+re+Pitch+Pine.pdf Declassified 1963 02 28 Pitch Pine launch record]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/80+06+05+U+of+A+Cloud+Letter+.jpg University of Arizona letter of June 5, 1980]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/95+01+26+AF+re+cloud+1.jpg 1995 01 26 Air Force letter - page 1] and [https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/95+01+26+AF+re+cloud+2.jpg page 2]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/96+08+23+Meinel+letter+re+cloud.jpg 1996 08 23 letter from Mrs. Meinel]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/96+09+10+MacDonald.jpg 1996 09 10 letter from Mrs. MacDonald]
=Video Script=

At dusk on February 28, 1963, a cloud appeared in the skies above Flagstaff, Arizona and remained sunlit for 28 minutes after sunset. It was highlighted in the May 1963 edition of Life Magazine. William Branham explained that the cloud was part of the fulfillment of a vision that he had in December 1962.

IT.IS.THE.RISING.OF.THE.SUN_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-12 SUNDAY_ 65-0418M
:''Later, the Angels appeared as was prophesied. And at the same time, a great cluster of Light left where I was standing, and moved thirty miles high in the air, and around the circle, like the wings of the Angels, and drawed into the skies a shape of a pyramid in the same constellation of Angels that appeared.

:''Science took the picture, all the way from Mexico, as it moved from northern Arizona, where the Holy Spirit said I would be standing, "forty miles northeast of Tucson." And it went into the air, and Life magazine packed the pictures,

William Branham said that the angels appeared to him while he was standing in northern Arizona, and that when they left him they created a cloud that was pictured in the Life Magazine.

There are a few problems with this.

First, forty miles northeast of Tucson is not northern Arizona. Go get a map and measure it for yourself.
The southern tip of the cloud was just north of Flagstaff when the photo was taken. Flagstaff is in northern Arizona, and Tucson is in Southern Arizona.

Second, the cloud that appeared in Life Magazine was photographed one week before William Branham went hunting. William Branham’s daughter Rebecca Smith confirmed this in an article she wrote called “Return to Sunset”, which was published in the “Only Believe” magazine.

Finally, William Branham was hunting in the morning, and the cloud appeared in the evening.

So if the cloud was not caused by angels leaving Brother Branham, as he claimed during this sermon, caused it to appear?

In the Life Magazine article, Dr. James McDonald stated that he was not aware of any rocket explosions that day.
However, he later wrote a supplemental report where he discusses the explosion of a THOR rocket that had been launched from Vandenburg Airforce base in California earlier that day.

So we looked at the story of the rocket to try to see how likely it was that this explosion caused the cloud and here's what we found.

On February 28, 1963, a Thrust assisted Thor Agenda D rocket was launched from Vandenberg air force base in California. The rocket was carrying a military spy satellite.

The rocket malfunctioned and was intentionally destroyed at 1:52 in the afternoon at an estimated height of 44 kilometers.

The height of the cloud that appeared over Flagstaff later that same day was estimated to be about 43 kilometers miles high. Is this just a random coincidence?

In order to travel the required distance from California to Arizona, the cloud would have to be travelling at 135 miles per hour that afternoon. But Dr. James McDonald wrote that the wind speed recorded by scientists was, "tantalizingly close" to the 135 mile an hour wind speed required to carry the cloud from Vandenberg to Flagstaff.

The prevailing winds in California blow from west to east. It is also not unusual for Jetstream winds to vary in speed as you go from north to south. Windspeeds on March 1st, 1963 at an altitude of 43 kilometers were 90 miles an hour at White Sands, New Mexico and 125 miles per hour at Point Mugu, California.

Winds and atmospheric conditions are notoriously unpredictable. However, rocket trails from launches at Vandenberg air force base are regularly seen in Arizona… and even as far east as Oklahoma City.

On March 27, 2012, NASA launched 5 suborbital sounding rockets which released a chemical tracer that created milky white clouds 60 miles above the earth. They did this to learn about wind-speeds in the Mesosphere. The pictures that they took reveal circular clouds similar to the February 28, 1963 cloud.

Someone imposed the picture of Jesus from Hoffman’s painting “Christ at 33” into the photo of the 1963 cloud. The painting first had to be reversed to do this. If you are not a message believer, you are likely offended by this picture.

Still, you can take the same picture from Hoffman’s painting and impose it on the clouds from March 2012, without reversing it.
If you are a message believer, you are likely offended by this picture.

But, whether you are looking at the 1963 cloud or the 2012 cloud, you have to manipulate the image to make the picture fit.

Questions have been raised as to why the cloud was not seen between Vandenberg and Flagstaff. However, noctilucent clouds are very thin and are only visible at dawn or dusk. They cannot be seen until the sky starts to darken overhead as it does at sunset. That is why the Cloud “appeared” over Flagstaff in the evening and was not seen between California and Flagstff.

Based on all of the facts available, it is not only plausible but highly likely that the cloud over Flagstaff was formed by the high altitude destruction of the Thor rocket over Vandenberg Air force base.

However, our examination of the cloud is not over. We will next look at whether the cloud could be in any way related to the events which occurred at Rattlesnake Mesa.

=Evidence from the Branham Family=
{{Cloud Only Believe}}

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[[Category:Prophecies]]
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The Cause of the Cloud

2026-06-17T15:36:52Z

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<div style="border-bottom:2px #B87333 solid; text-align:lrft; padding:1px; margin:1px;"><font color='#800000' size='+1'>'''The Cloud (Part 2) - What Caused The Cloud?'''.</font> </div>
<youtube>http://youtu.be/ne_eJ9osvnc</youtube>
[[Image:Cloud-Large.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Page 112 of the May 1963 edition of Life Magazine]]

= The Arizona Cloud of February 28, 1963 =
At around sunset on February 28, 1963, an unusual cloud appeared in the vicinity of Flagstaff, Arizona and remained sunlit for 28 minutes after sunset. It attracted significant scientific attention, appearing in the [[Life Magazine May1963 (Page 112)|May 1963 edition of Life Magazine]], ''Science Magazine'' (April 19, 1963), ''Weatherwise Magazine'' (June 1963), and an independent scientific report issued May 31, 1963.

Dr. James E. McDonald of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona initially estimated the cloud's altitude at approximately 35 kilometers, later revising that figure to approximately 43 kilometers (141,000 feet). Despite his investigation, no conclusive public explanation was offered at the time.
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== What Does the Cloud Mean? ==
Followers of William Branham's message view the cloud as supernatural — the fulfillment of a December 1962 vision in which Branham foresaw seven angels meeting him outside Tucson, Arizona (see [[Prophecy of the Cloud]]).. They connect it to his subsequent opening of the Seven Seals and regard it as divine confirmation of his prophetic ministry.

Critics take a different view entirely. They argue the cloud has a straightforward natural explanation: it was the debris from a Thor rocket intentionally destroyed over Vandenberg Air Force Base earlier that same day. More significantly, critics argue that Branham's own testimony about being present at the cloud's formation is demonstrably false — a story that emerged only after he saw the ''Life Magazine'' photograph, and that directly contradicts verifiable facts about the cloud's location and timing.
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== The Scientific Explanation ==
On February 28, 1963, a thrust-assisted Thor rocket was launched from pad 75-3-5 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying a Keyhole 4 military surveillance satellite.<ref name=":0">http://www.astronautix.com/thisday/febary28.htm</ref> The rocket veered off course and was intentionally destroyed<ref name=":1">http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/lvs/tatgenad.htm</ref> at an altitude of 44 kilometers (144,000 feet) at 1:52 p.m.<ref name=":2">McDonald, Dr. James E, Cloud-Ring in the Upper Stratosphere, ''Weatherwise'', June 1963, Page 100</ref>

Several lines of evidence connect the rocket to the cloud:

# '''Same day.''' The rocket was destroyed on the same day the cloud appeared.
# '''Same altitude.''' The rocket was destroyed at 44 kilometers; the cloud was independently estimated at 43 kilometers — a near-exact match.
# '''Consistent wind speeds.''' No wind speed data was recorded at Vandenberg on that specific day, but Dr. McDonald noted that wind speeds measured at comparable altitudes at other times were "tantalizingly close" to what would have been required to carry debris from Vandenberg to Flagstaff. Since wind speeds vary by location and altitude, these measurements are consistent with a transport scenario, not proof against one.
# '''Military confirmation.''' When launch records were later declassified, the United States Air Force released documentation confirming that the cloud resulted from a military rocket operation.<ref>Jackson, Jeff G., 30th Space Wing History, Department of the Air Force, January 26, 1995, Vandenburg AFB, California</ref>
[[Image:NasaMakesACloud.jpg|thumb|370px|In March 2012 NASA made some clouds in the morning sky with a shape and height similar to the February 1963 cloud.]]
Dr. McDonald initially noted that clouds do not normally form at mesospheric altitudes — but subsequent research demonstrated that visible exhaust clouds from rocket launches can indeed reach into the mesosphere.<ref>http://www.spokenwordchurch.com/themessageresourcelibrary/Articles/Cloud%20Article%20-%20Dr%20McDonalds%20Cloud%20Investigation%20Supplement%201963.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/rktr1j.htm</ref> NASA has since created similar high-altitude clouds in chemical experiments, and some closely resemble the shape photographed on February 28 — appearing without any visible exhaust trail back to the launch site.<ref>http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/03/pictures/120327-nasa-rockets-clouds-wallops-jet-stream-edge-space-science/#/nasa-rocket-launch-strange-clouds-blue_50490_600x450.jpg</ref>

Today, rocket launches from Vandenberg are routinely documented on video. Depending on atmospheric conditions, they can be seen from Tucson and beyond, leaving mesospheric clouds that remain illuminated well after sunset.<ref>http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=SGBuQL-FvGI</ref><ref>http://spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/cosmic/launch.html and http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/rktr1j.htm</ref> This kind of direct visual evidence was simply unavailable in 1963.

Scientists also linked similar clouds appearing later in 1963 to rocket launches:<blockquote>''A bright noctilucent cloud was observed and photographed northwest of Tucson on 15 June 1963. Results of computations indicate that the cloud was at a height of 71 kilometers. The cloud appears to have resulted from the launching of a Scout space vehicle.''<ref>[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/141/3586/1176.abstract Science Magazine, September 1963: Vol. 141, no. 3586, pp. 1176-1178, DOI: 10.1126/science.141.3586.1176, ''Low-Latitude Noctilucent Cloud of 15 June 1963'', Aden B. Meinel1, Barbara Middlehurst, Ewen Whitaker]</ref></blockquote><blockquote>''Measurement of the filamentary noctilucent cloud of 2 November 1963 yields a height of 56 km. Study of the motion and orientation of the cloud confirms the hypothesis that these unusual clouds appearing in the southwestern states are produced by the launching of rocket vehicles from the Pacific Missile Range.''<ref>[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/143/3601/38.abstract Science Magazine, January 1964: Vol. 143, no. 3601, pp. 38-39, DOI:0.1126/science.143.3601.38, Low-Latitude Noctilucent Cloud of 2 November 1963, Aden B. Meinel, Carolyn P. Meinel]</ref></blockquote>

=== Why Didn't Dr. McDonald Publish a Final Report? ===
Dr. McDonald was senior physicist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and professor of meteorology at the University of Arizona. He was also well known for his serious investigation of UFO reports — which makes him an unlikely candidate to shelve a genuinely unexplained phenomenon simply out of disinterest. The most natural explanation for his failure to publish a final report is that he arrived at a sufficient explanation — the rocket — and didn't consider that conclusion publishable as a scientific finding. A researcher who made his reputation pursuing phenomena that defied conventional science would not have quietly dropped the subject if it remained genuinely mysterious.
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== Dr. McDonald's Own Assessment ==
[[File:19670405 Mysterious Cloud Formation Vanishes Under Examination.jpg|right|250px]]
In April 1967, Dr. McDonald wrote a letter to ''The Arizona Republic'' that leaves no ambiguity about his conclusions:
----''THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC — Wednesday, April 5, 1967''

'''Mysterious Cloud Formation Vanishes Under Examination'''

Editor, The Arizona Republic:

The March 26 issue of your Sunday supplement, ''Arizona'', carried an article by Reporter Dave Davies, entitled "The Cloud," concerning a very unusual stratospheric cloud formation that appeared over Flagstaff on Feb. 28, 1963.

My investigations of that cloud are quoted in part, but a number of aspects of my findings were omitted or overlooked, so that the supernatural and religious construction that has been put on that event was improperly supported.

I am quoted as "frankly skeptical," as if to suggest that I am half-convinced, half-unconvinced by the occult interpretation. I am, in fact, wholly unconvinced and regard the entire business as quite distressing.

IT IS NOT CORRECT that the cloud "swept northward across Arizona." It moved in from almost due west. If Mr. Sothman saw anything which he thought to be a "strange circular-shaped cloud rise into the air" over Branham's head, he is clearly talking about some other cloud than that of Feb. 28 over Flagstaff.

Sothman is quoted as asserting that "it was kind of small at first, but the higher it rose the bigger it became." The observations of scores of reliable witnesses disinclined to pseudo-religious interpretations attest to the fact that the Flagstaff cloud appeared and disappeared without significant overall size or shape change.

Rev. Pearry Green, cited in the article, asserted to me (in a phone conversation in which I pointed out many discrepancies in the occult interpretation he and others seek to place on this event) that the "seven angels," after speaking to Rev. Branham, flew up into the sky and assumed the form of this cloud which, he claims, outlined the face of Christ to Branham.

AS A MATTER of fact, the photograph which accompanied the recent article as alleged documentation of this angelic revelation constitutes a projection entirely different from that which an observer would have seen in Branham's reported location in the Sunset Mountain area.

From the latter area, as also from Tucson where I myself saw it, the cloud bore absolutely no resemblance to any face. Rev. Mr. Green asserts that "facial features" can be seen in the inside of the cloud. When I told him no such features are detectable on the original prints, and when I asked for sample copies of the prints which he claimed showed such features, I never received any copies to examine.

And the amusing matter of the satellite cloud, west of Flagstaff, which shows on numerous photos taken from eastern Arizona and New Mexico, but which Branham's group did not know about until I confronted Green with it, seems to go a long way towards exposing the irrationality of the religious interpretations.

DAVIES OMITTED all mention of data I gave him on the detonation of a rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base at almost precisely the elevation of that cloud, about four hours earlier that day. Although there do indeed remain difficulties in explaining that cloud, supernaturalism ought not be even a last resort.

Let's keep the Middle Ages back where they belong.

''JAMES E. MCDONALD, Professor, UofA, Institute of Atmospheric Physics''
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== Why Wasn't the Cloud Visible Before Sunset? ==
The cloud sat at approximately 43 kilometers altitude — well into the mesosphere. At that height, it remained illuminated by direct sunlight even after the sun dropped below the horizon for ground observers. This is exactly the same optical geometry that makes noctilucent clouds visible at twilight: the lower atmosphere falls into shadow first, while objects at very high altitude continue to catch oblique sunlight for some time afterward. The 28-minute post-sunset illumination period is entirely consistent with a mesospheric cloud and requires no supernatural explanation.

This also accounts for why the cloud wasn't noticed earlier. High-altitude clouds of this type are too faint to be seen against a bright daytime sky. They become visible only once the background sky darkens enough at dusk. A cloud present at 43 kilometers since 1:52 p.m. could easily have gone unobserved until twilight.
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== The Second Cloud ==
[[Image:April 1963 Science Magazine page 1.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 292]]
[[Image:63 04 Science Vol 140 Page 2.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 293]]
[[Image:63 04 Science Vol 140 Page 3.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 294]]
The April 1963 ''Science Magazine'' article documented a second cloud visible in photographs taken from eastern Arizona and New Mexico, appearing to the northwest of the main cloud. Dr. McDonald raised this himself in his 1967 letter, noting that Branham's group was unaware of it until he confronted Pearry Green with the photographic evidence.

This poses a direct problem for the supernatural interpretation. If the main cloud formed from angels ascending after their meeting with Branham, what produced the second cloud? A companion cloud is exactly what one would expect from a rocket debris field dispersed across diverging high-altitude wind currents. It fits no version of the angelic account.
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=Responding to Bill Rostron's Pseudoscience=
<blockquote>''"When it's all said and done you'll either have to say one or two things — I don't know what that is, it's a mystery — and brother Bill will say enough to that the world will have to admit we don't have an answer. But the Bride has an answer."'' — Pastor Luke Gibson, introducing Bill Rostron's series</blockquote>
== Five Hours in Defense of a Story Branham Never Told ==
Bill Rostron is exactly the kind of person Message believers need making arguments on their behalf. He spent 46 years in the nuclear power industry doing quality assurance and root cause analysis. He knows how to build a chain of evidence. He takes his work seriously. And in his nearly six-hour series ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'' (March 2020), recorded at the Tabernacle of the Lord in Townville, South Carolina, he applies genuine technical skill to the question of whether a Thor rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base could have produced the famous cloud over Flagstaff on February 28, 1963.

The result is a presentation that is methodologically serious in parts, fatally flawed in others, and — most importantly — never once asks the question that actually matters.
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== What Rostron Claims, and What He Admits He Can't Prove ==
Start with what Rostron himself says at the close of his series:<blockquote>''"All of the things we've said today doesn't prove that God did it, but it sure does prove that man didn't do it."''</blockquote>That's an honest statement. Credit where it's due. Rostron is not claiming to have scientifically proven a supernatural event. He's claiming to have eliminated the rocket as a natural cause.

But by the end of the evening, Pastor Gibson is telling the congregation that they don't need an answer — they already have one. The crowd is singing. The cloud has become proof of Revelation 10:1–7 and divine confirmation of William Branham's ministry. The gap between "man didn't do it" and "God did it" has been closed by emotional momentum, not logic.

This is the first and most important error of the entire presentation. Ruling out one natural explanation does not establish supernatural causation. That logical gap is not a technicality — it is the entire structure of the argument. Rostron builds a case against the rocket, and the congregation quietly converts his inconclusive findings into proof of the miraculous. No one in the room challenges this move. It should be challenged.
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== The Self-Defeating Moisture Argument ==
Rostron spends a significant portion of Video 1 and Video 2 establishing a genuine point of atmospheric physics: natural moisture gets "wrung out" of the air as altitude increases, and by the time you reach the stratosphere and mesosphere, the water vapor content is so low — he puts it at about five parts per million — that cloud formation is essentially impossible under normal conditions.

He's right about this. Natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers. This is not disputed.

But Rostron then uses this fact to argue against the rocket hypothesis. Here's the problem: the rocket hypothesis does not require natural moisture. The entire premise of the rocket explanation is that the Thor, when destroyed at 44 kilometers, ''introduced'' water and combustion products into an environment that would not otherwise contain them. That's precisely why the cloud appeared where natural clouds don't.

Rostron's atmospheric moisture argument doesn't undermine the rocket hypothesis. It actually explains why the rocket hypothesis is ''necessary'' — because something had to put water up there. His own analysis establishes that the cloud required an external source of water, then pivots to arguing the rocket couldn't have been that source. But he never actually closes the loop on the water source question. He's eliminated natural formation and claimed to eliminate the rocket. What he hasn't done is identify where a non-supernatural source of water would come from. The argument proves too much: if no natural process could produce the cloud and the rocket couldn't either, he needs a third candidate. "God did it" is not a third candidate in a root cause analysis — it's an admission that the analysis is over.
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== The Mass Calculation: A Critical Omission ==
This is where Rostron's engineering rigour breaks down most clearly.

His key quantitative argument is this: he estimates the cloud required approximately 2.2 million pounds (about 1 million kilograms) of water to form. He then points to the Castor-1 solid rocket boosters attached to the Thor and notes they contained roughly 12,000 pounds of solid propellant each. Three boosters, therefore about 34,000–36,000 pounds total. That's vastly less than 2.2 million pounds of water. Ergo, the rocket couldn't have done it.

The problem is that Rostron has analysed the wrong part of the rocket.

The Thrust Augmented Thor that was destroyed on February 28, 1963 was a liquid-fueled missile. Its main engine burned RP-1 kerosene with liquid oxygen — not solid propellant. The Castor-1 solid boosters were strapped-on assist motors that burned for approximately 37–40 seconds during the initial ascent, reaching around 10–15 kilometers altitude, after which they were jettisoned. By the time the range safety officer destroyed the vehicle at 44 kilometers, those solid boosters had been gone for over two minutes.

The main Thor engine — the liquid-fueled engine still burning when the rocket was destroyed — is where the water was coming from. RP-1 kerosene combusted with liquid oxygen produces two products: carbon dioxide and water. The stoichiometry is straightforward. For every kilogram of RP-1 burned, approximately 1.3–1.4 kilograms of water is produced. The Thor carried roughly 22,000 kilograms of RP-1 and 34,000 kilograms of liquid oxygen. Even if only a fraction of those propellants remained unburned at time of destruction and were subsequently dispersed and burned by the explosion, the potential water output dwarfs the solid booster contribution that Rostron calculated.

Rostron never calculates this. In a presentation framed as "root cause analysis" and "going back to first principles," he simply ignores the primary propellant system of the primary stage. A nuclear quality assurance process would flag this immediately: you haven't analysed the dominant source term.

He does show a striking Space Shuttle exhaust cloud (STS-131) as a visual comparison, but the comparison is misleading. That photograph was taken five minutes after launch, during active burning. The 1963 cloud appeared three and a half hours after the rocket's destruction. Of course they look different. Arguing that rocket exhaust in active flight looks unlike a dispersed, wind-shaped cloud hours later proves nothing about whether the rocket caused the cloud.
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== The Anachronistic Wind Data ==
One of the more striking methodological errors in the series is Rostron's use of earth.nullschool.net — a real-time global wind visualization website — to argue about what the winds were doing at high altitude on February 28, 1963.

He pulls up current wind patterns above Arizona, shows that the winds at 10 millibar altitude (roughly 100,000 feet, or about 30 km) are around 65 km/h in the analysis session's present, and argues these speeds are insufficient to carry rocket debris from Vandenberg to Flagstaff in 3.5 hours. He acknowledges he's watched the website "over the years" and noted seasonal patterns, but then uses a single day's reading as if it characterises the wind field on a specific day six decades earlier.

Wind patterns at stratospheric and mesospheric altitudes are highly variable. They change with season, with quasi-biennial oscillation cycles, with individual synoptic events. Knowing what the winds are doing today tells you nothing reliable about what they were doing on a specific day in February 1963. Dr. McDonald, who actually collected observational data at the time, described the measured wind speeds as "tantalizingly close" to what would be required. Rostron cites this but dismisses it on the grounds that McDonald "couldn't figure out how it would work" — which is not the same as saying it couldn't have worked. McDonald was being scientifically conservative. Rostron is using present-day wind data to argue about past atmospheric conditions. These are not equivalent moves.
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== A Confusion About Wind Direction ==
Rostron also argues that the wind direction was wrong for the rocket hypothesis. He says the cloud was observed to be "moving towards the southeast," and from this calculates a required wind origin of about 310 degrees (northwest). He then claims that a northwest wind at Vandenberg would carry debris toward Baja California, not Flagstaff.

But Vandenberg Air Force Base is located to the ''west-northwest'' of Flagstaff. Flagstaff is roughly to the ''east-northeast'' of Vandenberg. A wind blowing from the northwest — pushing things toward the southeast — would carry material from Vandenberg's vicinity ''toward'' the direction of Arizona. Rostron's claim that such a wind would instead send debris "into Mexico in Baja California" appears to reflect a geographical confusion about the relative positions of these locations. Rather than disproving the rocket hypothesis, his own wind direction data may be consistent with it.
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== The Question Rostron Never Asks ==
Here is what is missing from five hours and fifty-four minutes of technically detailed presentation: any engagement with William Branham's own testimony about the cloud.

