A Comparison of the 1960 Sermon and the Church Age Book
This is an essay analyzing William Branham's Seven Visions of 1933. It was written by a former message follower.
Click on the links below to go to a specific section within the essay. You are currently on the topic below that is in bold:
An Introduction to the Analysis of the Seven Visions of 1933
What were the Seven Visions?
How many Visions?
Why were the Visions given?
Why did the Visions fail to change men’s religious ideas?
A Comparison of the 1960 Sermon and the Church Age Book
A Critique of each Vision
- Mussolini
- Hitler
- Three ISMs
- Scientific progress
- Women and morals
- Powerful Woman in America
- America destroyed
The Prediction
The sequence of the visions
Two views of the Seven Visions
Summary of the discussion
A Comparison of the 1960 Sermon and the Church Age Book
Before proceeding to a more detailed discussion of each vision, it is instructive to compare the visions quoted in the sermon "The Laodicean Church Age" from December 1960 with those recorded in the book, "An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages" (hereinafter referred to as the "Church Age Book").
Since the Church Age Book was written to provide a more readable version of the sermons in the ‘Revelation of Jesus Christ’ series, including 'The Laodicean Church Age', one would have thought that the list in the book would have mirrored the list documented in the sermon but it does not.
In the sermon William Branham said this about the 1933 visions:
- We believe that the Laodicean church started in a.d. 1906. I predict…Now, remember, “predict,” especially you listening at the tape. I don’t say it will be, but predict that it will end by 1977, that the church will go completely into apostasy and she’ll be ousted out of the mouth of God. And the Second Coming, or the Rapture of Christ, might come anytime. Now, I could miss that a year, I can miss it twenty years, I could miss it a hundred years. I don’t know where it…But I just predict that according to a vision He showed me, and taking the time, the way it’s progressing, I say it’ll be sometime between '33 and '77.
- At—at least, this great nation is going to strike a war that’s going to blow it to bits, see. Now that's pretty close, it's awful close. And I could be wrong, I’m predicting. Everybody understand?
- See? But the Lord showed me a vision of the great powerful woman, in '33, 1933, it's on paper.
- Of how that “Roosevelt would cause…he helped cause the world to go to war.”
- How that “Mussolini would make his first invasion to Ethiopia and he would take it, but he would come to a disgraceful end.”
- And how that “Then the three ism: Nazism, Fascism, and Communism, would all wind up in Communism.” And how many in here remembers me just keep…have you stand, and say it over, I’d tell you, “Watch Russia! Watch Russia, the king of the North! Watch Russia, king of the North! Watch Russia, king of the North!”? How many has heard me just say, just wave that over, over? The old-timers, you see, back in the early part of the church. Just stand there and wave it over and over, “Watch Russia, the king of the North! See, what he would do, for all those isms will heap up into Russia.”
- Then I said, that “This nation would finally go to war with Germany. And Germany would be built in a concrete wall.” And that was the Maginot Line, eleven years before it was ever started to build it, eleven years before. And I said, “The Americans will take an awful beating at that line.” Some of these brethren here was at that line, Brother Roy Roberson and them; ask them what happened. They sure did. All right. “But finally,” I said, “we will overcome and will be one of the winner in the war between us and Germany.”
- Now, I said, “Then after that time, that science would really progress.” They did, they made the atomic bomb and everything. I said, “During their progression, they would make a…cars would constantly begin to shape like an egg.” And you remember the big old hood on the 1933, the big back come down like this, the spare tire on the back of it? Look how it is now, see: streamlined, see, like an egg. And I said, “Finally they will invent a car that they won’t have to have a steering wheel in it. I seen a family going down the…Call it, ‘road,’ in a glass-top car, great big fine-looking roads and fine car. And they were sitting, looking at one another, and the car was running by itself, going right on around the curves and everything.” And they’ve got the car right now, it’s already invented. They’ve got the car. And I said then, “Oh, how science will progress in that day!”
- I said, “Then I seen a…They’re going to permit women and are permitting women to vote. And by voting, they'll elect the wrong man some of these days.” And you did at the last election. It was the woman's votes that elected Kennedy. We know that, see, between the crooked machines and things fixed up, that FBI exposed. And how could anybody…Why don’t they do something about it? Why ain't something said? Hah!
It is interesting to note that in this rendition he does not even mention Adolf Hitler in relation to World War II, the main instigator is Theodore Roosevelt!
Picking out the comments that relate directly to each of the visions they can be compared as follows:
| Name | Vision statement from the Church Age Book | Vision statement, Laodicean Church Age sermon December 1960 |
|---|---|---|
| Prediction | The Laodicean Age began around the turn of the Twentieth Century, perhaps 1906. How long will it last? As a servant of God who has had multitudes of visions, of which NONE has ever failed, let me predict (I did not say prophesy, but predict) that this age will end around 1977. If you will pardon a personal note here, I base this prediction on seven major continuous visions that came to me one Sunday morning in June, 1933. The Lord Jesus spoke to me and said that the coming of the Lord was drawing nigh, but that before He came, seven major events would transpire. | We believe that the Laodicean church started in a.d. 1906. I predict…Now, remember, “predict,” especially you listening at the tape. I don’t say it will be, but predict that it will end by 1977, that the church will go completely into apostasy and she’ll be ousted out of the mouth of God. And the Second Coming, or the Rapture of Christ, might come anytime. Now, I could miss that a year, I can miss it twenty years, I could miss it a hundred years. I don’t know where it…But I just predict that according to a vision He showed me, and taking the time, the way it’s progressing, I say it’ll be sometime between ’33 and ’77. |
| Mussolini | The first vision was that Mussolini would invade Ethiopia and that nation would “fall at his steps.”
