Controversial Prophecies
Lord to Return in 1977
Five or Seven Angels in Vision
Death of Marilyn Monroe
Discernment Errors in Prayer Lines
Brown Bear Prophecy
Prophecy of Sharks in L.A.
1933 Prophecy of FDR
Did the Holy Spirit Say that Capernaum Lies at the Bottom of the Sea?
The Miracle of Donny Morton
India: Tens of Thousands Times Thousands Saved
The Lord Speaks Through William Branham's Lips in Prayer Line
The Tent Vision
William Branham said:
Based on these seven visions, along with the rapid changes which have swept the world in the last fifty years, I PREDICT (I do not prophesy) that these visions will have all come to pass by 1977 . And though many may feel that this is an irresponsible statement in view of the fact that Jesus said that 'no man knoweth the day nor the hour.' I still maintain this prediction after thirty years because, Jesus did NOT say no man could know the year, month or week in which His coming was to be completed. So I repeat, I sincerely believe and maintain as a private student of the Word, along with Divine inspiration that 1977 ought to terminate the world systems and usher in the millennium.Although Mr. Branham stated that his prediction of the end of the world was not a prophecy, there are a couple of problems with his "prediction" when viewed in light of his supposed role as a prophet.
An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, page 322
First, we must ask, "What is the difference between a prophecy and Mr. Branham’s prediction based on ‘Divine inspiration?’" If this prediction was Divinely inspired, it can only mean that God told Mr. Branham to make it. That, by definition, is a prophecy.
Second, Mr. Branham implied that, although he did not know the day or hour of the end, he did know the year because, "Jesus did NOT say no man could know the year, month or week in which His coming was to be completed."
Since the end of the world and the 2nd coming of the Lord did not come in 1977, we can only conclude that this Divinely inspired prediction was another of Mr. Branham’s false prophecies.
It is often said by those who follow Wm. Branham's Message that he never made an error in discernment. Here are a few known examples where Mr. Branham, supposedly led by his angel, made some obvious errors using his "gift of discernment":
You believe? If thou canst believe, all things are possible. You're from out-of-town too, but do you believe? You're scared, aren't you. You are to be mother, and the reason you're scared, you got a rupture; and you are afraid of this baby whether it'll be right or not. Only if you won't doubt, Mrs. Hoffman--Huffler, then you can believe--healed. You believe it? How does He know your name and know who you are? Do you believe it with all your heart? All right, Mrs. Huffler, you can go home and bring forth the baby in peace.
Jehovah-Jireh, January 6, 1957 (tape #57-0106)If God will reveal to me what you were praying about, will you receive it? Your a praying for your son. And your son has a heart trouble. And he's got a black shadow over him, for death. No, I beg your pardon, lady. He's a sinner. The dark shadow, you are praying for the salvation of his soul. That's what that dark shadow is. Raise your hand if that's true. Hallelujah! I challenge your faith in God. Ask the woman. What did she touch? Nothing. What caused it? Was it that faithful pastor setting there praying? I don't think so. It was her faith that did that. You just believe.
Christ Outside the Door, March 30, 1958 (tape #58-0330E)There is a man standing before me, he's had a operation for hemorrhoids; didn't do any good. Mr. Day, I beg your pardon, Mr. Short, stand up and receive your healing.
Abraham's Grace Covenant, March 17, 1961 (tape #61-0317)We're strangers, aren't we? Lay your hand on that woman behind you, call her Mrs. McAlister. She don't know me. McAllen, rather.
Only Believe, April 27, 1961 (tape #61-0427)You're near Bedford, Springville, something like. That's where it's at, Springville. Mrs. Burton... not... I beg your pardon; I didn't mean it. Mrs. Parker, that's your name, isn't it?
He That is In You, November 10, 1963 (tape #63-1110E)Now, when He [Jesus]come to Simon, He told him who he was. You believe God can tell me what your name is? Would it make you believe more? It would? Mrs. Strong... [The sister says "Stout"-Ed.] Stout, would you believe? Go and believe and you... It's all over.
A Testimony on the Sea, March 7, 1964 (tape #64-0307)
Mr. Branham has said that his gift of discernment was actually the Holy Spirit speaking through his lips. Since God does not make mistakes, these incidents invalidate any such claim. One might say, "But Mr. Branham corrected himself in each case." If so, what caused him to make the errors in the first place? We find no such examples of this type of error made by the apostles and prophets of the Bible. They never had one false discernment that needed to be corrected.
