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| | [[Image:Branham28.jpg|thumb|200px|right|William Branham]] |
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| |'''Editors Note:''' The following biography is based on William Branham’s own statements. However, where a particular story is told more than one time, we have attempted to rely on the first, or original, version only. | |
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| | '''Who was William Marrion Branham?''' In the late 1940's, his healing ministry skyrocketed him from a pastor in a small church outside Louisville, Kentucky to an international evangelist. However, as his ministry progressed his visions and doctrine became increasingly controversial until '''his death''' on December 24, 1965. |
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| [[Image:Image-rs-156 - Br Br - fishing.jpg|right|350px]]
| | =Introduction= |
| '''William Marrion Branham''' (April 8, 1908<ref>William Branham listed April 8, 1908 as his birthday on his marriage license to Hope Brumbach.</ref> – December 24, 1965) was a Christian evangelist who has been called the ''"pacesetter of the healing revival"'' <ref>The Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements: (Zondervan, 1988, p. 372) ~ ''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.''</ref> and a ''"prophet"''<ref>The Full Gospel Men's Voice Magazine (February, 1961) ~ ''"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 record than that of William Branham."''</ref>. Born in rural Kentucky, he was raised in humble circumstances and experienced many tragedies. In the 1940’s his healing ministry skyrocketed him from a rural pastor to an international evangelist with hillbilly English. William Branham’s campaign theme was the scripture ''"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever"'', and his theme-song was ''"Only Believe"''.
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| | '''William Marrion Branham''' was an evangelist who has been called the ''"pacesetter of the healing revival"'' <ref>The Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements: (Zondervan, 1988, p. 372) ~ ''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.''</ref> and a ''"prophet"''<ref>The Full Gospel Men's Voice Magazine (February, 1961) ~ ''"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 record than that of William Branham."''</ref>. He was born in rural Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and in the 1940’s his healing ministry skyrocketed him from a rural pastor to an international evangelist. |
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| <div style="border-bottom:1px #B87333 solid; font-size:125%; padding:1px; margin:1px;">'''Early Life'''<ref>Based on tract ''Jesus Christ the Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever'' written and published by William Branham.</ref> </div>
| | =William Branham's legacy= |
| William Branham was born in a log cabin in the hills of Kentucky, the first of nine children of Charles and Ella Branham. When he was six months old, at a time when his father was working away from home, his mother almost starved to death and was rescued by a neighbour. The Branham family then moved to Utica, Indiana, and then farther down the Ohio valley.
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| One day when William Branham was a young boy, his father asked him to haul water from the barn to the house. As he was carrying water, a voice spoke to him out of a whirlwind in a tree and said, ''"Never drink, smoke, or defile your body in any way, for I have a work for you to do when you get older."''
| | Views on William Branham's legacy can be grouped into the following main categories: |
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| William Branham recalls that compared to other families, the Branham's were poor. At school his shoes were often torn, and he would sometimes wear a closed jacket when he had no shirt to wear. | | #The vast majority of both Christians and non-Christians today have never heard of William Branham and have no idea he even has a legacy. |
| | #Some older Pentecostals and "charismatic" Christians view him as a great evangelist and gifted healer who strayed from Christian orthodoxy in the latter stages of his ministry. They believe this is the reason for his obscurity today. |
| | #His followers (estimated at between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people worldwide) believe him to be Elijah the Prophet, the fulfillment of Malachi 4:5 and the angel of [[Revelation 10:7]]. There are [[Message Sects|many different sects within William Branham's followers]], although they all refer to themselves as believers of [[The Message|the Message of the Hour]]. Some of his followers believe that William Branham's every word was infallible, while others will admit that he did make some minor errors but he was infallible with respect to his visions, prophecies and interpretation of the Bible. |
| | #Some, [[Research Sources for William Branham and His Message#Independent research sources|as a result of facts coming out of research by us and other former message followers]], view William Branham as a false prophet who was either willfully deceptive, or had untreated mental health issues. |
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| When William Branham was 14 years old, he was shot in a hunting accident, and spent seven months in the hospital. Through his teenage years he did not want to have anything to do with God, or church. In 1927, he told his mother he was going camping in Tunnel Mill, Indiana, and left home to work as a ranch-hand in Phoenix, Arizona. He initially enjoyed himself, but when he received news that his brother Edward had died, the joy of his adventure vanished. Edward's funeral was taken by a close family friend, Rev. McKinney, who made a salvation call that William Branham refused.
