Raised A Man From The Dead

In addition to the death of Carol Ruth Strubler, a 9-year-old girl Branham claimed to have healed in his video "Deep Calleth to the Deep", and the staged healings that investigative reporters identified in the Branham campaigns, reporters caught William Branham making false claims in his healing revivals.  One such false claim made by William Branham was that he had raised a man from the morgue.  Such a claim, of course, would have made national, even international news.  Jeffersonville reporters examined Branham's claim.  

And by the way, a man that laid in the morgue, pronounced dead by three doctors when I went in to where he was at, he’s driving a Pennsylvania locomotive tonight, and still they don’t believe. That’s true. That is true. They won’t believe.[4]

William Branham frequently claimed to have raised people from the dead during his sermons.[1] According to Branham, he had collected "bona-fide" statements from those who returned to life,[2] claims that could be verified. [3] When newspaper reporters attempted to verify such claims, however, evidence to support such claims could not be found.

On July 23, 1947, the Jeffersonville Evening News put this false claim to rest. During his meetings in Canada, Branham claimed that he had raised a man from the dead after the man had been sent to the undertaking parlor - a claim easily verified. Shortly after Branham's meeting at the Zion Church in Winnipeg,[5] Ted Shrader, a newspaper reporter from the Winnipeg Tribune, attempted to verify the claim by contacting the Jeffersonville Evening News. Jeffersonville reporters informed the Winnipeg Tribune that Branham's claim was false, commenting on how such a startling occurrence would have certainly made the news. After their investigation, Branham's claim to raise the dead could not be substantiated.

This newspaper keeps abreast of local news in Jeffersonville and Clark County, and has been doing so for nearly 75 years, but nowhere in its annals appears such a startling occurrence, and the Winnepeg newspaper was sent a wire saying that we could not substantiate this reported phenomenon.[6]

William Branham frequently made claims that he said could be verified by anyone in his hometown of Jeffersonville.  From the "mayor of the city" to "anyone you want to" ask, Branham said that anyone in his hometown could verify the claims made in his revivals.  There have been a limited number of people over time who defended Branham from his hometown, but that number is usually limited to those in his cult of personality and mostly by repeating the claims that he made on his recordings.

Go back down through the cities and the places where I’ve come from, ask the city where I come from, Jeffersonville, call the mayor of the city, anyone you want to. Ask them if anything has been said, or—or predicted, but what’s come to pass, just exactly at the time and the place It said it would. See? That’s right. See? Therefore, it’s—it’s true.[7]