William M. Branham - Branham's Legacy and Influence

Branham's Legacy and Influence

In its February 1961 issue, the Full Gospel Men's Voice (now the Full Gospel Businessmen's Voice) wrote: "In Bible Days, there were men of God who were Prophets and Seers. But in all the Sacred Records, none of these had a greater ministry than that of William Branham ... Branham has been used by God, in the Name of Jesus, to raise the dead!" Branham's teachings and notoriety had a profound influence on the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. Though Branham has been dead since 1965, there are hundreds of thousands around the world who regard him as a prophet, and the fulfilment of Malachi 4:5–6.

It may be difficult to measure Branham's influence on other evangelists in his time period, but he certainly led the way in the pioneering of tent revivals, which would lead into the era of televangelism. Branham is often mentioned as the leader or first revivalist preacher of the second wave of Pentecost that swept the country after World War II (the first wave being Charles Fox Parham, William J. Seymour, and others). Among those who began around the same time as Branham, and part of the Second Wave of Pentecostalism (late 1940s to the mid 1950s), were Jack Coe, Oral Roberts and A. A. Allen. It is interesting to note that Branham was one of the first "faith" preachers and evangelists who not only preached a latter day visitation of God’s Spirit, but also emphasised faith for healing, as did Coe, Roberts and Allen.

D.R. McConnell, although a critic of William Branham's teaching, expressed this opinion about his ministry: "Branham, one of the original and greatest evangelists of the post-World War II Healing Revival. Branham worked astounding miracles of healing in his crusades. To this day his gifts of supernatural knowledge of those to whom he ministered remains unparalleled, even among modern healing evangelists".

Andrew Strom, another theologian who disagreed with Branham doctrinally, nevertheless concluded: "William Branham was another evangelist mid-way through last century who was mightily used of God for a number of years. In fact, there can be little doubt that he was endued with power to a degree that has rarely been seen since the days of the apostles."

The Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements contains these comments: "The person universally acknowledged as the revival’s `father’ and `pacesetter’ was William Branham. The sudden appearance of his miraculous healing campaigns in 1946 set off a spiritual explosion in the Pentecostal movement which was to move to Main Street, U.S.A., by the 1950s and give birth to the broader charismatic movement in the 1960s, which currently affects almost every denomination in the country" Today, there are an estimated 500 million Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians in the world.
C. Douglas Weaver, an author who has written an academic biography of William Branham, concluded: "His healing gift and the power of his services are still held in awe by participants in the tradition of divine healing in America."