Rostron establishes (or attempts to establish) that the cloud was not produced by a Thor rocket. He never mentions that:

'''Branham claimed to be standing directly underneath the cloud when it appeared.''' He wasn't. The cloud appeared over Flagstaff. By Branham's own account of his activities on that trip, he was approximately 200 miles away near Sunset Mountain and Rattlesnake Mesa.

'''Branham stated that the cloud formed when the angels left him.''' The cloud appeared on February 28. Branham's own sermons describe the angelic visitation as occurring on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the departure of angels from a meeting that had not yet taken place.

'''Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his ministry until he was shown the photograph in Life Magazine''' — months after the cloud appeared. If he had witnessed the angels ascending into the sky and forming that cloud, that silence is inexplicable.

'''A second cloud is visible in the scientific photographs.''' Documented in ''Science Magazine'' (April 1963), this companion cloud appears to the northwest of the main cloud, consistent with debris dispersal from a single source. No version of the angelic account accounts for a second cloud.

These are not peripheral criticisms. They are facts drawn from Branham's own recordings and from the eyewitness documentation available at the time. Whether the cloud was caused by a rocket, a natural phenomenon, or something else entirely, Branham's own account of his involvement with it cannot be reconciled with the documented facts. Rostron's entire analysis — even if every calculation were correct — only defends the possibility that the cloud was unusual. It does nothing to explain why Branham's story about the cloud changed over time, why he placed himself at its formation when he demonstrably wasn't there, or why he first learned of the cloud from a magazine.
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== What the Presentation Actually Establishes ==
To be precise about what Rostron's analysis shows and doesn't show:

He correctly demonstrates that natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers through ordinary atmospheric processes. This is real atmospheric science and he explains it clearly.

He correctly notes that the cloud was unusual and that McDonald found it difficult to explain within the data available to him in 1963.

He raises legitimate questions about whether the Castor-1 solid boosters alone could account for the cloud's size. This is a fair point, though he reaches it by ignoring the primary propulsion system.

What his analysis does not establish is that the rocket could not have caused the cloud. His wind speed calculation uses anachronistic data. His mass calculation omits the main engine. His moisture argument supports rather than undermines the rocket hypothesis. And his conclusion — that supernatural causation is therefore implied — does not follow from his premises even if those premises were correct.
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== A Word for Those Who Are Watching ==
If you've sat through this series, or heard someone cite it, or had it shared with you as the definitive answer to critics of the Message, you deserve to know what it actually proved and what it didn't.

Rostron is a capable engineer who spent months on this project. He clearly cares deeply about his faith, and he is trying to be rigorous. That's admirable. But rigour has to go all the way through — including to the question of whether the person whose testimony you're defending actually told a consistent, verifiable story. The scientific question of what caused the cloud is genuinely interesting. But the problem with Branham's cloud story was never primarily scientific. It was always about why a man who claimed to stand under a cloud was 200 miles away when it appeared, why the cloud preceded his vision's fulfillment by eight days, and why he never mentioned any of this until a magazine brought the photograph to his attention.

Those questions don't get answered by atmospheric physics. They get answered — or not answered — by Branham's own words.

The honest thing to do is listen to those words again, carefully, and ask whether the story holds together. Not because critics want it to fail, but because the truth matters. A faith built on a story that doesn't hold up isn't safer for not being examined. It's just more fragile.

== Problems with the Spiritual Interpretation ==
The chronological and geographical facts present serious, unresolved difficulties for those who believe the cloud was a supernatural sign connected to Branham's angelic visitation.

'''1. Location mismatch.''' The cloud appeared near Flagstaff. Branham's reported angelic visitation occurred at Rattlesnake Mesa near Sunset Mountain — roughly 200 miles away. If the cloud was meant to mark the event, it appeared in the wrong place.

'''2. Branham claimed to be standing under it.''' He said this explicitly and repeatedly. He was approximately 200 miles from where the cloud actually appeared.

'''3. The timing is backwards.''' Branham stated that the cloud formed as the angels left him. The cloud appeared on February 28. By his own account, the angelic visitation happened on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the result of an event that had not yet occurred.

'''4. No mention until the magazine.''' Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his angelic visitation until after someone showed him the ''Life Magazine'' photograph. If he had been present at the cloud's formation — or even aware of its significance — this silence is inexplicable.

'''5. The magazine's location.''' Branham claimed the magazine article was describing the same location where he was hunting. It was not.

'''6. The face in the cloud.''' Message believers have claimed the photograph shows a face. Dr. McDonald examined the original prints and found no such features. When he asked Pearry Green for copies of the prints that supposedly showed them, none were ever provided.

'''7. Which direction was the face looking?''' If the cloud bore the face of Christ, the photograph shows it oriented toward Las Vegas — not toward Branham's location.

Some message ministers have attempted to resolve the timing problem by claiming Branham said privately that the angels had been waiting a week before he arrived. This doesn't hold up. The statement appears nowhere in Branham's recorded sermons and cannot be verified. More critically, it directly contradicts Branham's own public account — that the cloud formed when the angels ''left'', not when they arrived. A private, unrecorded explanation that contradicts the public record should carry very little weight.
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== Key Documents ==
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/63+02+28+Cloud+Launch+Record.jpg Declassified 1963 02 28 Thor launch record]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/63+02+28+Declassified+AF+doc+re+Pitch+Pine.pdf Declassified 1963 02 28 Pitch Pine launch record]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/80+06+05+U+of+A+Cloud+Letter+.jpg University of Arizona letter of June 5, 1980]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/95+01+26+AF+re+cloud+1.jpg 1995 01 26 Air Force letter - page 1] and [https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/95+01+26+AF+re+cloud+2.jpg page 2]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/96+08+23+Meinel+letter+re+cloud.jpg 1996 08 23 letter from Mrs. Meinel]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/96+09+10+MacDonald.jpg 1996 09 10 letter from Mrs. MacDonald]
=Video Script=

At dusk on February 28, 1963, a cloud appeared in the skies above Flagstaff, Arizona and remained sunlit for 28 minutes after sunset. It was highlighted in the May 1963 edition of Life Magazine. William Branham explained that the cloud was part of the fulfillment of a vision that he had in December 1962.

IT.IS.THE.RISING.OF.THE.SUN_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-12 SUNDAY_ 65-0418M
:''Later, the Angels appeared as was prophesied. And at the same time, a great cluster of Light left where I was standing, and moved thirty miles high in the air, and around the circle, like the wings of the Angels, and drawed into the skies a shape of a pyramid in the same constellation of Angels that appeared.

:''Science took the picture, all the way from Mexico, as it moved from northern Arizona, where the Holy Spirit said I would be standing, "forty miles northeast of Tucson." And it went into the air, and Life magazine packed the pictures,

William Branham said that the angels appeared to him while he was standing in northern Arizona, and that when they left him they created a cloud that was pictured in the Life Magazine.

There are a few problems with this.

First, forty miles northeast of Tucson is not northern Arizona. Go get a map and measure it for yourself.
The southern tip of the cloud was just north of Flagstaff when the photo was taken. Flagstaff is in northern Arizona, and Tucson is in Southern Arizona.

Second, the cloud that appeared in Life Magazine was photographed one week before William Branham went hunting. William Branham’s daughter Rebecca Smith confirmed this in an article she wrote called “Return to Sunset”, which was published in the “Only Believe” magazine.

Finally, William Branham was hunting in the morning, and the cloud appeared in the evening.

So if the cloud was not caused by angels leaving Brother Branham, as he claimed during this sermon, caused it to appear?

In the Life Magazine article, Dr. James McDonald stated that he was not aware of any rocket explosions that day.
However, he later wrote a supplemental report where he discusses the explosion of a THOR rocket that had been launched from Vandenburg Airforce base in California earlier that day.

So we looked at the story of the rocket to try to see how likely it was that this explosion caused the cloud and here's what we found.

On February 28, 1963, a Thrust assisted Thor Agenda D rocket was launched from Vandenberg air force base in California. The rocket was carrying a military spy satellite.

The rocket malfunctioned and was intentionally destroyed at 1:52 in the afternoon at an estimated height of 44 kilometers.

The height of the cloud that appeared over Flagstaff later that same day was estimated to be about 43 kilometers miles high. Is this just a random coincidence?

In order to travel the required distance from California to Arizona, the cloud would have to be travelling at 135 miles per hour that afternoon. But Dr. James McDonald wrote that the wind speed recorded by scientists was, "tantalizingly close" to the 135 mile an hour wind speed required to carry the cloud from Vandenberg to Flagstaff.

The prevailing winds in California blow from west to east. It is also not unusual for Jetstream winds to vary in speed as you go from north to south. Windspeeds on March 1st, 1963 at an altitude of 43 kilometers were 90 miles an hour at White Sands, New Mexico and 125 miles per hour at Point Mugu, California.

Winds and atmospheric conditions are notoriously unpredictable. However, rocket trails from launches at Vandenberg air force base are regularly seen in Arizona… and even as far east as Oklahoma City.

On March 27, 2012, NASA launched 5 suborbital sounding rockets which released a chemical tracer that created milky white clouds 60 miles above the earth. They did this to learn about wind-speeds in the Mesosphere. The pictures that they took reveal circular clouds similar to the February 28, 1963 cloud.

Someone imposed the picture of Jesus from Hoffman’s painting “Christ at 33” into the photo of the 1963 cloud. The painting first had to be reversed to do this. If you are not a message believer, you are likely offended by this picture.

Still, you can take the same picture from Hoffman’s painting and impose it on the clouds from March 2012, without reversing it.
If you are a message believer, you are likely offended by this picture.

But, whether you are looking at the 1963 cloud or the 2012 cloud, you have to manipulate the image to make the picture fit.

Questions have been raised as to why the cloud was not seen between Vandenberg and Flagstaff. However, noctilucent clouds are very thin and are only visible at dawn or dusk. They cannot be seen until the sky starts to darken overhead as it does at sunset. That is why the Cloud “appeared” over Flagstaff in the evening and was not seen between California and Flagstff.

Based on all of the facts available, it is not only plausible but highly likely that the cloud over Flagstaff was formed by the high altitude destruction of the Thor rocket over Vandenberg Air force base.

However, our examination of the cloud is not over. We will next look at whether the cloud could be in any way related to the events which occurred at Rattlesnake Mesa.

=Evidence from the Branham Family=
{{Cloud Only Believe}}

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[[Category:Prophecies]]
[[Category:Visions]]
[[Category:Honesty and Credibility]]
[[Category:Supernatural vindication]]

The Cause of the Cloud

2026-06-17T15:35:09Z

Admin: /* Responding to Bill Rostron's Pseudoscience */

{{Top of Page}}
{{Template:Cloud}}
<div style="border-bottom:2px #B87333 solid; text-align:lrft; padding:1px; margin:1px;"><font color='#800000' size='+1'>'''The Cloud (Part 2) - What Caused The Cloud?'''.</font> </div>
<youtube>http://youtu.be/ne_eJ9osvnc</youtube>
[[Image:Cloud-Large.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Page 112 of the May 1963 edition of Life Magazine]]

= The Arizona Cloud of February 28, 1963 =
At around sunset on February 28, 1963, an unusual cloud appeared in the vicinity of Flagstaff, Arizona and remained sunlit for 28 minutes after sunset. It attracted significant scientific attention, appearing in the [[Life Magazine May1963 (Page 112)|May 1963 edition of Life Magazine]], ''Science Magazine'' (April 19, 1963), ''Weatherwise Magazine'' (June 1963), and an independent scientific report issued May 31, 1963.

Dr. James E. McDonald of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona initially estimated the cloud's altitude at approximately 35 kilometers, later revising that figure to approximately 43 kilometers (141,000 feet). Despite his investigation, no conclusive public explanation was offered at the time.
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== What Does the Cloud Mean? ==
Followers of William Branham's message view the cloud as supernatural — the fulfillment of a December 1962 vision in which Branham foresaw seven angels meeting him outside Tucson, Arizona (see [[Prophecy of the Cloud]]).. They connect it to his subsequent opening of the Seven Seals and regard it as divine confirmation of his prophetic ministry.

Critics take a different view entirely. They argue the cloud has a straightforward natural explanation: it was the debris from a Thor rocket intentionally destroyed over Vandenberg Air Force Base earlier that same day. More significantly, critics argue that Branham's own testimony about being present at the cloud's formation is demonstrably false — a story that emerged only after he saw the ''Life Magazine'' photograph, and that directly contradicts verifiable facts about the cloud's location and timing.
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== The Scientific Explanation ==
On February 28, 1963, a thrust-assisted Thor rocket was launched from pad 75-3-5 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying a Keyhole 4 military surveillance satellite.<ref name=":0">http://www.astronautix.com/thisday/febary28.htm</ref> The rocket veered off course and was intentionally destroyed<ref name=":1">http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/lvs/tatgenad.htm</ref> at an altitude of 44 kilometers (144,000 feet) at 1:52 p.m.<ref name=":2">McDonald, Dr. James E, Cloud-Ring in the Upper Stratosphere, ''Weatherwise'', June 1963, Page 100</ref>

Several lines of evidence connect the rocket to the cloud:

# '''Same day.''' The rocket was destroyed on the same day the cloud appeared.
# '''Same altitude.''' The rocket was destroyed at 44 kilometers; the cloud was independently estimated at 43 kilometers — a near-exact match.
# '''Consistent wind speeds.''' No wind speed data was recorded at Vandenberg on that specific day, but Dr. McDonald noted that wind speeds measured at comparable altitudes at other times were "tantalizingly close" to what would have been required to carry debris from Vandenberg to Flagstaff. Since wind speeds vary by location and altitude, these measurements are consistent with a transport scenario, not proof against one.
# '''Military confirmation.''' When launch records were later declassified, the United States Air Force released documentation confirming that the cloud resulted from a military rocket operation.<ref>Jackson, Jeff G., 30th Space Wing History, Department of the Air Force, January 26, 1995, Vandenburg AFB, California</ref>
[[Image:NasaMakesACloud.jpg|thumb|370px|In March 2012 NASA made some clouds in the morning sky with a shape and height similar to the February 1963 cloud.]]
Dr. McDonald initially noted that clouds do not normally form at mesospheric altitudes — but subsequent research demonstrated that visible exhaust clouds from rocket launches can indeed reach into the mesosphere.<ref>http://www.spokenwordchurch.com/themessageresourcelibrary/Articles/Cloud%20Article%20-%20Dr%20McDonalds%20Cloud%20Investigation%20Supplement%201963.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/rktr1j.htm</ref> NASA has since created similar high-altitude clouds in chemical experiments, and some closely resemble the shape photographed on February 28 — appearing without any visible exhaust trail back to the launch site.<ref>http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/03/pictures/120327-nasa-rockets-clouds-wallops-jet-stream-edge-space-science/#/nasa-rocket-launch-strange-clouds-blue_50490_600x450.jpg</ref>

Today, rocket launches from Vandenberg are routinely documented on video. Depending on atmospheric conditions, they can be seen from Tucson and beyond, leaving mesospheric clouds that remain illuminated well after sunset.<ref>http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=SGBuQL-FvGI</ref><ref>http://spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/cosmic/launch.html and http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/rktr1j.htm</ref> This kind of direct visual evidence was simply unavailable in 1963.

Scientists also linked similar clouds appearing later in 1963 to rocket launches:<blockquote>''A bright noctilucent cloud was observed and photographed northwest of Tucson on 15 June 1963. Results of computations indicate that the cloud was at a height of 71 kilometers. The cloud appears to have resulted from the launching of a Scout space vehicle.''<ref>[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/141/3586/1176.abstract Science Magazine, September 1963: Vol. 141, no. 3586, pp. 1176-1178, DOI: 10.1126/science.141.3586.1176, ''Low-Latitude Noctilucent Cloud of 15 June 1963'', Aden B. Meinel1, Barbara Middlehurst, Ewen Whitaker]</ref></blockquote><blockquote>''Measurement of the filamentary noctilucent cloud of 2 November 1963 yields a height of 56 km. Study of the motion and orientation of the cloud confirms the hypothesis that these unusual clouds appearing in the southwestern states are produced by the launching of rocket vehicles from the Pacific Missile Range.''<ref>[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/143/3601/38.abstract Science Magazine, January 1964: Vol. 143, no. 3601, pp. 38-39, DOI:0.1126/science.143.3601.38, Low-Latitude Noctilucent Cloud of 2 November 1963, Aden B. Meinel, Carolyn P. Meinel]</ref></blockquote>

=== Why Didn't Dr. McDonald Publish a Final Report? ===
Dr. McDonald was senior physicist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and professor of meteorology at the University of Arizona. He was also well known for his serious investigation of UFO reports — which makes him an unlikely candidate to shelve a genuinely unexplained phenomenon simply out of disinterest. The most natural explanation for his failure to publish a final report is that he arrived at a sufficient explanation — the rocket — and didn't consider that conclusion publishable as a scientific finding. A researcher who made his reputation pursuing phenomena that defied conventional science would not have quietly dropped the subject if it remained genuinely mysterious.
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== Dr. McDonald's Own Assessment ==
[[File:19670405 Mysterious Cloud Formation Vanishes Under Examination.jpg|right|250px]]
In April 1967, Dr. McDonald wrote a letter to ''The Arizona Republic'' that leaves no ambiguity about his conclusions:
----''THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC — Wednesday, April 5, 1967''

'''Mysterious Cloud Formation Vanishes Under Examination'''

Editor, The Arizona Republic:

The March 26 issue of your Sunday supplement, ''Arizona'', carried an article by Reporter Dave Davies, entitled "The Cloud," concerning a very unusual stratospheric cloud formation that appeared over Flagstaff on Feb. 28, 1963.

My investigations of that cloud are quoted in part, but a number of aspects of my findings were omitted or overlooked, so that the supernatural and religious construction that has been put on that event was improperly supported.

I am quoted as "frankly skeptical," as if to suggest that I am half-convinced, half-unconvinced by the occult interpretation. I am, in fact, wholly unconvinced and regard the entire business as quite distressing.

IT IS NOT CORRECT that the cloud "swept northward across Arizona." It moved in from almost due west. If Mr. Sothman saw anything which he thought to be a "strange circular-shaped cloud rise into the air" over Branham's head, he is clearly talking about some other cloud than that of Feb. 28 over Flagstaff.

Sothman is quoted as asserting that "it was kind of small at first, but the higher it rose the bigger it became." The observations of scores of reliable witnesses disinclined to pseudo-religious interpretations attest to the fact that the Flagstaff cloud appeared and disappeared without significant overall size or shape change.

Rev. Pearry Green, cited in the article, asserted to me (in a phone conversation in which I pointed out many discrepancies in the occult interpretation he and others seek to place on this event) that the "seven angels," after speaking to Rev. Branham, flew up into the sky and assumed the form of this cloud which, he claims, outlined the face of Christ to Branham.

AS A MATTER of fact, the photograph which accompanied the recent article as alleged documentation of this angelic revelation constitutes a projection entirely different from that which an observer would have seen in Branham's reported location in the Sunset Mountain area.

From the latter area, as also from Tucson where I myself saw it, the cloud bore absolutely no resemblance to any face. Rev. Mr. Green asserts that "facial features" can be seen in the inside of the cloud. When I told him no such features are detectable on the original prints, and when I asked for sample copies of the prints which he claimed showed such features, I never received any copies to examine.

And the amusing matter of the satellite cloud, west of Flagstaff, which shows on numerous photos taken from eastern Arizona and New Mexico, but which Branham's group did not know about until I confronted Green with it, seems to go a long way towards exposing the irrationality of the religious interpretations.

DAVIES OMITTED all mention of data I gave him on the detonation of a rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base at almost precisely the elevation of that cloud, about four hours earlier that day. Although there do indeed remain difficulties in explaining that cloud, supernaturalism ought not be even a last resort.

Let's keep the Middle Ages back where they belong.

''JAMES E. MCDONALD, Professor, UofA, Institute of Atmospheric Physics''
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== Why Wasn't the Cloud Visible Before Sunset? ==
The cloud sat at approximately 43 kilometers altitude — well into the mesosphere. At that height, it remained illuminated by direct sunlight even after the sun dropped below the horizon for ground observers. This is exactly the same optical geometry that makes noctilucent clouds visible at twilight: the lower atmosphere falls into shadow first, while objects at very high altitude continue to catch oblique sunlight for some time afterward. The 28-minute post-sunset illumination period is entirely consistent with a mesospheric cloud and requires no supernatural explanation.

This also accounts for why the cloud wasn't noticed earlier. High-altitude clouds of this type are too faint to be seen against a bright daytime sky. They become visible only once the background sky darkens enough at dusk. A cloud present at 43 kilometers since 1:52 p.m. could easily have gone unobserved until twilight.
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== The Second Cloud ==
[[Image:April 1963 Science Magazine page 1.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 292]]
[[Image:63 04 Science Vol 140 Page 2.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 293]]
[[Image:63 04 Science Vol 140 Page 3.png|thumb|250px|right|Science Magazine April 1963 page 294]]
The April 1963 ''Science Magazine'' article documented a second cloud visible in photographs taken from eastern Arizona and New Mexico, appearing to the northwest of the main cloud. Dr. McDonald raised this himself in his 1967 letter, noting that Branham's group was unaware of it until he confronted Pearry Green with the photographic evidence.

This poses a direct problem for the supernatural interpretation. If the main cloud formed from angels ascending after their meeting with Branham, what produced the second cloud? A companion cloud is exactly what one would expect from a rocket debris field dispersed across diverging high-altitude wind currents. It fits no version of the angelic account.
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=Responding to Bill Rostron's Pseudoscience=

= Five Hours in Defense of a Story Branham Never Told =
<blockquote>''"When it's all said and done you'll either have to say one or two things — I don't know what that is, it's a mystery — and brother Bill will say enough to that the world will have to admit we don't have an answer. But the Bride has an answer."'' — Pastor Luke Gibson, introducing Bill Rostron's series</blockquote>Bill Rostron is exactly the kind of person Message believers need making arguments on their behalf. He spent 46 years in the nuclear power industry doing quality assurance and root cause analysis. He knows how to build a chain of evidence. He takes his work seriously. And in his nearly six-hour series ''In Defense of the Supernatural Cloud'' (March 2020), recorded at the Tabernacle of the Lord in Townville, South Carolina, he applies genuine technical skill to the question of whether a Thor rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base could have produced the famous cloud over Flagstaff on February 28, 1963.

The result is a presentation that is methodologically serious in parts, fatally flawed in others, and — most importantly — never once asks the question that actually matters.
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== What Rostron Claims, and What He Admits He Can't Prove ==
Start with what Rostron himself says at the close of his series:<blockquote>''"All of the things we've said today doesn't prove that God did it, but it sure does prove that man didn't do it."''</blockquote>That's an honest statement. Credit where it's due. Rostron is not claiming to have scientifically proven a supernatural event. He's claiming to have eliminated the rocket as a natural cause.

But by the end of the evening, Pastor Gibson is telling the congregation that they don't need an answer — they already have one. The crowd is singing. The cloud has become proof of Revelation 10:1–7 and divine confirmation of William Branham's ministry. The gap between "man didn't do it" and "God did it" has been closed by emotional momentum, not logic.

This is the first and most important error of the entire presentation. Ruling out one natural explanation does not establish supernatural causation. That logical gap is not a technicality — it is the entire structure of the argument. Rostron builds a case against the rocket, and the congregation quietly converts his inconclusive findings into proof of the miraculous. No one in the room challenges this move. It should be challenged.
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== The Self-Defeating Moisture Argument ==
Rostron spends a significant portion of Video 1 and Video 2 establishing a genuine point of atmospheric physics: natural moisture gets "wrung out" of the air as altitude increases, and by the time you reach the stratosphere and mesosphere, the water vapor content is so low — he puts it at about five parts per million — that cloud formation is essentially impossible under normal conditions.

He's right about this. Natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers. This is not disputed.

