William Sowders
William Branham admitted that he attended William Sowders' School of the Prophets in Louisville. It is not surprising that many of William Branham's fundamental doctrines bear a strange likeness to that of Sowders'.
Quotes of William Branham
An old man, one of the first that I ever seen in the realms of Pentecost and came to my house when I was just a--a little lad, and set in my room. And I've been always, for Pentecost, I wasn't critical, but I didn't understand that speaking in tongues before these things happened. And I still, we know that there is some of it make-believe, but behind it there's a genuine article. And this man come to my room when I was just a boy preacher and set in there one day. And I come in and he went... he kind of jumped and threw his hands up and spoke in tongues . And he said, "Thus saith the Lord," speaking in tongues , said, "A great ministry lies before you that God will use you to shake the world." And the elderly brother, is setting right back there, is John Ryan.[1]
I met an old man that's here in the church maybe now, or he was here over to the church, by the name of John Ryan. And I met him at a place... The old fellow with long beard and hair, and he may be here. I thought he was from Benton Harbor up here, at the House of David.
And they had a place in Louisville. I was trying to find them people, and they called it the School of the Prophets. So I thought I'd go over and see what that was. Well, I didn't see nobody rolling on the floor, but they had some strange doctrines. And there's where I met this old man, he invited me to come up to his place.[2]