Branham Cult Headquarters Instructs Members Not To Listen To Their Pastors

In a letter from Joseph Branham dated March 5, 2022, William Branham's son and current central figure of Branham's "Message" cult following has instructed Branham cult members in churches around the world to leave their churches and refrain from listening to their cult pastors, who have for decades also been cult leaders.  It appears that cult leaders have now become a threat to the survival of William Branham's "Message" cult following. 

According to Joseph Branham, his father's voice is the "Word" (superseding the Bible), and cult pastors who have for decades based their sermons on repeating and/or explaining how to understand the different meanings between versions of William Branham's stage persona should now be avoided.

Joseph Branham went so far as to say that members of the cult churches will be "judged" according to the voice that they hear, suggesting that on Judgment Day, God will reject cult members if their pastors teach differently than his father, or if they decide to base theology on one specific side of Branham's conflicting doctrine.  Branham taught that he, as the "prophet for the age" was the mediator between God and man, rejecting 1 Timothy 2:5[1] and claiming to be "not a man but God".[2]   Joseph Branham reminded cult members that Branham also claimed to be "God's Voice to you".

May I take the liberty and speak on behalf of the portion of the Bride that has the same Revelation I have, and say how we feel. If we’re going to be JUDGED, and our ETERNAL DESTINATION depends on the Word God spoke through His prophet, then we’ve got to ONLY hear that Word from the Voice of God for our day. We cannot, and will not rest our Eternal destination on what someone else explains, or says, but what HE SAID. WE CAN ONLY HEAR THE VOICE OF GOD, and William Marrion Branham is the ONLY VOICE OF GOD...GOD SAID SO.

[Quoting William Branham] I offended you by saying that, forgive me, but, I felt that might been resented, but, I am God’s Voice to you.[3]

Interestingly, the letter is titled, "The Eagles Gathering Together".  After Rev. C. L. Franklin's 1953 sermon entitled "The Eagle Stirreth Her Nest" became popular,[4] William Branham introduced his own sermon by the same title while plagiarizing the popular themes in Franklin's sermon.[5] Over time, William Branham began to introduce loaded cult language to suggest that he and his recordings — which superseded the Bible's authority — was considered a "carcass", while people recruited into his cult following were "eagles".[6]  This loaded language derives from Matthew 24:25, "For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together."  Even more interesting is that over time, Braham began claiming that Matthew 24 was incorrect and that eagles will not eat a carcass; Branham claimed (incorrectly) that vultures eat a carcass and eagles cannot.  People who escape William Branham's cult of personality are often surprised when they first see an eagle eating an animal that has been hit by a car, as depicted in the photograph attached to this article.

Did not Jesus say, “Where the carcass is, the eagles will gather”? “Eagles,” not buzzards, now. Eagles! Where the slop is, and the—and the—the carrion, then the buzzards gather. But where the fresh, clean Meat is, the eagles will gather. See? Certainly. Where the Word, eagle Food, they’ll gather."[7]

The question, however, is why this new strategy?  Why would cult headquarters want to sever ties with cult leaders, especially when it could potentially sever the financial stream flowing from satellite churches and splinter groups?

It appears that Message churches have reached a very dangerous place.  Sadly, it is the same dangerous place that Peoples Temple reached when almost a thousand cult members willing drank cyanide-laced Kool-Aid in mass suicide.  When Jim Jones and Peoples Temple — which began as part of the Latter Rain version of William Branham's cult following — recognized that cult members were hearing information critical to the group, cities in America could no longer be considered a utopia.  The group fled the United States to find a location where information was controlled, and Jim Jones began broadcasting "the news" himself while filtering critical information.[8]

Joseph Branham appears to be forced into the same corner that Jim Jones found himself in.  As we have pointed out in several recent blog posts, William Branham changed the target of his alleged "1933 Prophecy of the Isms" concerning Russia multiple times, often claiming the exact opposite prophecy as before.  Cult leaders who have for years and are currently repeating Branham's original version of the prophecy — which Branham himself admitted to have failed when Communism did not consume the world systems and was dying out in Russia — are in effect spreading information that is critical to the group.  And with the world's sudden attention towards Russia, cult members are very interested to hear what William Branham said about Russia.  As ironic as this sounds, the cult is now a threat to itself based simply on the different versions of William Branham's stage persona, and that threat now comes directly from cult leaders.  Cult leaders must now be silenced if cult headquarters is to prevent Branham's sect from imploding.

This threat from Branham cult leaders is being amplified by former members of the group.  Many people are beginning to realize that leaders in the "Message" cult are saying things that contradict either William Branham or the Bible, researching, and then realizing that William Branham often contradicted himself or the Bible.  Some of those who escape are collecting audio and/or video clips of these instances, while others are providing commentary.  Tim Kraus, for example, has been reviewing many of the statements made by Branham cult leaders that are critical to the group on the Believe the Sign YouTube Channel.  Not only is his work exposing William Branham to researchers who have never been members, but it also appears to be extremely successful in exposing it within the sect and its splinter groups.  Put simply, victims of William Branham's cult are escaping in droves due to statements made by cult leaders, cult leaders are repeating statements made or themes presented by William Branham, and cult leaders themselves have become a threat to the cult's integrity.  Joseph Branham, the current central figure of the "Message", cannot let this happen.