Los Angeles Prophecy

In 1965, William Branham watched a television program discussing the instability of Los Angeles. In the program, a scientist was interviewed who stated that Los Angeles would sink within five years. [1] Not only was his entertainment choice in violation of the rules presented by his stage persona,[2] but it also became the basis for an alleged "prophecy" that would be used for his stage persona until the end of his life.[3] Speaking in Los Angeles in April of 1965, Branham predicted that Los Angeles would sink beneath the ocean, just like the television program had predicted.  

That is solemn warning. We don't know what time, and you don't know what time, that this city one day is going to be laying out here in the bottom of this ocean. "Oh, Capernaum," said Jesus, "thou who exalted into heaven, will be brought down into hell. For, if the mighty works had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, it'd have been standing to this day." And Sodom, Gomorrah lays in the bottom of the Dead Sea. And Capernaum is in the bottom of the sea. Thou city, who claims to be the city of the Angels, who has exalted yourself into heaven, and sent all the dirty, filthy things of fashions and things, till even the foreign countries come here to pick up our filth and send it away, to your fine churches and steeples, and so forth, the way you do. Remember, one day you'll be laying in the bottom of the sea, your great honeycomb under you right now. The wrath of God is belching right beneath you. How much longer He will hold this sandbar hanging out over that? When, that ocean out yonder, a mile deep, will slide in there, plumb back to the Salton Sea. It'll be worse than the last day of Pompeii. Repent, Los Angeles. [4]

After returning to Jeffersonville, IN, William Branham alleged that he was speaking under divine inspiration, and did not remember what he had said. According to Branham, God had spoken through him, calling Los Angeles "Capernaum", and warning that the city would sink beneath the ocean. [5] According to the voice that "spoke through" William Branham, Capernaum was beneath the sea. [6]

The problem? Capernaum is not and has no record of being beneath the sea. Capernaum was a fishing village at the time of the Hasmoneans (140-116 BC), and is still located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It is one of the tourist attractions promoted by Tourist Israel. [7] Archaeological excavations have revealed two ancient synagogues built one on top of the other. Capernaum was spared by the Romans during the Jewish Revolt (AD 66-70), and was referred to as a fertile spring in the writings of Josephus.[8] Many homes were built in the 4th century, and one of the homes was greatly transformed in the 5th century. Evidence shows a constant transforming city since before the days of Christ until about the 5th Century. [9] According to all archaeological evidence and historical information available, Capernaum has never been under the sea.

It is common knowledge, however, that Los Angeles is positioned near a fault line that produces major earthquakes, [10] and that knowledge was common long before Branham made his prediction. Los Angeles is particularly brittle under its foundation, [11] and the people of Los Angeles are no stranger to earthquakes. [12]

Such predictions were also not unusual, and William Branham was not the first to predict the sinking of Los Angeles. While in the hospital in 1937, for example, 17-year-old Joe Brandt claimed to have had an out-of-body experience allowing him to witness the tragic event:

I've been thinking about it all morning. I'm going home tomorrow. It was just a dream. It was nothing more. Nobody in the future on Hollywood Boulevard is going to be wearing earrings - and those beards. Nothing like that is ever going to happen. That girl was so real to me - that girl with those kids. It won't ever happen - but if it did, how could I tell her (maybe she isn't even born yet) to move away from California when she has her twins - and she can't be on the Boulevard that day. She was so gosh-darned real. The other thing - those ham operators - hanging on like that - over and over - saying the same thing: This is California. We are going into the sea. This is California. We are going into the sea. Get to the mountains. Get to the hilltops. California, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, Utah. This is California. We are going into the sea. [13]

Interestingly, Los Angeles was not the only city that William Branham claimed would sink beneath the ocean.  Branham also claimed that the State of Florida would sink beneath the Atlantic.[14]  Other cities, like Chicago, were prophesied to burn.[15]  Branham revised his Los Angeles prophecy almost verbatim to claim that Phoenix — which has an elevation of 1,086 feet — would also sink beneath the Pacific.  

'And then if the works had been done,' Jesus said, 'in Sodom and Gomorrah, that had been done in the cities of Capernaum and those cities' that He had passed through, He said, 'they would been standing till this day.' 16 And I say: If the works, the mighty works that's been done in Phoenix, would have been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day, and would not have been in the bottom of the Salt…of the Dead Sea.[16]

Similar to the dates given in Branham's failed doomsday predictions, Billy Paul's age placed a date and timeline on Branham's failed Los Angeles Prophecy. While standing outside May's Department Store in downtown Los Angeles, William Branham told his son, Billy Paul Branham, that this tragedy was to occur before Billy Paul was an "old man". [17] Billy Paul Branham became 85 in 2020, born on September 13, 1935. William Branham himself claimed to be an "old man" at the age of 45, [18] which would give the timeline for the Los Angeles prophecy between 1965 and 1980.  The average life expectancy at the time Branham made the prediction was approximately 71 years old, which means that the prophecy would have failed long before 2006.

New Version

Original Version