The Birth of the Elijah Ministry

Hello and welcome to another episode of the William Brannum Historical Research Podcast. I'm your host, John Collins, the author and founder of William Brannum Historical Research at William-Brannum.org, and with me I have my co-host, researcher, minister, and friend Charles Paisley, the founder of ChristianGospelChurch.org, and together we're examining the history and the intersections in history between William Brannum and other key figures that either influenced or were influenced by the post-World War II healing revivals. Charles, we're leading up to the point in time that I really feel, and all of my research, I've really felt that this is the saddest time. We're nearing the point of William

Brannum's death, and you know, as a former cult member, that was sadness in a different way, while it was in the cult, but now that I'm out and I see what has happened, and I see the events leading up to what happened. I'm where I used to be really sad for William Brannum, and you know, the life story that came to the tragic end, but now I'm really sad for the people, because I see in the events leading up to his death, I see what is happening in the world around it, and I see all of the background elements of history, a very dark history that's leading up to it,

and you know, I just have to say it's one of the most troubling times for the people who are in the message, but beyond that, the scope of the same type of sadness can be applied to the entire nation as a whole. This was a very, very dark chapter in United States history, and you know, it bruised America very deeply, but in the religious world, it wasn't just William Brannum that was buying into this thing that we're about to discuss today. This was widespread, so you can't really say all of this is the message, but we're focusing on the point of time leading up to William Brannum's

death, and we're concentrating on how the world around William Brannum is turning into this new nightmare in American history, and we're seeing that nightmare being applied within the cult.

focused on his failing mental health. We see the dark chapter in America plus, you have all of these people who are under the control and submission of a person who is literally losing his mind.

So we do have an interesting episode today for our listeners, John. And I think it is important for them and for anyone who's interested just to understand what was going on at the time there in 1965, what the message was like, what was going on around them.

Because we've chronologically been following the life of times of William Brannum from his birth, right up into his death. And our last couple episodes have brought us really into the final years of his life, right up in 1965, right up to the culmination of everything.

And before we examine his actual death and the aftermath of that event, we do want to take some time and examine what the message was like right in the months before he died. Because his death was not supposed to happen.

It came out of nowhere. None of his followers expected that. And William Brannum really in one sense died right at a moment when he was taking his cult through a major transition. A critical mass of his followers had really only recently transitioned into the state where they were totally dependent on him.

William Brannum had convinced all of his followers that he was either God himself or the voice of God. And his followers believed that their only hope of salvation and escaping this imminent doomsday was some secret that only William Brannum could reveal to them.

And the message movement as a whole had really transitioned into that very radical state just in the last three years of his life. And he was still in the process of defining what that phase of his ministry and that new phase of the cult was gonna look like.

And then he suddenly died right in the middle of him making that transition for the entire group. And I think to understand how his death impacted his followers, it's important that we spend some time talking about what the message movement and the culture around them was like in the months that he just before his death.

Right, and I think it's also important to understand what's happening in the world around them. Because it's not just William Brannum that is influencing the people, the white supremacy in the south is heavily influencing the nation.

And beyond that, you have a strong influence in the world around them. In March 7th, 1965, it's called Bloody Sunday, there were about 200 Alabama state troopers that attacked over 500 civil rights demonstrators in Alabama.

And that's the type of hatred that is rising up in the south. You have all of the white supremacists who are saying that the nation is being overrun by communists and the communists are allowing.

the people with black skin to rise in America, the theology of these white supremacists, it's a very pseudo-Christian religious movement, and the theology of these white supremacists was such that Rome was invading using communism as its means to infiltrate the United States government, and they would allow the black people to rise, and they would take over the country, basically, was the premise of this theology, and whether by coincidence or as a planned strategy, we see William Brannum's theological points in his sermons, 100% matching those of the white supremacists, and they saw war coming, right?

Well, also in 1965, March 8, you had the first ground troops going into Vietnam to fight communism and Vietnam, 3500 ground troops landed, and in the background of all of this, you had the Second Ecumenical Council for the Vatican, and the Catholic Church had announced that they would, it's ironic, they announced that they would bring a renewal to the Catholic Church that they dubbed a, quote, new Pentecost.

So you have the Catholic Church rising, you have the United States rising to war against the communists, you have all of these clan and white supremacist organizations saying that communism has invaded the nation, and they're singling out people in politics that they say this person's communist, and this other person's communist.

So in the world around the message, they're seeing it as the beginning of the end of day's war that William Brannum and Wesley Swift, who Brannum appears to have stolen a lot of this theology from, they're seeing as this end of day's war that is now taking place in the years leading up to William Brannum's death.

Right, and in 1965, John, was the first time a Pope ever came to America, okay? And William Brannum made so much hay out of that. You know, they had their Catholic president, they have all of the conspiracy stuff lining out.

The Pope comes to the United States, I mean, everything is feeding into their Doomsday scenario, and I think that's another really important thing to realize, you know, a huge part of the message at that point was it was Doomsday beliefs, and it's hard to overstate just how strongly William Brannum's followers believed the world was about to end.

It was a very deeply held belief, and it was a somewhat recent development that it had become so... all consuming for them. William Brannum had not really been overly focused on Doomsday in the early days of his ministry, you know, his best we know anyway.

It was really only after he first met Richard Nixon in 1954 that William Brannum's Doomsday beliefs started to build steam, okay? So he met Nixon 54 and then Doomsday enters into his basically nuclear apocalypse with communism and the papacy somehow is connected into this, enters into William Brannum's sermons. And as you go through time and especially as you come up to the last years of his life, William Brannum is totally consumed by his Doomsday scenario.

Just about every single sermon he preaches includes some references to this Doomsday scenario in the final years of his life. And as we mentioned in our last couple episodes, the message movement generally believed that there was a secret conspiracy by the Catholic Pope to seize power over the world. They believed he's going to do that by making a pact or a covenant with the Jewish people. And many of them believed that the Jewish people secretly controlled communism. So they believed it was going to be this alliance of Jews and communists and Catholics that was going to overthrow the world. And that

was happening against the backdrop of, you know, the real things that were going on then, you know, communism was certainly real. It was a real threat to the Western world. But communism certainly is also not. It's absolutely not a Jewish conspiracy, right? You know, communism was spreading around the world.

