Any information can be placed in the sidebar to help your website visitors navigate your site.
Who was Rev. William Branham
Rev. William Branham
The person universally acknowledged as the revival’s `father’ and `pacesetter’ was William Branham. The sudden appearance of his miraculous healing campaigns in 1946 set off a spiritual explosion in the Pentecostal movement which was to move to Main Street, U.S.A., by the 1950s and give birth to the broader charismatic movement in the 1960s, which currently affects almost every denomination in the country. ... `Branham filled the largest stadiums and meeting halls in the world.’ ... As the pacesetter of the healing revival, Rev. Branham was the primary source of inspiration in the development of other healing ministries. He inspired hundreds of ministers to enter the healing ministry and a multitude of evangelists paid tribute to him for the impact he had upon their work. As early as 1950, over 1,000 healing evangelists gathered at a Voice of Healing [the name of Branham’s magazine] convention to acknowledge the profound influence of Branham on the healing movement."
Early Life and Conversion
William Branham was born April 6, 1909 in a log cabin in the Kentucky hills, the first of nine children of Charles and Ella Branham. Reared near Jeffersonville, Indiana, he knew only a life of deep poverty and hardship, his father being alcoholic and illiterate. Compounding these circumstances, the young boy was considered "nervous", because from an early age he spoke of "visions" and "a voice" which spoke to him out of a wind, saying, "Don't ever drink, or smoke, or defile your body in any way. There will be a work for you to do when you get older."
William Branham came to know the Lord and was filled with the Holy Spirit in 1931. From that time, the Bible became the focus of his life and Jesus Christ the center of his very existence! He was ordained to the ministry at the age of 23 years, in the Missionary Baptist Church in December of 1932.
Visitations Of An Angel
On June 11, 1933, William Branham was baptizing in the Ohio River near Jeffersonville, Indiana, when a bright fiery light suddenly appeared over his head and a voice spoke out, "As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming of Jesus Christ, so are you sent to forerun His second coming!" The next edition of the Jeffersonville Evening News reported the incident with the subheading, "Mysterious Star Appears Over Minister While Baptizing".
In May of 1946, he set himself aside to seek God for the meaning of his strange life. As he prayed alone late one night, an angel of light appeared, saying, "Do not fear. I am sent from the presence of Almighty God to tell you that your peculiar birth and misunderstood life has been to indicate that you are to take a gift of Divine healing to the peoples of the world. If you will be sincere when you pray and can get the people to believe you, nothing shall stand before your prayer, not even cancer. You will go into many parts of the earth and will pray for kings and rulers and potentates. You will preach to multitudes the world over and thousands will come to you for counsel." This was literally fulfilled in the years that followed, for his ministry took him around the world seven times and many individuals of public influence, including Congressman Upshaw of the U.S.A. and King George VI of England, were healed as a result of his prayers.
On the night of January 24, 1950, one of the most amazing photographs (right figure) of all time was taken in the Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas. As William Branham stood at the podium, a halo of fire appeared above his head. Thispicture was the only one that turned out on the entire film! George J. Lacy, Investigator of Questioned Documents, and often hired by the FBI in that capacity, subjected the negative to every scientific test available. At a news conference, he stated, "To my knowledge, this is the first time in all the world's history that a supernatural being has been photographed and scientifically vindicated." The original of this photograph is kept in the archives of the Religious Department of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.
Worldwide Ministry
As news spread of miraculous healings, pastors from all around began to call Bro. William Branham to minister for their congregations and pray for the sick. A supernatural sign had been given him for the purpose of encouraging the people to believe. Firstly, a physical sign in his hand would indicate a disease or healing. Later on in his ministry the secret thoughts and needs of individuals were revealed, resulting in faith for deliverance. It became abundantly clear to any serious Bible reader, that William Branham was ordained a Prophet to fulfill the many scriptural prophecies concerning our time.
Churches could not accommodate the crowds, and the meetings moved to large auditoriums or stadiums for united campaigns in the major cities of North America.
Jonesboro, Arkansas - "Evening Sun" Newspaper June 12, 1947.
"Residents of at least 25 States and Mexico have visited Jonesboro since Rev. Branham opened the camp meeting, June 1st. The total attendance for the services is likely to surpass the 20,000 mark."
Helsinki, Finland - 1950
Two years prior to the Helsinki campaign, God had shown Bro. Branham a vision of a boy being raised from the dead. He related the details to his audiences and asked them to write the vision in the flyleaf of their Bibles. The vision was fulfilled at the scene of an accident, near Kuopio, Finland, where a boy on a bicycle had been struck by a car and killed. The Branham party travelling in a motorcade came upon the scene and Brother Branham, asking that the sheet covering the body be removed, recognized the boy to be the same one he had seen in the vision. He prayed and the child was raised from the dead.
