William Branham
Life Story: Introduction • Early Life • First Pastor • The KKK • Father's Death • Ministry
Who was William Marrion Branham? In the late 1940's, his healing ministry skyrocketed him from a pastor in a small church outside Louisville, Kentucky to an international evangelist. However, as his ministry progressed his visions and doctrine became increasingly controversial until his death on December 24, 1965.
Introduction
William Marrion Branham was an evangelist who has been called the "pacesetter of the healing revival" [1] and a "prophet"[2]. He was born in rural Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and in the 1940’s his healing ministry skyrocketed him from a rural pastor to an international evangelist.
William Branham's legacy
Views on William Branham's legacy can be grouped into the following main categories:
- The vast majority of both Christians and non-Christians today have never heard of William Branham and have no idea he even has a legacy.
- Some older Pentecostals and "charismatic" Christians view him as a great evangelist and gifted healer who strayed from Christian orthodoxy in the latter stages of his ministry. They believe this is the reason for his obscurity today.
- His followers (estimated at between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people worldwide) believe him to be Elijah the Prophet, the fulfillment of Malachi 4:5 and the angel of Revelation 10:7. There are many different sects within William Branham's followers, although they all refer to themselves as believers of the Message of the Hour. Some of his followers believe that William Branham's every word was infallible, while others will admit that he did make some minor errors but he was infallible with respect to his visions, prophecies and interpretation of the Bible.
- Some, as a result of facts coming out of research by us and other former message followers, view William Branham as a false prophet who was either willfully deceptive, or had untreated mental health issues.
By his own admission, William Branham was prone to exaggeration and he often embellished his stories.
William Branham's life story, his ministry, and teaching as related on this website are based on both his recorded sermons and as many historical documents as we could find. Any statements that can be substantiated by written historical documents are referenced.
What William Branham thought of himself
William Branham only wrote one book in his life, An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, which was published shortly after his death. The book was "grammarized" (edited) by Lee Vayle, a close associate of William Branham from a series of sermons which William Branham preached in late 1960 on the seven churches in Revelation 2-3. In chapter 10 of the book, he summarizes his teaching as follows:
- Correlation of the Two Vines: The history of the Christian church is that two vines - "two churches" and "two spirits" (the true vine and the false vine) side-by-side through history.
- The Development of the Conflict: What was planted in Ephesus develops in the second age, Smyrna, where the hatred of the false vine against the true vine increases. Yet, in accordance with Scripture, God does not destroy the false vine immediately, allowing both to grow together until the harvest.
- The Culmination in Laodicea: The historical thread runs all the way to the Laodicean Age, which began just after the turn of the twentieth century.
- The Distinction of the Restoration: Branham addresses the Pentecostal movement of the twentieth century. While many believed that speaking in tongues and the manifestation of spiritual gifts was the final "restoration," Branham declares it was not. He argues that the "latter rain" (the harvest rain) cannot fall until the "former rain" (the teaching rain) has come.
- The Role of the Messenger: This final restoration requires the promised "Prophet-Messenger," who is sent to teach the people and turn the hearts of the children back to the Pentecostal fathers.
Chapter 10 is a sweeping, structured overview designed to tie the entire book into a single knot. He wanted to show a perfect continuity. But as we have examined under the magnifying glass of right reason, when you audit the historical facts behind his selected messengers, the ledger simply does not balance.
Here are some significant issues with his overall view
1. The False Dilemma of the "Two Vines"
In Chapter 10, William Branham structures his entire historical narrative around a rigid binary division: the unorganized, sign-filled "True Vine" and the organized, formal, and satanic "False Vine".
The Audit: This represents a textbook False Dilemma (the Black-and-White Fallacy). It ignores the rich history of Christian faith, missionary zeal, and martyrdom that took place within organized church bodies. Even more damagingly, Branham’s own chosen "messengers" (such as Martin of Tours, a Catholic bishop who organized monasteries, and John Wesley, a master of church circuits and legal deeds) were active organizers. Under Branham's own definitions, his "True Vine" messengers were the very architects of "False Vine" organization.
2. The Nicolaitane / Pastoral Supremacy Paradox
Chapter 10 contains a bitter, sweeping condemnation of "Nicolaitanism," which Branham defines as a satanic hierarchy where a single leader (a "monarchical episcopate") rules over a local congregation and "subjugates the laity".
The Audit: This is a classic Self-Defeating Contradiction. Throughout his ministry, Branham enforced this exact same monarchical structure in his own tabernacle, declaring: "The pastor is always the head of the church... there's no higher order in the Bible than the elder of the church... which is the pastor". If a single pastor ruling a local congregation is a Nicolaitane heresy when Ignatius of Antioch suggested it, why is it a divine order when William Branham practiced it?
3. The Plagiarized "One Prophet" Scaffolding
To cement his own authority, Branham concludes that the final age must have exactly "ONE Prophet-Messenger" who possesses "the power of infallibility" to restore the Word.
The Audit: This prophetic scaffolding was not a unique revelation. In 1918, Charles Taze Russell (the founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses) was officially proclaimed by his followers in The Finished Mystery as the seventh angel of Revelation 10:7 and 3:14. Branham simply borrowed Russell's anti-church framework, applied it to his own surname, and claimed "infallibility" while simultaneously failing basic scriptural tests of prophecy (Deuteronomy 18:20-22).
4. Scriptural Misinterpretation of the Seventh Angel
Branham insists in Chapter 10 that the seventh angel of Revelation 10:7 is a human "message angel" rather than a heavenly, trumpeting angel.
The Audit: This is a severe scriptural distortion. In the Greek text, the word angelos (messenger) is used uniformly for all seven trumpeting angels. The seventh angel is about to blow a literal trumpet (Revelation 10:7, 11:15). Ripping this angel out of its celestial, literary context to manufacture a 20th-century prophetic office for himself is an invalid and self-serving eisegesis.
Footnotes
- ↑ The Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements: (Zondervan, 1988, p. 372) ~ Branham filled the largest stadiums and meeting halls in the world.’ ... As the pacesetter of the healing revival, Branham was the primary source of inspiration in the development of other healing ministries.
- ↑ The Full Gospel Men's Voice Magazine (February, 1961) ~ "In Bible Days, there were men of God who were Prophets and Seers. But in all the Sacred Records, none of these had a greater record than that of William Branham."