Tensions were high between NATO and the Soviet nations. There was a real fear of nuclear war in society. And there was also a lot of civil unrest going on in the United States. Like you mentioned there, John, you had Al, you had Mississippi burning. You had quite a number of things going on through that period. The Birmingham bombings were were coming into focus there. And all of that was happened in Kennedy. The first Catholic president had came to power. Then, you know, the assassination had happened and all of that stuff. There's all of these fears of a race war breaking out. The Pope is coming to the United States. And so

William Brannum and his followers are all really convinced that they're watching the Doomsday scenario unfold right in front of them. And I think it's important to understand the message Doomsday beliefs from back in the 60s because people in the message today are more or less still believing in a version of that 1960s Doomsday beliefs that William Brannum had put together with the rest of his followers there at the end of his life.

Right. And there's something that you said that I want to make sure that our listeners fully grasp because whenever you read any of the histories or biographies of William Brannum, they're usually aligned with the latest version of a stage persona and they filter or read the other versions of the stage persona through that latest version and They in a fact they turn his statements in the earlier years of his ministry into something completely different than what they actually were but In the early years of his ministry You know, we've examined this previously whenever he was aligned with the

mission of Gerald Burton-Winrod and And they were preaching heavily against Mussolini William Brannum Claimed that he prophesied and said that if Mussolini ever goes towards Ethiopia, they'll never be peace till Jesus comes and It's not a doomsday scenario. It's a Peace scenario and in other words the world would be in turmoil and it will lead up to the tribulation It isn't this end-of-day scenario where communism's gonna come and just totally obliterate the United States It's that there's no peace and he was saying that you know in the 50 up to the 50s whenever he's closely aligned with Winrod

There comes a point in time and I'm still early into this research but Winrod's theology and and his political affiliations Seems to deviate from the full gospel business men and he's supporting different political Parties than the full gospel business men there comes a point in time in which this shifts and especially when William Brannum starts working with Nixon and we talked about the Nixon Communist Commission where he's Telling William Brannum to spread the fear of communism and the full gospel businessmen Well after this and in the later versions of a stage persona William Brannum Says that he declared in 1933 that there would be a total obliteration of the United States due to the rise of communism and

Where where in the early versions of a stage persona? He said there would be one ism and he doesn't know which one it is in the later versions of a stage persona He says it was definitely communism and that changes again into Romanism. So there's this weird shift and Ironically in the early years of his ministry You've got Winrod who's heavily speaking against the Jews and spreading anti-Semitism well in the in 1965 the Catholic Church Begins a movement to declare that the Jewish people were not responsible for the death of Christ which was heavily against what was being propagated by the white supremacists in America

So they saw the Catholic Church rising up as a threat against even the gospel and You know the world around them seems to be creating creating the scenario where the message itself is isolating against the world around them that are rising up against everything that William Brannum has predicted, leading up to the scenario that looks very much like the one that he is predicted. And as you and I know, that scenario never came before his death.

Right, you know, looking back at it, you know, you realize that all of that stuff was just non-sense conspiracy theories. I mean, there was never ever the slightest shred of possibility that what he was saying was even remotely being cooked up by anybody. I mean, there's just no way.

You know, like there, but then they'd live in it. It was very real to them. It was very real to them. But I mean, there was no secret Catholic attempt to make friends with the Jews who secretly controlled the communists to then co-op the civil rights movement to overthrow the United States. I mean, that was... This stuff is bonkers, John. This was absolute bonkers. And the man leading their message movement was a man who was bonkers, okay? I mean, and it's just so crazy this stuff that was in that was in their heads that they were bought into. But this, I think,

you know, this is a group that has loved political conspiracy theories since day one, right? This is just the kind of of a movement that it is. Yeah, and the irony, Charles, is that I grew up with the same conspiracy theory. We believe the 1965 version of the stage persona and all of the conspiracy theories that came with that. But there are... I've encountered a lot of people. There are probably a vast majority of people that the things that we've just said about how the Doomsday is about to play out, they have no idea that they're even supposed to believe that

and they're in the message. So I think every... I mean, I don't know, maybe not every group was like ours, but I know we talked all the time, but that the Pope is going to sign the covenant with the Jews, right? I don't know if that featured very prominently in your sect. I know all of our churches. I mean, that was a well-known thing. The Pope's going to sign the covenant with the Jews, right? Yeah. And bring on the end of days. That event is what initiates the final Doomsday scenario.

And then secretly... So you've got that, which is supposed to happen. And then it's conspiracy on top of conspiracy. Then that's conspiracy one. Conspiracy two is that the Jews secretly control communism. Okay, so now we're into conspiracy two. And then conspiracy three is the communists are secretly controlling the civil rights movement, right? So you've got one conspiracy, controlling a second conspiracy, controlling a third conspiracy, which then is going to overthrow you know, I mean, it is just bonkers this stuff. And will you...

Brannum, you will find traces of that whole thing throughout his sermon. He's telling you the civil rights movement is communist inspired right he's telling you the race war stuff's going to happen on this and the same thing in his sermons He's telling you the Pope is going to sign his covenant with the Jews to bring on the end of days and you'll also finding his sermons where he's also saying that The Jews are the ones really who are behind communism you find all of that in his sermons And he said all of that and the thing is, you know, he never sat down and he's just spell it out in one sermon

But it's all there across all of his sermons and that is the big broad picture and that is exactly what the white supremacist taught And what what people believe in the message today for their end-time scenarios is an evolution out of that belief in the 60s You may no longer recall or people may not even be around necessarily tell you what that belief was when he died That is what it was and what you have today is an evolution of that belief Yeah, you know like I said earlier It's it's either coincidence or it was a strategy. I

Really haven't made up my mind I'm kind of kind of on the fences to which of the two it was we do know that high-ranking white supremacy officials were in his meetings and we have books like the one that you've mentioned a few times where People were going to a clan rally and then they would go to a brandama revival and oh my gosh I see the same people that are touring the you know the revival at William Brannum's Healing Revival and it's the same people that were in the clan rally So we know that there was this mixture of white supremacists among

revival participants who weren't aware that there were white supremacists and I say that You know with a bit of skepticism. I think they have to know that some of this exists, but There has to be people that were unaware that there are white supremacists in the group with them and then You've got William Brannum who you know It was a very watered-down version. It wasn't as blatantly racist as you you know, I've heard the sermons of Wesley Swift their horrific It wasn't like that, but it was a very watered-down version and I think the way I'll say it is like this if it were to be a strategy

It was a brilliant Brilliant strategy Because you've got the white supremacists who are saying things so heated that a Non-white supremacist person would never listen to it But then you've got William Brannum who's got this watered-down version who's saying the same exact things But they're listening to it because it's not so racially charged and they're being swayed to that mindset Once they're swayed to that mindset now they can be you know They're open field for recruitment into white supremacy groups So if this were to be a strategy, I'll say it like this. It was one of the most brilliant strategies ever employed in white supremacy religion.

