William Branham Ministries
AKA
Voice of God Recordings
William Branham Evangelistic Association
A Branham Family Business
For the duration of this article the name “William Branham Ministries” will be used to represent both the “Voice of God Recordings” and the “William Branham Evangelistic Association” and its operating officers. Any critical references to William Branham Ministries is directed to the results of William Branham’s teaching ministry which was not approved by God, but these critical comments are not directed to his healing ministry which was vindicated by God with signs and wonders.
The William Branham Ministries presents itself as a ministry dedicated to the furtherance of the Gospel of Christ, but in reality it is dedicated to the furtherance of the Gospel according to William Branham. By promoting William Branham as a Prophet of God they present his words to be equal to and in some instances overriding of the Bible which contains the true Word of God.
They state that operating funds are not solicited, but it is obvious that offerings to their ministry is expected from those who profess to be believers in William Branham’s ministry. Would it not be for their professing William Branham of being a Prophet of God, which he denied that he was, the venture they have undertaken would not be as profitable as it has been. It is reported that the annual income to the business from their sales ranges from 30 to 50 million dollars each year. This amount of income to their ministry/business provides for a very comfortable living for many members of the Branham family, which William Branham himself never had because of the sacrifices he made for his dedication to the work of God.
Shortly after the death of William Branham, many ministry groups throughout the World produced booklets containing William Branham’s sermons and details of his ministry and distributed them free of charge to individuals.
This continued for about twenty years after William Branham’s death until the Branham family founded the Voice of God Recordings. At first, realizing the amount of income they were losing because others were producing booklets, including the Spoken Word books, their first move was to take over the distribution of Spoken Word books, which occurred in 1986.
For several years after starting the family business the family attempted to prevent others from producing books and tapes of William Branham’s sermons, claiming they had the sole rights to their production and sale. Their claim was not according to the Law of the land, but because a Prophet of God’s words should override any secular laws.
Then in December of 2001, The Voice of God Recordings sent letters to everyone involved in the production and distribution of books, tapes etc that had not been authorized by them and which no royalties had been received because of this. Those involved were told that what they were doing was against the law by pirating material they had no legal right to and they must not sell, reproduce, or distribute the recorded messages of Brother William Branham in any format in the US, Canada, or any foreign nation, not they must not translate and/or print Brother William Branham’s material. Thus Saith the Voice of God Recordings as they took their stand against it, saying they have been forced into this action. The complete letter can be read here:
It just appears to me that this stand The Voice of God Recordings is taking seems to be all about money, power, control, ego, or some of all of these motives.
Now this letter did get several responses from Ministers involved in the message distribution. More than one of them accused Joseph Branham of having the wrong kind of spirit because of the power play he was engaging in. One who was a friend of and a close brother to William Branham, Ed Byskal of Cloverdale Bibleway Ministeries in Canada sent Joseph Branham a response to his "Here I Stand" publication. His response stated that the Voice of God Recordings was simply after complete control over the distribution of the Message of William Branham for their own gain.
The letters Joseph Branham sent out with his "Here I Stand" statement was egregious because of the accusations, name calling and threats of possible legal action that could be taken against these other Christian Ministers. Certainly not the same kind of spirit was exhibited that his Father had. The condemnation Joseph Branham received from other Ministers in the Message obviously had no effect on him as far as I could determine since no public showing of repentance from him could be found. One might wonder if his conversion in February of 1981 was nothing but a conversion of convenience to enable him to receive the support needed to found the Voice of God Recordings that same year.
This is just the style of treatment that a son of William Branham would receive from everyone out of respect for the ministry of his father as they catered to him because he was a Branham. Without a doubt in my mind, the name and ministry of his Father has been tarnished somewhat because of how Joseph has conducted himself in the business dealings he has dealt with. It surprises me that he continues to remain in control of the family business in light of what has transpired.
The complete response letter from Bibleway and Ed Byskal can be read by clicking here.
One would think that after this incident was responded to by Reverend Byskal and published in the public domain, a final response or apology because of their position that had been taken by the Voice of God Publications would have been in order, but nothing was found pertaining to it.
For many years the transcripts of the recorded sermons of William Branham were provided to the public free of charge, but recently a fee has been imposed upon those of us in the United States in order to supplement the amount of the free will offerings needed to operate this family business. One would think that if this so called ministry was actually in the will of God, charges for the production and distribution of this ministry’s products would be provided for as God would put His blessing on this ministry.
The Bible tells us that foremost we should all provide the necessary care for those of our own family, in addition to providing for the needs of widows, orphans and strangers who come to us in need. It is just as important to provide for the daily physical needs of those who are in need as it is to provide for the spiritual needs of them. I can’t testify to this Voice of God ministries providing for the physical needs of anyone, but if they are charging a fee to provide for their spiritual needs it doesn’t appear to me to be God’s will.
I recently came across a letter or a tract, whatever it was, that was supposedly written by one of William Branham’s daughters who appeared to be in dire need and was unable to receive from her family those things to sustain her in her daily life. Apparently she requested help from her brothers who are the administrators of William Branham’s ministry outreach, but received nothing from them. Or at least no record could be found that proved that any relief was given to her. This letter from Sarah, William Branham’s daughter, can be read in it’s entirety by clicking here:
A local minister, Reverand Raymond (Junior) Jackson, who was a close friend of William Branham, took it upon himself to intercede for Sarah by sending a letter to William Branham’s oldest son in order to obtain some relief for William Branham’s Daughter. His letter which also was found on the Internet can be read in its entirety by clicking here:
Once again, no response was ever made public, as far as could be determined, that Reverand Jackson was successful in obtaining help for Sarah.