Durban, South Africa - 1951
Meetings were sponsored by The Apostolic Faith Mission, the Assemblies of God, the Pentecostal Holiness and the Full Gospel Church of God and conducted in eleven cities, with a combined attendance of a half a million people! Church history was made on the final day of the Durban meetings, held at the Greyville Racecourse, where an estimated 45,000 people were in attendance and thousands more turned away at the gates!
The non-European section of the Durban Congregation
Church history was made on the last day of the campaign when approximately 45,000 Indians, Natives, and Europeans gathered together for the afternoon service on the Race Course. Some estimated a much higher number. Long before the meeting began the streets were closed and thousands were left outside in the streets.
...One of the astonishing features of the campaigns was the mass healings. Brother Branham often exhorted the people to lay their hands on each other in the mighty name of Jesus and claim deliverance for those who were bodily afflicted. His impassioned prayers which followed deeply moved the people to faith in God. They were instantly healed of different diseases and afflictions - the deaf heard, the lame walked and the blind saw. Amazing!
The Dead Was Raised
While preaching to well over 20 thousand people in Mexico, William Branham prayed the prayer of faith that raised a dead baby.
This Ministry Was The Fulfillment Of Prophecy?
Amos 3:7
Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
God's pattern of dealing with His people has always included the sending of prophets. The prophet Amos informs us that God does "nothing" without a prophetic forerunner, and even a surface study of scriptural history will uncover this to be exactly as stated. Seldom was there a prophet who spoke the words of God who was not greeted with skepticism, rejection and abuse!
Malachi 4:5 and 6 is two-fold, fulfilled in part in the ministry of John , the Baptist. He preceded the first coming of Jesus Christ, called the "great" day of the Lord, turning the hearts of the fathers of the "law" to the children of the New Testament era of "grace." As stated in Jamieson, Fausset & Brown Commentary on the Whole Bible, "…John the Baptist was an Elijah in spirit (Luke 1:16,17) but not the literal Elijah (John 1:21). This implies that John , knowing he was referred to by Malachi 4:5, knew by inspiration that he did not exhaustively fulfil all that is included in this prophecy: that there is a further fulfillment. There is a prophet that will fulfill the second part of this scripture, forerun the second coming of Christ and "turn the hearts of the children to their fathers.." Literally, a ministry that will turn the hearts of a backslidden generation back to the Word of God and the faith of our "early church" fathers before the "dreadful day of the Lord", the second coming of Christ in judgment.
Again, Matthew 17:10-12 is two-fold. Firstly, "Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?" "… But I say unto you, That Elias is come already and they knew him not …" speaking of John the Baptist. Secondly, "And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things." Speaking of a future forerunner to precede Christ's second coming.
The ministry of William Branham involved three distinct stages that he referred to as "pulls". The First Pull: Healing. Second Pull: Prophesying. Third Pull: The opening or revealing of the Word of God. The ministry of Jesus Christ followed exactly the same pattern. First Pull: multitudes flocked to hear his gracious words and to receive His miraculous healing touch. Second Pull: Revealed the secrets of the hearts. (John 4:17-18) Third Pull: His "message", the Word of God which came in strength and contrary to the religious order of the day, caused the multitudes to leave him.
John 6:66 "From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him."
In December 1962 God gave William Branham a vision of an angelic visitation which he foretold in a message "Sirs is this the Time?" On February 28, 1963,the vision and prophecy was fulfilled when a constellation of seven angels, formed as the head of Christ, met him with a commission to speak the opening of the Seven Seals of Revelation. Life Magazine (May 17th 1963) carried the photograph (left figure) of this supernatural event, describing it as a "Mystery Cloud over Arizona." To the millions of believers around the world who have heard and received the Message which God has sent through His prophet, William Branham, the Word of God has opened up as never before in history. Jesus Christ has come into plain view through the pages of revealed scripture. World events no longer cause alarm, for all is unfolding as it should, fulfilling Bible prophecy!
We urge all sincere readers to be as the Bereans in Act 17:11 who "were nobler than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so."