But Rostron then uses this fact to argue against the rocket hypothesis. Here's the problem: the rocket hypothesis does not require natural moisture. The entire premise of the rocket explanation is that the Thor, when destroyed at 44 kilometers, ''introduced'' water and combustion products into an environment that would not otherwise contain them. That's precisely why the cloud appeared where natural clouds don't.

Rostron's atmospheric moisture argument doesn't undermine the rocket hypothesis. It actually explains why the rocket hypothesis is ''necessary'' — because something had to put water up there. His own analysis establishes that the cloud required an external source of water, then pivots to arguing the rocket couldn't have been that source. But he never actually closes the loop on the water source question. He's eliminated natural formation and claimed to eliminate the rocket. What he hasn't done is identify where a non-supernatural source of water would come from. The argument proves too much: if no natural process could produce the cloud and the rocket couldn't either, he needs a third candidate. "God did it" is not a third candidate in a root cause analysis — it's an admission that the analysis is over.
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== The Mass Calculation: A Critical Omission ==
This is where Rostron's engineering rigour breaks down most clearly.

His key quantitative argument is this: he estimates the cloud required approximately 2.2 million pounds (about 1 million kilograms) of water to form. He then points to the Castor-1 solid rocket boosters attached to the Thor and notes they contained roughly 12,000 pounds of solid propellant each. Three boosters, therefore about 34,000–36,000 pounds total. That's vastly less than 2.2 million pounds of water. Ergo, the rocket couldn't have done it.

The problem is that Rostron has analysed the wrong part of the rocket.

The Thrust Augmented Thor that was destroyed on February 28, 1963 was a liquid-fueled missile. Its main engine burned RP-1 kerosene with liquid oxygen — not solid propellant. The Castor-1 solid boosters were strapped-on assist motors that burned for approximately 37–40 seconds during the initial ascent, reaching around 10–15 kilometers altitude, after which they were jettisoned. By the time the range safety officer destroyed the vehicle at 44 kilometers, those solid boosters had been gone for over two minutes.

The main Thor engine — the liquid-fueled engine still burning when the rocket was destroyed — is where the water was coming from. RP-1 kerosene combusted with liquid oxygen produces two products: carbon dioxide and water. The stoichiometry is straightforward. For every kilogram of RP-1 burned, approximately 1.3–1.4 kilograms of water is produced. The Thor carried roughly 22,000 kilograms of RP-1 and 34,000 kilograms of liquid oxygen. Even if only a fraction of those propellants remained unburned at time of destruction and were subsequently dispersed and burned by the explosion, the potential water output dwarfs the solid booster contribution that Rostron calculated.

Rostron never calculates this. In a presentation framed as "root cause analysis" and "going back to first principles," he simply ignores the primary propellant system of the primary stage. A nuclear quality assurance process would flag this immediately: you haven't analysed the dominant source term.

He does show a striking Space Shuttle exhaust cloud (STS-131) as a visual comparison, but the comparison is misleading. That photograph was taken five minutes after launch, during active burning. The 1963 cloud appeared three and a half hours after the rocket's destruction. Of course they look different. Arguing that rocket exhaust in active flight looks unlike a dispersed, wind-shaped cloud hours later proves nothing about whether the rocket caused the cloud.
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== The Anachronistic Wind Data ==
One of the more striking methodological errors in the series is Rostron's use of earth.nullschool.net — a real-time global wind visualization website — to argue about what the winds were doing at high altitude on February 28, 1963.

He pulls up current wind patterns above Arizona, shows that the winds at 10 millibar altitude (roughly 100,000 feet, or about 30 km) are around 65 km/h in the analysis session's present, and argues these speeds are insufficient to carry rocket debris from Vandenberg to Flagstaff in 3.5 hours. He acknowledges he's watched the website "over the years" and noted seasonal patterns, but then uses a single day's reading as if it characterises the wind field on a specific day six decades earlier.

Wind patterns at stratospheric and mesospheric altitudes are highly variable. They change with season, with quasi-biennial oscillation cycles, with individual synoptic events. Knowing what the winds are doing today tells you nothing reliable about what they were doing on a specific day in February 1963. Dr. McDonald, who actually collected observational data at the time, described the measured wind speeds as "tantalizingly close" to what would be required. Rostron cites this but dismisses it on the grounds that McDonald "couldn't figure out how it would work" — which is not the same as saying it couldn't have worked. McDonald was being scientifically conservative. Rostron is using present-day wind data to argue about past atmospheric conditions. These are not equivalent moves.
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== A Confusion About Wind Direction ==
Rostron also argues that the wind direction was wrong for the rocket hypothesis. He says the cloud was observed to be "moving towards the southeast," and from this calculates a required wind origin of about 310 degrees (northwest). He then claims that a northwest wind at Vandenberg would carry debris toward Baja California, not Flagstaff.

But Vandenberg Air Force Base is located to the ''west-northwest'' of Flagstaff. Flagstaff is roughly to the ''east-northeast'' of Vandenberg. A wind blowing from the northwest — pushing things toward the southeast — would carry material from Vandenberg's vicinity ''toward'' the direction of Arizona. Rostron's claim that such a wind would instead send debris "into Mexico in Baja California" appears to reflect a geographical confusion about the relative positions of these locations. Rather than disproving the rocket hypothesis, his own wind direction data may be consistent with it.
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== The Question Rostron Never Asks ==
Here is what is missing from five hours and fifty-four minutes of technically detailed presentation: any engagement with William Branham's own testimony about the cloud.

Rostron establishes (or attempts to establish) that the cloud was not produced by a Thor rocket. He never mentions that:

'''Branham claimed to be standing directly underneath the cloud when it appeared.''' He wasn't. The cloud appeared over Flagstaff. By Branham's own account of his activities on that trip, he was approximately 200 miles away near Sunset Mountain and Rattlesnake Mesa.

'''Branham stated that the cloud formed when the angels left him.''' The cloud appeared on February 28. Branham's own sermons describe the angelic visitation as occurring on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the departure of angels from a meeting that had not yet taken place.

'''Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his ministry until he was shown the photograph in Life Magazine''' — months after the cloud appeared. If he had witnessed the angels ascending into the sky and forming that cloud, that silence is inexplicable.

'''A second cloud is visible in the scientific photographs.''' Documented in ''Science Magazine'' (April 1963), this companion cloud appears to the northwest of the main cloud, consistent with debris dispersal from a single source. No version of the angelic account accounts for a second cloud.

These are not peripheral criticisms. They are facts drawn from Branham's own recordings and from the eyewitness documentation available at the time. Whether the cloud was caused by a rocket, a natural phenomenon, or something else entirely, Branham's own account of his involvement with it cannot be reconciled with the documented facts. Rostron's entire analysis — even if every calculation were correct — only defends the possibility that the cloud was unusual. It does nothing to explain why Branham's story about the cloud changed over time, why he placed himself at its formation when he demonstrably wasn't there, or why he first learned of the cloud from a magazine.
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== What the Presentation Actually Establishes ==
To be precise about what Rostron's analysis shows and doesn't show:

He correctly demonstrates that natural clouds do not form at 43 kilometers through ordinary atmospheric processes. This is real atmospheric science and he explains it clearly.

He correctly notes that the cloud was unusual and that McDonald found it difficult to explain within the data available to him in 1963.

He raises legitimate questions about whether the Castor-1 solid boosters alone could account for the cloud's size. This is a fair point, though he reaches it by ignoring the primary propulsion system.

What his analysis does not establish is that the rocket could not have caused the cloud. His wind speed calculation uses anachronistic data. His mass calculation omits the main engine. His moisture argument supports rather than undermines the rocket hypothesis. And his conclusion — that supernatural causation is therefore implied — does not follow from his premises even if those premises were correct.
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== A Word for Those Who Are Watching ==
If you've sat through this series, or heard someone cite it, or had it shared with you as the definitive answer to critics of the Message, you deserve to know what it actually proved and what it didn't.

Rostron is a capable engineer who spent months on this project. He clearly cares deeply about his faith, and he is trying to be rigorous. That's admirable. But rigour has to go all the way through — including to the question of whether the person whose testimony you're defending actually told a consistent, verifiable story. The scientific question of what caused the cloud is genuinely interesting. But the problem with Branham's cloud story was never primarily scientific. It was always about why a man who claimed to stand under a cloud was 200 miles away when it appeared, why the cloud preceded his vision's fulfillment by eight days, and why he never mentioned any of this until a magazine brought the photograph to his attention.

Those questions don't get answered by atmospheric physics. They get answered — or not answered — by Branham's own words.

The honest thing to do is listen to those words again, carefully, and ask whether the story holds together. Not because critics want it to fail, but because the truth matters. A faith built on a story that doesn't hold up isn't safer for not being examined. It's just more fragile.

== Problems with the Spiritual Interpretation ==
The chronological and geographical facts present serious, unresolved difficulties for those who believe the cloud was a supernatural sign connected to Branham's angelic visitation.

'''1. Location mismatch.''' The cloud appeared near Flagstaff. Branham's reported angelic visitation occurred at Rattlesnake Mesa near Sunset Mountain — roughly 200 miles away. If the cloud was meant to mark the event, it appeared in the wrong place.

'''2. Branham claimed to be standing under it.''' He said this explicitly and repeatedly. He was approximately 200 miles from where the cloud actually appeared.

'''3. The timing is backwards.''' Branham stated that the cloud formed as the angels left him. The cloud appeared on February 28. By his own account, the angelic visitation happened on March 8 — eight days later. A cloud cannot be the result of an event that had not yet occurred.

'''4. No mention until the magazine.''' Branham said nothing about any connection between the cloud and his angelic visitation until after someone showed him the ''Life Magazine'' photograph. If he had been present at the cloud's formation — or even aware of its significance — this silence is inexplicable.

'''5. The magazine's location.''' Branham claimed the magazine article was describing the same location where he was hunting. It was not.

'''6. The face in the cloud.''' Message believers have claimed the photograph shows a face. Dr. McDonald examined the original prints and found no such features. When he asked Pearry Green for copies of the prints that supposedly showed them, none were ever provided.

'''7. Which direction was the face looking?''' If the cloud bore the face of Christ, the photograph shows it oriented toward Las Vegas — not toward Branham's location.

Some message ministers have attempted to resolve the timing problem by claiming Branham said privately that the angels had been waiting a week before he arrived. This doesn't hold up. The statement appears nowhere in Branham's recorded sermons and cannot be verified. More critically, it directly contradicts Branham's own public account — that the cloud formed when the angels ''left'', not when they arrived. A private, unrecorded explanation that contradicts the public record should carry very little weight.
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== Key Documents ==
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/63+02+28+Cloud+Launch+Record.jpg Declassified 1963 02 28 Thor launch record]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/63+02+28+Declassified+AF+doc+re+Pitch+Pine.pdf Declassified 1963 02 28 Pitch Pine launch record]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/80+06+05+U+of+A+Cloud+Letter+.jpg University of Arizona letter of June 5, 1980]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/95+01+26+AF+re+cloud+1.jpg 1995 01 26 Air Force letter - page 1] and [https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/95+01+26+AF+re+cloud+2.jpg page 2]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/96+08+23+Meinel+letter+re+cloud.jpg 1996 08 23 letter from Mrs. Meinel]
#[https://btspublicdocs.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/96+09+10+MacDonald.jpg 1996 09 10 letter from Mrs. MacDonald]
=Video Script=

At dusk on February 28, 1963, a cloud appeared in the skies above Flagstaff, Arizona and remained sunlit for 28 minutes after sunset. It was highlighted in the May 1963 edition of Life Magazine. William Branham explained that the cloud was part of the fulfillment of a vision that he had in December 1962.

IT.IS.THE.RISING.OF.THE.SUN_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-12 SUNDAY_ 65-0418M
:''Later, the Angels appeared as was prophesied. And at the same time, a great cluster of Light left where I was standing, and moved thirty miles high in the air, and around the circle, like the wings of the Angels, and drawed into the skies a shape of a pyramid in the same constellation of Angels that appeared.

:''Science took the picture, all the way from Mexico, as it moved from northern Arizona, where the Holy Spirit said I would be standing, "forty miles northeast of Tucson." And it went into the air, and Life magazine packed the pictures,

William Branham said that the angels appeared to him while he was standing in northern Arizona, and that when they left him they created a cloud that was pictured in the Life Magazine.

There are a few problems with this.

First, forty miles northeast of Tucson is not northern Arizona. Go get a map and measure it for yourself.
The southern tip of the cloud was just north of Flagstaff when the photo was taken. Flagstaff is in northern Arizona, and Tucson is in Southern Arizona.

Second, the cloud that appeared in Life Magazine was photographed one week before William Branham went hunting. William Branham’s daughter Rebecca Smith confirmed this in an article she wrote called “Return to Sunset”, which was published in the “Only Believe” magazine.

Finally, William Branham was hunting in the morning, and the cloud appeared in the evening.

So if the cloud was not caused by angels leaving Brother Branham, as he claimed during this sermon, caused it to appear?

In the Life Magazine article, Dr. James McDonald stated that he was not aware of any rocket explosions that day.
However, he later wrote a supplemental report where he discusses the explosion of a THOR rocket that had been launched from Vandenburg Airforce base in California earlier that day.

So we looked at the story of the rocket to try to see how likely it was that this explosion caused the cloud and here's what we found.

On February 28, 1963, a Thrust assisted Thor Agenda D rocket was launched from Vandenberg air force base in California. The rocket was carrying a military spy satellite.

The rocket malfunctioned and was intentionally destroyed at 1:52 in the afternoon at an estimated height of 44 kilometers.

The height of the cloud that appeared over Flagstaff later that same day was estimated to be about 43 kilometers miles high. Is this just a random coincidence?

In order to travel the required distance from California to Arizona, the cloud would have to be travelling at 135 miles per hour that afternoon. But Dr. James McDonald wrote that the wind speed recorded by scientists was, "tantalizingly close" to the 135 mile an hour wind speed required to carry the cloud from Vandenberg to Flagstaff.

The prevailing winds in California blow from west to east. It is also not unusual for Jetstream winds to vary in speed as you go from north to south. Windspeeds on March 1st, 1963 at an altitude of 43 kilometers were 90 miles an hour at White Sands, New Mexico and 125 miles per hour at Point Mugu, California.

Winds and atmospheric conditions are notoriously unpredictable. However, rocket trails from launches at Vandenberg air force base are regularly seen in Arizona… and even as far east as Oklahoma City.

On March 27, 2012, NASA launched 5 suborbital sounding rockets which released a chemical tracer that created milky white clouds 60 miles above the earth. They did this to learn about wind-speeds in the Mesosphere. The pictures that they took reveal circular clouds similar to the February 28, 1963 cloud.

Someone imposed the picture of Jesus from Hoffman’s painting “Christ at 33” into the photo of the 1963 cloud. The painting first had to be reversed to do this. If you are not a message believer, you are likely offended by this picture.

Still, you can take the same picture from Hoffman’s painting and impose it on the clouds from March 2012, without reversing it.
If you are a message believer, you are likely offended by this picture.

But, whether you are looking at the 1963 cloud or the 2012 cloud, you have to manipulate the image to make the picture fit.

Questions have been raised as to why the cloud was not seen between Vandenberg and Flagstaff. However, noctilucent clouds are very thin and are only visible at dawn or dusk. They cannot be seen until the sky starts to darken overhead as it does at sunset. That is why the Cloud “appeared” over Flagstaff in the evening and was not seen between California and Flagstff.

Based on all of the facts available, it is not only plausible but highly likely that the cloud over Flagstaff was formed by the high altitude destruction of the Thor rocket over Vandenberg Air force base.

However, our examination of the cloud is not over. We will next look at whether the cloud could be in any way related to the events which occurred at Rattlesnake Mesa.

=Evidence from the Branham Family=
{{Cloud Only Believe}}

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[[Category:Prophecies]]
[[Category:Visions]]
[[Category:Honesty and Credibility]]
[[Category:Supernatural vindication]]

The Cause of the Cloud

2026-06-17T15:33:42Z

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Modern day Pharisees?

2026-06-17T15:16:09Z

Admin:

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{{Bernard Legalism}}

When examining the teachings of the [[David K. Bernard - A Critical Analysis of his Major Publications|the UPCI]] and [[The Message|the Message]], one cannot help but to refer to the comments of Alan Hirsch relating to the Pharisees.
=Who were the Pharisees?=

The Pharisees are often painted as cartoonish, mustache-twirling villains. But this is an incorrect view. They were '''highly sincere, dedicated, and exemplary religious people'''. They were fiercely zealous, meticulous tithers, and upheld a strict moral code. Theologically, they were remarkably sound: they firmly believed in the full authority of Scripture, the reality of miracles, and the resurrection. They were also deeply missional, willing to cross land and sea to win a single convert, and they prayed arduously.

Jesus actually affirmed many of their theological beliefs. But despite their excellent theology, the Pharisees ultimately lost their way because their rigid religious system mutated into a barrier against God. Hirsch calls this toxic process '''"pharisization"'''—a state where believers hide behind rules and substitute cold moralism for an authentic relationship with God.

The Pharisees' bad traits included:

* '''Theological arrogance:''' They fell in love with their own system of interpretation, using intellectualism to objectify truth and domesticate the radical demands of Scripture so that it fit their comfortable lifestyles. Their doctrine became so hard-set that it blinded them to what God was actually doing in their midst.
* '''Selective judgment of sin:''' They hyper-focused on "sins of the body" (such as sexual brokenness) while completely ignoring or harboring "sins of the spirit" (like greed, pride, self-righteousness, and hypocrisy).
* '''Deadly self-preservation:''' Ultimately, their devotion to their system caused them to murder Jesus. The chilling reality is that it was these fine, upright, devoted religious people who were the most intent on putting Jesus on the cross because he threatened their religious status quo.

Jesus's interactions with the Pharisees provide a stark contrast between their sterile moralism and true biblical holiness. The Pharisees believed holiness meant strict separation from anything or anyone unclean. In contrast, Jesus demonstrated a '''redemptive, world-embracing, missional holiness''' that actively engaged the world to liberate it.

Jesus exhibited an '''"in-your-face kind of holiness"''' that completely reversed religious expectations. His brand of holiness was so inviting, earthy, and magnetic that prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers, and social outcasts clamored to be near him, feeling no condemnation in his presence. Conversely, Jesus reserved his harshest, most offensive critiques for the religious elite, calling them hypocrites, snakes, and whitewashed tombs. He explicitly warned against the "yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy," condemning their inauthentic lives where their behavior did not match their stated beliefs.

For Jesus followers today, the Pharisees serve as a living, cautionary mirror. To live faithfully, '''Christians must read the Gospels with the uncomfortable self-awareness that we are the Pharisees'''.

We learn from Jesus that true holiness is not about a list of negative rules (what ''not'' to do) or retreating into a "safe" religious subculture. Instead, we must avoid reducing Jesus to a tame moral teacher who simply hands out rules; we must follow the wild, subversive Messiah. To live a holy life, we must abandon a religion of "ethical codes and pious rituals" and instead embrace radical grace, engaging with broken and marginalized people just as Jesus did, treating them with shocking tenderness rather than judgment.

If we look for a modern equivalent to their specific brand of devoted, morally upright spirituality, Hirsch suggests '''it is the "Bible-believing Christians . . . the evangelicals!"'''. Modern evangelicals are particularly susceptible to this trap, often using '''theological gymnastics to domesticate radical scripture''' while prioritizing external rules over spiritual humility. Ultimately, the source functions as a provocative challenge to the church, questioning whether religious communities today would '''embrace the real Jesus or reject him''' for disrupting their established status quo.

== If Jesus showed up in your church? ==
If the real, untamed Jesus showed up at a modern evangelical church today, '''the congregation would likely reject him and try to eliminate his influence'''.

While teaching at a seminary in the American Bible Belt, Alan Hirsch asked a class, '''"What would we do with Jesus if he turned up at our churches?"''' One student answered with heart-stopping honesty: '''"We would probably kill him!"'''. This response is disturbingly true because the radical, reforming Jesus portrayed in the Scriptures simply does not mix with domesticated religion, and his arrival would ensure that "sparks would fly".

Would a UPCI church or Message church genuinely embrace Jesus? Or would try to kill his influence because he disrupted their comfortable religious status quo?

Message and UPCI churches are the devoted, morally upright, "Bible-believing" communities of today. Ultimately, it was these highly sincere religious people who put Jesus on the cross to protect their established religious system. UPCI and Message followers could easily fall into the exact same trap as the Pharisees.
----
The observations above are pulled directly from the following books:
*Frost, Michael, and Alan Hirsch. ''ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church'' (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2008).
*Hirsch, Alan, and Debra Hirsch. ''Untamed: Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleship'' (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2010).
*Hirsch, Alan, with Rob Kelly. ''Metanoia: How God Radically Transforms People, Churches and Organizations From the Inside Out'' (Cody, Wyoming: 100 Movements Publishing, 2023)
*Frost, Michael, and Alan Hirsch. ''The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church.'' (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003)

{{Bottom of Page No Ref}}
[[Category:Legalism]]
[[Category:Oneness theology]]

Modern day Pharisees?

2026-06-17T15:11:07Z

Admin: /* Who were the Pharisees? */

{{Top of Page}}
{{Bernard Legalism}}

When examining the teachings of the [[David K. Bernard - A Critical Analysis of his Major Publications|the UPCI]] and [[The Message|the Message]], one cannot help but to refer to the comments of Alan Hirsch relating to the Pharisees.
=Who were the Pharisees?=

The Pharisees are often painted as cartoonish, mustache-twirling villains. But this is an incorrect view. They were '''highly sincere, dedicated, and exemplary religious people'''. They were fiercely zealous, meticulous tithers, and upheld a strict moral code. Theologically, they were remarkably sound: they firmly believed in the full authority of Scripture, the reality of miracles, and the resurrection. They were also deeply missional, willing to cross land and sea to win a single convert, and they prayed arduously.

Jesus actually affirmed many of their theological beliefs. But despite their excellent theology, the Pharisees ultimately lost their way because their rigid religious system mutated into a barrier against God. Hirsch calls this toxic process '''"pharisization"'''—a state where believers hide behind rules and substitute cold moralism for an authentic relationship with God.

The Pharisees' bad traits included:

* '''Theological arrogance:''' They fell in love with their own system of interpretation, using intellectualism to objectify truth and domesticate the radical demands of Scripture so that it fit their comfortable lifestyles. Their doctrine became so hard-set that it blinded them to what God was actually doing in their midst.
* '''Selective judgment of sin:''' They hyper-focused on "sins of the body" (such as sexual brokenness) while completely ignoring or harboring "sins of the spirit" (like greed, pride, self-righteousness, and hypocrisy).
* '''Deadly self-preservation:''' Ultimately, their devotion to their system caused them to murder Jesus. The chilling reality is that it was these fine, upright, devoted religious people who were the most intent on putting Jesus on the cross because he threatened their religious status quo.

Jesus's interactions with the Pharisees provide a stark contrast between their sterile moralism and true biblical holiness. The Pharisees believed holiness meant strict separation from anything or anyone unclean. In contrast, Jesus demonstrated a '''redemptive, world-embracing, missional holiness''' that actively engaged the world to liberate it.

Jesus exhibited an '''"in-your-face kind of holiness"''' that completely reversed religious expectations. His brand of holiness was so inviting, earthy, and magnetic that prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers, and social outcasts clamored to be near him, feeling no condemnation in his presence. Conversely, Jesus reserved his harshest, most offensive critiques—calling them hypocrites, snakes, and whitewashed tombs—for the religious elite. He explicitly warned against the "yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy," condemning their inauthentic lives where their behavior did not match their stated beliefs.

For believers today, the Pharisees serve as a living, cautionary mirror. To live faithfully, '''Christians must read the Gospels with the uncomfortable self-awareness that we are the Pharisees'''.

