Serpent's Seed

The Serpent's Seed Doctrine was William Branham's rebranding of the Christian Identity Doctrine[1] of Wesley A. Swift, which was popular among white supremacy groups in the 1950s and 1960s.  Serpent's Seed (Christian Identity) is the extra-biblical notion that the Original Sin in the Garden of Eden was a sexual union between Eve and the Serpent.  According to Swift's theology, Lucifer (Satan) impregnated the Biblical Eve to produce Cain, from which people with black skin descended. This would mean, according to Branham's (and Swift's) doctrine, that people with black skin are the descendants of Satan.

The significance of this is:....that when Lucifer seduced Eve and then Cain was born, then Yahweh said to Adam and Eve....now women shall bring forth in their conception in pain and sorrow[2]
- Wesley Swift

Swift was a graduate of Philip Monson's Kingdom Bible College. Philip Monson was the District Superintendent and California State Secretary of the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America managing the Pacific Coast, with authority over California, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Monson combined white supremacy with the British Israel doctrine, which had a profound influence on Swift. Monson first introduced the two-seed doctrine as early as 1928, and republished it in literature multiple times in the 1930s.

The satanic theory was more closely approximated in a tract by Philip E. J. Monson. Monson, it will be remembered, was Howard Rand's top man in the West, in charge of the Anglo-Saxon Federation's Pacific Coast operations. He also was closely associated with the Kingdom Bible College in Los Angeles, from which Wesley Swift graduated. Monson's thesis appeared first in 1928, was republished in 1936, and issued in a third, expanded version, undated but almost certainly from the late 1930s. Monson had some but not all of the theory's elements. He argued the two-seedline position, one ('the Satan line') stemming from Cain, and the other ('the God line') from Abel. The two had to be kept separate and 'the blood stream pure.'[3]
- Barkun, Michael. Religion and the Racist Right

This notion of two bloodlines was built on top of the foundation laid by Russell Kelso Carter in his 1894 publication The Tree of Knowledge. Carter speculated that Cain might be the "actual son of Satan", and that Eve's seduction by Satan was likely the cause of a "tremendous pull of the sexual appetite, aroused by the excited state of the woman."[4] Carter was a prominent Holiness writer and staunch supporter of C. A. L. Totten's British Israel propaganda.

Christian Identity was highly controversial, and many of Branham's peers rejected the white supremacy doctrine.  Some of Branham's mentors and strongest allies, however, strongly supported it.  Roy E. Davis, for example, supported Christian Identity.  Davis was the former second-in-command for the 1915 Ku Klux Klan who ordained Branham as a Pentecostal minister. William Branham himself admitted that the doctrine was taught among elders in Davis's church.[5] When other evangelists in the revivals learned that Branham was teaching Christian Identity, many Voice of Healing evangelists rose up against him, and he was not permitted to speak at Voice of Healing conventions.[6][7] This ultimately led to several ministers pronouncing death on Branham, including Jim Jones of Peoples Temple.[8]

When William Branham publicly sided with white supremacy by releasing his Serpent's Seed sermon in 1958, he did so somewhat covertly.  Branham avoided using the words "black" or "Jew" in the sermon and did not claim to believe that Jews or blacks were subservient as was taught by Wesley Swift.  Branham had already been teaching, however, that the Jews were in a different category than the Church; they were to be servants.

Now, remember, the Church is not His servants. We are His sons, not His servants. The Jew is always His servant. The Church has never been His servants, It's been His children. See? The servants[9]
- William Branham

This "master race" theology, which Branham copied from Wesley Swift, was the notion that the Serpent's bloodline was cursed.  Ministers in the Christian Identity movement refer to it as "The Curse of Ham".  According to the theology, the Serpent's "seed" could be traced through the lineage of Noah's son Ham, which was believed to be the father of the black-skinned people of Africa. 

Though the words "black" and Jew" were removed from Branham's "Serpent Seed" sermon, Branham did include Swift's doctrine on the Curse of Ham. Those who were familiar with the white supremacy doctrine were aware that Branham was aligned with Wesley Swift; Branham was simply repeating the doctrine commonly used by the religious white supremacists of the era.

Swift:
Now; as far as the sons of Ham---we find them moving along with the sons of Seth and Shem and some of them went down to Africa like Kush then his seed became somewhat absorbed down there. But at the time of Nimrod he was a Hamite but the mongrelization was starting to come because the Baal Priests begin calling him a god and bringing in people from all parts of the world. But at that time Nimrod and his sons were white, but now he started taking into his harem these Asiatic women, and here in this kingdom was Terah the Prime Minister for Nimrod.[10]

Branham:
Now, Noah and his sons, which come out, Ham, Shem, and Japheth, come out in the righteous line. How did the [serpent's] seed ever get over? The [serpent's] seed come over in the ark, just like it did in the beginning, through the woman, their wives. They carried the seed of Satan, through the ark, just as Eve packed the seed of Satan, to give birth to Cain, through the woman. ... Notice this now. And out of there, then, come Ham, Ham with his wife, and them. He had a curse put on him.[11]

For instance, all down through the Scripture, we think of Babylon. When Babylon first appeared, look at it down through the Bible. Babylon appeared back there. You know, Nimrod built Babylon. First Babylon was called the 'Gates of Heaven.' Then it was called 'confusion.' And there's where idolatry first started. Nimrod was a son of Ham, which come on back from a son of Cain. Watch them seeds as they come up.[12]

Branham:
Now, just look at that spirit, how it rose up back there in Cain, how it come on down through Ham, on out through Nimrod, into Babylon; out of Babylon, come on down into the days of the coming of Jesus. Teachers, Bible students, and they failed to recognize the Lord Jesus Christ.[28]

While Branham's whitewashed version of Christian Identity was used as a means to align the masses to the foundational doctrines of Swift, leaders of Branham's cult of personality such as Lee Vayle and Raymond "Junior" Jackson, spread Branham's openly racist version throughout the "Message" sect.  According to Vayle, Branham taught that the Serpent from the Garden of Eden was "ten feet tall and was as black as the ace of spades".[13] Both Vayle and Jackson shared that Branham taught that the Serpent produced people with black skin.[14]  Jackson explained this more fully in his Curse of Ham sermon and doctrine.

