Introduction
Hello there
My name is Charles Paisley and I am formerly the associated pastor of the second oldest message church in the world. My church was the flagship church of one of the oldest and largest international sects of the message. The message is a global doomsday cult with million of members all over the world. The message began right here in Jeffersonville Indiana. Among my personal friends, family, and acquaintances are the very people who were the original follower of William Branham from back the very earliest days of his ministry.
Purpose of This Video
I have been asked several different times if I could make a short video that briefly summarizes William Branham, The Message, and its problems. And this is my attempt to do that.
Who Was William Branham?
So Who was William Branham? Well, William Branham was the most influential Pentecostal preacher of the 1940s and 1950s. He was a headline speaker at all of the large pentecostal churches and conventions of those decades. He was the keynote speaker at the 50th anniversy celebration of Azusa street at Angelus Temple – the largest Pentecostal church in the world at the time. His teachings and practices influenced the entire generation of mid-century Pentecostalism and set in motions the events that led to the birth of the charismatic movement in the last years of his life. He is widely respected across Pentecostalism and the charismatic movement where he is recognized as the leading individual in the second wave of Pentecostalism. He influenced and mentored numerous figures, like Tommy Osborn, Paul Cain, Kenneth Hagin, Derek Prince, Oral Roberts, and many more. He worked closely during his lifetime with senior leaders multiple major Pentecostal denominations, including the United Pentecostal Church, The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, and the Independent Assemblies of God.
The Cult of Personality and The Message
During the years of William Branham’s fame, he developed a cult of personality. That cult of personality was primarily drawn from churches under the influence of the Latter Rain movement. William Branham’s cult of personality evolved into what we today call The Message, and they follow a variation of the Latter Rain teachings which William Branham popularized. The Message is best viewed as the branch of the Latter Rain movement which began to believe that William Branham was a manifested son of God and the return of Elijah prophesied by Malachi the prophet. The Latter Rain teachings popularized by William Branham include things like the five fold ministry, the manifested sons of God, positive confession, the last day revival, and they placed a critical emphasis on the relationship between national Israel and the church, and another heavy emphasis on doomsday beliefs.
Growth and Division After Branham’s Death
The Message was already a destructive and abuse cult before William Branham died. And after he died, The Message community grew rapidly and evolved into the global cult is today. The Message is divided into dozens of competing and feuding sects who despise each other as apostates. About seven of those sects have consisted of large international fellowships made up of hundreds of churches. Across all the sects of the message, there likely somewhere around 5,000 churches with about 2-3 million total followers. The largest and main branch of the message is headed by the William Branham Evangelistic Association, where Spoken Word Publications and Voice of God recordings operate as mission organizations.
Deceptive Practices and Hoaxes
Unfortunately, William Branham was not who he presented himself to be. He was actually engaging in deeply deceptive practices and perpetrated numerous hoaxes.
Ku Klux Klan Connections and Racist Doctrines
One thing most people are unaware of, is that William Branham was ordained as a minister by the Roy Davis, who was a cofounder of the Ku Klux Klan. Roy Davis and William Branham maintained a life long relationship. And Roy Davis became the national leader of the Ku Klux Klan during the last decade of William Branham’s life. William Branham was converted, ordained, and received his start in ministry under the direction of the leader of the Ku Klux Klan. And it is more than just guilt by association. William Branham taught many deeply racist doctrines to his audiences. This included the teachings known as the curse of Ham, which taught that non-white people were intended to be servants. He also taught the Christian Identity doctrine of serpent seed, in which he indicate that Ham and his descendants were literally the offspring of the Satan.
Failed Healings and False Prophecies
William Branham also practiced faith healing and claimed to have a gift of healing and prophesy. But numerous people that he pronounced as healed died shortly afterwards. Just a few examples are Michael Pfaff from South Africa, Carol Strubbler from Pennsylvania, Donny Morton from Canada, and Jean Dyer from here in Jeffersonville. Some of those people who died had even received recorded prophesies from Branham, who told them, Thus Saith The Lord – you will live.
