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William Marrion Branham (b. April 6, 1909 in the US state of Indiana, d. 1965) was an influential Bible minister of the 20th century.
General
William Marrion Branham was considered by many to be the initiator of the healing and charismatic revival that began in 1947, and from his ministry evolved a number of other ministers who became internationally known. One historian of that movement stated that William Branham was "a prophet to our generation", and a Pentecostal Historian wrote, "Branham filled the largest stadiums and meeting halls in the world." The Full Gospel Men's Voice, (now, Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International), in its February 1961 issue, wrote: "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!" From 1947 until his death in 1965, the powerful ministry of William Branham was well known in gospel meetings. The impact of the ministry of this one man was felt not only in North America, but also around the world.
Several modern-day religious movements in the Pentecostal and Charismatic church have their basis in part in Branham's teaching, including the Latter Rain Movement, Manifest Sons of God and Kingdom Now theology.
Branham explictly denied the orthodox view of the Trinity.
Early Life And Conversion
William Branham was born 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, when a bright fiery light was reported to suddenly appear over his head and a voice to speak, "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".
Branham recounts that in May of 1946, he set himself aside from daily life to seek God and establish the meaning of his life. As he prayed alone late one night, an angel of light supposedly appeared, saying, "Do not fear. I am sent from the presence of the 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 at least partly fulfilled in the years that followed, for his ministry took him around the world and many individuals of public influence, including Congressman Upshaw of the U.S.A. and King George VI of England, were healed after his prayers.
On the night of January 24, 1950, an unusual photograph was taken in the Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas. As William Branham stood at the podium, an apparent halo of fire appeared above his head. This picture 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 a number of scientific tests. 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..
Ministry
As news spread of healings, local pastors began to call William Branham to minister for their congregations and pray for the sick. His supporters claim 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, they say, the secret thoughts and needs of individuals were revealed, resulting in faith for deliverance. It became a commonplace, that William Branham was ordained a prophet to fulfill the many scriptural prophecies concerning the end time.
Churches could not accommodate the crowds, and the meetings moved to large auditoria or stadia for united campaigns in the major cities of North America.
Jonesboro, Arkansas - 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." ("Evening Sun" Newspaper, June 12)
Helsinki, Finland - 1950
Two years prior to the Helsinki campaign, God had shown William 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 had supposedly been killed. The Branham party travelling in a motorcade came upon the scene and William 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.
Branham's Sermons - anomolies
Branham delivered a number of sermons which were recorded, and transcribed. These include anomolies of interest in understanding his level of knowledge of the contempory world. For example: "In... President Franklin D. Roosevelt took America to England's tea party. That's right. Germany never picked on us; we picked on them, throwed the whole world into a war, to cause a world war. The Germans built the Maginot Line, which there--any veteran here knows what she took there at the Maginot Line." In the second world war Germany declared war on the USA, at which time America was already at war with Japan (the "whole world" was already at war). Further the French built the Maginot Line as a defence against Germany.
Seven major prohecies
These prohecies were apparently made c. 1928-1933 and recounted abourt thirty years later. Branham believed the firest five had already come true, and expected (personally predicted, rather than prophesied) the last two would occur by 1977.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt will run four terms and take America into a second world war
- The dictator that's now arising in Italy will come into power, Ethiopia will fall. He'll come to a shameful end,
- The women has been permitted to vote. And in voting, someday they'll elect the wrong man.
- Our war will be with Germany, and they will build a great big concrete place and fortify themselves in there, and the Americans will take a horrible beating
- Science will progress in such a way until they will make a car that will not have to be guided by a steering wheel, and the cars will continue to be shaped like an egg until the consummation
- I saw a great woman stand up, beautiful looking, dressed in real highly royals like purple, and I got little parenthesis down here, "She was a great ruler in the United States, perhaps the Catholic church”
- I saw this United States burning like a smolder; rocks had been blowed up. And it was burning like a--a heap of fire in logs or something that just set it afire; and looked as far as I could see and she'd been blown up
Ref: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/3703/branham.html