We learn from Jesus that true holiness is not about a list of negative rules (what ''not'' to do) or retreating into a "safe" religious subculture. Instead, we must avoid reducing Jesus to a tame moral teacher who simply hands out rules; we must follow the wild, subversive Messiah. To live a holy life, we must abandon a religion of "ethical codes and pious rituals" and instead embrace radical grace, engaging with broken and marginalized people just as Jesus did, treating them with shocking tenderness rather than judgment.

If we look for a modern equivalent to their specific brand of devoted, morally upright spirituality, Hirsch suggests '''it is the "Bible-believing Christians . . . the evangelicals!"'''. Modern evangelicals are particularly susceptible to this trap, often using '''theological gymnastics to domesticate radical scripture''' while prioritizing external rules over spiritual humility. Ultimately, the source functions as a provocative challenge to the church, questioning whether religious communities today would '''embrace the real Jesus or reject him''' for disrupting their established status quo.

== If Jesus showed up in your church? ==
If the real, untamed Jesus showed up at a modern evangelical church today, '''the congregation would likely reject him and try to eliminate his influence'''.

He recounts posing this exact scenario—"What would we do with Jesus if he turned up at our churches?"—while teaching at a seminary in the American Bible Belt. One student answered with heart-stopping honesty: '''"We would probably kill him!"'''. This response is disturbingly true because the radical, reforming Jesus portrayed in the Scriptures simply does not mix with domesticated religion, and his arrival would ensure that "sparks would fly".

Would a UPCI church or Message church genuinely embrace Jesus or would try to kill his influence because he disrupted their comfortable religious status quo?

UPCI and Message churches are the devoted, morally upright, "Bible-believing" communities of today. Ultimately, it was these highly sincere religious people who put Jesus on the cross to protect their established religious system. UPCI and Message followers could easily fall into the exact same trap as the Pharisees.
----
The observations above are pulled directly from the following books:
*Frost, Michael, and Alan Hirsch. ''ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church'' (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2008).
*Hirsch, Alan, and Debra Hirsch. ''Untamed: Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleship'' (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2010).
*Hirsch, Alan, with Rob Kelly. ''Metanoia: How God Radically Transforms People, Churches and Organizations From the Inside Out'' (Cody, Wyoming: 100 Movements Publishing, 2023)
*Frost, Michael, and Alan Hirsch. ''The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church.'' (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003)

{{Bottom of Page No Ref}}
[[Category:Legalism]]
[[Category:Oneness theology]]

List of Issues with the Message

2026-06-17T14:45:32Z

Admin: /* Other issues related to message churches */

{{Top of Page}}
{{URGENT}}
[[Image:Answers small.jpg|thumb|250px|right]]

This page is a '''master list of all of the issues that have come to our attention in respect to William Branham and his message'''. It summarizes, in the form of a list of questions, virtually all of the research we have conducted since 2004 with respect to William Branham.''' Click on any of the questions or colored links''' to read further details on the issue.

=The List of Questions=

The purpose of this list is to provide a short concise summary of all known issues that can be used as a quick reference guide when discussing any concerns relating to William Branham, his message or those that follow him. Our aim is to provide a detailed explanation for each issue, as well as our detailed research. To the extent that the specific question does not link to anything, it simply means we have not had the time to research the issue as yet.

===Our request & promise===

Please let us know of any factual errors on our website, either [[Contact information|by email]] or by [https://www.facebook.com/BelieveTheSign a message to us on our Facebook page]. If you provide us with evidence, we will correct any errors as quickly as possible.

Some followers of William Branham have suggested that it is wrong to highlight these issues. However, we believe it is not only right but that we are [[Are we wrong to highlight the problems with William Branham and his message?|required to tell people the information we have found.]]

If you do disagree with anything on this website, we would request that you '''[[A Scriptural Challenge to Followers of William Branham|please prove us wrong]]'''. Honestly, we don't want this website to contain any incorrect information. However, to date, we have only received a couple such requests and corrected the errors as soon as they were reported to us.

==Did any of William Branham's visions or prophecies fail?==

The scriptural test of a prophet is clear as outlined by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:

:''But if any prophet presumes to speak anything in my name that I have not authorized him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. Now if you say to yourselves, ‘How can we tell that a message is not from the LORD?’ — whenever a prophet speaks in my name and the prediction is not fulfilled, then I have not spoken it; the prophet has presumed to speak it, so you need not fear him.”<ref>Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005), Dt 18:20–22.</ref>

While at first we found this almost impossible to believe, '''we have been unable to locate a single unambiguous prophecy that was made in advance in a public forum (on tape) and that was later clearly fulfilled.''' However, there are numerous examples of visions that were made publicly which failed (were not fulfilled) and prophecies that changed drastically over time. If you click on the individual lines below, they will take you to a detailed explanation of each issue.

'''How can William Branham be a true prophet of God if he failed the test of Deut 18:20-22?'''

{{Prophetic Questions}}

==Was William Branham Credible?==

:'''If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.''' - ''Mark Twain''

The Bible plainly tells us what is expected of Christian leaders:

:''An elder must be blameless...<ref>Titus 1:6 (NET)</ref>

:''For the overseer must be blameless as one entrusted with God’s work...<ref>Titus 1:7 (NET)</ref>

:''The overseer then must be above reproach...<ref>1 Timothy 3:2 (NET)</ref>

:''And these also must be tested first and then let them serve as deacons if they are found blameless.<ref>1 Timothy 3:10 (NET)</ref>

William Branham portrayed himself as a simple, honest, uneducated man who was sent from God as a prophet to fore-run the second coming of Christ. However, many of the stories that he told have been proven to be untrue and many of the doctrines that he said he received directly from God were, in fact, plagiarized from other ministers. If you click on the individual items below, they will take you to a detailed explanation of each issue.

{{Credibility Questions}}

==Are William Branham's teachings in agreement with the Bible?==

If you study the message, you will find that William Branham departed significantly from the plain meaning of scripture in many things that he taught. If you click on the individual items below, they will take you to a detailed explanation of each issue.

{{Doctrinal Questions}}

==Strange, bizarre, or contradictory beliefs of William Branham==

{{Strange Teachings}}

==Other Issues Relating to William Branham's Message==

#[[Hagin Prophecy|Kenneth Hagin's Prophecy]]
#[[Deception by message followers]]
#[[The Vision of the Pentecostal Kitten|The Vision of the Message Kitten]]
#[[Why didn't people correct William Branham?]]
#Our review of Owen Jorgensen's biography - ''[[Supernatural: The Life of William Branham‎]]''
#Our response to [[A Biographer Answers Critics of William Branham|Owen Jorgensen's defense of William Branham]]
#[[An Open Letter to Owen Jorgensen]] by Luca Freeman
#Who is [[Voice of God Recordings]] and how much money do they have?
#[[Bad Fruit|Why is there so much "bad fruit"]] in the message?
#[[Billy Paul Branham]]
#[[Joseph Branham]]

==False Doctrine and Misinformation Taught by Message Churches==

These doctrines may not have been taught directly by William Branham (or at least we have not found quotes yet) but are widely held by Message ministers/believers and are taught in a variety of message churches (please note that they may not be found in all message churches).

#[[Is the Message a Cult?#William Branham's message > the Bible|ALL message churches place the words of William Branham above or at least equal to the Bible]].
#Excuses for the failure of the Municipal Bridge vision - [[The Municipal Bridge Vision#The men drowned in concrete|The sixteen men drowned in concrete]]
#The use of red herring arguments when [[Failed Prophecies]] are pointed out (see video)
#[[The Message|The message]] is Jesus Christ.
#[[Access to the blood]] can only be achieve through the message of the hour
#[[Progressive_Revelation|The doctrine of progressive revelation]]
#[[Vaylism|The heretical teachings of Lee Vayle]]
#[[Stories from the Message|True stories from message churches]]
#[[Luke 20:4-8]]
#[[Acts 3:21]]
#[[Anti-Intellectualism]]
#[[Spiritual Idolatry]]
#[["Blind Faith"]]
#[[Logic and the Message]]
#[[Reason and the Message|Thinking is discouraged]]
#The [[The King James Version of the Bible|KJV is the only inspired translation]] of the Bible.
#[[The Rules of the Message]]
#Are [[Blood Moons]] of importance today?
#Legalistic teachings related to [[The Celebration of Christmas]]
#Are Message churches the home of [[Modern day Pharisees?]]

==Other issues related to message churches==

#[[A warning to those in the message]]
#[[Are Message Believers Christians?]]
#[[Message Urban Legends|'''Urban legends''' of the message]]
#[[The Status of Message Believers|What is the spiritual status of message believers]]?
#[[Questions and Answers with a Message Minister|Q&A with a message minister]]
#[[Bethel Tabernacle|An open letter to Jason Watkins]]

==But Message believers reject these teachings==

There are a few things that William Branham taught that followers of William Branham simply do not believe in any practical sense.

#[[The Message is Greater than the Bible|Is the message a cult?]]
#[[The Importance of a Right Spirit]]
#[[Draw a bigger circle]]
#The vision of the [[Plum and Apple Trees]]

==Responses to issues raised by Message followers==

Here are some responses to issues raised by message followers:
#[[The Jonah Defense]]
#[[Because he said so]]
#[[William Branham was just human]]
#[[Responding to Allistair Francis]]
#[[Questions and Answers with a Message Minister]]
#[[A response to Tim Pruitt's Defense of William Branham]]
#[[A response to Jason Watkins' letter to a believer who has left the message|Responding to Jason Watkins]]
#[[A response to Bill Ivy's Defense of the Message|A Response to Bill Ivy]]
#You can't see the Message because "[[It's a revelation]]"
#[[A response to Pastor Wisper Gwena]]
#[[The failure of message ministers to obey scripture]]
#[[The Importance of Vindication]]

=Now what? Where do I go from here?=

[[A Synopsis of the Message|If you have honestly looked at these questions and the research provided in our analysis of each issue]], you must question whether William Branham was a true prophet of God.

To help those who are now confronted with these issues and wonder what the next course of action should be we would recommend the following links:

#Listen to the [http://offtheshelf.life Off The Shelf] podcast!
#[[What should we believe?#What church should we go to?|Were should I go to church? Aren't denominations of the devil?]]
#[[What should we believe?|So what should I believe now?]]
#[[How to help those in the message|How do I help people who are still in the message?]] Do I tell them the message is wrong or is there a better way? [[How to help those in the message|How do I interact with my spouse/family member/friend]] who is still in the message?
#[[Reason and the Message#Jesus' reaction to someone who questioned him|What did Jesus say about asking questions?]]
#Should we abandon Christianity? Does it still make sense to follow Jesus after leaving the message?
##[[Is belief in God rational?]]
##[[Is the New Testament historically reliable?]]
#[[Testimonies of Former Followers]]
#[[Here we stand, corrected|'''You are not alone!!!''']]
#Further research on William Branham - [[Research Sources for William Branham and His Message]]
#[[A commentary on Christian cults|A video commentary on Christian cults]]
#[[Can we judge William Branham?]]
#If you are looking for non-message sources to help you grow spiritually - [[Resources that have helped us]]
#[[If you need help]]
#[[BelieveTheSign:What We Believe|What we believe]]
#If you want to ask us a question, you can [[Contact information|email us]].

We sincerely pray that this information has helped you on your spiritual journey. May the Holy Spirit lead you into the truth of Jesus Christ!

Shalom!

{{Bottom of Page}}
[[Category:Menu pages]]

Template:Doctrinal Questions

2026-06-17T14:42:56Z

Admin:

The following is a list of questions that we have attempted to answer regarding the teachings of William Branham. Please click on the link to go to a detailed discussion of the question:

#Are we required to believe [[The word for our day?|the word for our day]]?
#Did William Branham's teaching on the [[Seven Seals]] come from the angel of God?
#If I speak against the Message, am I [[Blaspheming the Holy Ghost|blaspheming the Holy Ghost]]?
#[[Can an engagement be broken?|Can a wedding engagement be broken?]]
#[[William Branham's View of Creation|Was Adam first created as a "spirit being"]] or is this Mormon doctrine?
#[[Was Time Created as a Result of Sin?]]
#[[Who got naked first?]] Adam or Eve?
#Why did William Branham teach that some Christians were [[Christians that were required to believe Satanic doctrine|required to believe Satanic doctrine to be saved?]]
#[[Propserity always ruins people|Does prosperity always ruin people as William Branham taught?]]
#Elijah and Elisha prayed. [[Elijah and Elisha did pray|Why did William Branham say they didn't?]]
#Why did William Branham disagree with the doctrine of [[The Clarity of Scripture|the clarity of scripture]], a long held doctrine of the church?
#William Branham believed he was the fulfillment of [[Revelation 10:7]]. Was he correct?
#[[Did God change Saul's name to Paul?]]
#[[The Prophet and The Eagle|William Branham taught that eagles typed prophets in the Bible. Where is this found in scripture?]]
#William Branham believed that if a wife cuts her hair, [[Marriage and Divorce|her husband can divorce her.]] Does the Bible teach this?
#[[Marriage and Divorce|William Branham believed that a man can remarry after divorce but a woman can't. Why did william Branham preach something that neither Jesus or Paul did?]]
#[[Financial accountability in the message|Should 100% of the tithes go to the pastor?]]
#[[Financial accountability in the message#Do pastors = Levitical priests?|Are pastors today the same as priests in the Old Testament?]]
#[[Ministers must marry a virgin|Are ministers required to marry a virgin]]?
#[[Polygamy in the Message|Did William Branham approve of polygamy]]?
#[[THUS SAITH THE LORD|Were there any times when William Branham's "Thus Saith The Lord" actually failed?]]
#[[King Saul - The Peoples' Choice?|Why did William Branham disagree with the Bible and teach that the people chose Saul as King of Israel?]]
#[[Three holy words|What are the three holy words of the Bible that William Branham spoke of?]]
#[[Prophets that ministered at the same time|Why did William Branham say that 2 major prophets were never on the scene at the same time when the Bible doesn't teach that?]]
#[[Q&A on the Godhead#Did God leave Jesus Christ on the cross?|William Branham said that God left Jesus when He was on the cross. Does the Bible teach this?]]
#[[William Branham and the Zodiac|Does God really have '''THREE Bibles''' as William Branham taught?]]
#[[Temporary Salvation|If you don't feel saved, are you still a Christian?]]
#[[Twisted Theology#Lilies work hard|How hard do lilies work?]]
#[[The Reason John Wept|Did John weep for joy or because no one was worthy?]]
#[[Women were designed by Satan|Were women really designed by Satan?]]
#[[Can you lose your healing?]]
#[[Enoch and Noah#The Seventh from Adam|Was Enoch the seventh from Adam]]? Is this proof of the Serpent Seed doctrine?
#[[Mystery Babylon#The Identity of the Woman|Is the harlot in the Book of Revelation the Roman Catholic Church?]]
#[[Are Christians considered amateur gods?]]
#[[Michael the Archangel|Is Jesus Christ the same as Michael the Archangel?]]
#[[Reading between the lines|Does the Bible say that we have to "read between the lines"?]]
#[[Enoch and Noah|Noah started building the ark after he saw Enoch go in a Rapture]]
#[[Enoch and Noah|Was Enoch a type of the wise virgin, and Noah a type of the foolish virgin?]]
#[[The Fulfillment of Malachi 4:5|Was William Branham the fulfillment of Malachi 4:5?]]
#[[The Importance of a Seven-Lettered Name|Is the spelling of William Branham's name of spiritual significance?]]
#[[Illegitimate children]] cannot be part of the rapture.
#[[Reason and Faith|Should Christians "cast down reasoning"?]]
#[[Can the Holy Spirit abandon you?]]
#[[Love is corrective|How nice do you have to be to people that disagree with you doctrinally?]]
#[[Justification, Sanctification, and the Holy Spirit|Is salvation something that you earn?]]
#[[Long Hair or Uncut Hair|Does long hair mean uncut (i.e. no trimming of split ends) for women?]]
#[[Long Hair or Uncut Hair|Does God hear the prayer of a woman that has cut her hair]]?
#[[Grounds for Divorce in the Message|Can a man get a divorce for any reason?]]
#[[The Midwives of Egypt|Were the midwives in Egypt actually witches?]]
#[[Hierarchy in Heaven|Is your admission to heaven conditional on William Branham's judgment?]]
#[[Are There Women Angels?]]
#[[2 Corinthians 6:17|Revelation 18:4 & 2 Corinthians 6:17]] - Does the Bible require separation from denominations and non-message churches?
#[[Matthew 27:46|Did Jesus die screaming for help, crying for mercy because He was separated from God?]]
#[[Mixing Law and Grace|William Branham mixed law and grace. Is that a problem?]]
#[[Water baptism|Was William Branham's understanding of water baptism historically correct?]]
#[[John 18:6|When Jesus died on the cross, did God leave him? Did he simply die as a man?]]
#[[The Godhead|Did William Branham simply copy Emmanual Swedenborg's teaching on the Godhead?]]
#[[The Serpent's Seed|Does the Bible really teach that the serpent had sex with Eve?]]
#[[Amos 3:3|Can any two walk together unless they be agreed? Did William Branham understand Amos 3:3?]]
#[[Amos 3:7|Was William Branham's understanding of Amos 3:7 correct?]]
#[[1 John 1:7‎‎]]
#[[Fallen From Grace|What did William Branham teach happened when someone "fell from grace"?]]
#[[The Sin in the Wilderness|Were the Israelites that died in the wilderness eternally lost?]]
#Was William Branham guilty of [[Theological Trespassing]]?
#Did William Branham's teaching on [[The Token|the Token]] agree with Paul's teaching on the subject?
#[[Ephesians 4:30|When is a person sealed by the Holy Spirit?]]
#[[Matthew 17:11|Is a gentile Elijah prophesied in the Bible?]]
#[[Matthew 24:28|Does the message teach the correct interpretation of Matthew 24:28?]]
#[[Destruction of Los Angeles#Pearry Green's Testimony|Is Billy Paul an old man? And if he is, why aren't sharks swimming through Los Angeles?]]
#The evidence of [[The Baptism of the Holy Spirit|the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is believing in William Branham]]
#[[Luke 17:30|Did William Branham reveal the Son of Man?]]
#[[John 16:13|Does the Holy Spirit lead people into the message?]]
#[[Seventh Seal|If the seventh seal was silent, how did William Branham know what it meant?]]
#[[Isaiah 9:6]]
#[[Zechariah 14:7]]
#[[Revelation 16:13]]
#[[Was William Branham a racist?|Are biracial marriages unscriptural]]?
#[[Abraham and Sarah|What was God's reaction to Sarah laughing?]]
#[[The Body of Christ|Does the Bible teach there are two tiers of Christians?]]
#[[The Message#Is the "Bride" a special category of Christian?|Is the "Bride" a special category of Christian?]]
#[[Eternal Sonship|If the Son is not eternal, can the Father be eternal?]]
#Is there a difference in the meaning of [[Q&A on the Godhead#Eternal vs. Everlasting|Eternal vs. Everlasting]]
#[[Sex was not in God's original plan|If sex was not in God's original plan, how come he made us as sexual beings?]]
#[[Gifts and callings are without repentance|Are people born with spiritual gifts as William Branham taught?]]
#[[Q&A on the Godhead#What is the meaning of "begotten"?|What is the meaning of "begotten"?]]
#[[Three Persons|Does the Christian church actually teach that there are three gods in the Trinity?]]
#Did William Branham misrepresent [[The Trinity|the Church's historical view of the Trinity]]?
#[[Tithing|Is tithing required in the New Testament?]]
#[[Destruction of Los Angeles|Is Capernaum under the sea?]]
#[[Legalism|How many rules do I have to keep in order to get to heaven?]]
#Is it a sin for a woman to [[Is it permissible for women to wear pants?|wear pants]]?
#[[The Message Dress Code|Is the message dress code in the Bible?]]
#[[That which is perfect is come|Has "that which is perfect" come?]]
#What is the actual meaning of [[El Shaddai]]?
#What was [[The Sign of the Messiah]]?
#[[William Branham and the future|Was William Branham's view of the future biblical?]]
#[[William Branham's View of Himself|How did William Branham view himself?]]
#[[Jehovah|Does God only have seven compound names?]]
#[[The Two Witnesses of Revelation 11|Who are the two witnesses of Revelation 11]]?
#Why do we need William Branham's message when [[The Sufficiency of Scripture|scripture is sufficient?]]
#[[A New Thing|Is the message "stale" manna?]]
#[[Alcohol|William Branham and Alcohol]]
#[[Can you tell if someone has the Holy Spirit?]]
#[[William Branham on Suicide#Saul didn't commit suicide|Why did William Branham say that Saul did not commit suicide, when the Bible says he did?]]
#How could [[Open-toed shoes|open-toed shoes]] be immoral if virtually everyone in the Bible wore them?
#[[Question 6 (ABM) - Revelation 10:7|Q&A with a message minister relating to William Branham's doctrine]]
#Is [[Oneness]] theology biblical?
#What is [[A prophet's reward?|a prophet's reward]]?

A prophet's reward?

2026-06-17T14:41:37Z

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{{Top of Page}}
[[Voice of God Recordings]] had this question on one of its Young Foundation's quizzes (questions for kids):

:Jesus said, "Whosoever receive a prophet in the name of a prophet, receives a prophet's reward."

What is a prophet's reward?

:#To be a friend with the prophet
:#To become a prophet
:#Talking directly to God through the prophet
:#To have Eternal life like the prophet

According to William Branham, the correct answer is "1" - To be a friend with the prophet.

This is just bad biblical interpretation and, as you will see below, makes no sense.

=What the Bible is referring to=

When Jesus speaks of receiving “a prophet’s reward,” he’s referring to the reward that awaits those who support God’s messengers — not merely the prophets themselves, but those who recognize and aid them. The reward involves becoming partakers of the same reward laid up for the prophets.

The specific nature of this reward becomes clearer when we understand what “receiving a prophet in the name of a prophet” means. This involves not only receiving the prophet’s message and ministry, but also showing kindness to the prophet as a person through hospitality or by meeting his needs as a minister of the gospel. The key is that the support flows from recognizing the prophet’s role and God’s commission, rather than from personal or worldly motives.

Those who receive a prophet as God’s messenger and servant—not for carnal or worldly reasons—shall receive either the same reward the prophet receives, or a large, ample, and noble recompense befitting one who received a prophet sent from the Lord. Just as those who give honourable reception to ambassadors of earthly kings raise themselves in the favour of those kings, so those who receive God’s faithful prophets as his ambassadors become highly favoured by God and nobly rewarded by him.

Why did William Branham say it was to be the friend of a prophet? So how does this make sense? Would a prophet receive a reward from God by being a friend to himself (narcissism) or by being friends with other prophets? Where did he get this from?

=Quotes of William Branham=

''People send and give me nice ties, shirts, socks. I was a little afraid to say anything about it from the platform. Maybe somebody thought that I was… get the wrong impression, that I was just saying it just because maybe… Oh, no. Just don't think that. But it—it's so appreciated. I just couldn't let the people do things like that, and then let me not mention it in some way. You know, some of don't even put their address on it. I couldn't say the woman's name that bought me that suit of clothes. I—I couldn't never let her—let the—the right hand… left hand know what the right hand was doing, I suppose. But I—I appreciate it from the depths of my heart. And I'll say this, my dear sister, and to all you others. You never give anything to anyone in your life that appreciated it any more than I do. That's right. I do. And the Bible says, "Insomuch as you have done unto the least (That's me.) of My little ones, you have done it unto Me." He who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man receives a righteous man's reward. Whosoever receives a prophet in the name of the prophet, receives a prophet's reward. Now, I trust that God will return it to you a hundredfold.<ref>William Branham, 50-0822 - Faith Without Works Is Dead, para.6-7</ref>

''321. Brother Branham, if you have time please explain Matthew 10:41. I would like to know what is a prophet's reward?

