Only Believe

William Branham used the song "Only Believe" as the theme song for his later revivals. The song was written by Paul Rader, brother of Ralph Rader. According to William Branham, he had never heard the song before his alleged angelic commission in 1946[1] or 1947.[2]  1950 when visiting the Fort Wayne Gospel Tabernacle. Branham claimed that an "angel" told him that "it" liked this song.

How many knows who wrote that song? Paul Rader. Oh, how... What a gallant soldier. I was acquainted with Brother Rader. I knew him. He belonged the Baptist church. Hear of his death when he died... I telephoned him not long ago...?... great warrior. The little Moody Bible school broadcast was down there singing, they tell me, at his... So they had all the curtains pulled down in the room, the shades. And they were sing in there, singing, "Nearer My God To Thee," and something. And Brother Rader was quite a cut-up. You know how he was. He looked around; he said, "Who's dying, you or I?" Said, "Raise up those curtains." Said, "Sing some good old fashion Gospel songs." So they started singing "All Hail The Power Of Jesus' Name," and...?... So Luke was standing there, his brother. I guess you knew Luke. Called Luke up to his side and said, "Luke, we've been a long ways together. But to think of it, five minutes from now I'll be standing in the Presence of Jesus Christ, clothed in His righteousness." Closed his eyes and went to meet God. A few weeks ago, I was at Fort Wayne Gospel Tabernacle where we were having a service. And in there... I never had heard the song before. A night or two after the Angel of the Lord appeared to me and commissioned me, I was in--walked into my church, my pianist was over there playing, "Only Believe." And I said, "Play that again." The Angel of the Lord seemed to like that.
Branham, 50-0823 TESTIMONY

Paul Rader wrote the song "Only Believe" in 1921. At the time he was the president of the Christian and Missionary Alliance and had learned the power of the beat used in American Jazz music. According to Paul, ragtime and jazz were very effective in "converting heathens" to Christianity, and therefore he began stressing that they are used in the missionary field. A hundred missionaries were armed with the jazz beat by 1923, and Paul Rader said that the rocky jazz beat "delighted" the savages when he put sacred words to a jazz beat.[3] Ironically, those in the cult following of William Branham are often scolded by their pastors for listening to any sort of music with a beat -- the pastors claim that this type of music "came from heathens." It would be comical if a person who studied the history of Christian music heard such a statement in a sermon that followed the singing of "Only Believe," especially when it had enough beat to inspire Elvis Presley to sing it during his days as the "King of Rock and Roll."

"Only Believe" was also the theme song for the Smith Wigglesworth campaigns.[4] Wigglesworth used the song along with a banner with the slogan "Jesus Christ the Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever", which was Branham's campaign slogan.[5]