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 known 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… 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 William 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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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.

The Pillar of Fire
The photograph at the left with the PILLAR OF FIRE above Brother Branham’s head was photographed at Houston, Texas, in January of 1950. This Light had accompanied Brother Branham since his birth in 1909. And during a 1933 baptismal service at the Ohio River at Jeffersonville, Indiana, this SUPERNATURAL BEING appeared before hundreds of people saying to him, “As John the Baptist foreran the first coming of Christ, you will forerun His second Coming.” This picture is displayed today at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and was examined and certified as genuine by Mr. George Lacy, a federal examiner of Questioned Documents in the U.S., to be the only authentic documentation of the supernatural in this generation.

A Mysterious Cloud
On February 28, 1963, over in Arizona, U.S.A., a constellation of seven angels appeared to Reverend William Marrion Branham in the form of a ring shaped-Cloud (left photo).

These seven angels came from the presence of God revealing to him the hidden mysteries of the Bible which were sealed in the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation yet were ordained to be unveiled at the end time. This was to inform the people of God of the perfect will of the Father in preparation for the oncoming millennial reign of Jesus Christ upon this earth.

It was as they left Brother Branham that they formed this mysterious cloud which Life Magazine had featured in their May 17, 1963 issue, and Science Magazine in their April 19, 1963 issue.

The original glossy prints reveal the full face of the Lord Jesus Christ as the picture is viewed from the right side angle “like unto the Son of Man, His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow” (Rev.1:13).

Seven Sealed-Book of Revelations Unveiled
On December 22, 1962, Brother Branham had a vision where he was standing near Tucson, Arizona, picking a sand burr out of his pants leg, when a tremendous explosion occured. He told this vision to his congregation in Jeffersonville, Indiana on the 31st of December (the sermon was tape recorded). Then he moved to Tucson, Arizona.

Over a month later, on February 28, 1963, while out hunting, he noticed a sand burr in his trouser. As he reached to pull it off, a tremendous blast rocked the mountainside. Looking up, he saw seven angels in the form of a pyramid sweeping towards him, and for a time he seemed to be caught up in their midst. These seven angels represents the Seven Messengers to the Seven Church Ages as written in Revelations Chapter 2 and 3.

Then a voice cried out, “Go back east,” and Brother Branham knew it was time for the opening of the mysteries of the Seven Seals in the Book of Revelation (Daniel 12:4,8-9; Rev. 5,6 & 8) which the angels have entrusted to him. The angels returned into the sky and formed a cloud some 50 miles long and 30 miles wide, which was visible for hundreds of miles around.

Many pictures were taken of this peculiar Cloud, some appearing in Life Magazine (May 17, 1963 issue); some in Science Magazine (April 19,1963 issue), along with a scientific report of how it was scientifically impossible for such a cloud to exist. The highest clouds form at about 10 miles, but this phenomenal cloud was 26 miles up, at which altitude water vapor does not exist.

Brother Branham returned to Jeffersonville, Indiana wherein for seven days, as he waited on God, the voice of God spoke out the Pillar of Fire, revealing the exact Truth of the Mysteries sealed up in Revelations 5 through 8; which revelation was contrary to what everyone (including Brother Branham) had previously supposed, yet was perfectly in line with the rest of God’s Word.

As Brother Branham preached seven consecutive nights on these Seals (March 17-24, 1963) his sermons were tape-recorded: Thus the Scripture is fulfilled in our day saying, “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to His servants the prophets” (Rev. 10:7).

Seven Visions of William Branham
In the year 1933, God gave Brother Branham a continuous vision of seven major things that must transpire before the Lord Jesus Christ would come again.

The first (1) vision was that he saw a dictator rising up in Italy that would invade Ethiopia. He saw Mussolini and his shameful end where the people turned on him, before it ever transpired in the actual event.

The second (2) vision was shown to him by God where he saw a young Austrian named Adolf Hitler who would gain power in Germany and would lead the world into war, but that Germany would be defeated and Hitler would come to a mysterious end.

In the third (3) vision, he saw three great ISM’s in the world: Fascism, Nazism and Communism: but that the first two would be swallowed up into the third one – Communism.

Then on the fourth (4) vision, he beheld the tremendous advances in science that would follow World War II. He saw an automobile looking like an egg that’s being run not by humans but by remote control.

The fifth (5) vision showed him the horrible moral decay of the world, centering mostly around women. He saw women cutting her hair, smoking cigarettes, drinking, wearing pants and indecent clothing. (Remember these five things were shown to him in 1933, years before they occurred).

