The Timing of Cloud Events

For years, followers of William Branham believed that he was hunting on February 28, 1963, the day the cloud appeared over Flagstaff.

John Kennah's comments on timing

Followers of the Message who acknowledge that the Cloud of February 28, 1963 could not have been photographed at the time of Wm. Branham’s hunting trip refer to this single quote as proof that he never said the Cloud in LIFE was the same Cloud he saw while hunting at Sunset Peak. In spite of the fact that he has stated in approximately 25 different occasions that the Cloud in LIFE was indeed formed by the seven angels at the time they commissioned him during his hunting trip, Message believers hang their revised interpretations of events on a single ambiguous quote which appears in this week’s “Quote of the Week.” The sentence that is used to negate the long established belief (27+ years) that the February 28th Cloud coincided with Wm. Branham’s hunting trip is the following:

I looked to see when it was, and it was time, same 'bout day or two before or, day or two after I was up there.

To many Message believers today, this quote is used to reinterpret over two dozen statements Wm. Branham made between June 23, 1963 and December 4, 1965 where he unambiguously stated that the Cloud that appeared in LIFE magazine was nothing less than a photographic depiction of the angels as they appeared to him while hunting.

One seemingly ambiguous statement vs. over two dozen clear statements. What did Wm. Branham mean when he made this single statement that would rewrite Message history?

I looked to see when it was, and it was time, same 'bout day or two before or, day or two after I was up there.

Message believers say that this statement proves that Wm. Branham said that the Cloud was not formed while he was hunting. They claim he was saying that the Cloud in LIFE appeared either a day or two before, or a day or two after he was hunting at Sunset Peak when the angels appeared to him, but nowhere in between. In other words, they believe he said the Cloud really appeared either before or after he was hunting, but definitely not on the same day. That makes little sense.

If the Cloud appeared a day or two after he was hunting, that would have meant it didn’t appear until a day or two after he had left Sunset Peak. This would have placed the date at March 10 or 11, according to the dates of the hunting trip that appear in Rebekah Smith’s June 1992 article in Only Believe magazine. I don’t know of a single Message believer who thinks the Cloud was formed after the angels visited him. Besides, there is too much documentation to suggest that the February 28 date of the Cloud’s appearance is wrong.

But, if the Cloud was formed a day or two before he was hunting, that would have meant that it really appeared on March 4 or 5. Again, it's not arguable that the Cloud appeared on any date other than February 28.

“...'[B]out day or two before or, day or two after...”. The very quote they’ve interpreted to prove that the Cloud in LIFE was not what Wm. Branham saw at Sunset Peak really indicates that Wm. Branham had no idea when the Cloud appeared in relation to his hunting trip. Instead of supporting their case, this quote actually contradicts what they want it to say.

So what did he mean by his statement?

I looked to see when it was, and it was time, same 'bout day or two before or, day or two after I was up there.

If one examines his remarks in context of the entire quote, Wm. Branham isn’t saying that the Cloud was not formed when he was hunting. He is laying the groundwork for the eventual claim that the Cloud in LIFE was indeed photographed at the same time and place he was hunting javelina with his two friends. In this statement, he was saying in effect, “I looked at the date of when the Cloud was photographed and noticed that I was there at about that same time!” The implication being that it was formed at the same time he was hunting at Sunset Peak.

The next time he mentioned the Cloud three weeks later, he is not the least ambiguous:

And now, the "Life" Magazine picked it up. And I have the--the article here this morning in the "Life" Magazine there, of the show... Now, here it is, the same time I was there. STANDING.IN.THE.GAP_ JEFF.IN V-6 N-7 SUNDAY_ 63-0623M

Just five days later, he said,

Now, science took the picture of It, you seen It, went on Associated Press. They didn't know what It was. There's a Cloud hanging, twenty-six miles high. That's fifteen miles, or twenty, above even where vapor's at. They don't know what it's all going about, and they're trying to investigate It. And there, right under It, I was standing. And those seven Angels roaring out their voices, of those Seven Seals, standing there. And the witness, three of us, as a witness of the things that was prophesied on the tape, "Sirs, What Time Is It?" And there now they're trying to find out. It's a mystery to them. LORD.JUST.ONCE.MORE_ HOT.SPRINGS.AR V-20 N-10 FRIDAY_ 63-0628A

To those who follow the Message, one seemingly ambiguous statement has negated 25 quotes and nearly 30 years of what this Cloud was said to represent by Wm. Branham’s followers (including a revised edition of the book, The Acts of the Prophet, by Pearry Green, with the only changes being the events surrounding the Cloud). I believe that this statement, when read in context and compared with 25 others, clearly shows Wm. Branham’s intent was that his followers believe that the Cloud was formed by the 7 angels when they commissioned him while he was hunting javelina on February 28, 1963--something which has been proven by Message believers such as Rebekah Smith and accepted by Message believers worldwide to have been an impossibility.

Previous Errors in Belief Relating to the Timing of the Cloud

Here is what Billy Paul said in the original preface to the book, The Revelation of the Seven Seals:

The Word of the Lord has promised that He would send to the earth once again the spirit of Elijah in the form of that End Time Messenger who was the Angel to the Seventh Church Age in these final closing days of time. We believe firmly that this promise was fulfilled in the vindicated ministry of our precious brother, William Marrion Branham. Throughout the life of this humble servant of the Lord, who so epitomized the Spirit of Christ, we find manifestations of God, which were so perfectly vindicated that they cannot be explained away by any natural reasoning. Of the hundreds of thousands of visions which the Lord gave to Brother Branham around the world, not one time has there ever occurred a vision which was not confirmed and attested to be the Word of the Lord. On December 30, 1962 at the Branham Tabernacle, Jeffersonville, Indiana, Brother Branham brought a message entitled Sirs, Is This The Time? [The Spoken Word Vol. II No.11] In this Message he told of a vision that instructed him to move to Tucson, Arizona with his family. This vision foretold a blast that would take place, the force of which would shake the whole country. This vision was fulfilled on Feb. 28, 1963 when 40 miles northeast of Tucson, Brother Branham was caught up in a constellation of seven angels and was told to return to his church in Jeffersonville, Indiana, where the mysteries of the Seven Seals would be revealed to him.