| | '''By his own admission, William Branham was prone to exaggeration''' and he often embellished his stories. |
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| William Branham found work in Indiana as a high-voltage linesman with the Indiana Public Works. In 1931 he was checking meters at the Gas Works in New Albany, and was overcome by fumes. He began suffering from stomach acid. When he went to a specialist, he was told he had appendicitis and went for an operation. Afraid, he requested local anesthetic only, and brought along a minister from the First Baptist Church to stand by him. During the operation his mind went back to the whirlwind in the tree, and he promised to preach the Gospel if God would bring him through the operation. | | William Branham's life story account as related on this website is based on both his recorded sermons and as many historical documents as we could find. Any statements that can be substantiated by written historical documents are referenced. |
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| During his slow recovery, William Branham began visiting different churches. One night he went behind his shed to pray, and saw a light form into a cross, and from the cross came a voice in an unknown language. He prayed desperately, and the light returned. William Branham felt free of his burdens, but still did not tell anyone about this experience at that time.
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| William Branham then found a church that believed in healing. He was anointed with oil and healed instantly. After this, William Branham began praying for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. A second time a light met him and told him to go preach and pray for the sick, and they would be healed regardless of what disease they had.
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| <div style="border-bottom:1px #B87333 solid; font-size:125%; padding:1px; margin:1px;">'''Early Ministry'''</div>
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| William Branham met Hope Brumbach in 1932 and joined the Missionary Baptist Church that she attended in Jeffersonville. Soon after, William Branham was ordained a minster in the Baptist Church. Later that year, he has two visions: one of a man hit by a car getting healed, and another of an infirm woman being instantly healed. Within weeks, he prayed for both of these people and they were instantly healed.
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| [[Image:Image-rs-018 - Sis Hope and Bro Branham.jpg|220px|thumb|William and Hope Branham]]
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| 1933 was a remarkable year for William Branham,
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| *He started construction on the 'First Pentecostal Baptist’ church in Jeffersonville (this later became known as the 'Branham Tabernacle').
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| *He experienced a series of seven prophecies that he talked about much in later years (see [[Prophecies]] for more details).
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| *In August 1933, while around 130 people were gathered for baptism on the Ohio River at the foot of Spring Street in Jeffersonville, Indiana, a voice told William Branham to “look up”. As the 17th person came to him to be baptized, a bright light appeared in the sky above. William Branham screamed, while others shouted or ran away. The light caused the water on the river to churn, and then the light disappeared back into the sky into a little white cloud.
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| William Branham had a vision in June 1933 on the morning he was laying the cornerstone for his new tablernacle. The vision was of an orchard, with places for new trees on either side of an aisle leading to the cross. Plum trees were on one side, and apple trees were on the other side, and both types of fruit were found in the cross. William Branham was instructed to walk between these trees (which he identified as the Trinitarian and Oneness Pentecostals), and do the work of an evangelist, as both types of fruit were found in the cross.
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| William Branham continued to work and preach, and married Hope Brumbach in 1934. In 1935, a son, Billy Paul, was born to William and Hope Branham.
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| 1936 was a whirlwind year. William Branham entered a Pentecostal tent meeting that challenged his perspective of Christianity. He received a number of invitations to preach at various Oneness churches after attending this meeting, but was pressured by his mother-in-law not to accept these invitations. William Branham also prophesied that the Ohio river would flood, and reach 22 feet over Spring Street in Jeffersonville. Finally, a daughter (Sharon Rose Branham) was born to William and Hope Branham.
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| <div style="border-bottom:1px #B87333 solid; font-size:125%; padding:1px; margin:1px;">'''Tragedy and Recovery'''</div>
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| In 1937, the [[Ohio River flood of 1937|Ohio river flooded]] over Spring Street. Hope Branham was extremely sick at the time, and the conditions after the flood only made it worse. William Branham was isolated during the flood, and could not access his sick wife. She finally died shortly after he found her again. Days later, Sharon Rose also passed away from disease. William Branham links his wife and daughter's death to his decision to respect his mother-in-law’s request not to join the Pentecostal movement.