''Well now, Jesus said, "Whosoever receive a prophet in the name of a prophet, receives a prophet's reward." '''A prophet's reward is to be a friend with the prophet.''' Whosoever receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man, receives a righteous man's reward. Is that right? And if they want to know what a prophet's reward is, is to be a friend to the prophet. See? That's a reward. He's your friend. Like the Shunammite woman, it might come in handy sometime. See? It did with her. See? Watch God's servants.<ref>William Branham, 64-0823E - Questions And Answers #2, para.220</ref>

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[[Category: Doctrines]]

Template:Trinity

2026-06-17T14:25:46Z

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[[Image:Trinity diagram.png|thumb|250px|right]]
This article is one in a series of studies on William Branham and the Trinity - you are currently on the topic that is in bold:

*What did [[William Branham and the nature of God|William Branham believe about the Godhead?]]
*[[William Branham and the Trinity Doctrine]]
*[[The Historic Doctrine of the Trinity]]
*[[Did William Branham Teach Oneness?]]
*What is [[Oneness]] theology?
*[[William Branham and Arianism]]
*Did William Branham teach [[Nestorianism]]?
*[[The Doctrine of the Trinity - Bible Study|Bible Study on the Trinity]]
*[[A Defense of the Doctrine of the Trinity]]
*[[Q&A on the Godhead]] - Answers to emails we have received
*[[Christians that were required to believe Satanic doctrine|Christians that God required to believe the Satanic Trinity doctrine]]
*[[Jesus on the Godhead|Other articles on the Godhead]]
*[[Christians who have believed the doctrine of the Trinity|Giants of the faith who believed the doctrine of the Trinity]]

Template:Doctrinal Questions

2026-06-17T14:23:14Z

Admin:

2 Corinthians 6:17

2026-06-17T14:20:08Z

Admin:

{{Top of Page}}
William Branham taught that the following passages were referring not only to the Roman Catholic Church but to all denominational churches:

2 Corinthians 6:17 (KJV):<blockquote>''Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you...<ref>The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), 2 Co 6:17.</ref>''</blockquote>Revelation 18:4 (KJV)<blockquote>''And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.<ref>David Norton, ed., The New Cambridge Paragraph Bible with the Apocrypha: King James Version, Revised edition (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011), Re 18:4.</ref>''</blockquote>

=What the Bible teaches=

Paul’s instruction in 2 Corinthians 6:14 directs believers to sever close attachments with non-Christians—such as membership in local pagan cults—that would compromise loyalty to Christ or jeopardize Christian witness. This isn’t an injunction against all association with unbelievers; rather, the language about “coming out” and “separating” communicates relational distance rather than literal spatial movement.

Is William Branham use of these passages weaponization? The text in 2 Corinthians 6:17 is not asking for literal exodus or real separation from non-believers, and once understood metaphorically, it cannot serve as a parallel to Revelation 18:4. Exploiting the imperative language to demand total isolation is used by message followers to justify cutting members off from families, friends, and outside perspectives by claiming biblical authority.

Paul himself corrected the Corinthians’ misunderstanding of separation, clarifying that Christians cannot leave the concrete world and must maintain daily contacts with immoral pagans—he prohibited association only with those bearing the Christian name who lived immorally. This nuance is precisely what message groups discard, using separation language to justify control and isolation rather than ethical discernment.<blockquote>''I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people; 10 I did not at all mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the greedy and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to leave the world.<ref>New American Standard Bible (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 2020), 1 Co 5:9–10.</ref>''

''If one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions, for the sake of conscience.<ref>New American Standard Bible (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 2020), 1 Co 10:27.</ref>''</blockquote>The theological intent of 2 Cor. 6:17 and Rev. 18:4 concerns spiritual compromise — not total withdrawal from churches that teach the Bible but are loosely part of a denomination or organization. The Message exploits this by inverting the purpose: instead of protecting believers’ faith commitments, they weaponize separation language to enforce dependency and prevent critical evaluation of Message teachings.

=Quotes of William Branham=

1954 - If you think denominations don't matter, you're wrong. Denominations are the mark of the beast:

:''He don’t care what your organization is. It’s nonsense. '''It’s connected with Catholicism and gone back in it, and stayed in it, and you receive that same mark that she is.''' Didn’t the angel say, “Come out of her, My people, and be not partakers of her sins, and I’ll receive you”? “Touch not her unclean things, and I’ll receive you,” the Holy Spirit speaking.

:''“And whosoever takes the mark of the beast, or the letter of his name.” Wish we had time to go into that; my time is up. '''What’s the letter of his name? Protestantism.''' “Let us make an image likened unto it. Let us make an organization. Our church is just as big as the Catholic church.” They took all these things. “They had the big churches, and we do, too. We got just as much of the class of the city, in our church, as they have in theirs. Let us make an image unto the beast.” And what’d the Bible said, she is a “WHORE,” and that’s a “HARLOT,” through organization.<ref>William Branham, 54-0513 - The Mark Of The Beast, para. 224-225</ref>

1954 - But some denominations might be OK?

:''So keep out of them isms! Congregate yourself with somebody who believes, associate yourselves. The Bible said, “Yoke yourself not up among unbelievers.” '''“Be ye separated,” saith God. Come out! The Bible said, “Come out from among them, and be… touch not their unclean things, and I will receive you. I’m the Lord Who stands in the midst of the church.”''' That’s right. Come out! Don’t associate with such! But let… '''get yourself among some church, some good church. Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Campbellite, whoever it may be,''' it don’t make… Where real true believers are in there, they don’t care what the church creed says, they go there to meet with their brothers and sisters and worship God, together. All right.<ref>William Branham, 54-0515 - Questions And Answers, para. 151-152</ref>''

1962 - Denominations are man-made, so you need to come out:

:''But God’s chosen Ones are commanded to come out from among them. “Be ye separated,” saith God, “and I will receive you. Touch not their worldly things, and I’ll be a Father to you, or God, and you’ll be My sons and daughters. Yoke yourself not up with unbelievers, but come out of it!” God wants separation from the world. He wants to be unionized with you, Himself. And no man-made scheme of '''organization, denomination,''' or any man-made theories will ever stand.<ref>William Branham, 62-0211 - Oneness, para. 201</ref>''

1962 - Denominations are Esau, come out!

:''Jacob was a perfect type: both of them religious, both of them twins. '''Esau was the ecclesiastical type.''' He was a man that was smart. He had good moral stands and things like that, but he didn't have no use for that birthright. Jacob didn't care what he had to do, just so he got the birthright. And as long as they were together they could not produce. Is that right? One was against the other. Have you caught it? Amen! "Come out from amongst it; be ye separate saith God, and touch not their unclean things; I'll receive you," see. '''Jacob had to separate himself from his denominational brother''' before God would ever bless him. God told Abraham the same thing. Israel and Moab. The four hundred prophets of Israel stood before Micaiah, and Micaiah separated himself from them and got the Word of the Lord and come back with it. Moses and Korah, same thing, wouldn't mix, they had to separate. Is that true?<ref>62-0401_Wisdom Versus Faith_Jeffersonville, Indiana, USA #200</ref>''

1962 - Any church associated with the World Council of Churches is Babylon:

:''What did this angel say? “Come out of her!” Yes, sir. This angel came to the earth, and he come to bring the Light, and he shined the Light around the world. He was a mighty angel. And '''he come to proclaim the Message of “Come out of Babylon! Touch not her unclean things!”''' Got a whole cage full of them. Said, “She’s the cage of every hateful bird.” Yeah, she got a cage full of them now, the World Council of Churches, or lodges. She’s got the whole bunch caged up now, they’re all coming together.''

:''...And when you join up with a citizen…a system, and become a citizen of that system, you are showing what you are. And in this last days, G'''od is calling the people out of it.''' The Bible said so, “Come out of her, that you be not partakers with her, and I will receive you. Touch not her unclean things, see, and I will receive you. And you’ll be sons and daughters to Me, and I’ll be God to you.” See?<ref>William Branham, 62-1111E - Why I'm Against Organized Religion, para. 216-217, 223</ref>''

1963 - real Christians leave their denominations

:''And, remember, this election, is coming now, is just not going to another nation, it’s going to Glory, where their names are wrote on the Lamb’s Book of Life. Not under the natural, little animal lamb that brought Israel out, that they could backslide from there and go back. But, this can’t. This is under the Blood of the Lamb of God that was slain before the foundation of the world. And their names were put on the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundation of the world. And they’re in there, elected. And when that Light flashes over them, like that, '''them denominational walls drop away from them, and here they come. “Come out from among them,”''' said the Holy Spirit in these last days. “Touch not their unclean things. I’ll be God to you; you be sons and daughters to Me.” Now, watch.<ref>William Branham, 63-0630M - The Third Exodus, para. 246</ref>''

1963 - You have to come out and follow Branham

:''What was he? Manifestation of the Word, Light. Same God that spoke in Genesis; that spoke this, and here come the Light. As He said, “Let there be light, for the sun,” the sun come in existence; say He said there’d be “a voice of one crying in the wilderness,” here it come forth. '''It was the Light of the hour. He also said, in the last days! Amen! It’s the Light of the hour, crying in the wilderness of Babylon, “Come out of her, My people,''' that you be not partakers of her sins. Touch not her unclean thing! Get away from it! Flee from the wrath that is to come!”<ref>William Branham, 63-1229M - There Is A Man Here That Can Turn On The Light, para. 202-203</ref>''

1964 - If you are in any kind of organized church, you are dead and need to come out:

:''Losing your hold on the Word, and accepting creeds and self-exaltation by man’s exhortation, we have seen them lose their hold with the great Holy Spirit. We’ve seen '''the Pentecostals do the same thing.''' And you see it. '''When they organize, they die. There is no way back;''' there never has been, and there never will be. God is against the thing. It’s really sin. Said, in the last days He’d say, “'''Come out from among them, My people''', that you touch not their unclean things; and I’ll receive you.”<ref>William Branham, 64-0315 - Influence, para. 210</ref>''

Real Christians believe in racial segregation. This is the meaning of the above scriptures:

:''Sometime ago, in the South, a little story. There was a king…or, a buyer. They sold slaves. That was in time of—of segregation, and they had slaves in the South. They was a…They’d go by and buy them, just like you would a used car, off of a lot. 187 Now, '''I am an integrationist, absolutely…I mean a segregationalist. I am a segregationalist.''' Because, I don’t care how much they argue, you cannot be a Christian and be an integrationist. That’s exactly right. God even separates His nations. He separates His people. “Come out from among them!” He’s a…He is a segregationalist. “Don’t even…Touch not their unclean things!” He pulled Israel, that Jewish race, out of every, all the races in the world. He is a segregationalist.<ref>William Branham, 65-0206 - Doors In Door, para. 186</ref>

1965 - Come out of the denominations and follow Branham:

:''Cannot do it! Now it’s Seed time, or Bride time. The shucks are dead. The shucks are dried up. The virgin Word time, not touched. It’s a virgin, remember, a virgin Word time. If you’d put It in the hands of a denomination, It sure won’t be virgin; It’ll be man-handled, time you get to It. '''But God’s Church is not touched by denomination.''' Hallelujah! It’s a virgin-born Word of God made manifest, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hallelujah! How, how wonderful! I love It. I believe It. I know that It’s the Truth. It’ll not be touched. '''There’ll be no denominational man-handling in the virgin Birth of the Bride.''' No, sir! She is—s'''he is commanded by God to come out of such. “'''Touch not their unclean things, become vultures.”<ref>William Branham, 65-0218 - The Seed Is Not Heir With The Shuck, para. 111</ref>''

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[[index.php?title=Category:Unfinished articles]]
[[index.php?title=Category:Placeholder articles]]

Template:Credibility Questions

2026-06-17T14:17:21Z

Admin:

The following is our list of questions related to William Branham's honesty and credibility. Please click on the link to go to a detailed discussion of the question:

#[[Did William Branham visit the graves of Muhammad, Buddha, and Confucius?]]
#Did William Branham visit the Vatican and see the inscription "''[[VICARIVS FILII DEI]]''" above the throne of the Pope?
#Why did William Branham change the name of his church from the Pentecostal Tabernacle to the [[Branham Tabernacle]]?
#Is it true that [[No one dared oppose William Branham when he was alive|no one dared oppose William Branham when he was alive]]?
#[[William Branham and Billy Graham|Did William Branham lie about his prophecy regarding Billy Graham?]]
#[[1933 Ohio River Experience|Did anyone hear the voice on the Ohio River in 1933?]]
#Did William Branham see [[Stories about Eagles|a mother eagle carry her babies on her wings?]]
#[[The Cloud|Why did William Branham say that he was under the cloud when they took its picture, when he clearly wasn't?]]
#Did William Branham travel [[William_Branham's Travels#Around the world seven times?|around the world seven times?]]
#[[Bible saved from the flood|Was William Branham's Bible saved miraculously in the 1937 flood?]]
#[[The Man from Windsor|Why did the story of the man from Windsor change so drastically over time?]]
#[[Plagiarism|Why did William Branham say that he received his revelations from God when he took many of his doctrines from other men?]]
#Why did William Branham change the story of [[Congressman Upshaw]]'s healing?
#[[Roy Davis|When did William Branham embrace Pentecostalism?]]
#Was [[Donny Morton]] really healed?
#[[William Branham speaks in tongues|Did William Branham speak in an unknown tongue that a Finnish woman understood?]]
#[[The Death of Charles Branham|Was it reasonable for William Branham to blame his poor grammar on his dad?]]
#Did William Branham prayer for [[King George VI|King George VI and was he really healed?]]
#[[Kari Holma|Did William Branham raise a boy from the dead in Finland?]]
#Who was [[Hope Branham's Nurse]]?
#Was [[Florence Nightingale]] the granddaughter of the original Florence Nightingale?
#[[The Pillar of Fire|Did the Pillar of Fire really appear above William Branham's head in Houston? Why did other pictures from that evening appear in the newspaper, when he said his picture was the only one that turned out?]]
#[[Proposing to Hope Brumbach|Was William Branham truthful about asking Hope's parents for her hand in marriage?]]
#[[William Branham's Double Standard#William Branham in Shorts|If only sissies wear shorts, why did William Branham wear them?]]
#[[Leo Mercer|How could William Branham have allowed Leo Mercer to be part of his ministry?]]
#[[An Uncertain Sound|Did William Branham claim to be a prophet?]]
#[[The Nazarite Birth|Was William Branham born under a Nazarite Vow?]]
#[[Discernment errors|Was William Branham's discernment 100% accurate?]]
#[[Guessing the disease|Was William Branham's ministry always 100%?]]
#[[The Mystery of the Empty Cornerstone|What was in the cornerstone of Branham Tabernacle?]]
#[[Billy Paul Branham|Why was William Branham dishonest about his son's first marriage?]]
#[[Prophecy of the Cloud|Why was the vision of the five angels changed to a vision of seven angels?]]
#[[Rattlesnake Mesa|Why did William Branham say that he was at Sunset Mountain when he was actually at Rattlesnake Mesa?]]
#Why did William Branham make up [[The Story of the Pyramid Box|the story of the Pyramid Box]]?
#[[Different Stories|Why did William Branham's stories change so radically over time?]]
#[[The Perfect Man|Was William Branham really the first fruits of spiritual maturity? The perfect man?]]
#[[The Houston Photograph|Was the photo from Houston supernatural or just the out of focus picture of a flood light?]]
#[[The Amber Light|Did William Branham see an amber light?]]
#[[Jim Jones|Did William Branham help to launch the ministry of Jim Jones?]]
#Was Marshal [[Matt Dillon]] from Gunsmoke a real person?
#[[Is Joseph Branham a prophet?]]
#Was there a [[Mormon prophecy about William Branham]]?
#[[Prophecy: Danny Henry|Did Danny Henry's prophecy take place?]]
#[[William Branham's View of Himself|How did William Branham view himself?]]
#[[William Branham and Money|Was William Branham a wealthy man when he died?]]
#[[William Branham Speaking as God|If God spoke through William Branham, why did he mess up?]]
#[[William Branham's Double Standard#William Branham the Hunter|If it was wrong to kill animals for sport, why did William Branham do it?]]
#[[William Branham's Double Standard#William Branham at the Theatre|Why did William Branham deny that he went to movies 3 weeks after admitting that he did?]]
#[[William Branham's Double Standard#William Branham, sold out for a Cadillac|Why did William Branham criticize those who drove Cadillac's when he owned one?]]
#[[William Branham's Double Standard#Trimmed Hair & Short Skirts in the Branham Family|Why did William Branham criticize women that cut their hair and wore short skirts, when his own family did?]]
#[[Arvel Mosier|What actually happened to Hattie Wright's boys?]]
#[[William Branham on Suicide#Inaccuracies about William Cowper's death|Why did William Branham say he went to William Cowper's grave when he didn't?]]
#[[William Branham on Suicide#Inaccuracies about William Cowper's death|Why did William Branham say William Cowper committed suicide when he died of heart failure?]]
#[[William Branham on Suicide#Stephen Foster|Why did William Branham state the Stephen Foster committed suicide, when this is not true?]]
#Was there really a connection between [[The Pope and the Lunar Eclipse|the Pope visiting israel in 1964 and the lunar eclipse that preceded his visit?]]
#[[Question 7 (ABM) - William Branham's visit to Rome|Q&A with a message minister relating to William Branham's credibility]]

No one dared oppose William Branham when he was alive

2026-06-17T14:15:16Z

Admin: /* So what do we do with that? */

We have often heard this excuse for someone maintaining their continued belief that William Branham was a prophet, in light of the massive amount of evidence that has been compiled to the contrary?<blockquote>''You sound convincing now but '''no one dared oppose William Branham when he was alive'''.''</blockquote>Is this true?

=Many disagreed with him=
There were many who disagreed with Branham, not just privately but publicly.

==Very few people were actually healed and this caught up with him==
We have a separate detailed article that documents that [[How many people were healed in Branham's meetings?|very few people were actually healed in Branham's meetings]].

Testimonies of:

*Alfred Pohl
*W.J. Taylor
*Walter Hollenweger

prove that William Branham was not the healer he claimed to be.

==Virtually all rejected his teachings==
William Branham admitted that most disagreed with him. He recognized that people were turning their backs on him:<blockquote>''"And, brethren, who is listening to this on tape, I was a great guy when I come among you, just healing the sick, speaking of visions and showing things. But when I went to tell you the truth about the Word, what did you turn your back on me for? Do you realize it's just fulfilling what the Scripture said? Yes, it does that way. Now I can hardly get in a place." 62-0908''</blockquote>There were many preachers who hopped on the "Divine Healing" bandwagon. Many people in the Pentecostal ranks flocked after "signs and wonders" and readily opened their doors to any evangelist who claimed to produce them. So, why did people eventually turn their backs on William Branham?

He claimed they rejected him because of his teachings.

'''THEY DID.''' They rejected his "Word teachings" because they were not Biblical; therefore they were not Word.

=So what do we do with that?=

According to William Branham's own words, when his message was rejected it was over:<blockquote>''"Notice when the Message is rejected and the messenger seems to be defeated, that's when God steps on the scene, his message is over." 63-0116''</blockquote>William Branham claimed that his message was unadulterated Gospel and Scripture:<blockquote>"My message that's truly unadulterated Gospel and Scripture, and the people have to reject it to fulfill the Word." 57-1211
And according to his own words, his "Gospel Message" was rejected:
"America: low-down, rotten, filthy, no good. That's exactly right. She's been a great nation. She's carried the Gospel message. What makes her the way she is? Because she's turned down the Gospel Message, and rejected the truths." 61-0108</blockquote>

For those who truly believe that William Branham had a "message" for his day, you might want to heed his words:<blockquote>
''"What happened if they tried to keep that manna over? It contaminated. It would kill them. That's the reason we got so many spiritual dead, so-called Christians. They're eating a glare of another day. They're eating manna that's already contaminated." 64-0125''</blockquote>Any way you look at it, William Branham's message was over... 50 years ago.

[[Category: Unfinished articles]]

No one dared oppose William Branham when he was alive

2026-06-17T14:13:55Z

Admin: /* Many disagreed with him */

We have often heard this excuse for someone maintaining their continued belief that William Branham was a prophet, in light of the massive amount of evidence that has been compiled to the contrary?<blockquote>''You sound convincing now but '''no one dared oppose William Branham when he was alive'''.''</blockquote>Is this true?

=Many disagreed with him=
There were many who disagreed with Branham, not just privately but publicly.

==Very few people were actually healed and this caught up with him==
We have a separate detailed article that documents that [[How many people were healed in Branham's meetings?|very few people were actually healed in Branham's meetings]].

Testimonies of:

*Alfred Pohl
*W.J. Taylor
*Walter Hollenweger

prove that William Branham was not the healer he claimed to be.

==Virtually all rejected his teachings==
William Branham admitted that most disagreed with him. He recognized that people were turning their backs on him:<blockquote>''"And, brethren, who is listening to this on tape, I was a great guy when I come among you, just healing the sick, speaking of visions and showing things. But when I went to tell you the truth about the Word, what did you turn your back on me for? Do you realize it's just fulfilling what the Scripture said? Yes, it does that way. Now I can hardly get in a place." 62-0908''</blockquote>There were many preachers who hopped on the "Divine Healing" bandwagon. Many people in the Pentecostal ranks flocked after "signs and wonders" and readily opened their doors to any evangelist who claimed to produce them. So, why did people eventually turn their backs on William Branham?

He claimed they rejected him because of his teachings.

'''THEY DID.''' They rejected his "Word teachings" because they were not Biblical; therefore they were not Word.

=So what do we do with that?=

According to William Branham's own words, when his message was rejected it was over:<blockquote>''"Notice when the Message is rejected and the messenger seems to be defeated, that's when God steps on the scene, his message is over." 63-0116''</blockquote>William Branham claimed that his message was unadulterated Gospel and Scripture:

"My message that's truly unadulterated Gospel and Scripture, and the people have to reject it to fulfill the Word." 57-1211
And according to his own words, his "Gospel Message" was rejected:
"America: low-down, rotten, filthy, no good. That's exactly right. She's been a great nation. She's carried the Gospel message. What makes her the way she is? Because she's turned down the Gospel Message, and rejected the truths." 61-0108

For those who truly believe that William Branham had a "message" for his day, you might want to heed his words:

:''"What happened if they tried to keep that manna over? It contaminated. It would kill them. That's the reason we got so many spiritual dead, so-called Christians. They're eating a glare of another day. They're eating manna that's already contaminated." 64-0125

Any way you look at it, William Branham's message was over... 50 years ago.

[[Category: Unfinished articles]]

No one dared oppose William Branham when he was alive

2026-06-17T14:13:17Z

Admin: /* Very few people were actually healed and this caught up with him */

We have often heard this excuse for someone maintaining their continued belief that William Branham was a prophet, in light of the massive amount of evidence that has been compiled to the contrary?<blockquote>''You sound convincing now but '''no one dared oppose William Branham when he was alive'''.''</blockquote>Is this true?

=Many disagreed with him=

==Very few people were actually healed and this caught up with him==
We have a separate detailed article that documents that [[How many people were healed in Branham's meetings?|very few people were actually healed in Branham's meetings]].

Testimonies of:

*Alfred Pohl
*W.J. Taylor
*Walter Hollenweger

prove that William Branham was not the healer he claimed to be.

==Virtually all rejected his teachings==
William Branham admitted that most disagreed with him. He recognized that people were turning their backs on him:<blockquote>''"And, brethren, who is listening to this on tape, I was a great guy when I come among you, just healing the sick, speaking of visions and showing things. But when I went to tell you the truth about the Word, what did you turn your back on me for? Do you realize it's just fulfilling what the Scripture said? Yes, it does that way. Now I can hardly get in a place." 62-0908''</blockquote>There were many preachers who hopped on the "Divine Healing" bandwagon. Many people in the Pentecostal ranks flocked after "signs and wonders" and readily opened their doors to any evangelist who claimed to produce them. So, why did people eventually turn their backs on William Branham?