Since all of these correspondences were made public on the Internet, which in some manner impugned the integrity of the Administrators of the William Branham Ministries, one would think that a response by them would have served their best interest in public acceptance. Silence about these accusations does nothing except cast doubt in everyone's mind about the integrity of these men who have assumed the position of William Branham's continuing ministry.
In my estimation, these conflicts all centered over the covetous of money and the exercise of power and control over others. Certainly not the type of position you would like to see involving those who have assumed the ministry outreach of the very humble man that God sent out to help people who were in need of spiritual and physical healing.
This then gets to my position concerning the operation of the William Branham Ministries. In the first place the success of this ministry depends upon the promotion of William Branham being a prophet of God. In William Branham’s own words he on many occasions stated that he was not a prophet. By the William Branham Ministries promoting him as a prophet, it would serve the purpose of getting the people to accept what he taught as the Word of God which would be just as valid as God’s words in the bible. If William Branham was truly a Prophet of God, he would have known that the bible contained many errors and man’s addition of implied doctrines and would never have accepted the entire bible as being God’s Word, but he did.
According to William Branham, he was not a prophet of God, even though he allowed the people to believe that he was in order to benefit from it in his healing ministry. Those who insist on him being a prophet, in spite of his denial, are doing nothing more than saying he lied or was mistaken. This being done in order to improve their position and adding value to the importance of promoting their position in order to maintain the following from others who are needed to sustain the family business.
The production and distribution of William Branham’s sermons, or “Message” as they call it, cannot be God’s perfect will as those teaching sermons are not in line with bible scripture and should be stopped.
God, being our Creator and our Heavenly Father has a perfect right for the truth of His Word to be known by all people and it should be the object of all people to seek out the truth and hold to it in spite of those who are in the business to subvert it.
Acceptance of William Branham’s teaching whether it is, or is not the Word of God, has nothing to do with a person’s obtaining salvation. Acceptance of the Gospel of Christ is the simplicity of being saved and inheriting eternal life. Although it is God’s Will that each of us learn and hold to the truth of His Word in order to please Him and not be ashamed because we didn’t when we face Him in that final hour.
The William Branham Ministries organization states that they are a nondenominational and Independent Ministry, but their operation does not reflect that stated position. In fact they operate in the same manner as all of the other Christian Denominations, especially the Jehovah Witnesses.
Where the Jehovah Witnesses have a Governing Body that oversees and directs the operation of their ministry, the William Branham Ministries has William Branham’s two sons that oversee its operation. Where the Jehovah Witnesses uses the Watch Tower Association to develop doctrines for their organization, the William Branham Ministries distributes the spoken word from William Branham’s sermons to serve as the interpretation of the Bible to set the standard of belief for all of its Sister Churches which are called “Message Churches”. They maintain that because they have proclaimed William Branham as a Prophet of God and in doing so they contend that his teaching has the same authority as the written Word of God.
Those who have promoted that William Branham was a Prophet and they did so, did not have the authority to do so. Only Jehovah God makes a man to be His Prophet. In addition, even a Prophet does not have the authority to contradict God’s written Word and this was done by William Branham in his unauthorized teaching of Bible scripture. The scriptures teach us that “no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation”. Only scripture interprets scripture and anything else is in error.
The return of Christ for His Church is imminent and unless all wrongs are made right, many will miss His coming because of accepting false teaching. Remember His words: “Behold I come quickly blessed is he that keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book.”
AMEN
Comments from the Branham family are welcome and will be published on this site after being confirmed as to their authenticity.
Return to William Branham Index Page, click here
6 comments:
Hello, you were writing as follows...
"...he would have known that the bible contained many errors and man’s addition of implied doctrines..."
That heresy is a strong clarification concerning your motives and objectives aiming at the Branham familiy.
Definitely no one in the Branham family would ever support that kind of damaging heresy.
Look on my comment as protest against your attempt of polluting the Holy Bible and the Message of the Prophet William Branham.
To GHH
Thank you for your comment even though it was in protest.
My friend you really need to pray about this and ask God to open your eyes to how the devil has deceived you and the other message believers.
How you or anyone else could read what is posted on this Blog Site and not realize the deception that has taken place in the Branham Ministries is amazing to me.
May the Lord God help you is my prayer.
My friend, it is true that false prophets arise in the endtime. But can you identify them? Remember Matthew 24:24. They must be here on earth. Let me tell you that they are the ones that are perverting the Message of Mal 4:4-6. You can find them in the circles of Message Churches, many of them are famous and being considered as great & true preachers, and only a few are able to recognize their damaging heresies.
Let me use your last sentence, butb with a different contents:
How you or anyone else could read what the great Elijah William Marrion Branham preached and not realize the deception that has taken place in the Message Churches internationally is amazing to me. GHH
Anyone who believes that William Branham was the "great Elijah" has been deceived by the things they have been told about him and his ministry.
William Marrion Branham was a man who devoted his life to serving God, but because he allowed the devil (his angel)to deceive him, it's pretty obvious that he failed in a big way.
Bible Man... I wouldn't want to be in your shoes.. not for a second! See you at judgement!
What is it about me that you believe should make me fear the final Judgment? All that I have written is in defense of God's written word. When and if I stand before God at the great Judgment, I would rather have Jesus standing with me rather than William Branham.
Obviously you choose to defend the word of Branham, but I choose to defend the written Word of God.
Which would you put your soul in the hands of?
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