William Branham’s “Giant Ants” Prophecy: Fear, Fantasy, and Control in the Message Movement

In the later years of his life, as his struggle with mental illness appeared increasingly uncontrolled, William Branham introduced several destructive doctrines that demoralized women and added strange new details and predictions to his doomsday prophecies. One such addition was Branham's prediction that the world would be invaded by giant ants.

William Branham predicted that before Armageddon, the people of earth would become insane. He claimed that their greatest fears of imagination would become reality. At that time, he said, there would be "ants raise up as high as fourteen trees" and birds "with wings four or five miles across." These, Branham claimed, would be among the "plagues" that would "open up" at the End of Days. Some cult leaders have taught that this "giant ant invasion" would be a literal event.[1]

Did you read this here, this month’s Reader’s Digest, that, “Men and women of this day, little girls, from twenty or twenty-five years old, is in menopause,” that you go through the change of life in the middle-age of life, according to science, between twenty and twenty-five. It used to be around thirty or thirty-five, in my age. In my mother’s age, a woman never struck menopause till she was forty or forty-five. What is it? It’s through science, and the food, the hybrids, that’s perverted the whole human body till we’ve become a bunch of—of—of a mass of corruption. Well, if the physical being is corrupted, isn’t the brain cell in that physical being?  Now watch the Spirit, following it. There’ll come a time, in the Name of the Lord, that people will go completely insane. The Bible says so. They’ll scream and holler; great hideous things in their imaginary mind. The radios and things, our television programs, are producing it. There’ll be such things as ants raise up on the earth, that will be as high as fourteen trees; there will be a—a—a bird will fly across the earth, with wings four or five miles across; and people see them, they’ll scream and holler, and cry for mercy. But it’ll be the Plagues. Wait till I preach on those Plagues opening up."
Branham, William. 1965, August 15. And Knoweth It Not (65-0815). 

A few days after introducing this new prediction, Branham modified the Prediction of Giant Ants, suggesting that these terrifying creatures would exist only in the imagination of those who had gone insane. At the same time, however, he introduced a doctrine of literal locusts with long hair that would come upon the earth to torment women, twisting the text of Revelation 9:8[2] to claim that women would be punished for cutting their hair. This literal "punishment of women by locusts" suggests that Branham believed the giant ants would also be literal, regardless of the apparent adjustment introduced by his stage persona.

And then when we open up those, the Lord willing, on those Seven Vials and show those hideous things. Men will be so insane, after a while, till they’ll imagine they’re seeing ants the size of a mountain. It’ll be tormenting women; be locusts come upon the earth, with long hair, to torment women who cut theirs off; hair like women, hanging down; and long teeth, like a lion; stingers in their tail, like a scorpion, and—and so forth, to torment men upon the earth. But then it’ll be too late to do anything about it. You get right now. See? Tormenting!
Branham, William. 1965, August 22. Christ Is Revealed In His Own Word (65-0822M).

Some cult leaders in the "Message" movement chose to emphasize the literal version of Branham's prediction in their preaching, using the fear of "giant ants" and "giant birds" as a device to control their converts. This became especially effective in the years leading up to Branham's 1977 doomsday prediction. One such cult leader who took advantage of this prediction was "Message" cult leader Roger Rudin.

In 1968, Ernie Bohi and dozens of others sold their farms and houses and moved to Phoenix in preparation for the looming rapture. Rudin had set a deadline for the calamity: By the end of 1970, earthquakes would pull California into the sea and inundate Florida with tidal waves. And, as a newspaper account later described it, Rudin had also seen in a vision that following the quakes, "The area of the already-raped land then was ravaged by giant ants as tall as 14 trees and birds with four-mile wingspans."[3]
Preach of Trust, Phoenix New Times. 

Rudin was both a prominent minister and evangelist in the "Message" and a prominent leader among the gay community in Phoenix, hosting what were described as "gay meccas" at his gay bar and leather dungeon.[4] Rudin, Branham, and all "Message" cult leaders preached against homosexuality, and to conceal his private lifestyle, Rudin used Branham's "Attack of the Giant Ants Prophecy" for the purposes of control. His converts, though aware of his gay lifestyle, were gripped by fear and refused to engage in critical thinking. As a result, they were largely unaware that their tithes and offerings were being used to fund Rudin's gay bar.[5]