William W. Freeman

Rev. William W. Freeman was a Latter Rain evangelist from Missouri that rose to almost overnight fame through advertisements in William Branham's Voice of Healing publication.  In January 1947, Freeman claimed to have developed and been healed from "cancer of the leg", which he said to have "caused pain, suffering, and fevers".  After his alleged healing, Freeman began claiming to have the ability to heal others of their diseases and afflictions.[1]  

Like William Branham and several others advertised in The Voice of Healing, Freeman claimed to have received visions from God, angelic visitations,[2] and other supernatural experiences suggesting that the End of Days was near.  Shortly after launching his Latter Rain career, Freeman claimed to have seen a vision of "Jesus standing in a cloud", and then visited by an angel who commissioned him to warn his converts that the end was near.

In February 1947 there came a major breakthrough for Freeman. At 11 o'clock one evening Freeman had a vision of Jesus standing on a cloud. Jesus showed him a vast congregation of people as far as he could see. People were coming to him for prayer for every kind of illness. In the vision he stood and prayed for healing until he was exhausted, but still the people kept coming. In the vision as he prayed for people they were healed. Then the scene shifted and he saw large auditoriums filled with people. Next it seemed that there were oceans of people with their hands raised saying "you've got to help us." Freeman was filled with compassion for the broken, dying, and the lost. He thought that part of the vision spoke that he would be called to go over the oceans to reach out to the hurting. The final part of the vision showed a clock ticking towards midnight. At the midnight hour a large eagle with dark eyes grabbed people in its claws to take the away. Freeman interpreted this to mean that we were close to the end of the age and the anti-Christ was poised to swoop down upon the world.  Freeman sought the Lord about the healing vision. Two weeks later he once again had a supernatural visitation. He was awake and a bright light appeared in front of him. In the midst of the light an angel appeared. The angel touched him and told him he was being given the gift of healing and that he was to warn people that Jesus was coming soon.[3]

When William Branham was forced to leave the revival trails due to mental health issues in June of 1948, Freeman was the obvious replacement.  Their ministries were almost snapshot replicas of each other.  Both men claimed to have had the same commission by an "angel" to prepare converts that the end of the world was near, both claimed to have a prophetic ministry, and both had developed a large fan base.  Though Freeman was not as popular as Branham in 1948, his fame was quickly spreading and soon would outpace Branham in the revivals.  Freeman held revivals with as many as 300,000 in attendance.[4]  When Branham stepped down, Gordon Lindsay chose Freeman as his replacement as the headlining act for the Voice of Healing revivals and conventions.[5]  By 1952, Freeman's ministry began to eclipse Branham and Lindsay favored Freeman in the revivals.[6] The next year, Lindsay and other Voice of Healing Revivalists issued an ultimatum to Branham over his heretical doctrine and ultimately barred Branham from speaking at the December 1953 convention.[7]

In 1950, William Freeman angered several people in Sweden — including the Swedish government — when he announced that he had the power to "cure cancer and tuberculosis".[8]  Freeman claimed to have healed himself of heart disease, and as a result, "received many letters from people in Goeteborg and Stockholm who believe in [his] ability and who want to be cured."[9]  After traveling to Sweden with Rev. Joseph Mattsson-Boze,[10] When thousands of sick and afflicted attended the meeting, many of them in wheelchairs and on crutches, and they did not find their cure in Freeman's revivals, both medical authorities and police officials attempted to intervene.[11]  Apparently, a "bitterly disappointed diabetic" complained to police after a failed healing attempt,[12] and police officials considered "whether the 34-year-old American preacher can be charged with 'misusing his status as a foreigner.'"[13]  Officials escalated the matter to the minister of the interior.[14]  Freeman, however, returned to the united states describing his "outstanding European revival."[15]

In July of 1950, Freeman surpassed William Branham's fantastic claims when he baptized "two hundred men, women, and children" in Lake Michigan as 5,000 people watched the ceremony.[16]  (Branham had claimed that he baptized five hundred people in the Ohio River in 1933 as ten thousand people watched,[17] though according to the newspaper accounts, only fourteen people were converted in Branham's revival.[18] ).  Freeman estimated that he had converted 12,000 people to the Latter Rain movement in Chicago during the July revivals.[19]

In 1953, Freeman found himself at the center of assault and battery charges when one Richard Schnell and Robert Howard were assaulted by six men during a revival in Chicago.  Schnell apparently heckled Freeman during the meeting,[20] angering Freeman.  According to Schnell, Freeman and Rev. Orval Ross of Chicago forced him into a small room and began to beat him.[21]  This testimony was confirmed by Howard, who suffered fractured ribs.  Howard told police that six men assaulted him without provocation.[22]  Interestingly, this was not the only fist fight to break out in the Latter Rain Revivals; several people were beaten during a debate between William Branham, F. F. Bosworth, and Rev. W. E. Best in Houston just three years prior.[23]

In 1956, William Branham began prophesying that "1956 is a turning time",[24] and that the healing movement would be over in 1957.[25]  This prediction apparently had a severe impact on Freeman's ministry; in 1956 Freeman canceled his overseas revivals, ended his magazine, closed down his ministry, and became a pastor of a church in Chicago.[26]

And I believe that this 1956 is a turning time. I predict this, not by spiritual inspiration, or I don't say that, not by vision. But this is the turning time for the U. S. A. They'll either accept it this year or they'll be cast off. See, there's only so many fish to be caught anyhow, and when the pond's all seined dry, won't do no good to cast nets in no more. So there'll be a time.[27]
- Branham, William. 1956, Feb 12. Fellowship.