My personal, my opinion more is that these guys are just bonkers.

That's where I really think that these are, now I don't think, you know, not all of them, you're not all of them, but the key players here I think are people who are mentally have some mental problems. I really think that is what's at play here, and then some people love conspiracy theories. Yeah, you know, another really interesting thing about the message is that by 1965, William Brannum had fully convinced his followers that the rapture scenarios in progress, right? So he's convinced them. The Doomsday is happening in front of your eyes, and now the rapture scenario was also in progress. And beginning in 1963,

William Brannum had largely convinced his following that the second coming of Jesus Christ had occurred, and that second coming was something to do with the cloud and something to do with the spiritual return that happened there in 63, and it's not like most Christians would believe in the second coming, but it was the latter reigns manifested sons of God version of the second coming that William Brannum was convincing his followers had happened. And essentially they believed Jesus Christ had already returned in some spiritual way to the church, and that they had entered into a special phase of getting ready for the rapture. And because they had heard William Brannum's

Midnight Cry, they'd heard his shout, that made them the wise virgins, and they were the elite Christians who had then been selected to hear the special end time mysteries. And they were all waiting, all of them were waiting for some vague ill-defined thing to happen that was going to take them over the final hurdle for them all to have the rapture. William Brannum talked a bit about getting the rapturing faith, and then somehow that rapturing faith was going to come from what he called the third pull, or the third phase of his ministry, but he was never really clear

about just exactly what the rapturing faith was, or just exactly how the people would get it. The only thing he was consistent about is that he was the one that was going to show them the way to this rapturing faith. And so since he died before he could tell everyone how to get the rapturing faith, or to give it to him, that just left this really huge mystery when he died unexpectedly, because everyone is expecting the doomsday to happen any day, and William Brannum is their ticket to heaven with this rapturing faith he's going to bring him. And so it's just

he dies leaving in that sort of suspense. And I don't know, John, did you all focus much on this capturing faith in the tabernacle or in the other groups you're in, do you ever hear much about that?

Absolutely, man. You know, not just in the Brannum tabernacle, I attended several different churches and you would hear that as a theme, rapturing faith, rapturing faith, and you know, you look around, you look back on this and you look at the people around you and I don't believe that every person who is sitting in the pews listened and thought of it in the same way but as a child growing up in this, you really wanted to get there.

You wanted to be able to have faith where you could move your own mountains, right? And so you would go around, I remember doing this, man, I go around and try to faith things to happen, like move an object or whatever and it's so weird, man, it's like a Stephen King book.

But that's the way, that was my mindset as a child and I was a result of this, you must have rapturing faith, you must have a level of faith that is sufficient to save yourself instead of the gospel where you're looking to Jesus to save you.

You have to have enough faith where you can make it on your own, which matches every single destructive cult theology that I've studied so far. Yeah, the message is obsessed and this obsession goes back to the, honestly, just the last few months of William Brown was like, they are obsessed with whatever this mysterious rapturing faith is.

Like that is the, I almost want to say that's the whole program is to whatever this rapturing faith is to obtain it. Like that is, that you might say is the carrot that everyone is chasing and it's really interesting how all the different groups ended up with their unique spin on how to get the rapturing faith.

And the churches I come from, we believe that this thing we needed for the rapture was hidden in the seven thunders. I don't know if that's how you guys believed it, but I do know that the, you know, Joseph Coleman, the thunders churches, they believed it that way too.

And kind of taken that back to 1965 when you look at William Brown of sermons, he was right in the middle of telling people what the seven thunders were to be. He just started to introduce that, but his death interrupted whatever plan he had to roll that thing out, right?

So he was never able to get over the hump to explain to his followers just how or what this rapturing faith was and how to get it or the thunders was and how to get it.

And he just left everyone in that kind of a state when he died. And that's part of what led to people starting to canonize his teachings after he died and put them under the microscope because his followers were all convinced that this, whatever this was was in his teaching somewhere.

And if they would study his teachings enough and look at it enough, they could find this. mysterious thing hidden in there, which was absolutely critical to them escaping the doomsday that was just about to happen.

Yeah. You know, we've talked about it several times, but this was a stage act that William Brannum was in. And this weird question is raised. Once he starts losing his mind in the later years, did he believe the stage act? Some people say yes, or was it still a stage act and he was just crazy?

I don't know. I still haven't formed an opinion on that either, but I do know that as a stage act, a magician, for example, if a magician has this great trick and everybody comes to see the trick and they get so proud of the trick that they tell everybody how they do it.

It's no longer a magic trick, right? Everybody just kind of, yeah, I know how that works and they don't keep coming. Well, William Brannum does the same thing. He says that he had this great revelation. These angels met him and they gave him this divine mystery.

And you'll hear many, many churches in the cold will say he opened the seven seals and he knows the seven sealed mystery. And what's weird is, you know, that's what the what the magicians do. He doesn't really tell you what this mystery is, but he says that he said it on tape. And so everybody goes back and they try to figure out. So they're like pouring over these series of sermons trying to, well, where is it? What did he say? I can't find anything in there. And what it ends up with is all of these groups splutter because one man says,

oh, I found it. It's this and he'll create this movement and that splinters off from the message. And it turns into this generator of cults because every single group that thinks that they found the quote unquote mystery number one, they don't know that all of this was plagiarized from other men.

And it was just commentaries on the Bible. But number two, they think he actually said something. And this was a sleight of hand technique. I said it. Can you find it? I think that is one of the biggest dividers in the message is what the rapturing faith is, how to get it, what the seven thunders are, how to get them.

You know, that is that is a huge point of contention between all of the different groups. And it all goes back to William Brannum was mid rollout of those things when he died. Yeah, cared on a stick man. Yeah. And if you can kind of imagine the message like it's this really riveting cliffhanger thriller drama, okay, and every chapter keeps you on the edge of your seat.

But then you get to the last chapter. But before William Brannum could write the last chapter, he suddenly died. And so 1965, the message is like an unfinished cliffhanger story. And that is where William Brannum had his cult in the last couple months of his life. He had them right on the edge of their seats expecting this big huge climatic room.

Vee old to happen at just any minute. And then he died, right? And I can, I can remember all the different old-timers, John, and a lot of them would testify how that every church service that they would go listen to William Brownham.

