“Healings of Mrs. Reese and Andrews”
Between 1953 and 1961, William Branham made several claims that two women from Jeffersonville, Indiana named Mrs. Reese and Mrs. Andrews were healed of life-threatening medical conditions.
He alleged that the healings of Mrs. Reese (who had tuberculosis, TB) and Mrs. Andrews (who had a severe blood clot) occurred in fulfillment of visions that the Lord had shown him.
However, the credibility of their alleged healings is undermined by the contradictory and problematic nature of Branham's claims regarding the visions he saw, as demonstrated below.
On April 5, 1953, William Branham claimed to have seen two separate visions of Mrs. Reese of Mrs. Andrews. He claimed that he saw the vision of Mrs. Reese while sitting on his front porch and the one of Mrs. Andrews when he knelt down and prayed for her in the hospital:
Mrs. Reese:
“Here not long ago, a lady was down here on the corner. She had TB. I guess she’s setting in the church this morning. I can’t think of the lady’s name. She lives across the…Reese. Thank you, sister. That’s right. Mrs. Reese, she was laying there, had three or four little children, and I went down to pray for her. She had been sent from the sanitarium up here, to die. And so I went down to pray for her.
And there was an infidel lived next door to me, and he worked out here at the government, Mr. Andrews. So I was going past the corner, on my old bicycle. And I had prayed for the woman a couple nights before that. I went home. While I was sitting on the porch, the Lord showed me a vision that the woman would live.” “Go, Tell My Disciples” (53-0405s).
Mrs. Andrews:
“And I said, "Good morning, Mr. Andrews. Have a chair."
He said, [Brother Branham sniffs.] "You heard about Mrs. Andrews?
I said, "No."
Said, "Well," said, "she's going to die, preacher."
I said, "Oh, that's too bad." I said, "I hate to hear that." Said, "Although, I know you got a good doctor."
And he said, "Yes," he said, "but it wasn't appendicitis."
And I said, "It wasn't? No?"
Said, "No. We got a specialist there now, from Louisville." Said, "It's a blood clot. It's just about couple hours from her heart," said, "moving on up to her heart." Said, "She's going to die."
. . .
He raised up and said, "Say, preacher, let's go out to the hospital and talk to Him." Said, "Maybe, if we come down where He's at a hospital."
I said, "All right." My wife got ready. We went out there.
Mrs. Andrews: Couldn't even see her eyes no more; the blood had separated, you know. The clot had caused the blood ... the water. And you couldn't see her eyes. I looked at her. Oh, my! My wife started crying.
I knelt down and started to pray. I said, "Dear God, I pray now that You will help the woman." I said, "To see that we're all hopeless and helpless. The doctor has done all he can do, and yet she's laying here dying." I said, "O God, what could we do? How could we do anything now? We call on You. We know that You rose from the dead, and You're alive among us. And You're just as tangible as the light is on my hands. You're here. And You have all powers, and You can do it. Now, Lord, if we have found favor in Your sight, we humbly come and ask for mercy for the woman."
While I was praying, things begin to move like that. I looked and I seen her coming over to my house, with a apple pie in her hand, and give it to me. And I sat on the front porch and begin to carve this apple pie, and to eat it. I rose up then, after He had showed the vision.” Ibid.
In direct contradiction to his claim of seeing the vision of Mrs. Reese while sitting on his front porch, William Branham alleged in a sermon on March 2, 1955 that he saw the vision of her while praying with her in a sanitarium:
“Here not long ago, a little woman that was... I remember she went to live down below my church; she does now, in Jeffersonville. She was in a sanitarium at Waverly Hills, and they brought her down, and they said, "The doctor said she had to die right away." They was going to give her, I believe ten days, two weeks to live, a tubercular case.
And I went down there to see her.
They called me down about... Been about eight years ago or ten, just before I come to Phoenix the first time. And I went down there and was praying for the woman. She had about five little children. And I was praying with her that night, and while I prayed and got up, I seen her even with tinted gray hair. She was ... hair was dark brown. And I seen her with tinted gray hair. Her children walking in, shaking hands with her, years later. And I said, "Sister, 'thus saith the Lord'; you're going to live."” “The Resurrected Lord Jesus” (55-0302).
In that same sermon, William Branham also contradicted his claim of seeing the vision of Mrs. Andrews while he knelt and prayed for her in the hospital by claiming that he saw the vision just as he went in the door of her room in the hospital:
“So I said to Meda, "Get your coat on." We went out there, and when she did, she didn't know us: just swollen way up her eyes and her lips turned out. So, the little nurse when we come in, she said, "Come on, Brother Branham." Taken me up there. And I knelt down and prayed for her, put my hand over on her, stood there a little while. And my wife stood there, and she said, "See anything?"
I said, "No, honey, I don't."
We walked out, down around where the babies was and looked in the maternity ward there, you know, where the babies was all laying. She was talking about them. I went back to Mrs. Andrews again. Just as I went in the door, I seen it. Oh, my, I said, "Honey, it's going to be over. Don't worry; God has heard."
And I went home. Mr. Andrews come over, and he said, "What do you think about it, preacher?"
I said, "She's going to live."
He started a crying, my. And he hollered, "She's going to live."
I said, "Don't worry; God's done said by the same vision told that woman down there she was going to live, and now she's up, down there, the woman." I said, "now, Mrs. Reece now," I said, "Now, she's going to live too."” Ibid.
NOTE: By asserting that “God's done said by the same vision” both Mrs. Andrews “was going to live” and subsequently Mrs. Reece, William Branham inadvertently suggests he witnessed a singular vision encompassing both women. This assertion directly contradicts his earlier claims of distinct visions for each woman. Such inconsistencies underscore the unreliable nature of Branham's accounts, casting doubt on the authenticity of his purported divine revelations.