Though Branham claimed to have "revealed" it in 1958, the earliest William Branham taught this doctrine identified on recording was in 1953.

Nimrod was a son of Ham, which come on back from a son of Cain. Watch them seeds as they come up.[15]
- William Branham, 1953

There is no question as to whether or not the doctrine was destructive.  It has for decades been used by domestic terrorist groups in the United States and abroad.  According to the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, the Christian Identity Doctrine is a "violent extremist"[16] view held by terroristic white supremacy groups.  There is also no question as to whether or not Branham was aligned with Swift; the very premise of the doctrine was to declare that a bloodline descended from Satan (the Serpent), which both men openly taught[17][18]

Christian Identity emerged from a non-extremist forerunner known as British Israelism. By examining ideological shifts over the course of nearly a century, the paper seeks to identify key pivot points in the movement’s shift toward extremism and explain the process through which extremist ideologues construct and define in-group and out-group identities. Based on these findings, the paper proposes a new framework for analysing and understanding the behaviour and emergence of extremist groups. The proposed framework can be leveraged to design strategic counterterrorism communications programmes using a linkage-based approach that deconstructs the process of extremist in-group and out-group definition. Future publications will continue this study, seeking to refine the framework and operationalise messaging recommendations.[19]
- The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism

William Branham first learned this doctrine in the Pentecostal Baptist Church of God sect led by Roy E. Davis, further confirming the assessment by The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism.  Davis had an extensive history as a high-ranking member of white supremacy groups and domestic terrorism.  Davis was the official spokesperson[20] for and second in command[21] of the 1915 Ku Klux Klan, as well as the Roy Ambassador of the Knights of the Flaming Sword.[22]  Davis eventually rose through the ranks to become the Imperial Wizard, the highest-ranking leader of the Klan. White supremacists like Davis used Christian Identity to claim that African Americans and Jews were subservient and that whites were superior.  

When William Branham admitted the first time that he heard the doctrine in 1957, however, Branham claimed that he did not believe in the two-seed doctrine. According to Branham at that time, "Adam and Eve was the father and mother, earthly, of every living creature of human beings that's ever been on the earth" — fully denying his own Serpent's Seed teaching.

Now, it’s been said…And I hope that my colored friends that’s in here will excuse this remark, because it’s absolutely not right. The first time I ever met anyone in my life, after I had been converted…I was…met Brother George DeArk and them down there. And I was walked, and the Lord led me to a little place. And they was discussing where the colored man came from. And they were trying to say that the colored man…That Cain married an animal like an ape, and through there come forth the colored race. Now, that’s wrong! Absolutely, that’s wrong! And don’t never stand for that. Cause there was no colored or white, or any other different, it’s just one race of people unto the flood. Then after the flood and the tower of Babel, when they began to scatter out, that’s when they taken their colors and so forth. They’re all come from the same tree. That’s exactly right. Adam and Eve was the father and mother, earthly, of every living creature of human beings that’s ever been on the earth. That’s right. Black, white, pale, brown, yellow, whatever color you might be[23]
- William Branham, 1957

The timing of Branham's openly declaring allegiance to Swift's doctrine through his Serpent's Seed sermon was very strategic. In 1958, the country was strongly divided on the issue of the integration of black and white children into schools. Nine African Americans had enrolled in Little Rock Central High School at the end of 1957. During the course of 1958, the issue of racial integration went all the way to the Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court demanded Little Rock to end racial segregation in schools.[24] The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacy groups were actively recruiting in Little Rock, AR to block integration, and had successfully convinced the public to keep the schools segregated. This became a key battle for Civil Rights in the United States, an event in the Civil Rights timeline known as the “Little Rock Nine”. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was working undercover in Little Rock, Arkansas at that time, and found Rev. Roy E. Davis at the center of the integration protests.

Little Rock refused to integrate, however, and voted to keep schools racially segregated.  The day after, when the decision was announced in the newspapers,[25] William Branham introduced his Christian Identity doctrine to the public. It came only a few months after he denied the sexual union between the Serpent and Eve. Branham re-branded Christian Identity with his own title, "The Serpent's Seed”.

Just like it was on The Serpent’s Seed, but it’s absolutely proven to be right. I got papers right here, out of the paper, where women right now…and even in—in the great…Some of the great dioceses has got the pictures of the original, a snake crawling on a woman’s leg, and just in how it goes around her; she has all kinds of sensations and things, something a man could never touch her with, with this huge snake wrapping around her, and so forth. That’s exactly the truth. And it’s going worse and worse, and will get worse. Serpent, which he was not…he could not have had the sex affair with her when he was a serpent[26]

Interestingly, Irenaeus — whom Branham claimed to be one of the "Seven Church Age" messengers — rejected the notion of Eve mating with the serpent as heresy. In his book, Against Heresies, Irenaeus states:

since the father was incorruptible, he (Ialdabaoth) who formerly called himself the father was a liar; and that, while Anthropos and the first woman (the Spirit) existed previously, this one (Eve) sinned by committing adultery”[27]