He claimed they rejected him because of his teachings.

'''THEY DID.''' They rejected his "Word teachings" because they were not Biblical; therefore they were not Word.

=So what do we do with that?=

According to William Branham's own words, when his message was rejected it was over:<blockquote>''"Notice when the Message is rejected and the messenger seems to be defeated, that's when God steps on the scene, his message is over." 63-0116''</blockquote>William Branham claimed that his message was unadulterated Gospel and Scripture:

"My message that's truly unadulterated Gospel and Scripture, and the people have to reject it to fulfill the Word." 57-1211
And according to his own words, his "Gospel Message" was rejected:
"America: low-down, rotten, filthy, no good. That's exactly right. She's been a great nation. She's carried the Gospel message. What makes her the way she is? Because she's turned down the Gospel Message, and rejected the truths." 61-0108

For those who truly believe that William Branham had a "message" for his day, you might want to heed his words:

:''"What happened if they tried to keep that manna over? It contaminated. It would kill them. That's the reason we got so many spiritual dead, so-called Christians. They're eating a glare of another day. They're eating manna that's already contaminated." 64-0125

Any way you look at it, William Branham's message was over... 50 years ago.

[[Category: Unfinished articles]]

No one dared oppose William Branham when he was alive

2026-06-17T14:10:28Z

Admin:

We have often heard this excuse for someone maintaining their continued belief that William Branham was a prophet, in light of the massive amount of evidence that has been compiled to the contrary?<blockquote>''You sound convincing now but '''no one dared oppose William Branham when he was alive'''.''</blockquote>Is this true?

=Many disagreed with him=

==Very few people were actually healed and this caught up with him==

==Virtually all rejected his teachings==
William Branham admitted that most disagreed with him. He recognized that people were turning their backs on him:<blockquote>''"And, brethren, who is listening to this on tape, I was a great guy when I come among you, just healing the sick, speaking of visions and showing things. But when I went to tell you the truth about the Word, what did you turn your back on me for? Do you realize it's just fulfilling what the Scripture said? Yes, it does that way. Now I can hardly get in a place." 62-0908''</blockquote>There were many preachers who hopped on the "Divine Healing" bandwagon. Many people in the Pentecostal ranks flocked after "signs and wonders" and readily opened their doors to any evangelist who claimed to produce them. So, why did people eventually turn their backs on William Branham?

He claimed they rejected him because of his teachings.

'''THEY DID.''' They rejected his "Word teachings" because they were not Biblical; therefore they were not Word.

=So what do we do with that?=

According to William Branham's own words, when his message was rejected it was over:<blockquote>''"Notice when the Message is rejected and the messenger seems to be defeated, that's when God steps on the scene, his message is over." 63-0116''</blockquote>William Branham claimed that his message was unadulterated Gospel and Scripture:

"My message that's truly unadulterated Gospel and Scripture, and the people have to reject it to fulfill the Word." 57-1211
And according to his own words, his "Gospel Message" was rejected:
"America: low-down, rotten, filthy, no good. That's exactly right. She's been a great nation. She's carried the Gospel message. What makes her the way she is? Because she's turned down the Gospel Message, and rejected the truths." 61-0108

For those who truly believe that William Branham had a "message" for his day, you might want to heed his words:

:''"What happened if they tried to keep that manna over? It contaminated. It would kill them. That's the reason we got so many spiritual dead, so-called Christians. They're eating a glare of another day. They're eating manna that's already contaminated." 64-0125

Any way you look at it, William Branham's message was over... 50 years ago.

[[Category: Unfinished articles]]

Template:Doctrinal Questions

2026-06-17T14:02:53Z

Admin:

The following is a list of questions that we have attempted to answer regarding the teachings of William Branham. Please click on the link to go to a detailed discussion of the question:

#Are we required to believe [[The word for our day?|the word for our day]]?
#Did William Branham's teaching on the [[Seven Seals]] come from the angel of God?
#If I speak against the Message, am I [[Blaspheming the Holy Ghost|blaspheming the Holy Ghost]]?
#[[Can an engagement be broken?|Can a wedding engagement be broken?]]
#[[William Branham's View of Creation|Was Adam first created as a "spirit being"]] or is this Mormon doctrine?
#[[Was Time Created as a Result of Sin?]]
#[[Who got naked first?]] Adam or Eve?
#Why did William Branham teach that some Christians were [[Christians that were required to believe Satanic doctrine|required to believe Satanic doctrine to be saved?]]
#[[Propserity always ruins people|Does prosperity always ruin people as William Branham taught?]]
#Elijah and Elisha prayed. [[Elijah and Elisha did pray|Why did William Branham say they didn't?]]
#Why did William Branham disagree with the doctrine of [[The Clarity of Scripture|the clarity of scripture]], a long held doctrine of the church?
#William Branham believed he was the fulfillment of [[Revelation 10:7]]. Was he correct?
#[[Did God change Saul's name to Paul?]]
#[[The Prophet and The Eagle|William Branham taught that eagles typed prophets in the Bible. Where is this found in scripture?]]
#William Branham believed that if a wife cuts her hair, [[Marriage and Divorce|her husband can divorce her.]] Does the Bible teach this?
#[[Marriage and Divorce|William Branham believed that a man can remarry after divorce but a woman can't. Why did william Branham preach something that neither Jesus or Paul did?]]
#[[Financial accountability in the message|Should 100% of the tithes go to the pastor?]]
#[[Financial accountability in the message#Do pastors = Levitical priests?|Are pastors today the same as priests in the Old Testament?]]
#[[Ministers must marry a virgin|Are ministers required to marry a virgin]]?
#[[Polygamy in the Message|Did William Branham approve of polygamy]]?
#[[THUS SAITH THE LORD|Were there any times when William Branham's "Thus Saith The Lord" actually failed?]]
#[[King Saul - The Peoples' Choice?|Why did William Branham disagree with the Bible and teach that the people chose Saul as King of Israel?]]
#[[Three holy words|What are the three holy words of the Bible that William Branham spoke of?]]
#[[Prophets that ministered at the same time|Why did William Branham say that 2 major prophets were never on the scene at the same time when the Bible doesn't teach that?]]
#[[Q&A on the Godhead#Did God leave Jesus Christ on the cross?|William Branham said that God left Jesus when He was on the cross. Does the Bible teach this?]]
#[[William Branham and the Zodiac|Does God really have '''THREE Bibles''' as William Branham taught?]]
#[[Temporary Salvation|If you don't feel saved, are you still a Christian?]]
#[[Twisted Theology#Lilies work hard|How hard do lilies work?]]
#[[The Reason John Wept|Did John weep for joy or because no one was worthy?]]
#[[Women were designed by Satan|Were women really designed by Satan?]]
#[[Can you lose your healing?]]
#[[Enoch and Noah#The Seventh from Adam|Was Enoch the seventh from Adam]]? Is this proof of the Serpent Seed doctrine?
#[[Mystery Babylon#The Identity of the Woman|Is the harlot in the Book of Revelation the Roman Catholic Church?]]
#[[Are Christians considered amateur gods?]]
#[[Michael the Archangel|Is Jesus Christ the same as Michael the Archangel?]]
#[[Reading between the lines|Does the Bible say that we have to "read between the lines"?]]
#[[Enoch and Noah|Noah started building the ark after he saw Enoch go in a Rapture]]
#[[Enoch and Noah|Was Enoch a type of the wise virgin, and Noah a type of the foolish virgin?]]
#[[The Fulfillment of Malachi 4:5|Was William Branham the fulfillment of Malachi 4:5?]]
#[[The Importance of a Seven-Lettered Name|Is the spelling of William Branham's name of spiritual significance?]]
#[[Illegitimate children]] cannot be part of the rapture.
#[[Reason and Faith|Should Christians "cast down reasoning"?]]
#[[Can the Holy Spirit abandon you?]]
#[[Love is corrective|How nice do you have to be to people that disagree with you doctrinally?]]
#[[Justification, Sanctification, and the Holy Spirit|Is salvation something that you earn?]]
#[[Long Hair or Uncut Hair|Does long hair mean uncut (i.e. no trimming of split ends) for women?]]
#[[Long Hair or Uncut Hair|Does God hear the prayer of a woman that has cut her hair]]?
#[[Grounds for Divorce in the Message|Can a man get a divorce for any reason?]]
#[[The Midwives of Egypt|Were the midwives in Egypt actually witches?]]
#[[Hierarchy in Heaven|Is your admission to heaven conditional on William Branham's judgment?]]
#[[Are There Women Angels?]]
#[[Matthew 27:46|Did Jesus die screaming for help, crying for mercy because He was separated from God?]]
#[[Mixing Law and Grace|William Branham mixed law and grace. Is that a problem?]]
#[[Water baptism|Was William Branham's understanding of water baptism historically correct?]]
#[[John 18:6|When Jesus died on the cross, did God leave him? Did he simply die as a man?]]
#[[The Godhead|Did William Branham simply copy Emmanual Swedenborg's teaching on the Godhead?]]
#[[The Serpent's Seed|Does the Bible really teach that the serpent had sex with Eve?]]
#[[Amos 3:3|Can any two walk together unless they be agreed? Did William Branham understand Amos 3:3?]]
#[[Amos 3:7|Was William Branham's understanding of Amos 3:7 correct?]]
#[[1 John 1:7‎‎]]
#[[Fallen From Grace|What did William Branham teach happened when someone "fell from grace"?]]
#[[The Sin in the Wilderness|Were the Israelites that died in the wilderness eternally lost?]]
#Was William Branham guilty of [[Theological Trespassing]]?
#Did William Branham's teaching on [[The Token|the Token]] agree with Paul's teaching on the subject?
#[[Ephesians 4:30|When is a person sealed by the Holy Spirit?]]
#[[Matthew 17:11|Is a gentile Elijah prophesied in the Bible?]]
#[[Matthew 24:28|Does the message teach the correct interpretation of Matthew 24:28?]]
#[[Destruction of Los Angeles#Pearry Green's Testimony|Is Billy Paul an old man? And if he is, why aren't sharks swimming through Los Angeles?]]
#The evidence of [[The Baptism of the Holy Spirit|the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is believing in William Branham]]
#[[Luke 17:30|Did William Branham reveal the Son of Man?]]
#[[John 16:13|Does the Holy Spirit lead people into the message?]]
#[[Seventh Seal|If the seventh seal was silent, how did William Branham know what it meant?]]
#[[Isaiah 9:6]]
#[[Zechariah 14:7]]
#[[Revelation 16:13]]
#[[Was William Branham a racist?|Are biracial marriages unscriptural]]?
#[[Abraham and Sarah|What was God's reaction to Sarah laughing?]]
#[[The Body of Christ|Does the Bible teach there are two tiers of Christians?]]
#[[The Message#Is the "Bride" a special category of Christian?|Is the "Bride" a special category of Christian?]]
#[[Eternal Sonship|If the Son is not eternal, can the Father be eternal?]]
#Is there a difference in the meaning of [[Q&A on the Godhead#Eternal vs. Everlasting|Eternal vs. Everlasting]]
#[[Sex was not in God's original plan|If sex was not in God's original plan, how come he made us as sexual beings?]]
#[[Gifts and callings are without repentance|Are people born with spiritual gifts as William Branham taught?]]
#[[Q&A on the Godhead#What is the meaning of "begotten"?|What is the meaning of "begotten"?]]
#[[Three Persons|Does the Christian church actually teach that there are three gods in the Trinity?]]
#Did William Branham misrepresent [[The Trinity|the Church's historical view of the Trinity]]?
#[[Tithing|Is tithing required in the New Testament?]]
#[[Destruction of Los Angeles|Is Capernaum under the sea?]]
#[[Legalism|How many rules do I have to keep in order to get to heaven?]]
#Is it a sin for a woman to [[Is it permissible for women to wear pants?|wear pants]]?
#[[The Message Dress Code|Is the message dress code in the Bible?]]
#[[That which is perfect is come|Has "that which is perfect" come?]]
#What is the actual meaning of [[El Shaddai]]?
#What was [[The Sign of the Messiah]]?
#[[William Branham and the future|Was William Branham's view of the future biblical?]]
#[[William Branham's View of Himself|How did William Branham view himself?]]
#[[Jehovah|Does God only have seven compound names?]]
#[[The Two Witnesses of Revelation 11|Who are the two witnesses of Revelation 11]]?
#Why do we need William Branham's message when [[The Sufficiency of Scripture|scripture is sufficient?]]
#[[A New Thing|Is the message "stale" manna?]]
#[[Alcohol|William Branham and Alcohol]]
#[[Can you tell if someone has the Holy Spirit?]]
#[[William Branham on Suicide#Saul didn't commit suicide|Why did William Branham say that Saul did not commit suicide, when the Bible says he did?]]
#How could [[Open-toed shoes|open-toed shoes]] be immoral if virtually everyone in the Bible wore them?
#[[Question 6 (ABM) - Revelation 10:7|Q&A with a message minister relating to William Branham's doctrine]]
#Is [[Oneness]] theology biblical?

The word for our day?

2026-06-17T14:01:03Z

Admin: /* What William Branham taught */

Here is a quote from a message follower:

:''Jesus Christ is the Word for our day. God always uses man to bring His Word. That's a scriptural pattern.

Is this correct? Is that what the message of William Branham is? - the word for our day?

=What William Branham taught=

William Branham taught that what was good in the early church would not work today:

:''The Word of Moses’ time did not work in the days of Jesus’ time. The work… '''the Word in the days of the apostles does not work in this day'''. It’s a promised Word for this day. They said themselves, and spoke it by the Holy Ghost, what would take place in the last days, how the churches would be heady, high-minded, how the whore would rise up and the harlots would be right with her, and how the…they would darken the earth. And the last church age, the Laodicea, Jesus would be completely taken from the church.<ref>William Branham, 64-0112 - Shalom, para. 260</ref>

William Branham believed that he had the "word for the hour" and that people could not be saved outside of his message:

:''The anointed Word of God being vindicated before any man that’s born to be a son of God, with the predestinated germ into him for this hour, he’ll see God’s Message as sure as there’s a God in Heaven. Martin Luther saw It for his. Wesley saw It for his. The pentecostal saw It for his. '''Now what about you?''' Uh-huh. They went into a denomination. Here is the Word condemning it; '''telling you what we’re to have today, and just exactly Malachi 4 and all these other promises for the hour.''' What do you see? What are you looking at? Amen. Here we are. '''The real, genuine eagles hear.''' “My sheep know My Voice. A stranger they’ll not follow.”<ref>william Braham, The Invisible Union Of The Bride Of Christ (65-1125), para. 240</ref>

:''No matter how much education, and how kind, how much you speak with tongues, how much kind, gentle, and everything you are; '''unless you accept that Word of the hour, when It’s manifested before you, you’re in the same predicament.''' That might sound crude, I don’t mean it that way, but it’s Truth. Just, just believe It, see. <ref>william Braham, Paradox (64-0206B), para. 232</ref>

William Branham did not believe that all believers in Christ would go in the rapture. Only those that followed him go go in the rapture:

:'''''Will all borned again believers go in the rapture?''' '''No, just the remnant, just the remnant, not all born again believers.''' The Bible said, “And the rest of the dead lived not for a thousand years,” and then they was raised and separated, the sheep from the goats. Not all borned again will go in the…according to Scripture.<ref>William Branham, Questions And Answers #2 (64-0823E), para. 211</ref>
William Branham supported his concept of "the Word for this age" or "the Word for this day" by arguing that '''God foreknew all of history from the beginning and specifically divided or "allotted" portions of biblical prophecy to be fulfilled in distinct eras'''. He builds this doctrine using several key scriptural pillars:

'''1. The Word Comes Only to Prophets (John 10:35 & Amos 3:7)''' Branham relies heavily on Jesus' statement in John 10:35 that "the Word of God came" to the prophets. He couples this with Amos 3:7 to argue that God never acts without first revealing His plan to a prophet. Therefore, when it is time for the allotted Word of a specific age to be manifested, '''God always sends a prophet to the earth to make that specific Word live and be vindicated for that generation'''.

'''2. God Speaks in Sundry Times and Divers Manners (Hebrews 1:1)''' To prove that God has an unchanging pattern of sending a specific message for a specific time, Branham frequently quotes Hebrews 1:1, noting that "God in sundry times and divers manners spake to the fathers through the prophets". He uses this to show that '''God predestinates a specific messenger for each age, tailoring his nature and his message to perfectly meet the challenge of that particular day'''.

'''3. The Incompatibility of Past Messages''' Branham argues that '''the Word allotted for one age cannot be carried over into another age'''. He illustrates this logically by pointing out that Moses could not have brought Noah's message of building an ark, and Jesus could not have come bringing Moses' message. Similarly, the modern church cannot simply rely on the past messages of Martin Luther or John Wesley, because each age has its own distinct scriptural promises that must be fulfilled.

'''4. Christ as the Eternal, Unchanging Word (John 1:1 & Hebrews 13:8)''' Branham teaches that because "In the beginning was the Word" (John 1:1) and "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8), the Word made manifest in any generation ''is'' Christ revealing Himself. '''He asserts that believers must not live in the "glare" of a past light or a historical movement, but must search the Scriptures to recognize the Word that is predestinated to be manifested in their own present hour'''. For instance, he states that John the Baptist was the "light of the hour" because his ministry brought to pass the very Word that God had spoken concerning him through Isaiah and Malachi.

'''5. Living by Every Word (Matthew 4:4)''' Finally, he points to Jesus' declaration that "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God". Branham insists that living by "every word" means recognizing and accepting the specific scriptural promises designated for the present day, rather than relying on man-made creeds or denominational traditions that obscure the "Word for this hour". To Branham, '''when God brings to pass the things He promised for a certain age, that is God acting as His own interpreter, requiring no human theology to explain it'''.

=What the Bible teaches=

'''William Branham’s concept of "the Word for this age" relies on a classic cultic methodology: tearing verses out of context, redefining biblical terms to fit a private theology, and establishing an extra-biblical source of authority.''' A careful, contextual examination of the Scriptures he uses demonstrates that his logic is fundamentally flawed and contradicts the very Bible he claims to preach.

William Branham's understanding of the "word for our day" was that a person must believe that William Branham was a prophet and if you don't believe that, then you don't have the Holy Spirit. However, '''that is complete and utter non-Biblical nonsense.'''

The message is simply a type of Christian conservatism which has been repeated throughout the history of Christianity. Its adherents say they are founded on scripture but their faith is really based on the "inspired" teachings of an "inspired" teacher.

A lot of people like this because it's simple. They don't have to think. They just have to believe what the "inspired" teacher says.

But that is not the Bible.

In 2 Peter 3:15, we read:

:''Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.<ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 2 Pe 3:15–16. </ref>

Peter says that some of Paul's teachings are hard to understand.

The writer of Hebrews states in chapter 5 that:

:''We have much to say about this, but '''it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand.''' In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. <ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Heb 5:11–14.</ref>

We need to be adults. We need to think and consider and ponder God's word. We need to examine what William Branham taught very carefully and compare it to scripture.

The reason that so many have left the message of William Branahm is because of that. They have examined William Branham's message and compared it to the Bible. It failed.

Here is a detailed, point-by-point critique of his scriptural pillars based on the sources:

'''1. The Role of Prophets (John 10:35 & Amos 3:7) and Hebrews 1:1''' Branham's reliance on Hebrews 1:1 to argue that God continues to send specific prophets with new messages for each age is a devastating misinterpretation caused by ignoring the very next verse. Hebrews 1:1-2 states: "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, '''has in these last days spoken to us by His Son'''".

When read in its full context, '''this passage teaches the exact opposite of Branham's doctrine.''' It proves that God's revelation through Jesus Christ is climactic and definitive. While God historically spoke through a succession of prophets, that era culminated and concluded with Christ, who is the final, supreme revelation of God. Furthermore, the Bible states that the church is "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets" (Ephesians 2:20). Because a foundation only needs to be laid once at the beginning of a building, '''the need for the work of another prophet arriving centuries later to deliver a new "Word" is definitely excluded'''. Therefore, any alleged prophet claiming to bring new, binding revelation after the completion of the New Testament must be considered a false prophet.

'''2. The "Incompatibility" of Past Messages''' Branham’s argument that messages of the past (such as those of Luther or Wesley) expire and cannot be carried over into a new age is an attempt to create an abrupt break with historic Christianity—a primary distinguishing mark of a cult.

The Scriptures teach that the Bible contains God's message '''"for all people for all time"'''. The Book of Jude explicitly refutes the idea of evolving, era-specific messages by declaring that the faith '''"was once for all delivered to the saints"''' (Jude 1:3). There is no "allotted Word" waiting to be unlocked in the 20th century because the complete, infallible revelation of God was already delivered, finalized, and sealed.

'''3. Christ as the Unchanging Word (Hebrews 13:8)''' Branham misapplies Hebrews 13:8 ("Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever") to argue that Christ must manifest a new, distinct "Word" for each generation. In reality, this verse establishes the theological doctrine of Christ’s immutability—that '''His nature, His character, and His completed Gospel do not change over time'''.

Because Christ and His Word do not change, there is no need to search for a new "light of the hour." To argue that the modern church needs a new predestinated message is to add to the completed canon of Scripture, an offense strictly condemned in Revelation 22:18-19, which warns that God will add plagues to anyone who adds to the words of His prophecy.

'''4. Living by "Every Word" (Matthew 4:4)''' Branham’s insistence that "living by every word" means recognizing a newly designated message for the present day is a prime example of esoteric cultic exegesis. Cults frequently claim to possess special, hidden truths that orthodox believers missed. By forcing a "metaphysical" or "hidden" meaning onto a plain text, Branham violates the scriptural injunction to rightly handle the Word of God and not distort its meaning (2 Peter 3:16).

When Jesus said man must live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, He was quoting Deuteronomy and affirming the authority of the existing, objective Scriptures—not setting the stage for future prophets to invent new theologies. The Bible is completely sufficient for all instruction, reproof, and doctrine so that the believer may be "thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

'''Conclusion''' Branham's logic is fatally flawed because it elevates his own private interpretations over the plain, historical, and contextual reading of the Bible. He uses Christian terminology but pours his own esoteric meanings into it. By asserting that God acts as "His own interpreter" to vindicate Branham's specific ministry, '''he reduces the ultimate authority of the Bible and replaces it with his own authority as a supposed prophet'''. The Scriptures definitively prove that God's final Word has already been spoken through Jesus Christ, and no new prophet or "Word for this age" is needed or biblically permitted.{{Bottom of Page}}

[[Category: Unfinished articles]]

Oneness and Trinity AD 100-300

2026-06-17T04:45:35Z

Admin:

{{Top of Page}}
{{Template:Bernard Jesus}}
= Critical Response to ''Oneness and Trinity A.D. 100-300'' by David Bernard =
----
''The Oneness of God'' and ''The Oneness View of Jesus'' make their case primarily from Scripture. This book is different. ''Oneness and Trinity A.D. 100-300'' presents arguments from church history. Bernard's thesis is that the early church, from the death of the apostles to the Council of Nicaea in 325, was Oneness rather than Trinitarian, and that Trinitarianism was a later philosophical invention that displaced the original faith.

Our response does not repeat arguments addressed in earlier responses to Bernard's books. It focuses on the arguments that are unique to this one. Bernard raises some real historical questions, and fair credit will be given where his points land. But the overall case has serious problems, starting with the method itself.
----

== "We Can't Trust What the Early Church Writers Actually Wrote" ==
Bernard opens by warning that ancient documents have been altered, added to, and suppressed. Trinitarian scribes, he argues, had both the motive and the opportunity to corrupt texts, so any passage that looks Trinitarian may be a later addition. He applies this logic throughout, particularly with Ignatius and the Didache.