They were thinking, could this be it? Is the rapture going to happen before this service out? Is this the one where we're going to get the rapturing faith? Is this the service we're going to hear the thunders, you know, and William Brownham fed that hype and he really sensationalized everything to the point that he really did have his people sitting there really hanging on his every word like it was a matter of life and death.

And to them, they really believed it was. Yeah. And this is the part that for me, it's just so sad, Charles, because I've seen the arguments people post them in the comment feeds about how William Brownham's doomsday failed.

And so then in the comment feeds, they say, well, it's no different than Christianity. Jesus promised all of these things. And now 2,000 years later, these things haven't happened. But there's a significant difference, Charles.

When Jesus is talking about how the world is going to transition, how you're going to be taken to heaven, he is talking symbolically. And there's a big difference between the symbolism that's used in the Bible and William Brownham, who is pointing to specific current events and specific dates.

And when one date fails, he moves the date to the next date. And that date fails and he moves it to the next date. He, William Brownham, is pointing to a specific current timeline that has to be within even the next five years.

And when that five years fails, he moves it to the next five years and the next five years. Well, by the time he reaches 1965, it's down to the minute, man. These people are so uptight about the world ending, because now they're seeing all of these things happen around them with the Catholic church and communism and wars and earthquakes.

And I mean, during the same time in 1965, you had India went to war with Pakistan. And communist China starts building up their troops on the border to India. And so they're seeing communism just rise up.

And they think the whole world is going to be engulfed in a battle between communism. So all of this is happening around. And it's so sad for me, because for me, it is like being a kid.

And your dad is saying, we're going to go on a trip. As soon as I get back from work, we're going to go on a trip and we're going to go on vacation, we'll go to the beach or whatever, pack your bags.

And everybody packs their bags in the family. And they sit there on the couch waiting for them. And on the way home, he gets in a car wreck and dies. And as a kid, you're sitting there.

Well, number one, your parents, dad, number two, your pack for vacation. And he promised that we would go on vacation. Oh, you know you're not going to go there. And that's the state that William Brenham left the people in the message.

They were down to the minute of, this is the Doomsday that's going to happen. We know the year it's going to happen. We know all of the key political events that are all happening.

I mean, these are current events. They're not future events. These are current events that are playing out right now in the world. And we see these events and we're going to be raptured into heaven.

That's the state that the message mindset was in when he died. And as a result of this, when it failed, there are some very devious evil minds. I know them specifically who tried to transition this after he died by focusing each one of those onto something similar in a future event.

So those key events that were playing out right there in the minds of the people as they're seeing this Doomsday unfold, well, they kind of lost them over time. And then years later, the message cult started bringing them back.

And they said, well, this is very similar because Russia's doing this. So this is very similar because China's doing this or whatever it is. And they try to refocus it. And in doing so, number one, they make them different prophecies for different age, for different timeline.

Number two, William Brenham's dead. So he can't even be involved in any of this. So you spin off the, he's going to rise from the dead to take it back. And you end up with this weird mess that is not even a resemblance of Christianity.

It is just a bunch of some insane men, but some very evil men who have found a way to make a lot of money off of this. It's odd. And the message in some ways is stuck.

Stuck in this. Did you, when you were in the message, John? So I, I left in, you know, the 2020s. Did you know that Russia was not communist anymore? You're going to laugh at me when I say this, but I did not know that until, it was probably only five years ago because I was so manipulated in that mindset and brainwash to believe Russia's communist.

I think the average message believer does not know Russia's not a communist country anymore, right? Like William Brown says communist, you know, facts be damned as communist, you know, it's, that is, but that's the message is, it's crazy how these things just, they can't let go, you know, they're stuck.

They're stuck back in those days. I recently heard a minister say in rebuttal to something that I can't remember who it was that was sharing this information, but when they learned that Russia wasn't communism and half of his church is going, oh my gosh, wait a minute, this can't be.

He actually proclaimed that secretly, they are secret communists. The country is not, but the mindset of the people, brothers and sisters, they are a communist mindset.

Oh boy, John. You know, like you mentioned, this is very different what William Branham did from Jesus. You know, Jesus, when the apostles or whatever would come to ask him about this stuff, he was always very consistent with them. He's like, it's not for you to know the time, you know, that the end is going to happen. And he's always, anytime he talked about this, if he always told them, do not become obsessed with the doomsday, right? Don't be obsessed with it.

What you need to do instead is go be preaching the gospel and loving each other and being decent people. And if he finds you doing that when the doomsday comes, you're just going to be fine, right? I mean, that's, but William Branham transformed all of this stuff, you know, with convincing him the Jesus had already started to come back in 63. And now he's got the shout and they need his shout in order to make it into this group. And luster in this group with his shout his midnight cry, you're all going to stay behind and burn up, right? And so he's totally, he's totally twisted

the way that Jesus presented the end. Jesus said, you're not going to know when it happens, right? No man knows the day or the hour. Just be faithful. And whenever it happens, you're going to be fine, right? William Branham twists it into it's coming and your only hope out, your only way out is what I can teach you, right? It's something else. And you know, another thing that had really came into focus in the final years of his life is that William Branham started also to come out very plainly claiming to be that Elijah of Malachi 4 and claiming to be the seventh church aged messenger in that

last phase. He had been hinting at that and insinuating that since at least 1960 and through the 50s, but it's really only in the last couple years and really last few months of his life that he started to get really plain about it, right? In December 1964, about a year before he died, he preached a sermon, who do you say this is? Who do you say this is? And in that sermon for the first time, William Branham publicly and unmistakably for the first time really claims to be the Elijah of Malachi 4. That's the first time he does it in that real public way. And I know for sure people had

been promoting the idea that he was Elijah privately since 1952. William Branham had been planting those seeds all along from his earliest sermons, but it was only the last couple years of his life that that opened claim towards the Elijah stuff really came front and center for him. And he honed in especially into Elijah's fight with Jezebel and he basically labeled all of his enemies Jezebel's, right? It's amazing how many Jezebel's there was. And he was the Elijah sent by God to fight against the Jezebel's. JFK was Ahab and Jacqueline was Jezebel.

one sermon. And then the next sermon, the Catholic Church is the Jezebel and the next sermon, the Protestant denominations are the Jezebel. Basically, he turned all of his enemies into Jezebel's and Ahab's and he basically used that to justify whatever terrible thing he wanted to say about the people he didn't like. I'm Elijah, they're Jezebel, they're dog meat and I'm here to tell you that they're going to be dog meat, you know, it's kind of like that. And some of them were men Charles, wouldn't that be Jezebel? It's, you know, when I look back on the civil rights

movement and all of the white supremacy opposition to it, it's just very shocking to see how much of it was aligned with the white supremacy of the era. I mean, even the Elijah theme, you and I recently researched this, but even the Elijah theme was something that came out of white supremacy.

