Bible saved from the flood
William Branham told an amazing story of how the pulpit in his church was lifted to the ceiling by flood waters during the 1937 Ohio River flood and returned to the floor with the Bible still open where he preached his last sermon prior to the flood. But is this story true?
What really happened?
The Jeffersonville Evening News reported the following story on March 8, 1937:
- Church Escapes In Freak Stunt
- One of the freak stunts of the flood in Jeffersonville and an item for Ripley's 'Believe It Or Not' column, happened at the First Presbyterian Church, it was learned.
- Water to the depth of approximately fifteen feet was in the edifice during the crest period, causing the floor joists to become loosened from the side walls.
- As the waters continued on their climb the church floor with the pews and pulpit, raised, and, floating on the top, were saved from damage.
- It was stated that the carpet on the pulpit floor was not even wet.
- It will be necessary to anchor the floor to the walls of the building, which were not hurt during the disaster, before services can be resumed, it was stated.[1]
So were there two freak incidents that happened in two different churches in the 1937 flood? Why didn't the newspaper report both of them if there were two separate incidents? Why did William Branham tell the story with the Bible being opened at two different places?
Was William Branham telling the truth? Or was this another case where he was simply not credible?
Quotes of William Branham
We come into this little, old tabernacle, you strangers. Well, this could be a glamorous place here on the corner, you don't realize that, that people has wanted to build this place and make it. But this is the way we like it. See, this is the way we like it. Old seats we were setting on there, was the—the old original seats out of the tabernacle here, went through the flood and floated up.
My Bible laying open like that on the pulpit. It stuck against the ceiling and come back down with a Word on It, "I the Lord hath planted it. I'll water it day and night lest some shall pluck it from My hand." How we rowed across the top of it with a skiff, here. And she come right back down, the seats moving right back to their place. All they had to do was scrub it out and go on. See? See? So this is just the way we like it, where it's a common people, common place, and a wonderful Lord. Amen. [2]
And that old Bible where it had been preached on that night… She started raining, the floods breaking through and so forth, and this old church… The seats went right straight up to the ceiling, the Bible went right straight up to the ceiling, washing through here with all that water raising it up. The pulpit went right straight up. They come right down; and every seat set right back in the same place, and the Bible laid right back in the same place, and all that water, and still opened up, the same chapter at the same place. "Heavens and earth will pass away, but My Word shall never pass away." How that Bible float in that salty water for two years without even soiling the words on It! God's Word's are true. Amen.[3]
During the time of the flood, I was preaching here one night, left my Bible. The '37 flood came overnight almost, as it swept through the Tabernacle, picked up this same pulpit, raised it right up; there was no other ceiling in here then, and set it right against the ceiling. The Word being under the pulpit, instead of it sinking it floated, took it right up to the ceiling. And I rowed all around over here in a boat. And then when the waters went down, it came down and was laying right here at the same chapter I was reading out of, after the flood. "Heavens and earth will pass away, but My Word shall not." That's right. He's wonderful. Isn't He? [4]