This sounds reasonable on the surface, but it works too well. Once you decide that any text can be dismissed as a possible interpolation, you have given yourself the power to ignore any evidence you don't like. This is particularly troubling because Bernard doesn't actually demonstrate that specific passages were altered by using the tools historians employ for that kind of work: comparing manuscript traditions, analyzing word choices, checking whether a passage fits the style and context of the surrounding text, or examining whether later writers quote the disputed passage. He asserts interpolation as an explanation whenever a text is inconvenient. That is not historical argument; it is special pleading. '''Special pleading''' is a logical fallacy where someone applies a general rule or principle to others, but claims an unjustified exemption for themselves or a specific case. It essentially relies on a '''double standard''' to protect a favored belief or avoid an inconvenient truth.

Textual scholars have studied these documents for centuries, and most of them reach their conclusions without any stake in Trinitarian or Oneness outcomes. The standard text of Ignatius, for example, is the shorter version that scholars broadly accept as genuine. Bernard uses this fact throughout his book. But then he also applies the interpolation suspicion to passages within those same accepted letters when they don't support his reading. The question is not whether any ancient document could theoretically have been altered. The question is whether there is actual manuscript evidence of a specific alteration. In most of the cases Bernard raises, there is none.

There is another problem with his method: Bernard never applies it to texts that support his own position. The apocryphal writings he cites in Chapter 9 as evidence for Oneness belief among common people are accepted at face value, without any concern that later Oneness-sympathizing copyists might have shaped them. The interpolation suspicion cuts only in one direction in this book. A method that only challenges the evidence against your view is not a historical method; it's clear bias.
----

== "Trinitarians Can't Have It Both Ways with the Church Fathers" ==
Bernard points out, repeatedly and with some justification, that Trinitarians appeal to early church fathers as authorities for the Trinity while rejecting those same fathers on other points. Irenaeus taught that baptism is necessary for new birth. Tertullian subordinated the Son to the Father in ways Nicene orthodoxy later condemned. Origen was excommunicated. If these writers are your authorities for the Trinity, why aren't they also your authorities on everything else they taught?

This is a fair rhetorical challenge, but it proves less than Bernard thinks. Trinitarian Christians don't accept everything Tertullian wrote because Tertullian wrote it. They examine whether his statements reflect what Scripture actually teaches. When he got something right, they receive it. When he didn't, they don't. The church never claimed the pre-Nicene fathers were infallible guides. It treated them as witnesses who were grappling with the same texts and drawing on the same apostolic tradition, sometimes well and sometimes poorly.

Bernard himself uses exactly this method. He cites passages from Ignatius, Irenaeus, and Origen where those writers sound Oneness-compatible, and he takes those as evidence that the early church leaned Oneness. When those same writers sound Trinitarian, he dismisses their statements as interpolations, philosophical corruptions, or failures of nerve. He applies precisely the selective reading he criticizes Trinitarians for making. This doesn't mean the point has no force at all. But it does mean Bernard has no high ground from which to make it.
----

== "The Letters of Ignatius Were Changed by Later Copyists" ==
Bernard argues that the longer forms of Ignatius's letters, which contain the most clearly Trinitarian content, are later expansions. Scholars have long agreed with this. The shorter form of the letters is the standard accepted text, and the longer version is widely recognized as expanded by later hands.

The problem is that Bernard then treats the standard, accepted, shorter text as though it supports a Oneness reading. It doesn't.

In the authentic letters of Ignatius, Jesus Christ is called "God manifested in flesh" (Ephesians 7:2). Ignatius writes of "Jesus Christ who before the ages was with the Father and appeared at the end of time" (Magnesians 6:1), placing Christ alongside the Father as a distinct presence before the Incarnation. In Trallians 11:2, Ignatius writes of "Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father." In Magnesians 8:2, he describes "Jesus Christ, his Son, who is his Word proceeding from silence." None of this is the longer, disputed version. All of it is from the short letters scholars accept as genuine.

These passages don't describe one person appearing in two modes. They describe the Father and the Son as distinguishable, with the Son having an existence alongside the Father before the Incarnation. That language, applied carefully, leads toward Trinitarian thinking, which is why Trinitarian writers have always cited Ignatius. The interpolation argument removes the more explicit Trinitarian language, but the shorter authentic text still does not support a Oneness reading when examined honestly.
----

== "The Didache's Baptismal Formula Was Added Later" ==
Bernard argues that Didache 7:1, which gives the threefold baptismal formula ("baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit"), was inserted by a later Trinitarian scribe. He notes that the only manuscript of the Didache dates to 1056, that Didache 9:5 refers to being "baptized in the name of the Lord," and that the Eucharistic prayers in that document don't address a Trinitarian God. Therefore, he concludes, the threefold formula in chapter 7 doesn't fit the original document.

The manuscript date of 1056 doesn't mean the text was composed or altered late. Virtually every ancient document survives only in medieval manuscript copies, because that is how transmission worked before the printing press. The Didache's content has been dated to the late first or early second century by scholars across different traditions, based on its early and undeveloped theology, its reflection of Jewish Christian practice, and what other ancient writers say about it. A late copy date is not evidence of a late interpolation.

As for the internal conflict Bernard sees: Didache 9:5 says those who are "baptized in the name of the Lord" may eat from the Eucharistic table. This passage identifies who is eligible for Communion; it doesn't describe a competing baptismal formula. "The name of the Lord" is a broad phrase that would include someone baptized with the threefold formula. There is no contradiction. And the absence of an explicitly Trinitarian address in the Eucharistic prayers is not evidence for Oneness theology. Those prayers address God in ways compatible with either position. Silence about Trinitarian distinctions is not the same as Oneness affirmation, and Bernard uses this kind of silence as evidence far more freely than it can bear.
----

== "Justin Martyr Invented the Trinity from Greek Philosophy, Not from the Apostles" ==
Bernard argues that Justin Martyr, writing around 150, was the first to introduce a threefold baptismal formula and to define the Word as a second divine being. Justin, he says, borrowed the Logos concept from Philo of Alexandria and Plato rather than receiving it from the apostles. Therefore Justin's theology was a philosophical import, not a preservation of apostolic teaching.

It is true that Justin's language about the Logos reflects his philosophical background. He was a philosopher who converted to Christianity, and he used the vocabulary of his training to explain what Christians believed to educated pagans. But the claim that the Logos concept was imported into Christianity from Greek philosophy ignores something Bernard never addresses directly: the New Testament itself uses Logos language. John 1:1-14 already says "In the beginning was the Word," already identifies the Word as God, and already says the Word became flesh. What Justin did was engage the existing vocabulary to explain what John had already said. Whether he did so successfully is a fair question. But the origin of Logos language in Christian thought is not Philo; it is John.

More importantly, Justin's theology was subordinationist. He described the Son as a second divine being, lower in rank than the Father. This is a theological problem, and Trinitarian Christians acknowledge it. But notice what kind of problem it is: Justin affirmed a genuinely second being, just defined that being as lesser than the Father. Oneness theology denies that there is any second being at all. These are opposite positions. If Justin deviated from original Christianity, he deviated in the direction of two-ness, not in the direction of one. Bernard wants to argue that Justin started with a Oneness instinct (the Logos originally inherent in the one God) and corrupted it. But Justin's corruption was toward affirming a distinct Logos, not toward denying one. His theology has more in common with Arius than with Oneness Pentecostalism.
----

== "The Other Greek Apologists Weren't Truly Trinitarian Either" ==
Bernard extends his argument about Justin to Tatian, Theophilus, Athenagoras, and Melito. Their views were not orthodox Trinitarianism by Nicene standards. They subordinated the Son to the Father. Some of them described the Logos as originally impersonal within God before being "begotten" at some point before creation. Bernard concludes that these writers represent an evolution away from Oneness, not toward Trinitarianism, and that Trinitarian scholars are dishonest when they claim these men as early Trinitarians.

Trinitarian historians largely accept this critique. The Apologists' language was imprecise and, by later Nicene standards, inadequate. What Bernard misses is the significance of what these writers do consistently affirm: when the Apologists began to think carefully about God and Christ, they all ended up distinguishing the Word from the Father as two realities, not one person in two modes. Even with their flawed and subordinationist vocabulary, every careful philosopher who engaged the Christian doctrine of God ended up moving toward recognizing some form of distinction in the Godhead.

If the early church were genuinely and simply Oneness, as Bernard argues, you would expect trained reasoners to see that clearly and defend it. Instead, every early thinker who tried to explain Christianity to the educated world ended up affirming some form of distinction. Some of them expressed it badly. Some of them expressed it in ways that leaned toward two gods rather than one. But they all moved in the same direction. That is a pattern. It needs explaining. Bernard's explanation is that they were all corrupted by Greek philosophy. But the simpler explanation is that the New Testament, read carefully, keeps pressing people in that direction.
----

== "Irenaeus Sounds More Like Oneness Than Trinity" ==
Bernard argues that Irenaeus, the most significant theologian of the late second century, retained most of the key Oneness emphases: God is one, Jesus is God, the Word is the mind and expression of the Father, and the Son is the visible revelation of the invisible Father. He didn't speak of a trinity of essence; he spoke of a threefold revelation or activity. Bernard concludes that if Irenaeus were alive today, he would probably fit within the Oneness movement.

Irenaeus is genuinely interesting and genuinely ambiguous in places. Bernard is right that he avoided some of the Logos speculation of the Greek Apologists and that his language sometimes sounds like what Oneness writers say. But Bernard draws too strong a conclusion from the ambiguity.

Irenaeus consistently uses the language of real distinction between the Father and the Son, even while maintaining their unity. He writes that "the Son, eternally co-existing with the Father, from of old, yea, from the beginning, always reveals the Father to Angels" (Against Heresies 2:30:9). He describes the Father speaking to the Word and the Wisdom in Genesis 1:26, treating the Word as a genuine conversation partner before creation. When Irenaeus discusses the Old Testament appearances of God to the patriarchs, he says the Word appeared as the Father's visible manifestation, distinguishing between the invisible Father and the visible Son in terms that aren't simply mode language. He speaks of the Word as "always present with" the Father, not as a role the Father takes on at a certain moment.

Bernard himself acknowledges at the end of his Irenaeus chapter that "it is not altogether clear whether Irenaeus regarded the Son/Word and Spirit/Wisdom primarily as impersonal aspects of God's nature, as first impersonal and then personal in some sense, or as eternally distinct from the Father." When the most informed Oneness reader of Irenaeus ends up saying it's genuinely unclear whether he meant Oneness or Trinity, that is not evidence that Irenaeus was Oneness. It is evidence Irenaeus was working through categories that resist easy mapping onto either modern position, but that consistently describe something more than one person in two modes when you press the texts carefully.
----

== "The Founders of Trinitarianism Were Themselves Condemned as Heretics" ==
This is one of Bernard's most rhetorically effective points. Tertullian, he notes, was a schismatic who joined the Montanists and attacked the mainstream church vehemently. Origen was excommunicated and formally condemned by two councils, in 543 and 553. Hippolytus headed a rival church in Rome. These are the people who developed what became Trinitarian doctrine. If the founders were condemned, why should the doctrine be trusted?

Trinitarian Christians have never argued that Tertullian or Origen were infallible authorities whose personal integrity authenticates their theology. They are sources, not saints. The test for their theological contributions is not their church membership in good standing but whether their insights correctly reflect what Scripture actually teaches.

Tertullian, despite his Montanist defection and his vicious attacks on the church he had left, formulated language about one God in three persons that proved more adequate than anything that had come before. Origen, despite his many theological errors and his excommunication, contributed the concept of the eternally begotten Son, which corrected the Apologists' tendency to make the Son temporally dependent on the Father. The church didn't receive these men uncritically. It accepted what matched Scripture, refined what was imprecise, and condemned what contradicted the apostolic witness. The fact that the formulators of early Trinitarian language were imperfect men with troubled church relationships tells us something about the men. It tells us nothing about whether their core insight, that Father, Son, and Spirit are genuinely distinct yet one God, is true.
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== "Baptism in Jesus' Name Was the Original and Dominant Practice" ==
Bernard documents at some length that baptism invoking Jesus' name was widespread through the second and third centuries. He cites apocryphal writings, Cyprian's correspondence, and particularly the anonymous Treatise on Rebaptism, which describes the Jesus Name formula as having the support of "the most ancient custom and ecclesiastical tradition." Bernard concludes that the threefold formula ("in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit") was Tertullian's innovation, and that the Jesus Name formula was the original apostolic practice.

Some of this history is real. There was genuine debate over baptismal practice in the third century, and baptism invoking the name of Jesus was practiced broadly. That is worth acknowledging honestly.

But Bernard's reading of the Treatise on Rebaptism, his star witness, doesn't hold up. The author of that treatise does not argue that Matthew 28:19 is a later invention or that the threefold formula should be abandoned. He explicitly says that the threefold formula "is true and right, and to be observed by all means in the Church" and that it "has been used to be observed." His argument is that invoking Jesus' name over a baptism is so significant that even baptisms performed outside the church have some efficacy, and that candidates who come from schismatic groups don't need to be re-baptized in water. The author sees invoking Jesus' name and the Matthew 28:19 formula as compatible, not competing. He says the invocation of Jesus' name is the "beginning of the mystery of the Lord" that the full formula fills up. That is not a Oneness reading of Matthew 28:19. It is a reading where Jesus' name is the central, personal name that stands behind the Father, Son, and Spirit of the commission. Which is, of course, exactly what Trinitarians who baptize using Matthew 28:19 believe they are doing.
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== "Most Early Believers Didn't Think in Trinitarian Terms" ==
Bernard quotes Origen, who complained that "the general run of Christians" didn't understand the distinction between the Father and the Son and essentially thought in modalistic terms. Athanasius lamented that in one region the doctrine of the Son "was scarcely any longer preached in the churches." Tertullian described "the majority of believers" as horrified by Trinitarian language because they thought it meant two or three gods. Bernard takes all of this as evidence that Oneness was the dominant popular view.

What Bernard accurately describes is that most ordinary believers in the second and third centuries held vague, undeveloped beliefs about God. They affirmed one God. They prayed to Jesus as God. They had not thought very carefully about how to articulate how those two things fit together. What Bernard calls "Oneness thinking" was largely the absence of precise theology, not the presence of a different worked-out theology.

Origen's actual concern is revealing. He writes that many sincere believers "are afraid that they may be proclaiming two Gods" and that this fear "drives them into doctrines which are false and wicked." That fear is not itself a Oneness conviction. It is a concern about maintaining monotheism that every serious Christian shared, on every side of the Trinitarian debate. The modalists resolved the fear one way, by collapsing Father and Son into a single person. The Trinitarians resolved it another way, by insisting the unity of God was fully real even while Father, Son, and Spirit were genuinely distinct. The popular instinct toward monotheism explains why modalism spread easily. It doesn't show that modalism was the apostolic faith.
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== "The Modalists Were the Original Oneness Believers, and They Were the Majority" ==
Bernard's most detailed historical argument is that the modalistic monarchians — Praxeas, Noetus, Callistus, Sabellius — held essentially the same core beliefs as modern Oneness Pentecostalism: the absolute oneness of God, the full deity of Jesus as the Father incarnate, "Son" referring specifically to the humanity of Christ, the Word being not a second person but the Father's self-expression, and Jesus' name as the name by which God is revealed. He also documents, using the testimony of their opponents Tertullian, Hippolytus, Novatian, Origen, and Athanasius, that modalism was the dominant view among common believers through much of the third century.

The evidence that modalistic thinking was widespread in this period is real, and Bernard marshals it effectively. Trinitarian historians themselves say that modalism was the most serious challenge to early Trinitarianism between 180 and 300. That is not a fabrication.

But Bernard presses the evidence too hard in two directions. First, the similarities between the modalists and modern Oneness, while real on several points, break down at others. Bernard himself acknowledges throughout the chapter that "the historical evidence is insufficient to establish with certainty that all the modalists baptized in the name of Jesus," that the doctrine of successive manifestations attributed to Sabellius is something "modern Oneness does not accept," and that there is "no historical link" between the modalists and Oneness Pentecostalism. These are Bernard's own admissions. A movement that shares some emphases with an ancient group is not the same as proving historical continuity.

Second, and more fundamentally, the modalists were condemned — not just by Tertullian and Hippolytus, whose personal positions and motivations Bernard correctly questions, but broadly across the church. Callistus, who himself held views close to modalism, still excommunicated Sabellius. Councils in Rome (258), Nicaea (325), and Constantinople (381) all condemned Sabellianism. Bernard's explanation is that this shows the victors suppressing the truth. But the condemnations came from people holding very different theological positions, including people like Callistus who had no reason to suppress modalism if it were genuinely the apostolic faith. The breadth of the rejection suggests something more than a Trinitarian conspiracy.
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== "The Trinity Wasn't Defined Until Nicaea, So It Was Invented Then" ==
Bernard's summary argument across the whole book is that the Trinity as a formal doctrine wasn't defined until the fourth century. The Council of Nicaea in 325 and the Council of Constantinople in 381 were the moments when Trinitarianism became official teaching. Before those councils, there were only tentative and contradictory explorations, many of which would be considered heretical by Nicene standards. Therefore, the Trinity was not recovered or preserved by the church but invented.

This argument confuses the articulation of a doctrine with the origin of its content. The fact that precise language for something takes time to develop doesn't mean the underlying reality wasn't already there. The church took centuries to work out precisely how to describe the relationship between Christ's divine and human natures. That question wasn't settled until the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Nobody argues that Jesus therefore was not fully God and fully human until 451. The council didn't invent the Incarnation; it expressed what was already true more precisely, in response to teachers who were getting it wrong.

The same applies to the Trinity. From the very beginning, Christians prayed to Jesus as God, addressed the Father and the Spirit as distinct from Jesus, inherited Old Testament monotheism, and did all of this at once. They did not have a developed philosophical vocabulary for explaining how those things hold together. The controversies of the third and fourth centuries forced them to articulate what they had already been doing. Nicaea didn't introduce three persons; it insisted that the three persons Christians had always worshiped were genuinely equal and genuinely divine, against Arius's argument that the Son was a subordinate created being. The Arian controversy, which prompted Nicaea, wasn't a new debate. It was the old Apologists' problem of a subordinate Logos pushed to its logical conclusion by a sharp theologian. The church's answer at Nicaea was grounded in what Christians had always said about Jesus, not in new philosophical invention.

Bernard ends his book by arguing that Trinitarianism won because Constantine's conversion opened the church to masses of pagan converts who brought polytheistic instincts with them. This is an assertion, not an argument. Constantine's conversion made Christianity socially safe, but it didn't force anyone to a particular view of God. The Arian controversy raged after Constantine, with many powerful bishops on the Arian side. The outcome at Nicaea was not a capitulation to pagan culture; it was the result of Athanasius arguing from Scripture and from the reality of what Christians had always worshiped, against a view that reduced the Son to something less than the true God.
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== Reading the Evidence Honestly ==
Reading this book carefully reveals a significant gap between what Bernard proves and what he claims to prove. What he does prove is this: the first three centuries were messy. Writers used imprecise language. The vocabulary of Trinitarian theology wasn't fully in place until the fourth century. Baptism invoking Jesus' name was practiced alongside the threefold formula for many decades. Modalistic views were widespread among ordinary believers. All of that is true, and Trinitarian Christians should engage those facts honestly rather than pretending the early church record is tidier than it actually was.

The development of the doctrine of the Trinitye was a defensive requirment on the part of the church. Sabellianism, arose as something new and the church then had to try to articulate what it was they believed in opposition to the error taught by Sa,bellius. Arianism arose and again the church was required to articulate a defense against false doctrine. The ultimate result of that defense was the doctrine of the Trinity. It is not part of the Gospel; it is not revealed truth. It is a defensive doctrine constructed from revealed truth in order to protect against the errors that were confronting the church.

What Bernard does not prove is that the early church was Oneness in the sense that modern Oneness Pentecostalism means that term. He does not prove that the distinct identity of Father, Son, and Spirit was invented by Tertullian or imported from Greek philosophy. He does not prove that the threefold baptismal formula was a late interpolation into the Didache. He does not prove that Ignatius, even in his accepted authentic letters, supports a Oneness reading. He does not prove that modalism and modern Oneness are the same movement with a continuous history. And he does not prove that Nicaea invented the Trinity rather than clarifying what Christians had always believed and practiced.

The deeper shape of the argument, underneath all the historical evidence, is circular: the original church was Oneness, therefore texts that sound Trinitarian were interpolated, therefore the remaining texts confirm that the original church was Oneness. Every piece of evidence that doesn't fit is explained away by the very theory it is supposed to support.

What the first three centuries actually show, when you read them without having to reach a predetermined conclusion, is a church that consistently affirmed one God, consistently treated Jesus as that one God made flesh, consistently distinguished Father and Son in its prayers and theological reflections, and consistently struggled to find adequate language for all of that at once. Making sense of all those things together is exactly what Trinitarian theology set out to do. The struggle to articulate it was real. The fumbling was real. But the reality that required the articulation was there from the beginning, in Scripture and in the life of the church, pressing for expression in every generation that read the New Testament seriously enough to try.
----''This article responds to David K. Bernard,'' Oneness and Trinity A.D. 100-300 ''(Hazelwood, MO: Word Aflame Press, 1991). Primary counter-sources: Gregory A. Boyd,'' Oneness Pentecostals and the Trinity ''(Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992); Wayne Grudem,'' Systematic Theology; ''Norman Geisler,'' Systematic Theology.*

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[[Category:Godhead]]

Speaking in tongues

2026-06-17T02:07:35Z

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=Does Speaking in Tongues Prove You're Saved?=
Some groups within the Oneness movement believe that speaking in tongues is a necessary indication that at person is saved. This is clearly stated in [[A critical response to Bernard's The Oneness of God#Who is David Bernard?|David Bernard's]] book, ''The New Birth''.

== First, What Bernard Actually Says ==
Before we get into it, it's worth laying out Bernard's position clearly and fairly.

The core argument isn't subtle — Bernard is explicit and systematic about it. In ''The New Birth'', he states plainly:

<blockquote>''"Speaking in tongues is a normal part of the believer's experience with God, the personal devotion of the believer, and the public meetings of the church. Most of all, we can expect a person to speak in tongues when he first receives the Holy Spirit into his life."''</blockquote>

That last sentence is load-bearing. "Most of all" is doing a lot of work there. Bernard isn't arguing that tongues is a nice bonus for the spiritually hungry. He's arguing it's the ''expected, normal, identifiable moment'' when you know the Holy Spirit has arrived.

He then builds on this with a sweeping claim about the biblical record:

<blockquote>''"We analyzed all five biblical accounts of the Spirit baptism and concluded that tongues were present in each case. Many other passages describe believers as 'filled with the Spirit' without mentioning tongues, but they refer to people who had already been baptized in the Spirit. Tongues do not necessarily accompany all subsequent experiences..."''</blockquote>

So the argument has a clear shape:

# The new birth requires receiving the Holy Spirit (John 3:5; Acts 2:38)
# Every time the Bible records the initial reception of the Holy Spirit, tongues are present
# Therefore, tongues is the '''initial physical evidence''' that Spirit baptism — and therefore the new birth — has occurred
# Without tongues, you have no objective confirmation that you've actually been born again

''The New Birth'' dedicates significant real estate to this argument — the Table of Contents confirms a full chapter section titled '''"Biblical Terminology for the Spirit Baptism"''' (p. 189) and another section specifically titled '''"The Baptism of the Spirit and Tongues"''' (p. 234). This isn't a footnote in Bernard's theology. It's central.