What's really bizarre and there's certain things you can only just speculate a little bit. So right after William Brannum died, Wesley Swift, okay, we're talking with the leader of the Christian identity movement, Wesley Swift, just shortly after he dies, proclaims that Elijah has come in the past couple years and he starts using that Elijah theme and within the Christian identity movement. The whole thing, you know, they're they're all going to stop the race war, they're going to have to survive the, you know, the Catholic purge, they're the whole thing, right? I mean, there's so much similarity, so much overlap. And if you listen, so I don't

encourage anyone to listen to Wesley Swift's sermons, okay? If you really want to fact check me, go check, listen to Wesley Swift's sermons, otherwise do not listen to that man's sermons, that is, I mean, evil hate speech, okay? But William Brannum and him are preaching the same themes.

William Brannum just tends to, he generally omits the word black and Jew, whereas Wesley Swift will say the word black and Jew, but otherwise it's the same thing that the, the civil rights is the communists, the Jews secretly control the communists who then control the civil rights, they're all going to make a deal with the Pope. End of days is here, it's going to be a race war, like he is same theme, same everything in that way. Yeah, and then in 1966, he combines that with the Elijah theme. And I, again, we know Wesley Swift was directly connected to Roy Davis. There's,

there's lots to think about about how William Brannum's death also affected the Christian identity movement when he died as well. Oh yeah. Because to us, you know, it's hidden, like we don't, we in the message believe he had no connection to that at all but he did and his death did have an impact there and you can see that in their sermons it's clear that they were influencing encounter influencing each other in some way.

Yeah and I don't think you can tie the Elijah directly to Wesley Swift or William Brannum to be honest. It was a from what I can tell it was a common theme among white supremacists when Kennedy was rising into power they were metaphorically labeling him as Ahab and they were labeling Jacqueline Kennedy as Jezebel and because of Jezebel's association to Elijah all of the white supremacists were symbolizing the white supremacy, the rise of white supremacy as the spirit of Elijah and that appeared to be at least from my limited research because I wasn't a life back then that appears to be the theme that was used and employed.

It's ironic to me that after the death of Kennedy that William Brannum who is connected directly to Roy E. Davis, Roy E. Davis is in the meetings and these revivals with Brannum, the imperial wizard is with William Brannum in these meetings.

It's ironic that the people attending William Brannum's ministry gave him this title whenever this was a back during this era, a lot of people don't know this Charles, during this era the spirit of Elijah was the white supremacy and William Brannum gets the title.

Now why? That's the question I have, why did he get the title? Yeah, it's really something else and what's really amazing, if you will take the time to study this out, there's a book called Religion and the Racist Right, I've held it up here before.

That book ties all this together in a way that more deeply than we're going to have opportunity to go into it right here but this Elijah claim all comes out of British or Israelism, the white supremacists, the Wesley Swift, the Christian identity theology, and William Brannum all have their roots back to the same circle of British Israelite preachers in the United States from the 20s and the 2010s and so forth so they're all out of a common route right and yes they were racists and yes they were Nazis and yes they all believed in that Elijah prophecy and yes they did all apply that prophecy in the 60s to what was going

on in that current day to fight against the Kennedy and the rising civil rights movement, it's something else, something else. Another thing that became really sharp in the last few months of William Brannum's life was just how viciously he attacked the other Christian denominations too. There had been this kind of slow, simmering disagreement with the Pentecostals going back to the 50s. You know, he obviously had been sanctioned and they more or less had closed their doors to him. But as you come into the 1960s, I think that's the point of time he seems to really give up any hope of ever trying to

mend fences or anything. And especially that last bit of his life, all of that anger and hatred towards the Pentecostals came out and he became very aggressive towards them in his sermons. William Brown, I'm starting to preach that. Basically, they're all going to go to hell. He preached that being a member in a denomination was either the mark of the beast itself or worshipping the image of the beast. So if you were in a denomination, you were definitely worshipping the image of the beast and you were going to go to hell.

And as you come up to 1965, he really ratcheted that rhetoric up to a really extreme level. And the World Council of Churches was his kind of a target he hit a lot, which again, if you go listen to Wesley Swiftstrom, it's the same thing. Wesley Swift saying the World Council of Churches is behind all the, it's the same stuff, right? And as many of William Brown's followers in the message, many of them have developed a visceral hatred for denominations. It's not, it's, it's a almost a visible reaction. You can see on some people's faces when you talk about denominations and especially when it comes to Catholics.

Message people can be almost militant, some of them, when it comes to Catholics and introducing that really deep hatred and fear of any other Christian group outside of the message had a really big impact on William Brown's followers. It was one of the most important walls that William Brannum erected to keep his people in. Because at that same time, he's convincing him he's the only one who can show them the way to this rapturing faith. He's also convincing them that all the other Christian groups are their worst enemies and are the agents of Satan.

And so of course, you know, that's not a new thing either. I just want to point out believing all the denominations are the image of the beast or the mark of the beast. That is actually a belief that's held by seven day Adventists in Jehovah Witnesses. And I truly believe that is where William Brannum copied it from. If you take time to compare Charles Tase Russell's teachings in Jehovah Witness literature, you'll find William Brannum was actually recycling their themes when he spoke about what the image of the beast was and Protestant denominations being part of that. And so what William Brannum did with that though is he created both a carrot

and a stick for manipulating the minds of his followers to stay under his control and then to cut them off from any outside influence. And what's kind of remarkable is he really was using Charles Tase Russell's Jehovah Witness framework to do that. He did it in the same way with the same verses and the same terminology.

And so as you come to 1965, William Brannum had just, I don't want to say finally, but he had really taken to this new height, a new level, this level of control over his followers at a higher level than he had had at any other time.

And he had control over them in such a way that they were really locked in from really having anywhere else to go. He was their only way to escape the coming judgment. And those people really believed it.

Yeah, exactly. And you know, I pointed out earlier that the people who are in the cult today and a lot of the historians who look at William Brannum, they filter him through the final version of a stage persona.

They think that, okay, this is the way he ended up. So this is the way that he was. This was his ministry and this was his position. Because when a person writing a biography or history on William Brannum, go to the source.

They go to the leaders in the cult. These leaders will deceptively tell you that he came with a consistent quote unquote message that he was always supportive and against these certain things and that carried through his ministry to the final version.

