"The Message" is a historical documentary investigating William Branham and his "Message" cult following. It walks viewers through the research material examining William Branham's early life in Jeffersonville, IN, his early ministry that began in Roy E. Davis' Pentecostal Church, and the events that led to his becoming one of the leaders of the Post WWII Healing Revival.
William Branham (1907-1965) was a Pentecostal minister from Jeffersonville, Indiana credited by some as initiating the Post WWII Healing Revival. The first of ten children of Charles and Ella Branham, Branham claimed to have been born in Cumberland County, KY and reared in the booming Southern Indiana casino town directly across the river from Louisville, KY. He was also a "doomsday Prophet", predicting several years that he claimed to be the End of Days. William Branham was involved with hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. This website is not sympathetic to the views of William Branham or the Klan, but it is disturbing, and warrants research. This website is a presentation of that research.
When American Prohibition disrupted the thriving liquor industry of the local area, Branham's family became poor and destitute. Branham's father, employed as a driver for Otto Wathen of the R. E. Wathen Distilleries, was arrested for violation of the liquor laws, worsening their hardship. At the time, William was in critical condition in the Clark Memorial hospital after being shot. The Ku Klux Klan came to the rescue, paying his hospital bill and making an impact on his life that he would never forget.
Shortly after the Klan was exposed for taking control of the Indiana government, Roy E. Davis came to Jeffersonville claiming to be a Christian evangelist and becoming a choir leader for Ralph Rader. Davis was at one time an official spokesperson for William Joseph Simmons' 1915 revival of the Klan, as well as a high-ranking member. He was also affiliated with other white supremacy groups Simmons created such as the "Knights Of The Flaming Sword." Shortly after being appointed as an elder of the Rader Gospel Tabernacle, past crimes of swindling, fraud, and multiple violations of underaged sex caught up with him. Davis was terminated from Rader's church, and started a Pentecostal church taking several members from Rader's congregation. It was at this Pentecostal church that Davis claims to have converted William Branham into his first Pentecostal Assembly. According to William Branham, Davis was his mentor, the one who baptized him, imparted the "Holy Ghost," and appointed him as a minister. Shortly after, Davis was extradited by the Governor of the State of Indiana to the casino town of Hot Springs, Arkansas on charges of grand theft and connection to murder. William Branham seized the opportunity, taking control of Davis' rowdy church and forming the Billie Branham Pentecostal Tabernacle in 1936.
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