Barry Coffey - Mistakes were made
Barry Coffey is the pastor of a Message church in Hickory, North Carolina.
Infallibility
“Not that Brother Branham is infallible by any stretch. Because he was human. And you’re going to have to take that up with God for making him human.” — Barry Coffey, Hickory Bible Tabernacle, "If I Was A Boy In The Message, Part 3", November 13, 2024 [47:28] [Source]
Context
A direct admission from a prominent Message pastor that Branham was "not infallible by any stretch." The defensive framing — "take that up with God for making him human" — reveals the tension between defending Branham and acknowledging his fallibility.
The Message is the only way
“My heart went out to people who have turned their back on this message. Where would you turn today, having known about this message and the answers it supplies, and you turned away from it and categorically denied? Where do you go now? Where, what website do you go to now?” — Barry Coffey, Hickory Bible Tabernacle, "What Adoption Taught Us", March 29, 2020 [32:46] [Source]
Context
Coffey’s rhetorical question — "where do you go now?" — reveals the movement’s core control mechanism: the belief that there is nowhere else to go. This is the classic high-control group framing that keeps people in even when they have doubts.
We are self-righteous
“I personally know, and spent many, many hours, with the people who have written many of these websites, you know, Believe the Sign, and different ones. I know those fellows. I was associated with them when they were following the message. And I know a little bit about the lives that they live. And you'd probably be shocked that some people have such a self-righteous attitude about cutting down the message.” — Barry Coffey, Hickory Bible Tabernacle, "The Present Truth, Part 1", March 5, 2023 [1:15:08] [Source]
Context
Coffey claims personal knowledge of BelieveTheSign creators and attacks their character rather than addressing their documented evidence. The ad hominem approach reveals an inability to engage with the substance. When we first changed the focus of the website in 2012, Barry said he would contact us. He never did. We have attempted to contact him several times but he never returned any of our emails or texts. How can you judge someone as self-righteous when you never returned their calls?
This website is like a cancer, but just a mini-cancer
“You remember a few years ago when the Believe the Sign thing rose up and all of a sudden as that began to creep through kind of like a mini cancer among the body of believers, it brought out things in people that shocked a lot of us.” — Barry Coffey, Hickory Bible Tabernacle, "Step Into The Waters, Part 6", March 7, 2021 [1:05:22] [Source]
Context
Coffey compares BelieveTheSign to cancer. He claims personal knowledge of its creators and launched a 5-part sermon series in response. The comparison reveals the threat level the evidence-based website represents to the movement.
The newspaper articles on the Message were well researched
“Most of you have been painfully aware of some of the negative publicity that we who believe the message of the hour have received in the articles that were published in the Hickory Daily Record. And I knew about this about a year ago and they came and interviewed several churches. There was a reporter who came around was doing investigative research on the message community and had heard some comments about things and then was developing these articles for over a year and they interviewed a couple of brothers that we know and tried to get some other balanced information about it.” — Barry Coffey, Hickory Bible Tabernacle (Hickory, NC), November 2024 [Source]
Context
Coffey acknowledges the reporters' diligence — confirming they spent over a year conducting research and sought balanced information from Message churches. This contrasts sharply with Haylett's dismissal of the series as based on "a few little facts."
Writing off the municipal bridge prophecy with no evidence
“A lot of these people who have left the message, they've focused on certain points that are unconscionable. They're unprovable because they existed or happened before Google existed and they're unprovable. You know, we were talking about the bridge. Peter and I were talking about the bridge many years ago and how many people actually fell off the bridge. And there's some different ideas about how many people actually fell off the bridge.” — Barry Coffey, Hickory Bible Tabernacle, "The Present Truth, Part 1", 2023-03-05 [1:30:39] [Source]
Context
Coffey inadvertently admits the bridge prophecy is "unprovable" and acknowledges "different ideas about how many people actually fell off." This from a defender — not a critic.
Has not done his homework
“George J. Lacey. And he said, the head of the FBI fingerprint document examined when that light was there. And he, the person who looked at the photograph, they didn't have an answer for it.” — Barry Coffey, "Warfare" — Hickory Bible Tabernacle, 2023-11-01
Context
Coffey repeats the false "head of the FBI" title. Lacy was never head of the FBI — he was a private document examiner who did freelance work.
"Press Play" not in the Message
“I searched every single one of Brother Branham’s sermons. And he never, ever told us to press play. I don’t have a problem with pressing play if Brother Branham had taught us to do that. But he never did.” — Barry Coffey, Hickory Bible Tabernacle, "Marks, Seals, and Cults, Part 2", July 13, 2025 [1:09:56] [Source]
“If the message just remains press play, it’s failed. Absolutely. Because we are not meant to idolize Brother Branham. We’re not meant to say, Brother Branham, tell us what to think. Tell us what to dress like. Tell us what to do.” — Barry Coffey, Hickory Bible Tabernacle, "The End Run", March 2, 2025 [1:41:56] [Source]
Context
Coffey searched all 1,200+ Branham sermons and found ZERO instances of "press play." The entire press play movement is built on a phrase Branham never used.
Coffey says if the Message remains "press play" it has FAILED. Uses the word "idolize" — a stunning accusation from within the movement.
Believed William Branham was an inter-dimensional traveler
“Am I there or am I here? Brother Branham’s a man who’s used to traveling between dimensions. He’s done it. He knows what it’s like to go beyond the curtain of time. He knows what it’s like to go into the regions of the lost.”
— Barry Coffey, Hickory Bible Tabernacle, "Rapturing Faith, Part 19", November 17, 2024 [1:41:35] [Source]
Context
Coffey normalizes "traveling between dimensions" as routine for a prophet, implying errors are natural byproducts of moving between realms.
Footnotes