WILLIAM MARRION BRANHAM (1909-1965)
William Marrion Branham was one of the most influential Bible ministers of our time, considered by many to be the initiator of healing and charismatic revival that began in 1947.
From 1947 until the time of his passing in 1965, the powerful ministry of William Branham was well kno
wn and considered unparalleled in the history of gospel meetings. The impact of the supernatural ministry of this one man was felt not only in North America, but also around the world.
Untold thousands of verified cases of all manner of healing were manifested in the U.S.A., Canada, Africa, and all around the world through the prayers of William Branham. The blind received their sight, cancer patients were made well, the maimed, the crippled, and the halt were made fully whole. No disease stood in the way as God proved to millions, that He is still God today, the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8) in the ministry of His end-time messenger to our age. But most important of all, William Branham brought us an End Time Message which restored all the loose-ends of the Bible which, even if all the Bible schools in the world were combined, would never be able to unveil to us. These teachings include the Mystery of the Godhead, the Truth on Water Baptism, the Original Sin, Predestination, the Revelation of the Seven Seals, The New Birth, the Mark of the Beast, Mystery Babylon, and more... (view our home page for the topical index). These truths were restored to the church today in order to prepare the Bride of Jesus Christ in every nation to get ready for the Rapture, which is the second coming of the Lord.
William Branham said: “Not for one moment do I bring a message to the people that they may follow me, or join my church, or start some fellowship and organization. I have never done that and will not do that now. I have no interest in those things, but I do have an interest in the things of God and people, and if I can accomplish just one thing I will be satisfied. That one thing is to see established a true spiritual relationship between God and men, wherein men become new creations in Christ, filled with His Spirit and live according to His Word. I would invite, plead and warn all to hear His voice at this time, and yield your lives completely to Him, even as I trust my heart that I have given my all to Him. God bless you, and may His Coming rejoice your heart.”
WITNESSES TO THE BRANHAM MINISTRY
The following are certified testimonies from well-known preachers and evangelists from around the world concerning the ministry of William marrion Branham:
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 Thingsare 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 ThingsAre 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)
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.” For half an hour, this angel explained to Brother Branham about the past and told him of his future. He explained why the ministers couldn’t recognize a gift of God in William’s life, yet the devil could. It was the same in Jesus’ day: the religious leaders said Jesus had a devil, yet the devils at Gadara recognized Him (Mark 3:22; John 7:20).
TWO VINDICATED SIGNS The angel also told Brother Branham that, even as Moses was given two signs to prove he was sent from God (Exodus 4:1-8), so he would be given two signs also. First, he would be able to diagnose diseases by their vibrations, which would cause his hand to swell. If the swelling went down after he prayed upon the person, he could say, “Thus saith the Lord, you are healed.” The angel said that time would come when Brother Branham would be able to discern the very secrets of men’s hearts (Heb 4:12; John 2:24-25).
Millions of people bear record that the words of the angel were fulfilled exactly (as in Acts 27:21-25). As the sign in his hand was manifested, which when seen would raise the people’s faith to be healed, his ministry grew nationwide, then worldwide. Then it came to where the Spirit of Christ would reveal to him the very thoughts of men’s hearts, reveal their needs; reveal unconfessed sins that were not cleansed by the Blood of Jesus Christ; reveal things about their lives that Brother Branham himself couldn’t possibly know. Not mindreading or psychology, but rather he would see a vision of it - the things actually enacted before his open eyes (Joel 2:28). And when he spoke under the anointing, out of hundreds of thousands of times all over the world, the words spoken to total strangers never failed to be exactly the truth. And the prophesies — of healing, of future events, small to great, thousands and thousands and thousands of times - not once was one even partly wrong! It was a literal, “THUS SAITH THE LORD!”
Over the next ten years Brother Branham circled the globe seven times, holding some of the largest meetings in history. Some 100,000 people heard him in Durban, South Africa. Seven truckloads of crutches, wheelchairs, canes, etc.. were hauled away after the healing services.
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.
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.
While preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Portland, Oregon, a huge, demon-possessed man strode to the platform, calling Brother Branham a fake, an imposter, a deceiver, threatening to break every bone in his body. As the man drew near to execute his threats, Brother Branham said softly, “Satan, because you have challenged the servant of God - in the Name of Jesus Christ, you shall fall at my feet.” The powerful man struggled to come nearer, but couldn’t. He sank to the floor and had to be carried out by ushers because he fell on his face in front of God’s vindicated servant.
In Bombay, India, where some 400,000 came to hear the Gospel, there was a blind beggar brought before Brother Branham for prayer. In a vision, Brother Branham saw who this beggar was, where he lived, and that he had become blind by staring at the sun, which he worshipped as God. Then Brother Branham challenged the various heathen Indian priests in turn saying, “If your god be God, then come up here at the platform and have him open this man’s eyes and we’ll fall down and worship your god.” None moved. “But if my God, the Lord Jesus Christ, be God and opens this man’s eyes, will you forsake your powerless gods and accept Jesus as your Saviour?” To this they agreed. The reason for this prophet’s fearless confidence was because he had already seen the man healed in a vision, and the these visions never failed him. When the beggar’s eyes came open that he could already see all the people in that meeting, pandemonium broke loose as those poor people strove just to touch Brother Branham to be healed.
It was in Mexico that the simple faith of a woman caused God to work a mighty miracle. The doctor wrote out a sworn statement that her baby had died at 9:00 in the morning of pneumonia, but because she had seen God give a blind man back his sight in Brother Branham’s meetings the night before, she carried her dead baby around all day, believing that if she could just get it to Brother Branham, God would raise it up. That night, where Brother Branham was having a meeting, he saw a vision of a Mexican baby being cuddled by her mother, alive. There he prayed in Jesus’ Name and laid hands on the baby. Immediately the infant began to cry and was restored back to life. The news packed the article and the doctor who issued the death certificate could not believe what had transpired.