We will probably never know how many times Mr. Branham has made such errors in "discernment" because they were not caught on tape as these incidents were. This page will be updated as more examples are discovered.
Most Message followers are familiar with a vision William Branham had in which he saw himself shooting a grizzly bear. This vision is said to have come to pass, and a rug made from this bear now lies in his Tucson home (Mr. Branham gives a testimony of how this vision came to pass in his Audio Letter to Lee Vayle, tape #64-0500). What many of his followers do not know is that Mr. Branham prophesied at least 3 times that he would later shoot another large brown bear. He said:
Coming home the other night, or the other day, or just 'fore I come home, I was--fell into a vision; and I seen some little fellows, thin, looked like young boys or something, had on caps. And we were standing hunting. And I'd shot a mammoth, big, brown-looking bear. And then, they turned around and said to me, said, "But there's some confusion about the meeting." And I said, "No matter what the confusion is, if I was supposed to go, wherever it was, I'll go anyhow. (See?) It doesn't matter." And the vision stopped. I don't know where that's at, but this is on tape. It's going to happen. See? Just remember; it's going to happen; it's a vision...
Wisdom Versus Faith, Jeffersonville, IN, April 1, 1962 (tape #62-0401)Many of you remember the vision that I had, where I had shot the grizzly bear, nine-foot grizzly bear (And the church remembers me telling it here.) and the caribou. I had another. Remember it's on tape here, I seen a great huge brown bear. That might be a Kodiak and it wouldn't have worked down there in Canada, 'cause they're not there. You see? But wherever it will be, it'll be. It will be; that's THUS SAITH THE LORD. It will be.
Possessing All Things, Jeffersonville, IN, May 6, 1962 (tape #62-0506)Now, I'm going back into the country, that you might know, when I come back next year. I'm going to get a brown bear that's almost twice that size. You see if it's right or not. I seen it. When we was standing, put my hands on his haunches laying on the ground, like that. And I could put my hands on his hips like that, and him laying down. Now, you find out if that's right or not.
Presuming, S. Pines, NC, June 10, 1962 (tape #62-0610M)
This prophecy was never fulfilled before Mr. Branham's death in 1965.
William Branham and his son Billy Paul were once standing in front of the May Company in downtown Los Angeles. He told his son, "Billy, I may not be here but you won't be an old man until sharks will swim right where we are standing" (See The Acts of the Prophet, by Pearry Green, page 119). He was referring to his prophecy that California would one day sink into the ocean as the result of a catastrophic earthquake.
It is important to understand what Mr. Branham meant when he said that Billy Paul would not be an "old man" before the coming earthquake. Mr. Branham often called himself an old man from the time he was 56 years old. It is reasonable to conclude that Mr. Branham did not believe Billy Paul would be 56 years old before California would sink into the ocean. Billy Paul Branham was born on September 13, 1935, making him 67 years old at the time of this writing. Geologists agree that "The Big One" could come at any moment, but according Mr. Branham's time frame, this prophecy has already failed to come to pass.
William Branham claimed to have had 7 major visions in 1932 or 1933 in which he saw several events that would take place in the world between then and 1977. He said of one of his visions:
The president which now is, President Franklin D. Roosevelt... (Now remember, this is twenty-eight years ago.) will cause the whole world to go to war...
Condemnation by Representation, Jeffersonville, IN, (tape #60-1113)
He also said:
We now have a president (Dwi... Mr. Roosevelt), and this Mr. Roosevelt will cause the world to go into a world war through his--in his time of his administration, his--his--as president.
