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Responses to the issues that we and others have
raised have to date been non-existent. So to make some
of our issues a bit more focused for followers of
William Branham, we would like to request a response to
the following challenge:
The Test
This is a test for anyone that is a follower of the
message of William Branham. Please provide us with an
unambiguous prophecy made by William Branham that was
recorded publicly (i.e. we can verify on a tape) and
that was later fulfilled in a clear manner. We will
publish any such prophecy and its fulfillment on our
website.
While some view William Branham's healing ministry
and his gift with the word of knowledge as proof that he
was a prophet, this is not the Biblical test. There are
numerous prophecies on this website that were made by
William Branham in advance but were not fulfilled. This
creates a clear problem with Deuteronomy 18:20-22. One
would think that those that believe him to be a prophet
would have numerous examples of publicly available
prophecies that were later clearly fulfilled. Sadly,
this is not the case.
All of the prophecies that we have had pointed out to
us are either after the fact (i.e. William Branham only
mentions them on tape after they have been fulfilled) or
are ambiguous prophecies (i.e. if they were not
fulfilled, no one would have been able to point to the
prophecy and say that it was clearly wrong).
Most people think of prophecy as a prediction of an
event or occurrence that will happen in the future.
We will publish any responses on this page for the
benefit of all.
The
Problem
A significant problem with William Branham's
prophetic ministry is that there does not seem to be a
single occurrence where he makes an unambiguous public
prophecy (i.e. recorded on tape) that was later clearly
fulfilled.
Four Types of Prophecies that William Branham could have
made
There are a number of different types of prophecies
that William Branham could have made:
A vague Prophecy made beforehand (verified) that was
(sort of) fulfilled
This is the kind of prophecy that is seen quite
commonly. It contains within it enough vagueness for
deniability if it doesn't happen but also something that
can be pointed to as a "fulfillment of prophecy" if it
does happen. With respect to William Branham, a good
example of this would be
the "prophecy" of the birth of his son, Joseph.
A Prophecy made beforehand (verified) that was not
fulfilled
We have several occasions where William Branham
prophesied of things that would come to pass in the
future but the clearly did not happen as prophesied
("failed prophecies"). Examples of this would include:
-
- A. The
vision of the brown bear
- B. The
vision of the African meetings.
A Prophecy made beforehand (unverified) that was not
fulfilled
This would include prophecies that William Branham
said had been fulfilled but, in fact, were not.
Examples of this type of failed prophecy would include:
-
- A.
The Municipal Bridge Vision; and
- B.
The Marilyn Monroe Vision.
- While these are in effect, "after the fact"
prophecies, it is strange that William Branham held
out that they were validly fulfilled, when they
clearly were not.
A Prophecy made beforehand (unverified) that was clearly
fulfilled
Message believers will provide several examples where
William Branham stated that he had prophesied something
that actually did come to pass. There are several
examples of this such as
Kari Holma and the vision of the grizzly bear.
However, we have no record of these events being
publicly recorded before the fact. Therefore, they could
simply be after-the-fact prophecies. While one
would normally think that "after the fact" prophecies
would be amazingly accurate, there are problems
associated with a number of William Branham's
"after-the-fact" prophecies.
- Any of the following "so-called" prophecies
cannot be used as proof of a prophetic ministry.
Why? There is NO evidence that they were made
publicly prior to the events occurring. This would
include the following:
-
-
A Prophecy made beforehand (verified) that was clearly
fulfilled
Anything in this category would be considered a true
prophecy. We are unaware of any of William Branham's
prophecies that would fulfill this criteria. Because
of this, there would appear to be no independent
evidence that William Branham actually had a prophetic
gift.
As indicated above, we have repeatedly asked publicly
for examples of unambiguous prophecies that were
publicly announced and clearly fulfilled at a later
date, but have had no response to date.
This is a serious problem for those that wish to
believe that William Branham was a prophet.
Prophecy in the New Testament
There are three expressions of prophecy that the New
Testament speaks of. The first is forthtelling the word
of God. It is essentially preaching. This is spoken of
in 1 Corinthians 14:6-7 speaks of a prophecy or a word
of instruction. So it links prophecy with teaching or
word of instruction as synonyms. Thereby, in this sense,
the prophecy is teaching the Bible. It’s the word of
instruction. That’s preaching and teaching. That’s what
I do. And then in 1 Corinthians 14:24 and 25, it says
that preaching the Bible, prophesying the truth that is
already in Scripture, will allow non-Christians to come
in, learn about Jesus, recognize they’re sinful and get
saved
The second use of the gift is the foretelling of the
future; the revelation of some future knowledge that
would otherwise be unknown. An example of this would be
Agabus in Acts 11: 28-29
Thirdly, prophecy can be a personal word from God
through someone with a gift of prophesy to an
individual. Agabus is again a good illustration of this
in Acts 21:10-11.
How can we tell whether a prophet is from God?
When we speak of William Branham's visions and
prophecies, we are generally speaking of the foretelling
of a future event. The Bible lays out a clear test for
determining whether a prophet is from God:
- And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we
know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’— 22
when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if
the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is
the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet
has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be
afraid of him. (Deut. 18:21–22)
To verify whether William Branham's prophecies came
to pass, there should be publicly verifiable
documentation of the foretelling of the event and then
the event must take place at a subsequent time in a
clear manner.
Unfortunately, we are not aware of any evidence to
this effect.
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