Donny Morton: Difference between revisions

William Branham prayed for Donny Morton and later declared — repeatedly, across at least twelve recorded sermons — that the Holy Spirit had spoken "THUS SAITH THE LORD" and that the child was healed.

[[Image:Donny Morton Friday November 2 1951 Newspaper.jpg|thumb|right|250px|November 2, 1951 newspaper report]]

Donny Morton died on November 2, 1951. He was four years old.

This article examines whether Branham's claim of prophetic healing is credible, by comparing his own statements against the historical record, his ''own'' earlier account of the event, and the direct testimony of Donny's surviving sister.

= What Actually Happened: The Reader's Digest Account =

The fullest contemporaneous record of the Donny Morton case appeared in the November 1952 edition of ''Reader's Digest'' (condensed from Alma Edwards Smith's original article in ''Chatelaine''). This account, published a year after the events, is the earliest documented source. Its key facts are as follows:

* Arthur Morton arrived at Branham's Costa Mesa revival in June 1951 with no prayer card, having traveled by bus because he could not afford even one plane ticket.

* Branham identified the child's condition and origins without asking questions — a display that the Digest described as remarkable.

* Branham's actual statement at the tent, as recorded by the ''Digest'', was this: ''"Your son is suffering from a serious brain malady. But do not give up hope. With faith in God's power, and help from the medical world, your little son will live."''

* In response to press coverage of the Morton story, a physiotherapist contacted the family and recommended a Pasadena surgeon, Dr. William T. Grant.

* Donny underwent four brain operations at St. Luke's Hospital in Pasadena. By mid-September, he was able to sit up and reach toward his parents — the first voluntary movement in months.

* In late October, Donny contracted pneumonia. He died in his sleep on November 2, 1951, from a combination of pneumonia and the underlying meningitis.

The ''Reader's Digest'' article itself noted that the "miracle" the authors saw was not physical healing, but the outpouring of community generosity inspired by Arthur Morton's devotion: ''"Skeptics will say, 'You see? Miracles don't happen in the 20th century.' But they are wrong."'' The miracle they pointed to was human compassion — not a divine cure.

= What Branham Claimed: The Tape Record =

Over the years following Donny Morton's death, William Branham referenced the case repeatedly in his sermons. A consistent pattern emerges: with each retelling, the story became more miraculous and the medical facts more obscured.

==Claim 1: "THUS SAITH THE LORD — and the baby got well."==

In multiple sermons, Branham collapsed the entire event into a single supernatural declaration:<blockquote>''"And the Holy Spirit spoke THUS SAITH THE LORD. And the baby got well."''</blockquote><blockquote>''"The Holy Spirit told him who he was, where he come from, and so forth... The Lord healed the child to the glory of God."''</blockquote><blockquote>''"The power of God unfolded that child and made him well."''</blockquote>These statements are categorical and unqualified. They describe a direct, divine healing — and they are false. The child did not get well. He died five months after the meeting.

==Claim 2: The child wore shoes and ran to his father.==

In one sermon, Branham stated:

<blockquote>''"He went right straight from that meeting that night and bought Donny his first pair of shoes, and he wore them the next day."''</blockquote>

<blockquote>''"It got so he could run, meet his daddy and everything."''</blockquote>

These claims are directly contradicted by the ''Reader's Digest'' account, which records that Donny's muscles were so atrophied and his tendons so contracted that he required further surgery just to begin physical rehabilitation. The best he achieved before his death was being able to sit up and reach toward his parents. He never walked. He never ran. He never wore shoes.

When pressed to explain the child's death, Branham offered this explanation:

<blockquote>''"Somebody left a window up one night and throwed a draft across the baby. And the baby taken pneumonia and lived about two days with the pneumonia, not with the disease — with the pneumonia killed the baby."''</blockquote>

This is both medically misleading and logically evasive. Donny Morton had survived four major brain surgeries, severe meningitis, and profound malnutrition. His body's vulnerability to opportunistic infection was a direct consequence of his underlying condition. More importantly, if "THUS SAITH THE LORD" had genuinely declared the child healed, no open window could undo it. Branham's excuse implicitly concedes that his declaration was conditional and revocable — which is not how biblical prophecy works.

= The Critical Contradiction Within Branham's Own Accounts =

The most significant problem with Branham's claims is not only the conflict with the historical record — it is the conflict ''between his own versions of the story''.

In one of his more detailed early accounts, Branham described a vision he received at the tent, in which he told Arthur Morton the following:

<blockquote>''"Yes, your baby... Three days from now you're going to meet a woman with a brown looking coat-suit... And she's going to tell you of some country doctor that can operate on that baby; and you won't believe it. But that's the only hope that you have, through the mercy of God, and that operation. You let the doctor operate on the baby."''</blockquote>

This is a fundamentally different claim. Here, Branham is not declaring a miraculous healing — he is directing the father to ''seek medical treatment''. The "miracle" in this version is the vision that connected the family to Dr. Grant, not a divine cure. Branham even says: ''"the only hope that you have... is that operation."''

Yet in his later retellings, this entire medical framework disappears, and Branham claims the child was simply healed by divine declaration: ''"THUS SAITH THE LORD. And the baby got well."''

Branham presented two irreconcilable versions of the same event:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

=The Readers' Digest story=

''And you seen it in Reader's Digest, not long ago, Donny Morton, The Miracle of Donny Morton. That little child right there in California, at the Assemblies of God, down there at that school, Southwestern Bible School, that child was so twisted and afflicted till even John Hopkins and Mayo Brothers said, "There's not an earthly chance for him." '''But the Lord is THUS SAITH THE LORD. That was different, see.'''<ref>64-0120, His Unfailing Words Of Promise, para. 162</ref>''

:''The Lord healed him, made him well. And Mayo’s had turned him down, and so had Johns Hopkins. The boy was made normal. (60-0803 – Abraham, para. 73)''

:''Sometime, look at the miracle of Donny Morton. You remember reading about the story of Donny Morton and his daddy had to save up money to be able to bring him to Brother Branham? And when he does, what does God do? God tells Brother Branham and shows him a vision of an old country doctor that would be able to perform the surgery. Why would not God have healed him then? Probably Reader's Digest would have never published it in the Reader's Digest magazine.

:''If he would have simply come to Brother Branham and laid hands on him, it would just have been another miracle in Brother Branham's ministry. But God had it done in such a way that it made the world... around the world testify of his great power.

:''I don't think my parents ever knew what William Branham said about my brother Donald because they would have been very upset and made sure the truth was known. I didn't find the story on the internet until after they passed away in 1984.''

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