It was not until after he had start preaching in 1933 that the Lord informed him of “the importance” of the ministry he would fulfill. While baptising converts in the Ohio River, the Pillar Of Fire descended from the skies and hovering over Brother Branham, a Voice spoke and said, “As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the First Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, even so, you are sent with a Message to forerun His Second Coming.” Still, there was no indication of the “type” of ministry it would be or “how” it would climax.

On the Life of William Branham

One thing we must remember when dealing with God’s servants is that they are men.  They always have been men, and they always will be men.  Legitimate men and women of God were used, some with substantial flaws, all throughout the Bible.  And, while some ended well, some did not.  Of those that ended well, most of them also had serious issues along the way.  Of all the notable persons of the Bible, there are only a small handful of which very little negative was said.

1 Kings 13 tells of a true prophet of God who was deceived by an old prophet.  Why the old prophet lied to the young prophet leading him to get killed is not indicated in scripture, but it does call both of them prophets.  Yet, the young prophet, who was told not to eat nor drink on his mission from God, listened to the deception of the old, and was killed by a lion as a result.  He was a prophet; he delivered a right word from God correctly but got side-tracked and lost his life prematurely because of it.

William Branham was a simple man who came with a simple message of faith, healing, and the miraculous realm of God that had been more or less lost across breadth of the church.  At an hour when intellectualism and reason, despair and disease wanted to choke the life out of whole world, including the church, God raised up a messenger.  William Branham was a man accredited with signs, wonders, and mighty miracles.  His message was simple, to believe God, and that he was sent by God as a messenger.  His message was simply to declare Jesus Christ, the same, Yesterday, Today, and forever.

He himself was not divine, and the validity of his message does not depend upon his every word being infallible.  The simple message of faith, healing, and God using anyone who would believe, through the administration His Kingdom with angels and the Holy Spirit, is right off the pages of the New Testament.

If a man could walk away from the life of William Branham with just one message, it should be this.

Not for one moment do I bring a message to the people that they may follow me, or join my church, or start some fellowship and organization. I have never done that and will not do that now. I have no interest in those things, but I do have an interest in the things of God and people, and if I can accomplish just one thing I will be satisfied. That one thing is to see established a true spiritual relationship between God and men, wherein men become new creations in Christ, filled with His Spirit and live according to His Word. I would invite, plead and warn all to hear His voice at this time, and yield your lives completely to Him, even as I trust in my heart that I have given my all to Him. God bless you, and may His coming rejoice your heart.

–The last paragraph of the book An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages by William Marrion Branham

As a prophet, most would be hard pressed to find any flaws in his ministry.  William Branham stands out as one of the notable prophets of history.  But, as a man, he made many mistakes.  He made mistakes growing up.  He made mistakes before salvation.  He made mistakes that by his own reasoning cost him his first wife and child.  He made mistakes during ministry that left him ill for months..  He made mistakes in judgement for which he was rebuked by the angel of the Lord.  I believe he made mistakes at the end that not only shorted his life but also shortened the reach of his message.

This is shown even in his personal prediction (not a prophecy) that the world would end by 1972 or 1973.  The world as we know it didn’t end, but certain notable shifts did begin to take place then.  The world didn’t end the way that William Branham the man thought, but it was not prophecy. Rather, it was William Branham, the man’s, appraisal.

The true work of William Branham was the work of faith, the belief in a supernatural God that was always with us.  As Jesus said when questioned about how to do the works God requires, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” (John 6:29).

This was the heart of the man, from beginning to the end, flaws and all.  Did he have flaws?  Certainly.  But having an angel assigned to his life and living a life of faith, visions, and miracles certainly wasn’t among them, as it wasn’t for Jesus Himself.

A man came with a simple message to believe, not in himself in Jesus Christ, the son of God.  One doesn’t have to agree with everything the man taught to step into the faith he lived in.

The point of the vision of the lure and the tangled line is this.  Some people that he caught simply got so caught up in the lure, the particular doctrines, that they stretched their entire self over that lure.  How would you ever get it out of them, Branham thought.  Exactly!  Some people have  gotten their eyes primarily fixed upon his particular doctrine, they have no place for the faith from which it was wrought.  Right or wrong, the only right thing is to keep one’s eyes focused on Jesus in true faith.  That was the purpose of fishing, that was the purpose of the message.  Yes, the message was brought forth, and the doctrine of that message will stand up to the scrutiny of Almighty God in the light of His Word at the end of the age to see how well Mr. Branham kept separate his revelation and himself.  Time will tell, but the purpose of the ministry, and the message, was to bring a bride prepared in mature faith, to the full stature of Christ.  Not to a doctrine, but to a man, namely Jesus Christ.

This is the heart of the message, which it should be, since there is and only has ever been one message.  Yet, even as one reads the exposition of the seven church ages with faith and understanding, it is clear that while much of the message could and should  be dismissed as, the simple call away from the denominational and sectarian organizational structure to the simple, pure milk of the word is paramount.  You can write all the books you want once you have faith, and much study wearies the body, but faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.  And, only the Word.  The Bible is inspired, and if it has brought faith to a minister and a living, spiritual relationship with the true God, they should stick primarily to what works, and not their own devices.  The True Word has worked for 2,000 years, and simply to try to add to it, is, in general, of the flesh.  If they have the Word, faith will come, as they are shepherded into it, and not ourselves.

The intent of the doctrine is to have right understanding of Jesus Christ, His coming Kingdom and judgement, and of our standing before Him.  Yet, when doctrine becomes so big in our eyes that we cannot see the man of whom the doctrine represents, we have missed the entire point of the message.  When the goal of our walk becomes doctrine, and not the faith that brought the doctrine, we do not truly understand the doctrine in the first place. The point of fishing for the prize fish is NOT primarily to get the lure into their mouths, so to speak, but to get the fish into the boat!  If the one does not facilitate the other, quit fishing!

The boat is Christ and His Kingdom, as sure as it ever was, and the same God that raised Jesus then was the same that worked through William Branham, and will touch you, if you will Only Believe!