Faked Discernments, Visions, and Angelic Visitations
William Branham also had a track record of faking discernments. There are multiple examples where William Branham called out people in his audience and pretended to discern their condition. When in fact, those people are on record as having already met Branham before his discernment. William Branham already knew who they were yet pretended to discern their condition in front of his audiences.
William Branham also faked a number of visions. One example is his supposed 1943 Milltown vision where he was supposedly given divine instructions to visit the town to find a sick girl. When in fact, he had already been to the town and met the sick girl years earlier.
William Branham also is known to have faked angelic visitations. One prominent example is his claim to have met seven angels in the Arizona desert on February 28, 1963. He claimed that those angels formed a cloud in the sky through the events of their visitation. But in fact, William Branham was in the state of Texas that day – not Arizona. And the cloud he claimed was created by Angels, was in fact created by an exploded rocket launched by the United States Airforce.
Plagiarized “Revelations”
William Branham also claimed have received supernatural and divine revelations through encounters with the Holy Spirit. But, it was discovered that those supposed divine revelations were actually being read by William Branham nearly word for word out of the books in his personal library.
Inner Circle and Abuse Cover-Ups
Beginning in about 1954, William Branham began to cultivate an inner circle of friends who all believed he was God incarnate, and who secretly worshipped, prayed and baptized in his name. Although he publicly condemning their practice. Privately, William Branham placed those same men into board positions and gave them total control over all the central institutions of the message. Even worse, William Branham made a number of public statements in which he claimed to be either God or Jesus Christ.
Several members of William Branham’s inner circle were homosexuals, and Branham frequently stayed the night with them on hunting trips and revival tours. Some of them were serial child molesters who raped and tortured somewhere between 75 and 125 children. At the direction of William Branham, senior leaders in the message covered up and hid the crimes for decades.
Highlights and Personal Cost
And these are just the highlights that I can briefly touch on in this very short video.
For those of us who are able to escape the cult brainwashing of The Message and recognize these very serious issues, it forces us to into a very difficult situation. Because acknowledging the issues, for many of us, can mean losing quite literally everything when we are expelled From the message community.
My Background and Resources
I was born and raised in the message. I was an eyewitness to the majority of Message history. If you want more information, let me point you to some resources. I personally have wrote a two-volume history of the Message covering the years 1930 to 2005. The books are entitled, Come out of her my people, volume one a two. A history of the message of William Branham. These books are free on Kindle Unlimited.
Preacher behind the white hoods is a good book by John Collins focusing on William Branham’s KKK affiliation. Legend of the Fall by Peter Duyzer is another resource examining William Branham’s claims. Under the Halo by Rod Bergen, with chapters wrote by several different ex-Message ministers is a good summary resource. Investigating William Branham by Brian Smalls is one of the best resources out there for examining the accusations of plagiarism against Branham. And last of all, I would point you to a the Leaving the message YouTube channel, which has a Revival history podcast where I and John Collins, and others have recorded hundreds of hours of content where we meticulously document and examine all the problems I have mentioned here in far greater details. And many many more issues I can’t even possibly fit into this short video.
Our Mission and Support
Today, this the year 2025, I and my friends operate a mission here in Jeffersonville were we do outreach to the global message community, helping them find their way out of the cult and to the safety of Jesus. Today there are still terrible abuses are still occurring today in some of the dark corners of the message community. The Message leadership is in total denial about the abuses of the movement, both past and present. There is presently no significant effort at all towards reform.
If you are leaving the message, either physically or mentally, and you need counseling support, we are friends of BeEmboldened, which is a group led by a former message follower who offers really excellent counseling services. You can reach out to them directly at beemboldened.com, or we are glad to make an introduction for you. If you need someone to pray for you, visit our website at christiangospelchurch.org, and contact us. If you are looking for resources dealing with the doctrinal problems of the Message, you will also find a lot of helpful content on that website and others like it which are hosted by the ex-message community.