Owen Jorgensen’s account
There has been some misunderstanding concerning the photographing of the mysterious Cloud over Arizona and the actual time when the seven angels came to William Branham. The pictures of the mysterious Cloud that appeared in the May 17, 1963 issue of Life Magazine were taken on the evening of February 28, 1963. After hearing some of William Branham’s statements about this Cloud and about the pictures that were taken of it, many people (myself included) assumed he was hunting on February 28, the angels met him in the morning, and the supernatural Cloud was photographed in the evening over the same spot. However, that is not what the facts indicate.
Owen Jorgensen, Supernatural: The Life of William Branham, Part 6
Rebecca Branham’s account
After it was first discovered that William Branham had not been hunting in Arizona on the day the cloud appeared, many people began to ask questions. When asked about his whereabouts that day, William Branham’s daughter Rebecca Branham, who was living with her father in Arizona in 1963, confirmed to everyone he was not hunting on February 28 by publishing a detailed explanation of the timeline and events. She published a six page article in Only Believe magazine. Here is an excerpt from the article.
Lee Vayle’s Account
So now, I asked Gene Norman about it, and he just shook his head and knew nothing. And I did not want to talk to those of whom we refer to as the deity cult. So, one time I talked to George Smith, and all George Smith could tell me was that Brother Branham was indeed in Houston. He was not in Arizona, and this picture was taken
Last Day Thoughts, Lee Vayle – August 2, 2009
Gene Norman’s Account
I hunted, oh, probably about a half hour, and that blast went off. It sounded like it was just right above my head. And, I looked up, and, I didn’t see nothing.
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And Bro. Branham killed his pig on March the sixth, and he went up there on March the seventh.
– Gene Norman recounting the hunting trip on recorded testimony
Pearry Green’s Account
You know what, you got to look at it. Brother Branham was not in the mountains on February 28.
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The truth is, brother Branham did not see that cloud on February 28.
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If you got William Branham seeing something on February 28 when he wasn’t even there, and hadn’t been there, but then he went a week later, and an event happened, you got something that looks stranger than a cow eating grass out of the top of a tree.
Introduction to Clarification, Peary Green, July 29, 2009
Just like Pearry Green explained, there is no way at all to make sense of William Branham’s claim that he saw the February 28 cloud pictured in Life Magazine. It is bizarre.
William Branham’s Account
We know William Branham was in Texas because his participation at the meetings in Houston Texas on March 4 is on tape. He was there to participate in a rally on behalf of two young people who were on death row. He attended so he could speak in favor of the pair, asking the state to pardon them or commute their sentences. According to his sermons William Branham was also involved in the group who went before the clemency board at the time of appeal. The story was covered by the local news, who reported that these events occurred in Houston, Texas between February 23 and March 4 1963.
William Branham was traveling to and participating in these meetings in Houston Texas – he was not out hunting on February 28. He finished his work at the meeting on March 4 and returned to Arizona and went hunting afterwards. He explained the series of events himself.
I was going hunting with a friend, not knowing what was going to happen. And someone called me, the one that criticized me about that picture of the Angel of the Lord, the one that took it. I had to go to Houston about his son, for he was going in the death row and was going to be killed in a few days. [March 4, 1963] And he met me in there and throwed his arms around me, said, “Think, the very man that I criticized comes to save my only son!” The humane society give me what they call an oscar, or whatever you want to call it, for saving a life.
Then we went back, I went up in the mountain to hunt. [March 8, 1963] There, Brother Fred and I, one morning when I walked out, and I—I had already got my javelina, and I looked and seen the place where they went.
And I started up the mountain, running as hard as I could on the other side. All of a sudden, I thought somebody shot me. I never heard such a blast; it shook the whole country. And, when it did, standing before me was seven Angels in a cluster.
I met Brother Fred and them, a little after. Said, “What was it?” I said, “That was it.” “What are you going to do?”
“Return home. For, THUS SAITH THE LORD, the seven mysteries that’s been hid in the Bible all these years, these denominations and everything, God is going to open those seven mysteries to us in the Seven Seals.”
There was that circle coming up from the earth, like a mist forming. When It did, It went plumb up into the mountain, begin to circle on westward, from the way It come. Science found It after a while, thirty miles high and twenty-five miles across, just exactly in the circle of the pyramid. [February 28, 1963]
And the other day, standing there, turned the picture to the right, and there is Jesus as He was in the Seven Church Ages, the white wig on, showing Supreme Deity. He’s Alpha and Omega; He’s the First and the Last; He is the Supreme Judge of all Eternity, standing there to confirm the Message of this hour.
65-0725E – What Is The Attraction On The Mountain?
Rev. William Marrion Branham