Branham’s Prophecies

One thing most Message believers claim is that William Branham made thousands of prophecies which have never failed to come to pass. But they say that because William Branham told them so. By this I mean in his sermons he mentioned supposed prophecies and his followers believed him. Problem is, if you were to ask them for one example where William Branham ever prophesied of an event before it came to pass, they cannot.

William Branham usually based his prophecies on events that already happened as you will see in the following messages about his prophecies. Than there are ones he predicted before their fulfillment but never came to pass according to the details of his predictions. There are quite a few of Branham’s prophecies and I won’t address all but I will a few.

Lord Returns in 1977: — 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 knowth 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. (An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, page 322)

The 7 Visions will be discuss in another message or two if need be. Right now let us examine Branham’s above statement.

He said he predicted but not prophesying that all the 7 visions will come to past by 1977 and the Lord will return in that year. He goes on to say though no man knows the hour or the day Christ didn’t say we wouldn’t know the year.

I had studied Herbert Armstrong and talked to his Ex-Members which has his earliest books from their their parents or grandparents at their death. They read those books and because of what they read they stopped following Herbert Armstrong. In his books he gave prophecies which didn’t come to past and when they didn’t he will pull any books not sold and redo the book without the prophecy. The 1977 prophecy was one of them and it seemed Branham plagiarized Herbert Armstrong prophecy word for word. This is not the only time he plagiarized other preachers teachings. In fact all Branham’s teachings was being taught by other preachers in his time period.

What is the difference between prediction and Prophesying? Though Branham tried separating the two the dictionaries don’t give any differences. They both means to foretell a future event before it happens. In Branham’s mind if he predicted something than it is him only and not the Holy Spirit. But look at the rest of the above statement. — “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. — “Divine Inspiration” means it is from God. The Bible were inspired by God and the phrase means his inspiration comes from God and that means it is a prophecy from God.

His followers try discrediting this prophecy by saying it is in “An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages” by Lee Vayle and not by William Branham; yet his daughter Rebekah Branham-Smith wrote an article title “Whose Book Is It?” in her Only Believe Magazine June 1991 edition and she said Lee Vayle was only the Ghost writer and gives evidence her Father William Branham was the author behind the book. She stated at the end of the article the Following. “There is no doubt in my mind that An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages is William Branham’s book. And knowing, first-hand, how hard he struggled to get it published, I cannot remain neutral on the subject of its authorship.”

But that is not all. Branham trying to give his prediction some Biblical authority in a message “The Seventieth Week of Daniel, preached August 6, 1961 (tape #61-0806). He tried connecting the year 1977 with the Jubilee Year. Here is what he said.

“Now, counting the time, we find that we have exactly seventeen years left, and we will have the same span of time given to us as God dealing with us in the power of the Holy Spirit since A.D. 33 until 1977, the same span of time of 1954 years. God deals with us the same as He did with the Jews. See? How about that? “Now, mark down in your book a little Scripture here I want to give you. Leviticus 25, begin with the 8th verse. God calls a jubilee every forty-ninth year; the fiftieth year was the jubilee. We know that. We understand that. From the first jubilee of Leviticus 25:8, in 1977 will be the seventieth jubilee, making exactly 3,430 years. Jubilee means the going up, the release”

There isn’t any doubt Branham believed 1977 was the returning of the Lord. As I write this it is 2019 which is 42 years later than Branham’s prediction. As I said earlier he got this from Herbert Armstrong and it was not a revelation from God as he tried making it so.