And then they'll give him, give whoever's researching a writing, they'll give them these specific quotes from these specific sermons, use these as your subject matter. And I won't tell you that it's polar opposite from the earlier version when he allegedly received the commission by God.

And you mentioned the position against the denominations. Well even in his earliest newsletters, it was called an inter-denominational ministry. That phrase was used often and he would use sentences like, if the other denominations draw you out of their circle, draw a bigger circle and draw them back in.

It was inter-denominational. But after he loses his mind and the walls start closing in on him and all of the denominations that used to participate in the revival saw this thing as a threat and they started cutting him off one by one.

Well now he's preaching against those. And to the cult of personality, like you said, where do you go? They see the end of days is coming. They see all of the things that William Brannum is pointing to in that specific timeline.

These are key events that we see are about to happen before the Doomsday. These events that are happening right now at this very time. And then he dies. Well where do you go? You can't go to a denomination.

You can't go to a normal church because he's now preached against every single church. We had this group of people that in any normal scenario, if it was not a cult of personality, they would have just went to another church when he died.

But that's not the case. They have to stay in this cult of personality because... every single other denomination out there has taken the mark of the beast if you listen to his the later version of his stage persona it's really amazing how how he pulled all that off and convinced everyone of that and how it just got that amazing hold on them right there in the last less parts of his life yeah you know by 1965 William Brennan's cult following had totally bought into all of that and he had totally locked down a group of dedicated loyal followers who would

accept just anything he told them I mean this listen to the marriage in divorce permanency if they'll accept anything he told them and obey any instructions he gave them and they fully bought into everything he was saying you know they believed he was a special end time messenger who was going to lead them to the rapture that is what they believed and they were all on the edge of their seats expecting this climatic end would come at any minute and no one had the slightest idea John that 60 years from then you know two guys would be sitting on a podcast talking about them

not being in the rapture right if you walked into one of William Brennan's meetings back then said hey you guys you're all wrong 60 years from now we're still going to be here talking about you guys being wrong they would have tired and feathered you and throwed you out of the church right like that that was not they would have been outraged like viciously outraged they would have nashed on you with your teeth you know to use biblical context like they would have came after you if you said back to them 60 years from now you're still going to be here or you'll be

dead and there'll be no rapture right because they're in that doomsday crazy world that they they can't see reality right but here 60 years later we're still here and they could have never fathom that and you know the same thing is here today right if you tell these people that they all think it's coming you know six months from now or less and you tell them you're crazy that's not going to happen that you know they're the it's the exact same mentality and so they have been wrong about this doomsday stuff for 60 years straight right and they're still wrong today but

they're basing it all on these doomsday beliefs that William Brennan indoctrinated them with and you know at a certain point you think you wake up and realize wait a minute okay the 60 year track record is this is wrong isn't that the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result but that's that's where they are that's where they are yeah I see it as the result of manipulation because again I can't hit this point hard enough these were key current events that William Brennan was predicting doomsday for they were

events that were taking place in the timeline of the people in 1965 all of these events were playing out this is it this is the big like Fred Sanford this is the big one that's what he's doing right here with what's the message called and then what happens is after he dies these message leaders will manipulate the people by saying this current event that we're having today in 2023, this is exactly what he predicted.

But yet there's variances because it's not the same event, it's a similar event, I'll give him that, but it's not the same event. And so there are details that don't fit. And so there you get this rift between all the different sects of the message because this sect leader basically says this event is exactly what William Brennan said.

The other one said, no, because this detail doesn't fit. And neither one of them, you know, these men study this, they know this stuff. Neither one of them is telling you that it did fit exactly back in the 60s.

It was an event back then. And I just see the whole thing is pure deception. That's all it is. Right, John. I mean, of course, William Brennan thought it was going to happen then.

I mean, that's why he said 1977, right? I mean, William Brennan, and he told his people that they, that it was going to happen in their lifetime, right?

Let me, let me look at that. Let me look at an example of that, you know, because here's a, here's a quote from a sermon that William Brennan told his followers. This is in the sermon, his unfailing word.

William Brennan says here, the generation that sees the fig tree, the fig tree is always isrial. And when isrial goes back to her homeland and becomes a nation, that generation will not pass away until all these things are fulfilled.

And Christian trends tonight, in this great scruple in the scriptures that people think is scrupled, we are now living to see the very everything that he has said. Here is fulfilled. Just the next thing for is for his coming.

Israel is in her homeland. She is her own nation. She got her own money, own flag, a member of the UN. She is a nation. The first time for about 2,500 years since she has been a nation.

And Jesus promised that the generation and in the Bible, a generation is a lot into 40 years. So, you know, you can see there, William Brennan is plainly telling them the generation that's living right there listening to him is going to be the generation of people that lives to see the end.

And he, you know, he used that fig tree illustration. But John, I mean, he was wrong. I mean, he was just dead wrong. They all absolutely believed. And there's no way to read quotes like that from William Brennan without saying, yeah, he is telling his people that are sitting there that their generation is going to live to see the end.

And I know that was a huge belief in my part of the message. Huge belief. And everyone still believes that to this day pretty well in my message, my part of the message, everyone to this day believes that that generation, that it has, the ant has happened for that generation is all dead.

Oh yeah, it's, even in the main set, it's not so much anymore because I think the new, the new, Leadership is not telling the people that that was the case, but I grew up with my parents telling me it's for it's for my generation they would say and you know, I grew up believing and I'm told them exactly that's and not just William Brannum every single minister who is in this thing we're telling the churches that this is for our generation because William Brannum said it's for our generation not just on recorded sermon, but also in private

he was saying this to these people. So you've got this wide swath of the older people who are saying that it's before I die. Most of them are dying out Charles and the new people of the cult are not being told that that was for those people back then and all of those events that we're talking about the Doomsday scenario events were for the 60s.