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| William Branham relays little about the years after the death of his wife and daughter. It was a period of extreme trial and depression, with William Branham attempting suicide twice during this time. Still, William Branham continued to work, and preach, and care for his son.
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| In 1940, William Branham prayed for a crippled boy and girl, and both were healed. This marked the start of his recovery. Soon after, in 1941, he married Meda Broy. William Branham again continued to work and preach, while life quietly passed by. The is evidence of early healing revivals in the local areas around Jeffersonville at this time, primarily with the Oneness Pentecostal groups.
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| <div style="border-bottom:1px #B87333 solid; font-size:125%; padding:1px; margin:1px;">'''Commission and Evangelism'''</div>
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| In March 1945 William Branham saw a vision of birds who would not eat from a small pile of white bread. A voice told him ''“That is your Tabernacle and they won't eat the bread of life anymore. I am sending you…westward.”'' William Branham was then shown a large tent with a platform at the front. Behind the tent was a great pile of the same white bread, and he was told to feed a white-robed audience that had gathered from everywhere. The following day, William Branham explained the vision to his church.
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| William Branham left Jeffersonville on June 14, 1945 and headed directly west with his wife, son, and Rev. Daugherty to St. Louis, Missouri. The testimonies from the tent meetings in St. Louis were compiled in a tract called [[Heavenly Vision|I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision]] and distributed at subsequent revival meetings.
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| In 1946, Meda Branham gave birth to a girl, Rebekah.
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| [[Image:Image-rs-155 - Br Br - seated with Bible.jpg|220px|right]]
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| In June 1947, the ''Evening Sun'' newspaper of Jonesboro, Arkansas reported that "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."
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| William Branham also met [[Gordon Lindsay]] in 1947, who became his primary manager and promoter. Shortly after, several other prominent Pentecostals joined his ministry team, including [[Ern Baxter]] and [[F.F. Bosworth]]. Gordon Lindsay proved to be an able publicist for Branham, founding The Voice of Healing magazine in 1948 which was originally aimed at reporting on Branham's healing campaigns.
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| His early work in faith healing attracted attention, and as stories began to spread of his healing gift, local pastors came to ask Branham to minister to their congregations and pray for the sick. When local churches could not accommodate the crowds, Branham's meetings were moved to larger auditoriums or stadiums for united campaigns in major cities in North America. His success soon took him to minister in countries around the world. According to a Pentecostal historian, "Branham filled the largest stadiums and meeting halls in the world."
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| On the night of January 24, 1950, an unusual photograph was taken during a speaking engagement in the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston, Texas. The photograph was of William Branham standing at the podium, with a halo of light behind his head. The photographer was hired by Rev. Best, who had come to debate William Branham on the subject of divine healing. William Branham had the photograph examined by a professional, George J. Lacy, to confirm that the negative had not been tampered with.
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| William Branham continued his worldwide ministry, and the “Voice of Healing” magazine published in article in June 1950 about a boy who was raised to life in Finland during the William Branham campaigns, after being hit by a car.
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| By this time, William Branham was praying for the sick using two signs. The first sign was a physical reaction in his hand indicating the presence of germ diseases. The second sign was that he knew could talk to people directly about their lives without the need to ask questions. These signs never ceased to vindicate William Branham's ministry. In 1951, William Branham prayed for a boy named Donny Morton, which was reported in both Chatelaine and Reader’s Digest. This article describes how William Branham described the boy’s situation to his father, without asking questions. However, after a long and difficult battle with meningitis, Donny Morton died of pneumonia while recovering from surgery.
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| In Durban, South Africa in 1951 William Branham addressed meetings sponsored by the Apostolic Faith Mission, the Assemblies of God, the Pentecostal Holiness Church, and the Full Gospel Church of God. Meetings were conducted in eleven cities, with a combined attendance of a half million people. On the final day of the Durban meetings, held at the Greyville Racecourse, an estimated 45,000 people attended and thousands more were turned away at the gates. As he travelled around the world he met many individuals of public influence.