He also engages the cessationist counter-argument — that tongues ceased with the completion of the New Testament canon (based on 1 Corinthians 13:8-10). Bernard responds:

<blockquote>''"The New Testament is God's Word, but we are not yet perfect, nor is the world perfect. Perfection will come only after Christ returns."''</blockquote>

And adds:

<blockquote>''"It is difficult to see how the completion of the New Testament could have put a halt to tongues, prophecy, and knowledge. Did all tongues suddenly cease when John penned 'Amen' to the Book of Revelation? Did each person cease to speak in tongues when he first read the entire New Testament?"''</blockquote>

He also anticipates the argument that Paul's letters describe tongues as a gift not given to all believers, and pre-emptively distinguishes between "tongues as initial evidence" (universal, for all Spirit-baptized believers) and "tongues as a continuing gift" (given to some for public ministry). This is how he tries to reconcile his position with 1 Corinthians 12:30.

Okay. Now let's talk about why this doesn't hold up.
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== The "Five Accounts" Problem ==
Bernard's strongest card is the claim that all five accounts of initial Spirit reception in Acts include tongues. Let's actually look at those five cases.

===Acts 2 — Pentecost===

Yes, the 120 in the upper room spoke in tongues. Unambiguously. No argument there. But here's what Bernard doesn't address: Acts 2:41 records that ''three thousand people'' were saved and baptized that same day in response to Peter's sermon. Three thousand. And there is zero — I mean zero — record of any of them speaking in tongues. If tongues is the necessary initial evidence of Spirit reception, and Peter had just told them to repent and be baptized to receive the Spirit (Acts 2:38), why does Luke — who is clearly interested in tongues as a phenomenon, having just described it in vivid detail — say absolutely nothing about three thousand people speaking in tongues? Luke's silence here isn't a small problem for Bernard's argument. It's a large one.

===Acts 8 — The Samaritans.===
This one is the weakest link in Bernard's chain, and he knows it. The text says Simon the sorcerer "saw" that the Spirit was given through the laying on of hands and wanted to buy that ability (Acts 8:18-19). Bernard argues this implies tongues because something ''visible'' was occurring. That's it. That's the argument — an inference from Simon's observation. The text doesn't say tongues. It doesn't say anything audible. Bernard is reading his conclusion into a text that simply doesn't state what he needs it to state. That's not exegesis. That's eisegesis with a confident face on.

===Acts 9 — Paul's conversion===
Here Bernard is even more creative. Acts 9:17-18 records that Ananias laid hands on Paul, he was filled with the Holy Spirit, scales fell from his eyes, he was baptized, and he ate something. Tongues aren't mentioned. Bernard's response is to note that Paul later says he speaks in tongues more than all of them (1 Corinthians 14:18) — and therefore ''presumably'' this started at his conversion. That's possible. It's also pure speculation. You can't build a doctrinal requirement on what ''might'' have happened in an account that doesn't mention it.

===Acts 10 — Cornelius===
This one actually supports a form of the tongues argument, but it simultaneously destroys Bernard's broader salvation formula. The Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius and his household, they spoke in tongues and magnified God — ''before'' water baptism. Peter responds by saying, essentially, "Well, they got the Spirit, so we'd better baptize them." If you want to use Acts 10 to prove tongues accompanies initial Spirit reception, fine. But you've just proven that the Spirit arrives ''before'' the water baptism Bernard insists is necessary for salvation. You can't have it both ways.

===Acts 19 — The Ephesian disciples===
Yes, they spoke in tongues when Paul laid hands on them. But this account is exceptional precisely because these people had received only John's baptism and had never even heard of the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:2). This is a corrective situation — Paul re-baptizes people who had an incomplete understanding and an incomplete initiation. It's an outlier, not a pattern for normal Christian conversion.

So out of five accounts: one is clear (Acts 2), one is an inference with no textual basis (Acts 8), one is speculation from a later letter (Acts 9), one actively undermines Bernard's baptismal theology (Acts 10), and one is an exceptional corrective situation (Acts 19). That's not a uniform biblical pattern. That's a mixed bag being presented as ironclad evidence.
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== The 1 Corinthians 12:30 Problem ==
This is where Bernard's argument really runs into a wall. Paul writes, rhetorically:<blockquote>''"Do all speak with tongues?"'' (1 Corinthians 12:30)</blockquote>In Greek, this question is structured to expect the answer '''no'''. It's not "Do all speak in tongues, and isn't that wonderful?" It's "Not everyone speaks in tongues, right?" Paul's own grammar answers his own question.

Bernard's response — distinguishing between "initial evidence tongues" and "gift of tongues" — is clever, but it's a theological construction that has no basis in the text itself. Paul doesn't make that distinction anywhere. He doesn't say "there are two kinds of tongues — the kind everyone gets at salvation and the kind only some receive for ministry." That's not in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, or 14. Bernard has invented a category to rescue his position from a verse that directly contradicts it.

And honestly? The fact that Bernard ''needs'' to invent this two-tier tongues doctrine to escape 1 Corinthians 12:30 should tell you something. When an interpretation requires you to create distinctions the text doesn't make, you're doing theology in reverse — starting with your conclusion and working backward to the Bible.
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== The Assurance Problem ==
Here's where things get genuinely damaging. If tongues is the necessary initial evidence of Spirit baptism, and Spirit baptism is necessary for salvation, then a person who has never spoken in tongues cannot have assurance of salvation. Full stop.

Think about what that does to someone. You believe in Jesus. You've repented of your sins. You've been baptized. You've prayed for the Holy Spirit. But you haven't spoken in tongues yet. Under Bernard's framework, you're still lost. And if you go to a Oneness Pentecostal church and start attending the "tarrying" services — the extended prayer meetings where people cry out for the Spirit until tongues come — you're going to go home night after night uncertain whether God has accepted you.

This is not a hypothetical scenario. It's the lived experience of thousands of people in Oneness Pentecostal communities. Exit testimonies from former Oneness believers consistently describe the anxiety of waiting for tongues, the performance pressure, the relief when it finally came (whether genuine or manufactured), and the spiritual devastation when it didn't. Making a physical, producible phenomenon the basis of salvation assurance is pastorally catastrophic — and it contradicts the entire New Testament framework for assurance, which is grounded in Christ's finished work received by faith.

Romans 8:1 says: ''"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus."'' Not "no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus and have spoken in tongues." The basis of assurance is union with Christ through faith, not a verifiable physical experience.
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== What About Bernard's Cessationist Rebuttal? ==
Bernard's counter-argument against cessationism is actually pretty solid, and it's worth being honest about that. His point — that it's hard to pinpoint the moment tongues ceased if they did, and that Paul who wrote about tongues "ceasing" also spoke in tongues himself more than all the Corinthians — is a fair observation. Cessationism has its own exegetical problems.

But here's the thing: ''you don't have to be a cessationist to reject Bernard's position.'' You can fully believe that tongues is a real, valid, ongoing spiritual gift (which we do) and still reject the claim that it's the necessary initial evidence of salvation. Those are two completely separate questions. Many charismatic Christians affirm tongues as a genuine gift while explicitly rejecting the "initial evidence" doctrine. Even the Assemblies of God, which holds tongues as the initial evidence of Spirit baptism, insists that Spirit baptism is a separate empowering experience subsequent to salvation, not the new birth itself. Bernard's real innovation isn't the initial evidence doctrine; it's the collapse of Spirit baptism into regeneration, which is what puts tongues on the wrong side of the salvation line.

Bernard's argument only works if you grant his initial premise — that Spirit baptism always produces tongues as verifiable evidence. But the biblical record, as we've seen, doesn't consistently support that premise. And 1 Corinthians 12:30 actively contradicts it.
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== The Bigger Picture ==
Here's what's really going on beneath all the exegesis. Bernard's theology requires an external, verifiable criterion for salvation because the Oneness Pentecostal system is built around the idea that you can identify the saved by their obedience to a specific formula: repentance + Jesus-name baptism + Spirit baptism with tongues. Remove tongues as a verifiable marker, and the system loses its ability to identify who's in and who's out. The doctrinal stakes aren't just theological — they're sociological. The community's sense of being the restored true church depends on having a clear, observable distinction between those who have "the experience" and those who don't.

That's not exegesis driving the doctrine. That's the doctrine driving the exegesis.

And that's the part that should concern anyone who takes Scripture seriously. When a theological system ''needs'' a doctrine to be true for the system to function, and then works backward through the Bible to prove it, you're not doing biblical theology anymore. You're doing apologetics for a predetermined conclusion.

The New Testament's answer to "how do I know I'm saved?" is not "did you speak in tongues?" It's "do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?" (Acts 16:31). That's not a placeholder. It's the answer.

----''Sources: Bernard, David K. The New Birth. Hazelwood, MO: Word Aflame Press, 1984. Boyd, Gregory A. Oneness Pentecostals and the Trinity. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1992. Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994.''

=What the Bible teaches=

Because there were several cases in Acts where people received the new covenant power of the Holy Spirit and began to speak with tongues at the same time (Acts 2:4; 10:46; 19:6; probably also implied in Acts 8:17–19 because of the parallel with the experience of the disciples in Acts 2), Pentecostal teaching has commonly maintained that the outward sign of baptism in the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues (that is, speaking in languages that are not understood by and have not been learned by the person speaking, whether known human languages or other kinds of angelic or heavenly or miraculously given languages).

But it is important to realize that there are many cases where being filled with the Holy Spirit did not result in speaking in tongues:
#When Jesus was filled with the Spirit in Luke 4:1, the result was strength to overcome the temptations of Satan in the wilderness.
#When the temptations were ended, and Jesus “returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee” (Luke 4:14), the results were miracles of healing, casting out of demons, and teaching with authority.
#When Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, she spoke a word of blessing to Mary (Luke 1:41–45).
#When Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit, he prophesied (Luke 1:67–79).
#Other results of being filled with the Holy Spirit were powerful preaching of the gospel (Acts 4:31), (perhaps) wisdom and Christian maturity and sound judgment (Acts 6:3), powerful preaching and testimony when on trial (Acts 4:8), a vision of heaven (Acts 7:55), and (apparently) faith and maturity of life (Acts 11:24).

Several of these cases may also imply the fullness of the Holy Spirit to empower some kind of ministry, especially in the context of the book of Acts, where the empowering of the Holy Spirit is frequently seen to result in miracles, preaching, and works of great power.

Therefore, while an experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit may result in the gift of speaking in tongues, or in the use of some other gifts that had not previously been experienced, it also may come without the gift of speaking in tongues. In fact, many Christians throughout history have experienced powerful infillings of the Holy Spirit that have not been accompanied by speaking in tongues. With regard to this gift as well as all other gifts, we must simply say that the Holy Spirit “apportions each one individually as he wills” (1 Cor. 12:11).<ref>Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 2004), 784.</ref>

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Is baptism necessary for salvation?

2026-06-17T02:06:38Z

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{{Bernard Legalism}}
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In his book, ''The New Birth'', David Bernard explicitly argues that water baptism is a '''necessary component of salvation''', making it a textbook case of '''baptismal regeneration''' — even while trying to wriggle out of that label.

= What Bernard Actually Claims =
Bernard makes the following arguments:

== 1. John 3:5 = Water Baptism ==
<blockquote>''"Jesus said we must be born of water and the Spirit in order to enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5)."''</blockquote>Bernard asserts (in Chapter 4) that "born of water" refers to water baptism, making baptism a prerequisite for entering God's kingdom.

== 2. Mark 16:16 as a Two-Part Formula ==
<blockquote>''"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved... If we say baptism is not necessary, we amend the Lord's statement."''</blockquote>Bernard treats this as a conjunctive requirement — faith '''plus''' baptism = salvation. Remove baptism, and you've edited Jesus.

== 3. Titus 3:5 as Baptismal Regeneration Lite ==
<blockquote>''"We are saved by 'the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost' (Titus 3:5). Both verses refer to water baptism."''</blockquote>

== 4. His Own Halfhearted Caveat ==
Bernard tries to have it both ways:<blockquote>''"These verses place water baptism within the process of the new birth, but they do not teach baptismal regeneration."''</blockquote>This is logically incoherent. If baptism is ''necessary'' for salvation, ''that is baptismal regeneration'' — regardless of what you call it. Calling your cat a dog doesn't make it bark.
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= Detailed Rebuttal =

== ❶ The Exegetical Problems ==

=== John 3:5 — "Born of Water and Spirit" ===
Bernard's interpretation that "water" = baptism is weak for multiple reasons:

* '''Context favors natural birth.''' In John 3:6, Jesus immediately contrasts "born of flesh" with "born of Spirit." The most natural reading of "water" in v.5 is amniotic fluid — the physical birth — which is exactly how Nicodemus would have understood it as a first-century Jew. Jesus is saying: first you enter the world naturally, then you must be born supernaturally.
* '''No baptism has occurred yet''' in John's narrative at this point. To read a developed Christian theology of baptism back into a pre-Pentecost conversation with a Pharisee is [[Eisegesis|eisegesis]].
* '''Ezekiel 36:25-27 is the better background.''' Jesus, speaking to a teacher of Israel (v.10), would be alluding to the Old Testament promise of water-cleansing and Spirit-renewal (Ezekiel 36) — a ''metaphor'' for spiritual transformation, not a ritual requirement.
* '''Grudem's''' ''Systematic Theology'' consistently demonstrates that the Reformed and evangelical tradition has never treated John 3:5 as a baptismal formula, but rather as a reference to spiritual regeneration by the Spirit, possibly using water as a symbol of purification.

=== Mark 16:16 — "He That Believeth and Is Baptized" ===
This is Bernard's strongest-sounding text, but it collapses under scrutiny:

* '''The second half of the verse destroys his argument.''' Jesus says: ''"he that believeth not shall be damned."'' Notice — '''not''' "he that is not baptized shall be damned." The condemnation clause is tied entirely to ''unbelief'', not unbaptism. This is the text's own internal logic telling you that faith is the decisive element.
* '''The longer ending of Mark (16:9-20)''' is itself textually disputed — absent from Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, the two oldest and most reliable manuscripts. Building an essential salvation doctrine on a textually uncertain passage is, to put it charitably, a bold move.
* Bernard's logic would also condemn the thief on the cross (Luke 23:43), who received a direct promise of paradise from Jesus with zero opportunity for water baptism. Bernard has to perform extraordinary gymnastics to escape this counterexample.

=== Titus 3:5 — "Washing of Regeneration" ===

* The "washing of regeneration" (''loutron palingenesias'') most naturally refers to the '''washing work of the Holy Spirit''' — a metaphorical cleansing — not water baptism. Paul's entire argument in Titus 3:4-7 is about God's ''mercy'' and ''grace'', not ritual obedience.
* Even if one grants a baptismal reference here, Paul carefully attributes the regeneration to '''God's act''', not the water itself — which actually undermines Bernard's salvific necessity argument. If it's entirely God's act, the water is incidental.

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== ❷ The Theological Problems ==

=== It Contradicts the Consistent Pauline Gospel ===
Paul — who wrote more of the New Testament than anyone — explicitly ''distances'' baptism from the core act of salvation:<blockquote>''"For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect."'' (1 Corinthians 1:17)</blockquote>If baptism were necessary for salvation, Paul's statement here would be catastrophically irresponsible. He's essentially saying he was sent to do the '''less important thing'''? That's only coherent if baptism is not, in fact, the decisive act.<blockquote>''"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast."'' (Ephesians 2:8-9)</blockquote>Water baptism is a '''human act'''. If it is required for salvation, it qualifies as a "work" — and Paul's statement becomes contradicted. Bernard's own words try to dodge this: ''"There is no saving power in the water itself or in man's actions at water baptism."'' Fine — then why is it necessary?

=== Abraham Was Justified Without It ===
Romans 4 is devastating to any works-based or ritual-based salvation scheme. Abraham was declared righteous by faith (Genesis 15:6) '''before''' circumcision (Genesis 17) — Paul's point being that the ritual didn't produce the righteousness. The same logic applies to baptism. If Abraham's justification preceded and was independent of the covenant rite, the principle is established that God justifies by faith apart from ritual.

=== The Cornelius Problem ===
Acts 10:44-48 is Bernard's worst nightmare:<blockquote>''The Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word... Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?''</blockquote>The Holy Spirit — the very gift of the new birth — was given to Cornelius and his household '''before''' and '''apart from''' water baptism. If baptism were necessary for salvation or Spirit-reception, this sequence is impossible. Peter baptizes them ''after'' they already have the Spirit. Bernard's formula requires Spirit-reception to follow baptism; Acts 10 inverts his entire scheme.
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== ❸ The Logical Problems ==
Bernard commits at least '''two major logical fallacies''':

# '''Affirming the consequent.''' Bernard reasons: "In Acts 2:38, baptism accompanies salvation → therefore baptism causes salvation." But correlation is not causation. When someone graduates, they typically wear a cap and gown. The cap and gown ''accompany'' graduation — they don't ''produce'' it.
# '''False dilemma framing.''' His Mark 16:16 argument creates a false binary: either baptism is required or you're "amending Jesus's words." But this ignores the standard interpretive principle that '''commands for willing obedience''' don't automatically become conditions for grace. Nowhere does Jesus say, "He that believeth and is not baptized shall be damned."

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== ❹ The "Escape Hatch" Problem ==
Bernard's most revealing moment in ''The New Birth'' is this:<blockquote>''"These verses place water baptism within the process of the new birth, but they do not teach baptismal regeneration."''</blockquote>This is '''definitional sleight of hand'''. The historic theological term "baptismal regeneration" means precisely what Bernard is arguing: that water baptism is a necessary component of the salvation process. By redefining the term while maintaining the substance, Bernard creates the illusion of orthodoxy while teaching heterodoxy. Boyd's ''Oneness Pentecostals and the Trinity'' documents this pattern of terminological redefinition throughout Oneness theology.
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= Summary: The Bottom Line =
{| class="wikitable"
!Bernard's Claim
!Orthodox Response
|-
|John 3:5 = water baptism required
|"Water" = natural birth or Ezekiel's purification metaphor; not a sacramental formula
|-
|Mark 16:16 = baptism necessary
|Condemnation clause omits baptism; longer ending is textually disputed
|-
|Titus 3:5 = baptismal regeneration
|"Washing" = Spirit's metaphorical cleansing; salvation attributed to God's mercy, not the rite
|-
|Baptism is part of salvation without being a "work"
|If it's necessary and human-performed, it's a work — Eph. 2:8-9 rules it out
|-
|Acts 2:38 is the salvation formula
|Acts 10 inverts his formula entirely — Spirit precedes baptism
|}
Bernard's position is a form of '''sacramentalism''' that effectively makes a ritual act a co-contributor to salvation alongside faith. It undermines grace, contradicts Paul, is refuted by the narrative of Acts, and creates the absurd implication that the thief on the cross — or any person who genuinely believes but dies before baptism — is damned.

That's not a minor theological quibble. That's a different gospel.

= The Roman Catholic Church and Baptismal Necessity =

== Does the Roman Catholic Church teach baptism is salvational? ==
Yes — emphatically, officially, and consistently. And here's where it gets theologically interesting: '''the Roman Catholic Church and David Bernard arrive at essentially the same destination on baptism''', despite starting from radically different theological traditions. That should give any Oneness follower serious pause.
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== What the Catholic Church Actually Teaches ==
Catholic theologian Ludwig Ott states:<blockquote>''"Baptism by water... is, since the promulgation of the Gospel, '''necessary for all men without exception for salvation'''."'' — Ott, ''Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma'', p. 356</blockquote>This isn't a fringe Catholic opinion — it's '''official dogma''', rooted in:

=== 1. The Council of Trent (1545-1563) ===
Trent declared that baptism is the instrumental cause of justification. Without it, no adult can be justified. This was a direct Counter-Reformation response to Protestant ''sola fide'' (faith alone).

=== 2. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) ===
<blockquote>''"The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude."'' — CCC §1257</blockquote>

=== 3. Effects of Catholic Baptism ===
The Ott quote above specifies that valid baptism:

* '''Eradicates original sin''' and personal sins (mortal and venial) — p. 354
* '''Infuses sanctifying grace''' into the soul
* '''Imprints an indelible spiritual mark''' (the Baptismal Character) — p. 355
* '''Incorporates the baptized into the Mystical Body of Christ''' — p. 355

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== Where the Catholic Position Gets Even More Extreme Than Bernard ==
On at least one point, Rome actually '''out-Bernard's Bernard''':

=== Infant Baptism Without Personal Faith ===
Ott notes:<blockquote>''"Faith, as it is not the effective cause of justification... need not be present. The faith which infants lack is... replaced by the faith [of the Church]."'' — Ott, p. 354 (retrieved)</blockquote>In other words:

* Bernard requires '''faith + baptism + speaking in tongues''' for salvation
* Rome requires '''baptism alone''' for infants — no personal faith whatsoever

The Catholic Church baptizes unconscious, unbelieving infants and holds that this sacrament objectively conveys grace ''ex opere operato'' (by the act itself, regardless of the recipient's disposition, in the case of infants).

=== Three Forms of Baptism (Rome's Escape Hatch) ===
To be fair, Rome is theologically more nuanced than Bernard here. The Catholic Church recognizes:
{| class="wikitable"
!Type
!Description
|-
|'''Baptism of Water'''
|The ordinary sacramental rite — required
|-
|'''Baptism of Desire'''
|A person who sincerely seeks God but never heard the gospel may be saved
|-
|'''Baptism of Blood'''
|Martyrdom before water baptism
|}
This is why the Catechism adds: ''"God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments."'' (CCC §1257)

Bernard's system, by contrast, is far '''less merciful''' — the Oneness formula (repentance + water baptism in Jesus' name only + speaking in tongues as evidence of Spirit-baptism) leaves virtually no room for exceptions.
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== The Grudem Rebuttal ==
Grudem's ''Systematic Theology'' addresses the Catholic position on baptism directly and the same arguments apply to Bernard:<blockquote>''"To say that baptism or any other action is necessary for salvation is to say that we are not justified by faith alone but by faith plus a certain 'work,' the work of baptism. The apostle Paul would have opposed the idea that baptism is necessary for salvation just as strongly as he opposed the similar idea that circumcision was necessary for salvation (see Gal. 5:1-12)."''</blockquote>Grudem then addresses the Catholic proof-text (Mark 16:16):<blockquote>''"The very evident answer to this is simply to say that the verse says nothing about those who believe and are not baptized."''</blockquote>This is a clean, logical rebuttal — the condemnation clause in Mark 16:16 is tied to '''unbelief''', not unbaptism. Rome and Bernard both miss this.
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== The Devastating Implication for Oneness Followers ==
Here's the uncomfortable truth worth pressing with any Oneness follower:

'''David Bernard's baptismal theology is structurally identical to Roman Catholic baptismal theology on the question of necessity.''' Both teach:

# Water baptism is an essential, non-optional component of salvation
# Without it, salvation is not complete
# The formula/mode matters (Rome says Trinitarian; Bernard says Jesus-only — ironically they fight each other on the formula while sharing the same underlying sacramentalism)

Onenss theology markets itself as a '''restoration of primitive New Testament Christianity''', recovered from centuries of Catholic corruption. Yet on the single most defining feature of Catholic soteriology — baptismal necessity — Oneness followers and David Bernard '''agree with Rome'''.

If you're arguing with a Oneness follower, this parallel is worth naming explicitly. They didn't escape Rome. They just changed the formula on the font.
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== Protestant Orthodox Response ==
The consistent evangelical position is:

* Baptism is '''commanded''' (Matthew 28:19; Acts 2:38)
* Baptism is '''important''' as a sign and public declaration of faith
* Baptism is the '''proper entry point''' into the visible church
* Baptism is '''not causally necessary''' for salvation
* The '''thief on the cross''' (Luke 23:43), '''Cornelius''' (Acts 10:44-48), and '''Abraham''' (Romans 4) all demonstrate that God saves by faith, independent of ritual

Rome and Bernard are both, at bottom, teaching salvation by faith '''plus a work''' — and Paul's letter to the Galatians was written precisely to incinerate that error.
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[[Category: Unfinished articles]]
[[Category: Water baptism]]
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