Missionary Baptist Church
In most versions of his stage persona, William Branham claimed to be ordained by Roy E. Davis into the "Missionary Baptist Church", though he did not refer to the denomination by that name. According to William Branham, it was a "member of the Southern Baptist Convention", or in other words, a Southern Baptist Church that was involved with missionary work.
In most versions of his stage persona, William Branham claimed to be ordained by Roy E. Davis into the "Missionary Baptist Church", though he did not refer to the denomination by that name. According to William Branham, it was a "member of the Southern Baptist Convention", or in other words, a Southern Baptist Church that was involved with missionary work.
And, but, when I left the Baptist church…which is the only church I ever come in, or was ordained in. And I was ordained in 1933, in the Missionary Baptist church, Jeffersonville, Indiana. It's a—a…it's a member of the Southern Baptist Convention.[1]
I'm a Baptist preacher, out of a Missionary Baptist church, ordained by Dr. Roy E. Davis out of Dallas, Texas, and was made a local elder for the church at Jeffersonville.[2]
The year that Branham used to describe his ordination by Roy E. Davis, however, was incorrect. When Roy Davis planted his Jeffersonville branch of the Pentecostal Baptist Church of God sect, it was a new denomination unaffiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Roy Davis had a lengthy history of criminal activity, sexual deviance, and terroristic white supremacy unbecoming to a minister and not permitted by the Southern Baptist Convention. After being caught in the act of several crimes ranging from abandoning a wife and children to swindling a bank, the State Board of Missions banned Roy Davis from the Southern Baptist Convention. On August 12, 1926, Davis was banished.
August 12, 1926:
Important Notice,The State Board of Missions through its Ex. Com. regrets to say that in its best judgment Mr. Roy E. Davis, now operating in and around Jacksonville and posing as a Baptist preacher, is not worthy of the confidence of the brotherhood, nor the public at large. A thorough investigation has been made and from the many personal letters and affidavits in hand from trustworthy brethren it is evident that Mr. Davis is an excluded member of a Baptist church, and he has a long and black record behind him.
W. L. C. Mahan, Pres.
C. M. Brittain, Acting Sec'y[3]
William Branham's work with Davis prior to August, 1926, coincides with the timeline of Branham's trips out west. Branham mentioned touring Phoenix, Arizona in 1926 driving an "old T-model Ford", at which time he claimed to have been living at Sixteenth and Henshaw.[4]