Conference, Shreveport, LA (tape #60-1125)
The earliest reference we have to this series of seven visions was in 1953. Mr. Branham apparently did not study the history of World War II before telling his followers of this prophecy. Historians indicate that World War II began in March 1939. There were as many as 23 countries that declared war before the United States did at the end of 1941. Below is a list of countries and the dates they "voluntarily" entered or declared war during WWII (the dates are written as yymmdd):
Australia 390303
Germany 390901
France 390903
Great Britain 390903
New Zealand 390903
S. Africa 390906
Canada 390910
USSR 390917
Italy 400610
Japan 400922
Bulgaria 410424
Romania 410622
Hungary 410627
India 411207
Panama 411207
Yugoslavia 411207
Costa Rica 411208
Dom Rep 411208
El Salvador 411208
Haiti 411208
Honduras 411208
Nicaragua 411208
Manchukuo 411208
Netherlands 411208
United States 411208
China 411209
Cuba 411209
Guatemala 411209
Slovakia 411212
Croatia 411214
Czechoslovakiea 411216
Albania 411217
Belgium 411220
Thailand 420125
Mexico 420522
Brazil 420822
Ethiopia 421214
Iraq 430117
Burma 430801
Iran 430909
Columbia 431126
Bolivia 431204
Liberia 440127
San Marino 440921
Paraguay 450207
Peru 450212
Uruguay 450215
Venezuela 450215
Turkey 450223
Egypt 450224
Syria 450226
Lebanon 450227
Saudi Arabia 450301
Finland 450303
Argentina 450327
Chile 450411
Mon Peo Rep 450809
This vision is another example of Mr. Branham's many prophecies that history has not borne out to be true.
William Branham once told of a prophecy he made concerning Los Angeles:
"That's solemn warning. We don't know what time. And you don't know what time that this city one day is going to be laying out here in the bottom of this ocean. 'O, Capernaum,' said Jesus, 'thou who exalted into heaven will be brought down into hell, for if the mighty works had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, it'd have been standing till this day.' And Sodom and Gomorrah lays at the bottom of the Dead Sea, and Capernaum's in the bottom of the sea. Thou city, who claims to be the city of the Angels, who's exalted yourself into heaven and sent all the dirty filthy things of fashions and things, till even the foreign countries come here to pick up our filth and send it away, with your fine churches and steeples, and so forth the way you do; remember, one day you'll be laying in the bottom of this sea. You're great honeycomb under you right now. The wrath of God is belching right beneath you. How much longer He'll hold this sandbar hanging over that, when that ocean out yonder a mile deep will slide in there plumb back to the Salton Sea. It'll be worse than the last day of Pompeii. Repent, Los Angeles. Repent the rest of you and turn to God. The hour of His wrath is upon the earth. Flee while there's time to flee and come into Christ."
Choosing of a Bride, Los Angeles, CA, April 29, 1965 (tape #65-0429E)
In a later sermon, Mr. Branham spoke about this prophecy. He explained that after making the prophecy, he had no memory of it, or of quoting Jesus' prophecy against Capernaum, implying that it was the Holy Spirit speaking through him at the time. He said:
"And while in there Something struck me; I didn't know nothing for about thirty minutes. There was a prophecy went out. First thing I remember, Brother Mosley and Billy; I was out on the street, walking. And It said, 'Thou Capernaum, which calls yourself by the name of the Angels,' that's Los Angeles, city of angels (See?), the angels, 'which are exalted into heaven, will be brought down into hell. For if the mighty works had been done in Sodom, that's been done in you, it would've been standing till this day.' And that was all unconsciously to me. . . "And when I understood that, I went; I said, 'There is a Scripture about that somewhere.' And I went and found it was Jesus rebuking Capernaum by the seacoast. That night I looked up the Scriptures. Come home, got the history book; and Sodom and Gomorrah was once a--a thriving city, a Gentile headquarters of the world. And you know that city by an earthquake sank into the Dead Sea. And Jesus stood, and said, 'Capernaum, if Sodom would've had the works done in it that you've had done in you, it would've been standing today. But now you must be brought down to hell.' And about two hundred or three hundred years after His prophecy, with all them coastal towns, every one of them still standing but Capernaum, and it lays in the bottom of the sea. A earthquake sunk it into the sea.
Ashamed, Jeffersonville, IN, July 11, 1965 (65-0711)
The Lord could not have spoken through Mr. Branham in this prophecy because Capernaum never sank into the sea. Its ruins lay on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee to this day.