Right. William Brannum gave many people private prophecies that they would live to see the rapture. Most all of them have died and some of them you know went to their grave believing it and then of course you got the you know the most famous one of all is probably you know the Billy Paul you'll not live to be an old man right. Supposed to prophecy. Right because William Brannum it was supposed to be happening in that generation right and you know at a certain point there's just not going to be any of them left. I mean there's almost there's very few of them

left already as it is right because quotes like that last one I read John he made those quotes a whole lot and he was very clear that the people who were alive during the days of his ministry and specifically you know the the what Jesus said there he he co-opted that which I don't believe that's what Jesus said but in essence he said that the return of Jesus Christ had to happen in the same generation as the founding of the nation of Israel which happened in you know 1948 so basically the same year he supposedly got his call to be you know a prophet right so he had that all lined up

so basically the people who were alive at the year that Israel became a nation he got his call to be a prophet they all were going to live to see the rapture and that at this point is 75 years ago John 75 years ago and that viewpoint was almost entirely universally held by the early people in the message and even like where I come from it is still a universally held belief and I think there are a number of sex of the message where it is still a universally held belief that that generation cannot die before the end comes and it's all largely predicated there on William Branagh's

fig tree interpretation now William Branagh copied that from other people just like he copied everything else to you know I tell you where he got that from but the difference is that William Branagh him he included that when he preached the seals yeah he he had that prediction when he preached the seals so he turned it into something that was divine inspiration that when these angels came to him and the Holy Spirit, this was part of the divine inspiration with the seals. So, you have embedded in the seals, a thus saith the Lord, Doomsday prediction that he supposedly got from the Holy Spirit,

Spirit John. And that, to me, is the scariest of all of his predictions, because unlike the 1977 prediction, that Doomsday thus saith the Lord belief that's embedded in the seals is a matter of life and death for quite a number of message groups today. And you can only stretch that so far, and the truth is, they're already at the point there's no stretch left in that prophecy. I mean, they're right, right there. I mean, right there, it cannot really be stretched any further.

What they're doing now, I'm told, is that they're taking things that William Brenham intended to be literal, and they're twisting them into, these are spiritual things. Billy Paul is not, there's no person today, even in the cult, who does not recognize that his son, Billy Paul, is an old man. And yet, at the same time, they're all aware that William Brenham said that before he is an old man, that Los Angeles is going to sink beneath the ocean. So what they're doing is they're twisting it and they're saying, well, when he goes to the other side and he receives his

new body, that's whenever he's going to be a young man, and then California is going to sink. So they're, they're even having to rewrite the biblical chronology of what is supposed to take place in the end of days. And the rewriting Bible passages literally to support failed prophecy and failed predictions that had a distinct definite timeline in the message. What I find

scariest here is this is just the combination of these two things. So he has, he has given them

these doomsday predictions, which they, they still believe and they keep stretching and stretching right? So you have that on one hand. Then on the other hand, you've got, he left them with this vague rapturing faith they need for the doomsday, right? And what at a certain point, you know, they can turn that rapturing faith, they can turn the thunders into whatever they want, right? Because most of the people, it's vague. It's a vague thing. No one, no one I think hardly quantitatively will say, we know what this rapturing faith is. We just know we need it. And you know, you can, if you can

convince them the end is next week. And then you can convince them, I'm telling you right now, this is the rapturing faith. There are sex of the message that are so radical, they will do literally anything you tell them this, you need to get this rapturing faith. We need to make the doomsday next week. And William Brannum set up this dreadful cocktail of scaringness where a cult leader can literally do anything when he has convinced them that the Doomsday is next week and here's what you need rapturing faith in order to make it. Yeah and you know I said that it's somewhat emotional. It's

really sad for me this this specifically this is probably the biggest most difficult thing for me. I know ministers and I've mentioned it before in this episode even I know ministers that are purposefully knowingly deceiving the people. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt. I know these men. I know what they do. I know their histories. I know all of this stuff and these these men are not religious men. Some of them but on the flip side there are some ministers in the cult who are truly deceived who have no idea that they're in a cult. They have no idea that they've been

brainwashed and they themselves have been manipulated to manipulate other people. These men think they're doing good and they think that they're bringing up children in the way in which they should be raised but as a child when you're being told that your salvation is dependent on how powerful your own faith is. All of the weight of salvation is on your own shoulders as a child and you're thinking well I can't I don't have enough faith that the Bible says faith to move mountains.

I can't move a mountain and all of these children are being raised like this. All of the men who are parroting the rapturing faith doctrines are also parroting Brannum himself. You go listen to a sermon and they're not saying the Bible says this the Bible says that they're saying and William Brannum told us that the Bible says this and William Brannum told us that the Bible says that.

That's how they preach. These men are saying the things that Brannum says in every one of those where they're talking about the end of day scenario. Brannum himself is not only in it but Brannum is the person who is supposed to bring them the rapturing faith and he's dead. So as a child you're thinking well number one I don't have enough faith. Number two the guy that I'm supposed to get it from is dead. Oh my gosh I'm going to die. How do I get out of this matter get out of this situation? How did I get born into the situation and as a child you're mortified you grow up just

totally mortified that you're going to die at any minute because they're still preaching doomsday at any minute. So I'm going to die at any minute. I can't be saved. How can I be saved? I don't have enough faith to do this that's the mentality of a child in this cult. You know what you mentioned there at the start of that you know they're you're right you know there are people in their preachers who genuinely believe the stuff in there and they genuinely believe they're doing the right thing and trying to help people and that that's what I was. I mean

Now, I was a genuine believer in this thing when I was in there, and you know, you really believe when you're preaching this stuff, you really believe that this is the only way to escape the destruction of the world, and you really believe your help in these people escape the imminent doomsday by getting them to the perfection or the rapturing faith or the stature of a perfect man that William Brownham said we needed to get to, you know?

And when you're doing that, I mean, it's, you really think you're doing the right thing, but really you've just been tricked, right? And it's so hard to wake up from that, and a lot of these people have done so much stuff in the name of this false idea that it's really hard for them to come to grips with that.

I think that's part of it for some of them. And then others, they're just, they refuse to even look at the evidence, right? They will not actually listen to any of these video, watch this evidence because in their mind, they, that's unbelief that they're going to let into their head.

And they're actually right. I mean, if they actually let these ideas into their head, they'll roll around in there and torment them because they know the men at that point, they know something's wrong. So they just, they refuse to let those ideas in their head.

And William Brownham actually trained the people in the message that way, greatest battle ever fought sermons like that. You do not listen. You lock out and you just do not even let these thoughts ever never allow yourself to come into contact with something that's going to allow you to question the message, right? Because that'll roll around in your head and unbelief is a sin and then you're going to fight unbelief. So everything was built by William Brownham to trap these people into this mindset. And it don't even matter that they have a 60 year track record of being wrong,

to them, it's still the truth, right? Like the 60 year track record of being wrong means nothing to them, right? And somehow they can reconcile that and still go on, right? And somehow it can still be right to them even though it's been wrong 60 years in a row. Yeah. I was talking recently to a person who wasn't in, wasn't in the message direct message call, but was in something that was produced because of the message and he was asking about, how can they do this? How can I take a prophecy that's given and when it clearly fails, they say that it didn't fail. It went,

it happened supernaturally or spiritually. How do they rewrite this? And that's what these people are doing. They have literally been brainwashed and manipulated to believe that if somebody lies to you and says that they have the supernatural experience and X, Y and Z is going to happen, and then it doesn't happen. They're either trained to rewrite history to make it fit the prophecy or point it to something else that it was never intended to be pointed to in the first place, or see this happened in the supernatural, it didn't happen in the physical...

