“Man Raised from the Dead in a Morgue”
William Branham led people to believe that God used him to raise a man from the dead in a morgue by making the following claims on April 12, 1947,
“And by the way, a man that laid in the morgue, pronounced dead by three doctors when I went in to where he was at, he’s driving a Pennsylvania locomotive tonight, and still they don’t believe. That’s true. That is true. They won’t believe. The hour is here where people’s eyes are so blinded with the cares of the world and the other cares, till they don’t even see God. He’s right in their midst many times and they pass by like it was in the days of Christ, and they missed seeing Him.” “Faith Is The Substance” (47-0412).
After making those claims, the alleged “miracle” gained widespread attention and reporters in Canada and the U.S.A. began to inquire of the veracity of his claims, as is evident from this news article that was published three months later,
Jeffersonville Evening News – July 23, 1947, page 1
As the Jeffersonville Evening News made known, it had been keeping “abreast of local news in Jeffersonville and Clark County” for nearly 75 years, but did not have any record anywhere of a man being “raised from the dead.”
After William Branham's claims were publicly called into question and regarded to be unfounded in nature, he never attempted to substantiate them or demonstrate them to be true.
Instead, he changed his story from the man was “raised from the dead” in the morgue to the man was “raised from the dead” in his house.
In fact, it is evident from his statements below, which he made the next year on March 4, 1948, that his story about the man going to work on “on the Pennsylvania Railroad” after being “raised from the dead” had changed from “he returned to life in a morgue” to he “returned to life in his house.”
“The doctors knew he was dead. I went to offer sympathy to the family. And starting out of the house, the wife seemingly crying of the man. And as I started out the door, a human hand, seemingly, touched me by the arm. And I felt it hold me. And as I started forward, I could not move. When I turned back, the hand left me.
I went to the bedside and looked down upon the man. There was a Methodist minister's wife in the room, and another sister. And I started to have prayer. When I come to myself, I was laying on this man's body, the dead man, had a sheet over his face for at least a half hour. My face was laying right against him, and I was calling out into the spirit land, “Brother Elijah.” His name was Elijah. “Brother Elijah.” Calling out into the land for his spirit, not knowing what I was doing...
In a few moments, I laid still, calling. I felt that man's hand coming up around my ears. The man is working on the Pennsylvania Railroad tonight, alive.”
“The Angel Of God” (48-0304).
Not only did he abandon his original, unfounded claim of the man being raised from the dead in a morgue and claim instead that the “miracle” happened in the man's house, but he sought to deflect attention away from it by asserting that it was the Canadians who had “misunderstood it” and did not know that the dead man had not been taken to the funeral parlor yet. He did so on December 18, 1960, as follows,
“How many ever remembers when Lige Perry was raised from the dead that morning? Some of you over here. You've seen it in the paper here many times. I see Sister Wilson and them raising their hands. I was standing there when that man died. He lives right out here now, comes to church once in a while, testifies of it.
He had been dead several hours. He died with hemorrhages of the lungs, and he was so bloody all over. And I walked away. I was just a young preacher in those days. And Sister Jackson used to be a member of the church here. And a Methodist preacher's wife.... I forget what that man's name was now. Shaffner, Brother Shaffner and Sister Shaffner. They were some relation to the Wisehearts. And she was standing there at the bedside, and I started to move away.
And he was just bloody as he could be, where he'd died, and his eyes had turned back, and his throat bulged out. And they pulled a sheet over his head, and his wife was out there. They were crying, and trying to get addresses to call the loved ones.
And I started to walk away from the bed, and I felt somebody lay their hand on me. I thought it was Sister Shaffner. And when I turned, there was nobody around me. And then I started.... It left me when I turned around, and Brother Lige was laying there dead. We had been very good buddies, fished on the river. You know how we did so much together. And he got hurt out here, a railroad ... riding spider, why, it mashed his lungs in. He was bleeding ... he bled ... he took TB from it, and died.
I started to move away this way, and then I felt that hand again. I turned back, it would get off of me. And before I knowed what I was doing, I was laying on top of that man, with my lips against his lips. I was as bloody as he was, laying there on that man, crying out to God. And I felt something come up around the side of my ear. It was his hand. You've heard him stand right here and testify of it, see, how he.... And he come back to life. And that's been about twenty-five years ago, or maybe thirty. Living today, right out here on the curve. And he come here not long ago, was testifying of it in the church.
Now, that's where Canada called up, and wanted to know. One time I'd testified of it in Canada, when I first started the meetings. They called Mr. Coots, the undertaker, and asked if there'd been a man raised out of the parlor as dead. I've got the clippings yet. It said, “We've heard of many miracles being done,” Mr. Coots said. And said, “Mr. Branham is a personal friend of mine, and all kinds of things has happened. But we have no record of anyone being raised out of the dead, especially in this funeral parlor.”
The Canadians had misunderstood it. And the next day, the.... My! The paper was lined up. He said hundreds of people called from everywhere, and Brother Perry, in there himself, testifying to the resurrection of his body over there, and protesting the thing that he had put in the paper. And so, then it was understood it wasn't there. It taken place in his home, where he was laying dead. They had never taken him to the funeral parlor yet.” “The Uncertain Sound” (60-1218).
Without question, William Branham found himself in a quandary after specifically claiming
in 1947 that the man rose from the dead in a morgue. Although he attempted to show that people's perception of what happened was wrong by making the above assertions, the fact remains that he did, in fact, claim and lead people to believe that the man rose from the dead in a morgue and the Canadian reporters did not misunderstand it. Although he attempted to disavow and distance himself from his unfounded and apparently false claim, he ultimately could not.
Notwithstanding all of the above, he ultimately began leading people to believe again that he saw “the dead raised in a funeral home” by making the following claim on March 4, 1963,
“I’ve seen the dead raised from the funeral home. I’ve seen the—the blind eyes come open, the deaf ears unstopped. I’ve seen cancer-ridden cases, with sarcomas cancer, leprosy, healed by the power of the Almighty God.” “A Absolute” (63-0304).
For more about William Branham's claims about the man (Elijah Perry) being “raised from the dead”, see the discussion on this website here.