Mark Of The Beast

During the early years of Branham's involvement with the Latter Rain movement, Branham presented the notion that denominational churches were growing "cold and formal",[1] a theme which would become integrated into the core belief system of Branham's "Message" cult following. As Branham continued to become more aggressive in his derogatory statements against other Christian denominations of faith, he frequently referenced the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation describing the Beast, and the "Mark of the Beast."

After convincing his following that he was the "Seven Church Age Messenger" for his "age", Branham began claiming that all who did not believe the messenger or his message for the age would be doomed, [2] or more specifically, accept the Mark of the Beast from Revelation. [3] Because denominational Christian churches were labeled "cold and formal", and non-denominational churches did not follow Branham's teachings, the resulting conclusion was that Christians who did not assemble in the churches affiliated with William Branham's ministry were also doomed.  He claimed that people were being marked, unaware, with the seal of the doomed.[4]

The problem with this strategy was that to accept Branham's "Mark of the Beast" theology, one was forced to also reject all passages from Scripture describing salvation through faith in Jesus Christ [5] (not faith in a messenger or mediator[6]). As a result, one must either believe that Branham was the Christ, or that there were provisions within this "Mark of the Beast" that deemed faith inadequate. William Branham implied that he (as the "Elijah" prophet) was Jesus Christ while speaking to some audiences through use of his Manifested Sons of God theology,[7] but to the general public and on most public recordings, his stage persona rejected the notion of his own deity. [8] This conflict was instead reconciled through many varying ways in which a person could receive the "Mark of the Beast."

In the early years of the Cold War, before labeling all non-Branham Christians as apostates, Branham claimed that Communism was the Mark of the Beast, alleging that in his "1933 Prophecies" he had claimed that Communism would eventually rule the world. [9] Though no court records exist for such an arrest, Branham claimed that he was almost arrested for preaching on this topic.[10] The 1954 version of Branham's stage persona rejected the notion of Communism being the Mark of the Beast. [11]

After Branham's stage persona introduced his version of the Christian Identity doctrine labeled "Serpent's Seed", Branham claimed that many people had already accepted the Mark of the Beast.[12] He claimed that there were only two classes of people on the earth: those with the Mark of the Beast and those without. [13] There were variations of the stage persona, however, which disagreed with this version. While preaching to some audiences, Branham avoided Christian Identity and instead peached one bloodline instead of two. [14] In this version of Branham's stage persona, the two "marked" or "unmarked" bloodlines did not yet exist; Branham claimed that the "marking" would occur after the Church had left the earth.[15]

In the versions of his stage persona that used fear of Communism, Russia [16] was linked to the Mark of the Beast and End of Days.[17] More commonly in his later years, however, Branham alleged that the Mark of the Beast would come from Rome, [18] and that all Christian denominations would unite with Rome as the Mark of the Beast. [19]