So, with that mindset, Charles, you can literally lie about anything. You can tell any lie that you want to, and you can make it fit that scenario. Something else, moving the goalposts, I think, is what they call some of that.

It's moved the goalpost, predicted it didn't happen. Okay, well, you either misunderstood me, or spiritual, or this or that. We did the same thing when our doomsday failed, and our parts of the message too.

So, maybe one last area I'd like to just touch on before we wrap this episode up, John, is kind of what William Brown's relationship was with the rest of the Pentecostal world. In 1965, just what exactly was it like at that point?

And by that point, he had lost most of his support from all the mainstream Pentecostals he'd had. He'd even had his folly out with four square in the UPC by then. And the only external support that William Brown had was from Joseph Metz and Bozet and the independent assemblies of God, and then more importantly from the full gospel businessman.

Outside of that, he had largely been shut out of everywhere else by 1965. And his relationship with the independent assemblies and the full gospel businessman was also in decline. But I don't want to make that small, because his relationship with the full gospel businessman could have propelled him into massive fame, just like it did with T.L. Osborne, just like it did with Kenneth Hagen.

So, that wasn't a nothing thing that he had. It was still a very powerful vehicle he could use to maintain national fame, if he was able to harness it the right way. But he was in decline in those years, even with them.

I don't think he ever fully recovered from the trouble in 1961, where the deed he called was exposed and then the homosexual accusations were made by the ministerial association. And that ministerial association who made the homosexual rumors, you know, he never said who it was, but my personal guess, it was almost certainly the independent assemblies of God who made that.

Because that was the only two ministerial associations he was working with was the independent assemblies and Joseph Metz and Bozet's group, and then the full gospel businessman. And those were the only ones he was working with them.

So, it had to be one of those two that made the homosexual accusations against him. And just based on the way it all fell, I would say the more likely one that made the homosexual applications was the independent assemblies of God.

Anyways, he never fully recovered from that and then the exposure of the deed he called him. He was repairing it, he was mending it, he was trying to fix it. But I don't think by 65 he had even quite been able to recover from that.

Oral Roberts in a lot of ways, he eclipsed him in those years, becoming the biggest name with the full gospel businessman. Oral Roberts was speaking, or Roberts was getting some of the more prominent speaking positions.

that point as you come after that with those groups. And William Brannum, though he was still the biggest name preacher with the independent assemblies at that point, but everything was in decline, I feel. Both of those groups, he was still preaching their big conventions, they were still financing him. And he was even still scheduled to hold revivals with them going into 1966, right? Like you can find newspaper advertisements of his 1996 speaking engagements for the full gospel businessman. But then when he died, it's it is literally TL Osborne and Kenneth Hagen who stepped in and took over William Brannum's slots in the full gospel businessman conventions

when William Brannum died. And so I think out there at TL Osborne and Kenneth Hagen were the biggest winners when William Brannum died. They stepped in and they are the men who really filled the position that he held in the charismatic movement at that point.

And this is where it gets somewhat weird because when you read a biography about William Brannum or some history about his ministry, like I said, they look at the last version of the stage persona and filter everything through it. There is a variance here because every single one of them will talk about how big his ministry was and how powerful his affiliation with all of these different groups was during the 50s and 60s. But then when you're growing up in the isolationist sects of the cult, they talk about it. They use William Brannum's sermon one and a million to talk

about how it's always been this little tiny group that's all it ever was. This is a little tiny group. And this little tiny group was able to influence it. They don't tell you that there was the there were these deep connections. What's really weird for me? And again, you'll never know strategy of the things going on in the background. But whenever I align the white supremacy with a message, it fits like a zipper. You see all of these different strategic movements within white supremacy. And you see William Brannum parading them in his ministry. It fits like a zipper,

the timeline. Towards the end of it, Roy Davis, who has been, we talked about when he was ordained William Brannum and the people that he was working with then when he goes to prison and Brannum separates, when he comes back and Brannum joins again in that mindset. What towards the end of his life around approximately after the Kennedy assassination, Davis starts backing away from the scene. And as he goes into seclusion, you also see the message connections to other denominations suddenly start disappearing. And I can't say that there's a direct correlation between those two things, but I can say that there is a...

significance in that the timeline appears to fit. Davis pulls back, everybody else pulls back from William Brannum, was this a direct result? I don't know, but it's really, really weird when you stop and think about it.

So John, as we bring in at this episode too, and our aim was to paint a picture of what the message in the culture around William Brannum looked like on the eve of his death.

And I think we've done a pretty good job. There's some scattered groups following his teachings. They generally believe he was Elijah the prophet, who was their only hope of finding the rapturing faith to escape the Doomsday, which was being executed by the Catholic Church in a conspiracy with the Jews in the communists and the civil rights movement to overthrow the United States.

And they were right all living on the edge of their seats in total anticipation, hanging on his every word, expecting at any moment he was going to unveil to them the final mystery and show them the rapturing faith that would take them out of this world.

And so that is the state they were in in December 1965 when news came that William Brannum had been killed in a car accident. And so you can imagine the shock that was to his followers.

And in our next episode, we're gonna start diving into the events surrounding William Brannum's death. It's sad to think about it, Charles, but in a way, it kind of reminds me, I don't know if you know these books by Sue Grafton, A is for alibi, E is for evidence, B is for burglar, she's got all of the, and she goes through the alphabet.

What she died before she can make it to Z and you're left hanging, well, what Z is gonna be, right? That's what happened in the message. You're building up to this event, this climactic event.

Every single prophecy is pointing to a current event that's happening right here, right now, and then he died. And that's next episode for us, Charles. So if you've enjoyed our show and you want more information, you can check us out on the web.

You can find us at www.William-brannum.org and www.ChristianGospelChurch.org. For an overview of the historical research of William Brannum and the healing revivals, read preacher behind the white hoods, a critical examination of William Brannum in his message, available on Amazon, Kindle, and Audible.

Join us again next week. We've got a great episode coming.