William Branham often told that he once prayed for a young boy by the name of Donny Morton who had a terminal case of meningitis. He tells that the child was healed of the disease according to "thus saith the Lord":
"Here not long ago, you seen the article in the paper of that little Donny Morton being healed out there in California. The Reader's Digest packed it, went in every language under heaven, everywhere, about the miracle."The article that Mr. Branham referred to appeared in the November 1952 issue of The Reader's Digest. It chronicled the story of Donny Morton's losing battle with meningitis. According to the article, Mr. Branham said to the child's parents,
God Perfecting His Church, Binghamton, NY, December 4, 1954 (tape #54-1204)"And you seen it in Reader's Digest, not long ago, Donny Morton, "The Miracle Of Donny Morton." That little child right there in California, at the Assemblies of God, down there at that school, Southwestern Bible School, that child was so twisted and afflicted till even John Hopkins and Mayo Brothers said, 'There's not a earthly chance for him.' But the Lord...?... THUS SAITH THE LORD. That was different."
His Unfailing Words of Promise, Phoenix, AZ, January 20, 1964 (tape #64-0120)
". . . do not give up hope. With faith in God’s power, and help from the medical world, your little son will live."Donny’s health began to improve dramatically, but within five months of this prediction, the boy died from a combination of meningitis and pneumonia. The article describes the "miracle" somewhat differently than Mr. Branham did:
"The personal miracle Morton [Donny’s father] sought - that his child’s life be saved - was denied. But out of his search for it came another miracle, because this Saskatchewan farmer’s selfless and unquestioning pilgrimage across half a continent stirred the hearts of thousands."
(Smith, Alma E. "The Miracle of Donny Morton," The Reader's Digest, [November 1952], vol. 61)
Contrary to what Mr. Branham led his followers to believe, Donny Morton was not healed according to "thus saith the Lord."
William Branham prophesied of a great campaign in India, saying:
Mark my word; write it in the pages of your Bible, for it's THUS SAITH THE LORD, "Remember, when we land in India, you're going to hear of tens of thousands times thousands being saved." The Holy Spirit has said it; I've wrote it here in my Bible; it's wrote in tens of thousands of Bibles right here, like the resurrection of the little boy. By a vision that He said, "There's three hundred thousand of them in there." And you see if that isn't right. There's how the Gospel's going to be preached just overnight. She'll just sweep like that from place to place.As many of his other prophecies, this one did not come to pass quite as he predicted. Mr. Branham did go to India in September 1954, but the results fell far short of fulfilling this prophecy. Mr. Branham had to leave India after having been rescued by the militia from an angry mob. He tells of this:
Questions and Answers, May 15, 1954 (tape #54-0515)
When I held my hand there, and when the prayer, of course wasn't interpreted, when I dropped my hands, the man looked. He let out a scream. He grabbed me around the waist. He grabbed the mayor of the city and begin hugging him and kissing him. He was just--could see as good as any man setting in here. I'm telling you: a frantic, a scream went from those people, and the whole thing went into a turmoil. Two or three hours later, they got me through the crowd with a army there trying to push them back. I had no pockets in my coats. My shoes was gone. They'd pulled every clothes off of me, nearly stripping me, screaming and crying. And the next day with sorrow. I had to leave India with a promise that I'd be back again.Mr. Branham placed the blame for his lack of success in India on himself :
India Trip Report, January 26, 1957 (tape #57-0126B)
And when... I had been very much constrained to go to--to India. And yet, as many of you might know, the Indian trip wasn't the success that it should've been, because I failed to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, and never recognized it after He give me a vision to go to Africa first and then to India.When speaking of how many were actually saved in his India campaign, he said:
India Trip Report
And yet, in the midst of five hundred thousand people that I was speaking to at Bombay, the Lord Jesus Christ and Christianity triumphed over everyone of them and put every witch doctor and holy man and everything else to shame. And there's no way of telling how many came to the Lord Jesus. We had no cooperation amongst the churches and just dropped in for three days, and there was no way of telling how many was saved.Mr. Branham never achieved the results in India that were prophesied when he said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, 'Remember, when we land in India, you're going to hear of tens of thousands times thousands being saved.' The Holy Spirit has said it . . . "
Be not Afraid, It is I, July 20, 1960 (tape #60-0720)
For a detailed account of Mr. Branham’s India trip and its unintended consequences,
Click Here.
Near the end of a prayer service, the Lord Himself apparently begins to speak directly to the congregation through William Branham’s lips:
There are several reasons to doubt that this was really the Lord speaking through Mr. Branham’s lips. Although this statement is apparently made by the Lord in the first person, it contains many violations of the rules of English grammar. For example:I'm the Lord that raised up Christ from the grave.