On April 1, 1956, Branham further contradicted himself by claiming he saw the vision of Mrs. Reese while at her house and saw the vision of Mrs. Andrews while he and his wife knelt and prayed for her in the hospital:
“A little lady may be present now, I don't know. She lives just across the street there. She should be present if she can get in. Unless she's give some outsider her place. A Mrs. Reese. I remember the time that when I went down there at the corner, when Mr. Andrews lived next door to me, across the street.
And that man laughed at me, on the corner, when I went that night when she was laying there right across the street here, on the corner. That's where she lived when she was in sickness, and she'd been taken from up here on Silvercrest to die with TB, and her lungs were all congested up. When Miss Grace Weber, right second door here, first door above the church, was healed with TB, right in the same time.
I believe I see the sister sitting here that was healed with cancer, wasn't nothing but a skeleton when the doctor turned her down. A Miss---sitting here with a pink flower on you---Weaver, is that right? Yes. Several years ago cancer had went all through her, eating her up. Healed with cancer because the Lord showed a vision down at her house and said, "Thus saith the Lord, you'll not die."
I baptized her here in this pool of water when I had to hold her, her little arms wasn't over that big around. Here she is alive yet today, and that's been years ago. How many more could I say in here: the deaf, dumb, blind, cancer-eaten and so forth that God has healed because God made the promise.
That night while praying for the lady over on the corner, the Holy Ghost came down. She had her little children around her, and her husband was sitting there, and the Holy Spirit said, "Thus saith the Lord, she's going to be made well."
The next morning Mr. Andrews, that perfect infidel, met me at the corner and shamed me, said, "Preacher, aren't you ashamed of yourself?" I had on an old pair of ragged overalls coming from the store to get some buns for breakfast, and he was going over. And he said, "Shame on you, would deceive that family like that. That poor little mother laying there with those children dying, and you telling her under a falsehood that she was going to be alive."
Said, "Sir, I never told her that. God said that, and His words are true."
Said, "Shame on you. There's no such a thing as God. Only your mental work-up and emotion." Oh, my!
A few days after that when his wife was stricken at the hospital here---You know the story, most of you---and he had to come to me to go pray for her, very renowned Christian woman. I said, "Sister..." Laying... My wife was just ... (Here somewhere if she got in the building this morning). And we went to see her, and there was she was swollen, didn't even know nothing. The doctors in Louisville said that a great blood clot would run to her heart, and she'd be dead just at any minute.
And he come with his hat pulled down, crying. He said, "Preacher, I've been an unbeliever, but if God can help my wife..." He said, "That woman that you said that about is up doing her housework."
I said... "Sure." She lives yet today and that's been eight or ten years ago, and she's still living. And the woman said as you come across this commons a crying, he said, "Will you go pray for her?"
I said, "Yes, sir, but I want you to pray here first." And let Him see. And we went out to the hospital, and there she was laying there dying, all swelled up. Her lips turned inside out like that, and wife loved her, and we knelt down. She was a member of the Christian church in Virginia. And we went and knelt and prayed for her, and when we was praying, a vision come over her. I seen myself sitting leaned back on that porch right there, eating a big apple pie like this in my hand; for, she was a famous cook. I raised up, and I said, "Honey, 'Thus saith the Lord,' she's going to live."
And when she did ... and two hours from then they had to call the specialist from Louisville. All the water had passed from her and everything else, and the specialist said, "Somebody's been here besides the doctor." What was it? Christ lives.” “The Mighty Conqueror” (56-0401m).
On March 5, 1961, William Branham even contradicted his previous two claims of seeing the vision of Mrs. Reese while praying with her in a sanitarium and while sitting on his front porch by claiming that the Lord showed him the vision of her when he went down to Mrs. Reese's home:
“And this little lady across the street here, when that infidel there was converted by it---when she was laying... They sent her home from Silvercrest with TB, dying. And when I went down there and the Lord gave a vision, said, "She's going to be healed."” “Beyond The Curtain Of Time” (61-0305).
Conclusions:
Based on all of the above, it is clear that William Branham's accounts of the visions regarding Mrs. Reese and Mrs. Andrews contain numerous contradictions. Initially, Branham claimed to have seen separate visions of each woman in different circumstances: Mrs. Reese while sitting on his front porch and Mrs. Andrews when he knelt and prayed for her in the hospital. However, in later sermons, he stated that he saw Mrs. Reese's vision while praying with her in a sanitarium and Mrs. Andrews' vision at the door of her hospital room.
Further discrepancies arise with his claims that he saw Mrs. Reese's vision at her home and Mrs. Andrews' vision when he and his wife knelt and prayed for her at the hospital. These evolving narratives indicate a lack of consistency in Branham's testimonies, undermining their reliability. Each new account seems to shift the circumstances of the visions, suggesting either a lapse in memory or a deliberate alteration of the story.
These inconsistencies raise critical questions about the authenticity of Branham's claims of divine intervention and healing. The multiple versions of events cast doubt on the veracity of the alleged miraculous healings of Mrs. Reese and Mrs. Andrews. Such contradictions not only challenge the credibility of Branham's visions but also highlight the importance of scrutinizing miraculous claims with a critical eye.
Lastly, the conflicting narratives presented by William Branham regarding the healings of Mrs. Reese and Mrs. Andrews suggest that these accounts may be more reflective of evolving storytelling rather than consistent and verifiable experiences. The lack of coherence in his claims ultimately diminishes their plausibility and calls into question the integrity of his testimonies.