What the critic didn’t tell his listeners is that William Branham didn’t begin teaching Unitarianism until the late 1950s (according to this website Branham’s teaching on the Trinity was all over the map, but there was a fundamental change in 1958 that eventually led to a complete rejection of Trinitarianism), but Brother Osborn saw Branham’s meeting over ten years earlier in November of 1947. At that time Branham didn’t teach. He was a preacher, and ministered to the sick in the office of a prophet. He came under the influence of the United Pentecostal Church in the 50s, and as a result he began to teach some of their false doctrines.
In the following audio clip you’ll hear Brother Osborn say at 1:45 in “forget all the silly things that have happened in later years”. He was well aware of the error that surfaced later on in Branham’s ministry and he didn’t condone it, but that’s irrelevant as to the impact that Branham had on him when he watched him minister in 1947.
Brother Hagin told us the story of Branham’s “false step” while I was at Rhema. God told him that Branham started teaching false doctrine, and would die prematurely in 1965. He shared that information with Gordon Lindsay, the founder of Christ for the Nations in Dallas, Texas. Brother Lindsay knew Branham well, and had traveled with him years earlier. He tried to talk to Branham but he wouldn’t listen, unfortunately. Brother Hagin’s story confirms what Freda Lindsay (the widow of Gordon Lindsay who co-founded Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas, Texas) said in her book My Diary Secrets.
“One day Kenneth Hagin came into our offices. He handed Gordon a piece of paper on which was written a prophecy he said the Lord had given him. The prophecy stated that the leader of the deliverance movement was soon to be taken in death because he was getting into error and the Lord was having to remove him from the scene for that reason. Gordon took the prophecy and placed it in his desk.
After Brother Hagin left I asked, ‘What do you think about this? Is this Branham?’
Gordon answered gravely, ‘Yes, It is Branham. He is getting into error. He thinks he is Elijah. He thinks he is the messenger of the covenant. The sad thing is that unscrupulous men around him are putting words into his mouth, and due to his limited background he is taking them up.’
Two years later William Branham, who had moved from his home in Jeffersonville, Indiana, was driving to Tucson, Arizona, his new base. In West Texas he had a head-on collision with a drunken driver and was taken to the hospital. His head became terribly swollen. A tube was placed in his throat to assist his breathing, but on Christmas Eve, 1965 he departed this world, even as the prophecy had stated. A tremendous ministry that had veered from the course!”
Although he doesn’t mention the prophet by name, you can read Brother Hagin’s account of this prophecy in Chapter 9 of his book He Gave Gifts Unto Men. Sister Lindsay’s book was published in 1976, long before the critics ever heard of William Branham or Kenneth Hagin. So nobody can claim that she wrote it in response to any critic. This was her honest recollection of what happened.
Brother Hagin’s prophecy was written down and presented to Brother Lindsay in January of ’64, over 16 years after Branham’s ministry impacted T. L. Osborn and so many others. The critics aren’t telling people the whole story. In his later years Branham completely went off the deep end. Not only did he deny the doctrine of the Trinity, he taught a wacky doctrine called Serpent’s Seed, which says that Eve had sex with a serpent which produced Cain. He thought he was Elijah. He also taught the false doctrines of the United Pentecostal Church regarding baptizing in Jesus’ name only, and various legalist positions.
In his earlier years of ministry however, Branham refused to teach or get entangled with doctrinal issues, stating that he was sent to preach Jesus, win the lost, and heal the sick. It was only after he got himself into tax trouble and couldn’t afford to hold crusades that he turned to the United Pentecostal churches for ministry opportunities, and ended up teaching these views.
Branham was a great man of God, but he allowed people of questionable character to lead him astray in his later years, and made shipwreck of his ministry. There’s no reason to condemn anybody who saw the good in his ministry in his earlier years, however.
If you’d like to read the story of Branham from someone who knows what they’re talking about, Gordon Lindsay worked with him for years and recorded many of his experiences, both good and bad, in William Branham, a Man Sent From God, and God’s 20th Century Barnabas. Mrs. Lindsay also shares from her perspective about Branham in her book My Diary Secrets. You can obtain a copy of any of these books by contacting Christ for the Nations in Dallas, Texas.