The Houston Photograph: Difference between revisions

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==Local newspaper reporting==
==What William Branham said about the evening==
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|[[Houston debate article|Click here for a copy of the January 24th, <br> 1950 issue of The Houston Press.]]<br>
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The same morning that the photographer brought the news of the halo of light in the picture above Rev. Branham's head, the Houston newspapers carried full reports of the service on their front pages. Of course, the newspapers had heard nothing yet about the photograph. And it is interesting to note that Mr. Ayers, one of the photographers who had been secured by the opposing clergyman, himself had made skeptical remarks - which remarks were included in the reports by the newspapers.  
'''William Branham said that God would not allow a picture to be developed of Rev. Best pointing his finger at F.F. Bostorth'''
[[Image:Debate.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Photograph of Rev. Best pointing his finger at F.F. Bosworth  <br>[[Houston debate article|Click here to read a copy of the January 24th, 1950 issue of The Houston Press.]]  ]]


Below we include some greatly condensed reports of the meeting as they appeared that morning in the Houston newspapers:
:''I seen him the night of the debate when this Angel of the Lord came down and had His picture taken that you see here now, they got of the meeting. It was Brother Bosworth who stood there that night, and this young fellow just out of the seminary, pointing his finger in that old saints face, and having him take his picture like this. And he shaking his fist in that old saintly man's face, and saying, "Now, take my picture. And now take my picture," like that. 'Cause he wanted six pictures taken; he could publish it in his paper in such positions as that. And Almighty God would not permit one of them to be developed. Every one of them was perfect negative. That's right.''  (Chicago, July 20, 1954)


THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE - JAN. 25, 1950 (Abridged)
'''William Branham also said that it was George J. Lacy who first called it a supernatural light'''
:''Mr. Lacy said it was the first time in all human history that a--a supernatural Being was ever photographed. They said it just a... that it's been said, a lot of times that those lights around the saints, and the unbelievers say that's some artist painted that picture. But said, "It surely must have been there, for that optical lens--mechanical lens of a camera won't take psychology. It was... It was there."'' (Minneapolis, July 14, 1950)


:"They lay on cots under the glare of the great lights of Sam Houston Coliseum Tuesday night - the lame, the sick, the infirm, the ones whose hopes for physical health had almost gone. They lay there quietly, some of them uncomprehendingly, as the theological argument swirled about and above them.


:For it was they who - Rev. F. F. Bosworth, an out-of-town evangelist, said - could be cured of their infirmities by the divine healing power passed on through Rev. William Branham, Rev. Mr. Bosworth's partner. But Rev. W. E. Best, pastor of the Houston Tabernacle Baptist Church, contended that any such "miraculous healing" had ceased with the apostles. And he challenged Rev. Mr. Bosworth to prove otherwise.
==Report by George J. Lacy==
 
:When the Rev. Best shouted there were those "who used sorcery to bewitch people, so that people are sincerely misled and say it's the power of God," James Ayers, a commercial photographer of 1610 Rusk, agreed.
 
:"Branham puts on a show," said Mr. Ayers. "Somehow he never gets around to the cripples and the persons who have arthritis. He simply hypnotizes his audience."
 
==Authentication==


After conferring with Rev. Branham, Gordon Lindsay arranged for the negative to be turned over to George Lacy, a forensic examiner of documents. Mr. Lacy examined the negative.  
After conferring with Rev. Branham, Gordon Lindsay arranged for the negative to be turned over to George Lacy, a forensic examiner of documents. Mr. Lacy examined the negative.