No Flesh Saved

Throughout his career as an evangelist, William Branham used doomsday predictions to create religious frenzy. Though he is recognized as a "doomsday prophet" for his prediction that the world would end in 1977, Branham used many doomsday predictions to excite the crowds. This was especially true during times of political unrest and world conflict.

In the 1948 iteration of his stage persona, Branham launched a newsletter for self-promotion, "The Voice of Healing". William Branham was the publisher, while Gordon Lindsay and Jack Moore were listed as editors. During this "Latter Rain" version of stage persona, William Branham introduced a new end-of-the-world prediction. Using numbers that sounded significant to "predict" world events, Branham claimed that the world had 1,520 days from November 1948, until the end of the world. This would place the End of Days in September, 1955.

A year before this target, in 1954, William Branham introduced his "No Flesh Saved" doctrine. This doctrine was based loosely upon a passage from Matthew 24 in the Christian Bible:

And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. - Matthew 24

This became a fundamental element of William Branham's "Manifest Sons of God Theology". The Latter Rain theology from which "Manifest Sons of God" was based, included a Five-Fold Ministry doctrine which claimed that before the End of Days, God would reinstate the offices of apostle, prophet, evangelist, teacher, and pastor. In the "No Flesh Saved" doctrine, however, these roles were lifted in authority. Branham claimed that the "message" of the Tutor (Holy Spirit) was "positionally placed into the body of Christ" through the Five-Fold Ministry. Those who would be saved, under this theology, must be obedient to cult leaders, men in the offices of the five:

if the people who are borned again of the Spirit of God, then the Tutor brings message to Father, one day it's called to the side, and visited by God, and positionally placed into the body of Christ as a teacher, prophet, evangelist, teacher, pastor, whatever you have been obedient since he's been born, God places that person. You see it? Now, then if the authority comes from God, then his message comes from God. Now, we have a lot of impersonations, but God backs up His message. When God does it, God proves it. God stands by it. The father stood by his son in the Old Testament. The Father stands by His Son in Heaven. "Whatever He says, I'll do it." See? It's what? Hear ye Him.
Branham, William. 1957, Jan 25. Hear Ye Him Rev. William Marrion Branham http://table.branham.org

When the doomsday event did not happen in 1956, William Branham added an urgency to the failing prediction. Branham began claiming that if Christ did not come soon, then no Christian would be saved. Not even those who would have otherwise been included in the Rapture, described in his Rapture Theology.

till if the—Christ doesn't come soon, there'll be no flesh saved for the rapture. The hour is at hand. You've escaped a lot of it. But the television and radio has blasted it right into your nation here, and I see your stores and things becoming polluted, and the people is becoming the same way. Oh, spiritual people, arise, awake; the hour is at hand.
Branham, William. 1957, May 17. The Queen Of Sheba

This added fuel to the "borrowed time" doctrine William Branham introduced shortly before his failed 1956 doomsday prediction. He claimed that Christians should have already been "raptured", and that every minute spent on this earth was "borrowed" from God, who was delaying the fulfillment of his doomsday prediction.

The "No Flesh Saved" doctrine continued into later versions of Branham's stage persona. The date of destruction, however, was moved from the 1950s to the next century. In the 1963 version of Branham's stage persona, the End of Days was predicted to happen in the year 2000. Again using the same strategy of numbers as previous versions of his stage persona, Branham began claiming that time was on a 2000-year-interval. At the end of 1963, Branham claimed that the world had 36 more years. 1964+36=2000.

And, Father, so says our calendar, thirty-six more years and the work will be over, and You'll have to come sometime within that or there'll be no flesh saved. And then we're told, by the chronologists and the—and the people who search such things, that we are absolutely advanced many, many years from that, many years on up there; tell us, by the calendars, that we are way up further than that; maybe there's only fifteen or twenty years left. I don't know, Father. But I know, even according to our calendar, we're almost there.
Branham, 1963, Nov 24. Three Kinds Of Believers

This would become a recurring theme throughout the 1963 version of his stage persona. Branham continued to claim that the Battle of Armageddon would occur in the year 2000, but claimed that his cult followers would escape before the year 1977. Though he knew it would be career suicide to "prophesy" the day of destruction, Branham also knew that vague interpretation would be readily accepted. He began claiming that while "no man knoweth the hour", he could through Divine Inspiration know the month, year, and week of the End of Days. Branham began prophesying (predicting through divine interpretation) that his cult would escape before 1977.

And though many may feel that this is an irresponsible statement in view of the fact that Jesus said that "no man knoweth the day nor the hour." I still maintain this prediction after thirty years because, Jesus did NOT say no man could know the year, month or week in which His coming was to be completed. So I repeat, I sincerely believe and maintain as a private student of the Word, along with Divine inspiration that 1977 ought to terminate the world systems and usher in the millennium.
Branham, William. An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages - 9 - The Laodicean Church Age