About William Marrion Branham:
“William Marrion Branham (April 6, 1909 – December 24, 1965) was an American Christian minister and faith healer who initiated the post–World War II healing revival. He left a lasting impact on televangelism and the modern Charismatic movement and is recognized as the "principal architect of restorationist thought" for Charismatics by some Christian historians.[1][2] At the time they were held, his inter-denominational meetings were the largest religious meetings ever held in some American cities. Branham was the first American deliverance minister to successfully campaign in Europe; his ministry reached global audiences with major campaigns held in North America, Europe, Africa, and India.
Branham claimed to have received an angelic visitation on May 7, 1946, commissioning his worldwide ministry and launching his campaigning career in mid-1946. His fame spread rapidly as crowds were drawn to his stories of angelic visitations and reports of miracles happening at his meetings. His ministry spawned many emulators and set in motion the broader healing revival that later became the modern Charismatic movement. From 1955, Branham's campaigning and popularity began to decline as the Pentecostal churches began to withdraw their support from the healing campaigns for primarily financial reasons. By 1960, Branham transitioned into a teaching ministry.
Unlike his contemporaries, who followed doctrinal teachings known as the Full Gospel tradition, Branham developed an alternate theology that was primarily a mixture of Calvinist and Arminian doctrines, and had a heavy focus on dispensationalism and Branham's own unique eschatological views. While widely accepting the restoration doctrine he espoused during the healing revival, his divergent post-revival teachings were deemed increasingly controversial by his Charismatic and Pentecostal contemporaries, who subsequently disavowed many of the doctrines as "revelatory madness".[3] Many of his followers, however, accepted his sermons as oral scripture and refer to his teachings as The Message.
In 1963, Branham preached a sermon in which he indicated he was a prophet with the anointing of Elijah, who had come to herald Christ's second coming. Some followers of his teachings placed him at the center of a cult of personality during his final years. Branham claimed to have made over one million converts during his career. His teachings continue to be promoted through the William Branham Evangelistic Association, who reported in 2018 that about 2 million people receive their material. Branham died following a car accident in 1965.”[4]
A former Canadian pastor by the name of Ern Baxter traveled extensively as a campaign manager for William Branham's healing ministry from 1947 until 1953 or 1954 when he left the Branham team due, in part, to his disagreement with Branham's teachings.[5]
When Baxter was asked what brought William Branham's ministry to a close, he replied,
“I believe there’s a Bible principle involved. No matter who we are, if we don’t relate to the principles of truth, we pay for it. We either fall on it and break in repentance, or it falls on us and breaks us in judgment.
The measure of faith Paul talks about in Romans 12 where he says, “to each man is given a measure of faith . . . he that prophesieth, let him prophecy according to the measure of faith,” indicates that we all have been given a grace gift. But we must walk within the confines of our gift. For instance, if a miracle worker, who may be used mightily in working miracles, steps over the boundaries of that gift and presumes, to be a teacher when God has not called him to teach, then he is violating the rule of walking within his grace.
Branham saw himself as a teacher of some kind of “in” truth. To me, some of it was quite esoteric. I became aware early in his ministry that there was a mixture. I urged him not to say some things in public. As long as we worked together he refrained. One of the reasons for my leaving him was that he was starting to say some seriously wrong things. When that, coupled with other circumstances, eventually became unbearable, I resigned.
I think there can be a lesson in this. Branham, as a miracle worker, had a real place. Branham as a teacher was outside of his calling. The fruits of his teaching ministry are not good.”[5]
When Baxter was also asked what he thought is one of the main things that we can learn from the healing revival and the ministry of Branham and others, he replied,
“That’s an excellent question. I think we need to learn out of it the absolutely mandatory nature of the principle of plurality. No man, no matter how gifted, can afford to violate plurality and walk alone.
Number two, I would say it points up the great necessity of staying in your calling or gift, and not making use of whatever accrues to you from that gift to get into other areas. I think it also points up the need of having responsible community to receive the fruits of this kind of evangelistic ministry. If the converts are not brought into a New Testament biblical community or church, they become followers of a man who cannot develop them into maturity.
I believe these principles are very basic. In addition, man does not live by miracles alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Miracles and signs arid wonders are not food. They are signs to tell you where the food is. If you try to live on the signs, you get unbalanced nutrition.”[5]
A former American minister by the name of Gordon Lindsay also traveled extensively with William Branham as a campaign manager beginning in 1947. Lindsay widely promoted Branham's healing ministry through a publication that he commenced in 1948 entitled, “The Voice of Healing”, as well as through a book he wrote and published in 1950 in collaboration with Branham entitled, “William Branham - A Man Sent from God.”
Like Baxter, Lindsay ultimately realized that Branham as a teacher was in significant error and outside of his calling.
In response to a prophecy that the late American and world-renowned minister Kenneth E. Hagin made, which foretold Branham's death, Lindsay went to Branham and implored him not to teach, but Branham apparently would not listen. Those facts are evident after the below account of the prophecy that Hagin provided in a book of his,
“Another instance of private foretelling occurred in my ministry in January 1964. . . .
In this prophecy, the Lord also said, “At the end of ’65, he who now stands in the forefront of the healing ministry as a prophet will be taken out of the way. He’ll make a false step and Satan shall destroy his life, but his spirit will be saved, and his works will follow him. Ere ’66 shall come, he shall be gone.
I took that prophecy to Brother Lindsay, because it’s scriptural to have other spiritual men judge prophecy. I never made it public. Prophets make a mistake by publicly broadcasting some of these things.
On December 27, 1965, my wife was at the beauty parlor, and she called home to say that this minister, who was the leading prophet at the time, had been in an automobile accident. He was unconscious, and doctors said he would never regain consciousness.
I told her, “There is no use praying. He’ll be dead within two or three days,” I said that because I remembered what the Lord had said in that prophecy. Then the Lord explained to me, “I had to permit him to be removed because of the damage he was causing in the Body of Christ.”
Two days later, Brother Lindsay called me and said, “Brother Hagin, the brother you referred to just died. I got out that prophecy the Lord gave us eighteen months ago and read it. It’s right on.”
Brother Lindsay related an experience he’d had with that prophet. Brother Lindsay said, “I told him, ‘You’re not a teacher, so don’t try to teach.’” He was a preacher and a good one at that, and he had marvelous manifestations of the Holy Spirit in his ministry.
Brother Lindsay said, “I begged him not to teach. I said, ‘You don’t know the Bible, and you’re confusing folks. Leave the Bible teaching to the teachers. Just go ahead and preach and exercise the word of knowledge and gifts of healings as the Spirit wills, and be a blessing to the Body of Christ.’
“This prophet said to Brother Lindsay, “I know I’m not a teacher, but I want to teach. And I’m going to teach!”[6]
Gordon Lindsay's wife, Freda Lindsay, also subsequently provided the following first-hand account in a book of hers of what Gordon said to her about the prophecy and William Branham.
“One day Kenneth Hagin came into our offices. He handed Gordon a piece of paper on which was written a prophecy he said the Lord had given him. The prophecy stated that the leader of the deliverance movement was soon to be taken in death because he was getting into error, and the Lord was having to remove him from the scene for that reason. Gordon took the prophecy and placed it on his desk.
After Brother Hagin left, I asked, 'What do you think about this? Is this Branham?'
Gordon answered gravely, 'Yes, it is Branham. He is getting into error. He thinks he is Elijah. He thinks he is the messenger of the covenant. The sad thing is that unscrupulous men around him are putting words into his mouth, and due to his limited background he is taking them up.'”[7]
For more about Kenneth Hagin's prophecy of William Branham's death and to learn how a prophetess named Anna Morehead Shrader also prophesied of it, see the discussion on this website here.
Footnotes:
[1] Weaver, C. Douglas (2000). The Healer-Prophet: William Marrion Branham (A study of the Prophetic in American Pentecostalism). Mercer University Press. ISBN 978-0-865-54710-0.
[2] Moriarty, Michael (1992). The New Charismatics. Zondervan. ISBN 978-0-310-53431-0, p. 119.
[3] Moriarty (1992), p. 55.
[4] Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M._Branham
[5] New Wine Interviews Ern Baxter – New Wine Magazine – December 1978,
http://ern-baxter.blogspot.com/2006/12/happy-christmas-to-one-and-all-i-do.html,
[6] Hagin, Kenneth E. He Gave Gifts Unto Men, A Biblical Perspective of Apostles, Prophets and Pastors, Kenneth Hagin Ministries Inc., Tulsa, OK, (1992), pp. 165-166.
[7] Lindsay, Freda. My Diary Secrets. Christ for the Nations Inc., Dallas, TX, (seventh printing rev. 1998), pp. 209-210.