I'm the One that sent the Holy Ghost.
I'm the One that give the promise.
Brother Branham has nothing to do in this.
I have--He's surrendered his life to Me.
I'm using his Spirit;
I'm talking through his lips.
That's Me; I'm the Lord.
Looking At the Unseen, April 10, 1959 (tape #59-0410).
God knows the rules of English grammar better than the most learned scholar. Therefore, it is my contention that it was not the Lord who was speaking through William Branham's lips.
There are a couple of further observations that I believe are worth mentioning. At the point of the paragraph where Mr. Branham says, "I have. . . He has surrendered..." it appears that he was about to say, "I have surrendered myself to the Lord," but caught himself mid-sentence, changing it to, "He's surrendered himself to Me."
Also, at one point the Lord supposedly says, "I'm using his Spirit . . . " If it was true that "Brother Branham has nothing to do in this," then the Lord could not have been using Mr. Branham’s spirit, only his physical body as a vessel to work through.
The bottom line is that there is nothing in this quote to support the assertion that the Lord was actually speaking through William Branham. On the contrary, the fact that the Lord appears to be speaking in the first person while using Mr. Branham's poor grammatical skills indicates that Mr. Branham made this statement on his own initiative.
William Branham made a "Thus Saith the Lord" prophecy in which he was to hold a healing revival like none other that he’d ever had. He describes this prophecy which he received in the form of a vision:
Then He taken me from there, and I seen a great huge tent. I never seen such a--a tent. And it was packed and lined everywhere with people. And I walked out to the... Looked like I was standing above the people, looking down, where I'd just made an altar call; and hundreds and hundreds of people were weeping and rejoicing after they had accepted the Lord Jesus as their Saviour.
And I looked, and then heard a man get up and say, "Call the prayer line." And people begin to line up over on this side, the left from where I was looking down towards the platform, and they lined all the way up and down the street for a prayer line. I noticed to my left, which would've been to my right if I was on the platform, a little wooden building. And I seen that Light, that all--they have the picture of, you know, that's always in the meetings; I seen that Light leave me, and go to that building, and go in that building; and a Voice said to me, "I'll meet you in there; that'll be the third pull."
I said, "Why?"
He said, "Well, it won't be a public show like they had it." And I came to.
And I... Now, at the beginning of this new year, back to my tabernacle where I started from (See?), back to the beginning where I--I started... I--I am very grateful to God for these things.
And many of you know that just before leaving on the other crusade, about eight or ten years... I think about ten years since... Well, nine years it has been. It was... These things were told exactly how the auditorium services (You remember.), exactly how that Brother Lawton would live exactly three years, and then be taken away; that Brother Ward would build a tabernacle down in this position, this direction here, and all of it just exactly. You know it, you old timers. It happened just that way, and so will this, for it's THUS SAITH THE LORD. And you'll know.
And now is, I believe, that the--that the brink of the greatest meetings that's ever--we've ever--I've ever held for the Lord Jesus is laying right in the future before me now.
Why Are People So Tossed About?, January 1, 1956 (tape #.56-0101)
Later, he further described his anticipation of having this vision fulfilled, even preparing the tent in which he would hold this change in his ministry:
He said, "I'll meet you in there and this time it won't be a public show." And the vision left me.
Now, we got the tent in making. And then in there I'll be able to carry a prayer line right on through. Now, you remember, I speak this before it comes to pass. The exceedingly abundantly is fixing to take place. I can't wait till I get into that place. I just... My heart's a yearning and burning.
Being Led of the Holy Spirit, February 19, 1956 (tape #56-0219)
As late as 1962, Wm. Branham continued to look forward to the fulfillment of this vision, which, up to this point, had yet to come to pass:
And so far as I know, that every vision that He's ever give me has been fulfilled except the one that I'm a change in my ministry to where I'm to pray for people in a little place like a little room under a tent, or a big auditorium or something. It looked to me like a tent. You remember that, two or three years ago?
Present Stage of My Ministry, September 8, 1962 (tape #62-0908)
A little over three years later, Wm. Branham was killed in an automobile accident, leaving this "thus saith the Lord" vision unfulfilled.