William Branham made many untrue and contradictory claims about the fate of a man who attempted to deceive him by falsifying diseases on a prayer card in Windsor, Ontario.
“The Man from Windsor”
At the end of William Branham's services, he often prayed for the sick and afflicted. He did so using prayer lines in which people waited to come up to him for prayer on the stage. People who wished to be prayed for were required to fill out prayer cards, on which they wrote down their name, address and the disease(s) they had.
When William Branham prayed for the people individually on stage, he would use an alleged “gift” that God gave to him, which allowed him to see into the people's lives and tell them about their diseases without having any prior knowledge of them (i.e. “the word of knowledge”).
According to him, there was a man at one of his services in Windsor, Ontario who did not believe his alleged “gift” was real, but thought that there were one or more ushers who transferred the information on the prayer cards to him through “mental telepathy.”
Purportedly, the man decided the night before that he would “prove” that the “gift” was not real, but “mental telepathy” and devised a deceptive scheme to do so. That scheme consisted of him giving the ushers a prayer card with the names of different diseases on it that he did not have and having William Branham use his “gift” in the prayer line to tell him what “diseases” he had.
When the man allegedly carried out the scheme the next night and stood before William Branham in the prayer line, William Branham did not declare the man to be suffering from the “diseases” that the man falsified on the prayer card, as the man thought he would.
William Branham claimed he was able to see with his “gift” that the man actually did not have anything wrong with him and how the man was attempting to deceive him. He also claimed that he told the man that he cursed himself for doing so and consequently would contract the diseases he had falsely written on the prayer card.
However, William Branham made many false and contradictory claims about the fate of the man from Windsor, Ontario, as follows,
The man was forgiven. (1950)
The man still has the disease that he put on his prayer card. (1953)
The man is dead in eternity today. (1954)
The “man's laying bedfast to this day.” (1956)
“I don't know what ever happened.” (1956)
“The man died about a year later.” (1957)
“The last time I heard him...he was in a serious condition.” (1957)
“He died about six months later with a cancer.” (1958)
“They took him out paralyzed, and he's still paralyzed.” (1958)
“And he died about six weeks afterwards.” (1961)
“He died about six weeks after that.” (1962)
The man died of TB and cancer. (1963)
Here are highlighted quotations from William Branham's accounts that are referenced above,
“And he fell down on the floor and begin to screaming to the top of his voice. He said, 'God, have mercy on me.'
He said, '...is there forgiveness for me?'
There was.” “Moses”(50-0110).
“And here he come, that man fell and grabbed me by the trouser leg like that.
I said, 'The disease that you put on that prayer card will be on you the rest of your life.' And it is.” God.Commissioning.Moses Jonesboro.AR 53-0508.
“Brother, I said, 'Now, the things that you put on the plat--on your prayer card, is on you. You have it now.' That was right. He fell down, grabbed a hold of my pants leg. I said, 'Sir, that's between you and God, not me.' I said, 'That's between you and God.'
Far as I know, the man's in eternity today, dead.” South.Africa.Testimony New.York.NY 54-0902.
“And the man grabbed me by the pant's leg, he said, 'Pray for me, Brother Branham.'
I said, 'That's between you and God now. It's out of my hands. He's done spoke it. That's you now.' And the man's laying bedfast to this day.” Blind.Bartimaeus Chicago.IL 56-0407.
“And he fell and grabbed my pant's leg, and he said, 'I'm sorry.'
I said, 'What you put on your prayer card, you have.'
And he said, 'Oh, pray, pray for me that I...' And he was a preacher.
And I said, 'I have nothing to do with that. You cursed yourself. So you have what you put on the prayer card.' And screaming, he run from the building. There it was. I don't know what ever happened.” Jehovah.Jireh Brooklyn.NY 56-1209E.
“I said, 'Now, the...?... And grabbed...?... on the platform by my pants and I said, 'The thing that you put on your prayer card, TB and so forth, is on you now.' The man died about a year later. That was the...?... Many of you's heard that. How many's heard it, let's see your hands. Many of you out there. Certainly. We're not playing church. It's the Holy Spirit. You be reverent.” Blind.Bartimaeus.Lima.OH 57-0127E.
“And I said, 'The things that you put on your card, you have. Both cancer and TB.' And he fell down on the platform. But the last time I heard him, I never heard no more, just a letter from some of the people, that he was in a serious condition. So we're not playing church.” Thirsting.For.Life Chicago.IL 57-0630.
“I said, 'Now, what was on your prayer card you have.' He died about six months later with a cancer.” The.Queen.Of.The.South South.Bend.IN 58-0208.
“And I said, 'Now, what you put on your prayer card, you have.' And this man run down there, so I...Said, 'God be merciful, Brother Branham, that is the truth.' They took him out paralyzed, and he's still paralyzed.” Christ.Knocking.At.The.Door Middletown.OH 58-0330E.
“And I said, 'Because that you have said, and put that on your prayer card, now you have it.' And he died about six weeks afterwards.” Jehovah.Jireh Long.Beach.CA 61-0212M.
“I said, 'The things that you got on your card is upon you.' He died about six weeks after that. Don't you never do that. Have.Not.I.Sent.Thee Phoenix.AZ 62-0124.
“I said, 'Sir, you put 'TB and cancer' on that card, and now you have it. It's yours now.' And he grabbed me by the pants leg, he said, 'I didn't...'
I said, 'I can't help. You go right ahead. That's up between you and God. You wrote your doom right on your card.' And that got him. That was all of it.” Three.Kinds.Of. Believers Jeff.IN V-3 N-6 63-1124E.
Here is a video that has audio of William Branham making the above claims and underscores the likely motives he had for changing his story from the man “was forgiven” to the man was “cursed” and suffered tragic consequences for deceiving him: