Congressman Upshaw: Difference between revisions

While there is no question that Congressman Upshaw was miraculously healed, there is a significant concern with the huge changes in the story over time as it was told by William Branham.

Why did a real miracle from God require embellishment?

Shortly before his death on November 21, 1952 at age 86, William Upshaw published his testimony in a tract which he sent to every Senator and member of the House of Representatives, as well as President Truman, Winston Churchill, King George, and Joseph Stalin.

:''I walked into that Branham-Baxter meeting in Calvary Temple, Los Angeles, loving God and His blessed Word, leaning on my crutches that had been my “buddies”-my helpful comrades for 59 of my 66 years as a cripple-7 of those years spend on bed; I walked out that night of February 8th, leaving my crutches on the platform – the song of deliverance ringing in my heart in happy consonance with the should sof victory from those who thronged about me – their tears of rejoicing crystal with the light of the skies’ chief among them was my blessed wife whose dear face, glowing amid her joyous exclamations: “Praise the Lord” and “Glory to God,” was beaming like a patch of Heaven.

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:<mp3player>File:Upshaw-Testimony.mp3</mp3player>

''Just eighty-four. And I'm eighty-four years young, speak three and four times a day, preach the Gospel of the Christ Who saved me, stood by me on bed seven years, and made me happy, and then took me off of the crutches that I have used for fifty-nine years and now, glory to God I'm walking! [clapping]  

William Branham retold the story of Congressman Upshaw's healing many times.  However, over time the story changed considerably so that by 1954 it included a vision of a brown suit, and a "Thus Saith The Lord" statement spoken by Brother Branham to William Upshaw directly over the pulpit, and not as communicated by Brother LeRoy Kopp.   

'''Initially the story that William Branham tells is very close to the testimony of Congressman Upshaw.'''

:''And one night, I walked into the platform here. Mr. Baxter had just left the platform. I looked, hanging right out here, and I seen the White House, seen all about it. Begin to speak, and I couldn't tell. And I told Mr. Baxter. In a few moments, It fell and I seen where the man was setting. I seen it was him, seen him get hurt when he was just a little boy. And he'd been a crippled for all...''

:''And I started to leave and the Spirit of God begin to fall. And a woman had raised out of a wheelchair, and some more things had taken place where the Holy Spirit revealing to them.''

'''But three years later, it had already changed considerably.'''

:''And I looked. And coming in, they just got off of an airplane. And here come a wheelchair. They'd just got inside the building and it begin come... It was moving on down to get it with the rest of wheelchairs. I said, "That's the old gentleman now." It was about twice the distance of this building. I said, "That's the old man now."''

:''"And I said, "Thank you, kind sir." And I turned this a way and when I did, my brother, being the chief usher in the meetings, was getting the people lined up down there.

:...

:''And as I looked, I seen that old congressman, like a shadow, going walking like that. And he was setting there with a blue suit on and a red tie. Only in the vision he had a brown suit, a kind of a chocolate colored brown, with a white stripe in it. And I said, "Congressman, have you got a brown suit with a white stripe?"

:''He said, "When will I be able to walk, my boy?"

'''Here again is the wildly embellished story in 1958:'''

:''How many remembers the healing of Congressman Upshaw? I was just standing there talking like this when there's thousands of people standing there, and they was fixing to line up, and I looked out. I'd seen an old man, and they'd been a many a wheelchair, oh, there was just wheelchairs all over the places in California. And I looked across, and I seen a little boy playing on a haystack, and he fell and hit his back across a--the edge of a frame. And it must've broke his back. I seen a doctor with little glasses hanging low on his nose, white mustache and white hair, a working on him but it was no good, too far gone. And I seen them boring holes in the house so that the people walking in, it wouldn't vibrate on the floor. He was so bad. And that's the only thing I can say is what I'm looking at.

:''I said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD. It looks like that God would've healed you when you were about seventeen years old and your bones all young to wait till you're eighty-six and then heal you." But I said, "He's healed you, Congressman."

:''He said, "Do you mean to say, my son, that I can rise from this chair?"

=A Brief Biography of William Upshaw=

Using the funds from his writing, William Upshaw entered Mercer University in 1895.  In 1918, he was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives as a Democrat. He was re-elected in 1920, 1922, and 1924.  William Upshaw ran for President of the United States for the Prohibition party in 1932, but returned to lecturing after his defeat.