Eye Witnesses
The following are certified testimonies from well-known pastors, evangelistsand historiansfrom around the world concerning the ministry of William Marrion Branham:
Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements "The person universally acknowledged as the revival’s `father’ and `pacesetter’ was William Branham. The sudden appearance of his miraculous healing campaigns in 1946 set off a spiritual explosion in the Pentecostal movement which was to move to Main Street, U.S.A., by the 1950s and give birth to the broader charismatic movement in the 1960s, which currently affects almost every denomination in the country. ... `Branham filled the largest stadiums and meeting halls in the world.’ ... As the pacesetter of the healing revival, Branham was the primary source of inspiration in the development of other healing ministries. He inspired hundreds of ministers to enter the healing ministry and a multitude of evangelists paid tribute to him for the impact he had upon their work. As early as 1950, over 1,000 healing evangelists gathered at a Voice of Healing [the name of Branham’s magazine] convention to acknowledge the profound influence of Branham on the healing movement
Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988 , p. 372.
James Morris - “It was Branham, more than any other evangelist, who started the post-World War-II fundamentalist healing revival following his encounter with an angel on May 7, 1946. Word radiated in every direction that all manner of diseases and afflictions were healed instantly by the little Indiana preacher. Even cases of raising the dead were published.”
-The Preachers
Gordon Lindsay - “Never had we known of any preacher calling deaf, mutes and blind people to pray for, and then to see those people delivered on the spot... a ministry that was beyond any that we had before witnessed.”
-The House that the Lord Built
Tommy Osborn - “ God has chosen diverse and mysterious ways to reveal Himself to His servants especially those called for dispensational purposes as was Brother Branham’s call. In short, the man we know as William Branham was sent to demonstrate God again in flesh.
-William Branham Memorial Service
Jack Moore - “The most gifted of all the evangelists.”
-All Things are Possible by David Harell, Jr.
Oral Roberts - “A humble devout man of God.”
-Healing Waters, July 1948
F.F. Bosworth - “When the gift is operating, Brother Branham is the most sensitive person to the presence and working of the Holy Spirit and to spiritual realities of any person I have known.”
-A Prophet Visits
South Africa
George Ekeroth - “God called this humble man and anointed his ministry to a degree that within a few short years his name was known in the most remote jungle outstation. Wherever you would go in this world you would find that the name of this messenger has preceded you.”
-Introduction of Morris Cerullo’s
Book, Wind Over the 20th Century
David Edwin Harrell Jr. - “Most of the participants of the healing revival that erupted in 1947 looked upon Branham as its initiator. William Branham became a prophet to a generation. Night after night, before thousands of awed believers, he discerned the diseases of the sick and pronounced them healed. The power of a Branham service remains a legend unparalleled in the history of the Charismatic Movement.”
-All Things Are Possible
Thomas R. Nickel - “In Bible days, there were men of God who were prophets and seers. But in all the sacred records, none of these had a greater ministry than that of William Branham, a Prophet and Seer of God, whose photograph appears on the front cover of this issue of Full Gospel Men’s Voice. Branham has been used by God, in the Name of Jesus, to raise the dead.”
-Full Gospel Men’s Voice
Magazine, February 1961
Joseph Mattson-Boze - “Sometimes I was scared because of the deep sense of holiness that penetrated the meeting, but I never failed to see the gift of God in operation through His servant and feel the warmth of love that flowed through his ministry.”
-The Herald of Faith,
February 1966
G. Lindsay - "The story of the life of William Branham is so out of this world and beyond the ordinary that were there not available a host of infallible proofs which document and attest its authenticity, one might well be excused for considering it far-fetched and incredible."
'William Branham - A man sent from God', pg 9 .
Andrew Strom “He was one of the most anointed men of God that has ever lived in modern times.”
“The Enigma Of William Branham”
Andrew Strom “William Branham was an evangelist this century who was mightily used of God for a number of years. In fact, there can be little doubt that he was endued with power to a degree that has rarely been seen since the days of the apostles.”
“The Enigma Of William Branham”
David Harrell Jr. - "There is nothing boisterous or arrogant about him. He is a meek and humble man... He is a man loved by all. No-one begrudges him any of his success or is envious of his great popularity."
'ALL Things are Possible', pg 39
"Mysterious Star Appears Over Minister While Baptizing".
Jeffersonville Evening News June 12?-1933
Richard Hall "The younger deliverance evangelists viewed him as a man set apart, like Moses. 'He was number one,' said Richard Hall, 'of the common run of evangelists that we have now, put twenty of them at one end and William Branham on the other; he would outweigh them all.'"
Winkie Pratney 'Revival', pg 220-221 .
It became abundantly clear to any serious Bible reader, that William Branham was ordained a Prophet to fulfill the many scriptural prophecies concerning our time.