In the sixth (6) vision, he saw a beautiful, yet cruel woman rise in America, dominating the land with authority.

And in the last (7) vision, he saw the land of America in smoldering ruins. As far as the eye could see there was no life, only craters and smoking piles of debris. He also saw Los Angeles, California sank beneath the ocean caused by a major earthquake. Then these visions faded away.

Prophesy Fulfilled in Our Day
“Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7

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!

CONSIDER these Scriptures on the spirit of Elijah:
MALACHI 4:5-6- “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”

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, this means that there will be 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 is the fulfillment of the coming of the spirit of Elijah that was to precede the second coming of Christ which is to “restore” the heart so of the children back to the teachings of the Apostolic Fathers.

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. “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” John. 6:66

A Prophet is not without Honor Except in his own land
Why then is not William Branham widely acclaimed today? No true prophet was ever accepted by the majority of people in their day. Yet a true prophet strikes against the corruption of their day, and people don’t like to change from their carnal ways. Only a few will know and believe, just as it was in the days of John the Baptist.

Notice this: as long as Jesus Christ (who was the God-Prophet) was healing the sick, multitudes swarmed to Him. But when he began to bring forth strong doctrine, rebuking the Saducees and Pharisees (the denominations of his day), the Bible records: “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him,” (John 6:48-68).

Likewise, as long as God used Brother Branham to heal the sick and afflicted, millions followed his ministry. But when God through His prophet began to restore the WORD, most people loved the miracles but hated the Word. Howbeit, that the Word had to be restored before Jesus Christ could take His Bride, for she must be a pure Word Bride, and the true meaning of the Word of God has been so distorted down through the centuries until today; as Jesus said, “In vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men … making the Word of God of none effect through your traditions” (Mark 7:6,7,13).

Think not that these things exalt a man, CHRIST ALONE IS EXALTED! Brother Branham of himself could do nothing (John 3:27). It was Jesus Christ performing (through a humble prophet) the same works he did when He walked in human flesh upon this earth (Heb. 13:8). So look not at the man, but at the Message which he brought forth, for that Message will point you to the pure Jesus Christ, free from all denominational creeds and traditions.

Did not the apostle Paul say, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ,” (1 Cor. 11:1; 4:16). When you obey Paul, you are not following a man, but the Holy Spirit speaking through him. “And today,” as one man wrote, “this man, William Branham, has had literally thousands of manifested vindications from God, and with his life containing all the other factors that make up the prophetic office, he ought to be received for what he is – he must be received for what he is. “Thus saith the Lord” in his mouth by the Holy Ghost, is absolutely no different from the “Thus saith the Lord” in the mouth of Paul, for it is the same Holy Ghost.”

But would you have recognized Paul had you lived in his day? Or if you had lived in the days of Noah? Or Elijah? or Jeremiah? Would you have recognized them as prophets and heeded their Message? How about if you had lived in a remote part of Palestine and heard reports about somebody called Jesus who was performing mighty miracles? Would you have recognized Him for who He was, or would you have been like the Pharisees, who believed what God did in the past, but could not accept what God was doing in their own day! They even called Jesus “Beelzebub, the prince of devils”. “Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees,” cried Jesus, “hypocrites! Because ye build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets, wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets!” (Matt. 23:29-31).

An Endtime Message that’s Left for All of us 
William Branham died in December of 1965 when his car was hit by a drunken driver. It was a death which he had already anticipated by a vision. But the MESSAGE God used him to bring lives on and cannot die. There are over 1,100 different tape-recorded sermons of Brother Branham today and most of these have been printed out in book form circulating around the globe today, crying out against perversion, warning souls that Jesus Christ is coming very soon, mapping out the truth through God’s Word, and preparing a Bride for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It is the “voice of the seventh messenger” and the final Word-Message to our age.

God has once again visited this last generation with a mighty prophet. A humble man, who desired neither fame nor wealth, who never failed to give every bit of the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Briefly, this essay has sketched his life, and briefly his vindication. Yet, this has not even touched on the Message which he brought forth, even though it is that Message that is most important. Now it is up to you to dig on these treasures. Books and tapes are available upon request, but you must be sincere to check it out, weigh the evidence, examine the Word, and then pray it through. If it is the Truth, God requires you to believe it.

Brother Branham finally concluded: “We’re at the end, friends. Soon it shall be time run out. Millions will lose their lives. Millions that now believe they are saved will be counted fodder for the atomic age. We are living at the last hour. By the grace of God, by His help, we speak to His people that they might look forward to the soon appearing of Christ…”

For information about William Branham visit Voice of God Recordings.