But the vision also said that Mussolini would come to a horrible end with his own people turning on him |
How that “Mussolini would make his first invasion to Ethiopia and he would take it, but he would come to a disgraceful end.”
|
| Hitler | The next vision foretold that an Austrian by the name of Adolph Hitler would rise up as dictator over Germany, and that he would draw the world into war. It showed the Siegfried line and how our troops would have a terrible time to overcome it. Then it showed that Hitler would come to a mysterious end. | Of how that “Roosevelt would cause…he helped cause the world to go to war.”
Then I said, that “This nation would finally go to war with Germany. And Germany would be built in a concrete wall.” And that was the Maginot Line, eleven years before it was ever started to build it, eleven years before. And I said, “The Americans will take an awful beating at that line.” |
| Three ISMs | The third vision was in the realm of world politics for it showed me that there would be three great ISMS, Facism, Nazism, Communism, but that the first two would be swallowed up into the third. The voice admonished, "WATCH RUSSIA, WATCH RUSSIA. Keep your eye on the King of the North." | And how that “Then the three ism: Nazism, Fascism, and Communism, would all wind up in Communism.” And how many in here remembers me just keep…have you stand, and say it over, I’d tell you, “Watch Russia! Watch Russia, the king of the North! Watch Russia, king of the North! Watch Russia, king of the North!”? . |
| Scientific Progress | The fourth vision showed the great advances in science that would come after the second world war. It was headed up in the vision of a plastic bubble-topped car that was running down beautiful highways under remote control so that people appeared seated in this car without a steering wheel and they were playing some sort of a game to amuse themselves. | Now, I said, “Then after that time, that science would really progress.” They did, they made the atomic bomb and everything.
I said, “During their progression, they would make a…cars would constantly begin to shape like an egg.” And you remember the big old hood on the 1933, the big back come down like this, the spare tire on the back of it? Look how it is now, see: streamlined, see, like an egg. And I said, “Finally they will invent a car that they won’t have to have a steering wheel in it. I seen a family going down the…Call it, ‘road,’ in a glass-top car, great big fine-looking roads and fine car. And they were sitting, looking at one another, and the car was running by itself, going right on around the curves and everything.” And they’ve got the car right now, it’s already invented. They’ve got the car. And I said then, “Oh, how science will progress in that day!” |
| Women and morals | The fifth vision had to do with the moral problem of our age, centering mostly around women. God showed me that women began to be out of their place with the granting of the vote. Then they cut off their hair, which signified that they were no longer under the authority of a man but insisted on either equal rights, or in most cases, more than equal rights. She adopted men's clothing and went into a state of undress, until the last picture I saw was a woman naked except for a little fig leaf type apron. With this vision I saw the terrible perversion and moral plight of the whole world. | I said, “Then I seen a…They’re going to permit women and are permitting women to vote. And by voting, they’ll elect the wrong man some of these days.” And you did at the last election. It was the woman’s votes that elected Kennedy. We know that, see, between the crooked machines and things fixed up, that FBI exposed. And how could anybody…Why don’t they do something about it? Why ain’t something said? |
| Powerful woman in America | Then in the sixth vision there arose up in America a most beautiful, but cruel woman. She held the people in her complete power. I believed that this was the rise of the Roman Catholic Church, though I knew it could possibly be a vision of some woman rising in great power in America due to a popular vote by women. | But the Lord showed me a vision of the great powerful woman, in ’33, 1933, it’s on paper. |
| America destroyed | The last and seventh vision was wherein I heard a most terrible explosion. As I turned to look I saw nothing but debris, craters, and smoke all over the land of America. | At—at least, this great nation is going to strike a war that’s going to blow it to bits |
Comparing these two sets it is clear that only numbers 1, 3, 7 and the Prediction are similar. Numbers 2, 4, 5 and 6 are quite different. It is clear that he was not referencing an original record when he preached the sermon and if the Church Age book list is the original record then where did the differences come from.
There is no consistency here. There is obviously something radically wrong with the recording of the visions and with his subsequent renditions. The Church Age Book (Laodicean church age chapter) is a rewriting of the sermon of the same name but as regards its most important aspect, that it is true to what was said, – it fails. One is asked to believe that the visions were given by God in 1933 but is immediately thrown into doubt as to what they were.
Let us be quite clear about this: William Branham had a duty to correctly quote all of the vision whenever he referred to it. It was not his vision or his thought it was God’s and he did not have a right to misquote or to partially quote or to add his own opinions. If the Church Age Book visions are the originals then the excerpts from the sermon above suffer from all of these deficiencies.
Quotations from other sermons are as confusing. The discrepancies and additions that occur in many of the sermons subsequent to 1953 will now be examined in detail.
Footnotes