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| During this time, over 1100 of William Branham’s sermons were recorded and transcribed.
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| [[Image:Durban1.jpg|thumb|800px|The non-European section of the Durban congregation.]]
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| [[Image:Image-rs-131 - BR Branham1.jpg|220px|right]]
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| <div style="border-bottom:1px #B87333 solid; font-size:125%; padding:1px; margin:1px;">'''Teaching, with signs following'''</div>
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| From the mid 1950s onwards William Branham became more open with his beliefs, and by the late 1950s he was openly stating that the Trinity as presented by most churches was not scriptural. He took the position that neither Oneness theology nor Trinitarianism lined up with the Bible. William Branham also started to teach a number of other doctrines which were considered to be unorthodox, but by no means absent from the Bible, such as the 'serpent's seed doctrine.
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| It was during these years that William Branham introduced the vision of the “third pull” that was to play a more significant part in later years. The third pull relates to a vision of an Angel who was teaching him how to fish. He was to cast his line out, pull slow at first (his healing ministry), jerk a little harder the second time (his discernment ministry), and set the hook for the catch on the third pull. However, in the vision William Branham gets his line tangled, and the Angel rebukes him for making a public show of his ministry. The angel then takes him back to a tent where people are being saved (reminiscent of his 1945 commissioning vision), and the pillar of fire leaves William Branham and goes back into a small building to meet him in private.
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| <div style="border-bottom:1px #B87333 solid; font-size:125%; padding:1px; margin:1px;">'''A Prophet?'''</div>
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| In 1960 William Branham spoke a series of sermons on the Church Ages (see [[Church Ages]] for more details) that outlined his views of church history and his interpretation of the first few chapters of the book of Revelation. In these sermons, William Branham predicted that the seven visions he saw in 1933 would be fulfilled by 1977.
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| In 1962 William Branham moved to Tucson, Arizona. He came back for meetings in Jeffersonville in early 1963 where he preached about an angelic visitation he had received, and how he was divinely instructed to preach about the [[Seven Seals]]. These sermons contained a lot of church history, and borrowed heavily from the commentary of Clarence Larkin. People who believe that William Branham was a major prophet consider these sermons the fulfillment of Matthew 17:11, where Jesus says that Elijah must come and “restore all things”.
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| In May 1962 William Branham expressed his confusion and decision at becoming a seer or an evangelist.<ref>Questions and Answers, May 27, 1962</ref> In June 1963 he tells of an angelic visitation where he is told to ''"Return! Did not I tell you in the beginning to do the work of an Evangelist?"'' In the same sermon, William Branham confesses that he has lost the love for the people, calling them "Ricky and Ricketta" when they are still children of God, and are only under bondage to denominations who tell them ''"don't you do this, and don't you do that."'' <ref>Standing in the Gap, June 23, 1963</ref>
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| In January 1964, Kenneth Hagin had a prophecy that Gordon Lindsay communicated to William Branham, that the devil would take William Branham's life before the end of 1965 because of his own error.
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| <div style="border-bottom:1px #B87333 solid; font-size:125%; padding:1px; margin:1px;">'''Death'''</div>
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| [[Image:Image-rs-144 - Br Br Mal 4 - 1671.jpg|right|240px]]
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| On December 18, 1965 William Branham and his family (all except his daughter Rebekah) were returning to Jeffersonville, Indiana from Tucson, Arizona for the Christmas Holidays. About three miles east of Friona, Texas just after dark, a car traveling west in the eastbound lane, struck Branham's car head-on. The driver of the other car died at the scene, as did the other front seat passenger. The other two passengers in the back seat of the car were severely injured. Branham's wife was seriously injured and his daughter Sarah was lying in the back seat also injured. Branham's left arm was mangled and caught in the driver-side door, and his left leg was wrapped around the steering wheel. After about 45 minutes Branham was pulled from his car and transported to the hospital at Friona, and then later transported to the hospital at Amarillo, Texas. He lived for six days after the crash, dying on December 24, 1965 at 5:49 PM. His body was returned to Jeffersonville, Indiana for burial.
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| |[http://www.thefreeword.com Listen and read over 1000 of William Branham's sermons''']
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| =='''References'''==
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