Bible Way.org January 9-2006
Gordon Lindsay: “In the many hundreds of times I saw him speak under the anointing, he would unerringly speak forth the secrets of men’s hearts — things which he had no possible way of knowing.”
“William Branham As I Knew Him,”
The Voice of Healing, Feb. 1966, p. 11
Ern Baxter: “Branham never once made a mistake with the word of knowledge in all the years I was with him. That covers, in my case, thousands of instances.”
“New Wine Interviews Ern Baxter”,
New Wine Magazine, Dec 1978
Walter Hollenweger: “Concerning the gift of discernment, Hollenweger who translated for William Branham in Switzerland, stated: “I am not aware of any case in which he was mistaken in the often detailed statements he made.
“The Pentecostals” 1972, p354
D.R. Mcconnell: “Branham worked astounding miracles of healing in his crusades. To this day his gifts of supernatural knowledge of those to whom he ministered remains unparalleled, even among modern healing evangelists.”
A Different Gospel,
Hendrickson Publishers Inc, 1988. p. 166
Eric Pement “William Branham was an American evangelist who achieved world renown for a powerful healing ministry which began in 1946 and lasted nearly 20 years..."Lifelong pentecostals stood in awe at the specific detail packed into Branham’s gift of “discernment” as he called it , as Branham would reveal names, addresses, ailments, and personal details of people whom he had never seen before.”
William Branham’s Family Tree
Dr. Mathew Clark “William Branham’s visit in the early 1950’s impacted both the denomination and the nation [South Africa]. The miraculous aspects of his ministry were undeniable, and he gained numerous followers in the country.”
Cyberjournal For Pentecostal-Charismatic Research #16, Jan 2007, Contemporary Pentecostal Leadership: The Apostolic Faith of as Case Study
Rev. Robert S. Liichow “Now, unlike many outright frauds, like Peter Popoff, Branham did reveal things to people and about them that he got supernaturally. He was not faking these things. What happened in his meetings were without a doubt supernatural in nature.”
Discernment Ministries International:
William Branham, 1997
The Enigma Of William Branham - Andrew Strom & Larry Magnello “William Branham was another evangelist mid-way through last century who was mightily used of God for a number of years. In fact, there can be little doubt that he was endued with power to a degree that has rarely been seen since the days of the apostles.”
Dictionary Of Christianity:The Pentecostal masses revered his legendary healing gifts, the ability to detect diseases by the vibration of his hand and the ability to discern the secrets of a person's heart.
Dictionary of Christianity:
William Branham 1990, p182
Harrell, D.E.: “Most of the participants of the [post-WWII] revival looked upon Branham as its initiator. Out of his massive union meetings in 1947 spread reports of hundreds of miracles and marvels.
All Things Are Possible:
The Healing and Charismatic Revivals p25
Weaver, C.D.: “As the pacesetter and pre-eminent visionary of the healing revivalism that flourished in Pentecostalism from the late 1940’s through the late 1950’s, William Branham was deeply respected for his legendary power.”
The Healer-Prophet: William Marrion Branham
A study of the Prophetic in American Pentecostalism
Press, 2000 p139
Guide, Robert H. Krapohl And Charles H. Lippy: Historians generally mark this turn in Branham’s ministry as inaugurating the modern healing revival.
The Evangelicals: A Historical, Thematic, and Biographical April 30, 1999, p69
Julius Stadsklev: “God has been good to his people and from time to time has given us seers and prophets, but as far as we are able to find in the annals of history, there has been no one else with a ministry such as [William] Branham's.”
A Prophet Visits South Africa, 1952, p81
Durban Natal Mercury Newspaper: A Durban woman who had been bedridden for the past 10 months, rose up from a camp bed in the Durban City Hall last night where she had been taken to hear the American evangelist, the Rev. William Branham, and declared: "I feel as if I were two years old."
The Rev. Mr. Branham after a succession of people had come on to the stage to receive God's blessing suddenly turned to Mrs. J.A. Naude of Blythsood Road and said: "You, Madam, have been suffering from internal trouble, but you are now cured - get up off that bed."
Mrs. Naude immediately rose to her feet, swayed a little and then walked to the end of the bed where her husband and daughter looked on in amazement. Mr. Naude told a "Mercury" reporter that he had had a succession of doctors attending to his wife and they had told him that nothing could be done for her. He had spent his savings trying to make her well.
...When a "Mercury" reporter called yesterday, he found Mrs. Naude arranging flowers, while her daughter,
nine-year-old Anne, watched, delighted at her mother's return to health.
A Prophet Visits South Africa,
1952 Pages 122-123