William Branham and Money

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William Branham accepts the keys to a free Cadillac in front of his free house.

William Branham protrayed himself as growing up dirt poor and never having much money in his life. As late as 1962, William Branham complained that he didn't have enough money to cover the expenses of his meetings.

He clearly portrayed a picture of himself as never having had much money.

But is this true?

William Branham's early years

When William Branham was about 17 years of age in 1926, he purchased a new Model T Ford. The price of this car, assuming that it was not special ordered, would have been somewhere between $366 - $580, depending on the exact model. This was not an insignificant amount of money in 1926 and certainly a lot of money for a 17 year old boy.

Why did William Branham indicate that he was poor as a young man?

Tax Evasion Charges

In 1956, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") charged William Branham with tax evasion. Although he protested his innocence, he eventually settled the charges by paying a fine of $40,000 in 1962. This fine would be equivalent to paying a fine of almost $350,000 in 2021 dollars.

William Branham's estimated net worth in 1965

Sarah Branham published a letter in 1989 stating that her father, William Branham, had control of cash and liquid assets of $3,244,321 at the time of his death.

2013 equivalent dollars

$3,244,321 USD in 1965 would equal approximately $30,518,349 USD in 2022 equivalent dollars. That would be enough wealth to put William Branham in the category of ultra-high-net-worth individual according to Money.com.

Voice of God Recordings Inc., the entity controlled by William Branham's sons and dedicated to spreading William Branham's message, reported assets of $109,834,481 on its US tax return as of June 30, 2011. Shortly thereafter, Voice of God Recordings Inc. transferred in excess of $97 million to a new related non-profit organization, Jehovah-Jireh Foundation Inc. Joseph Branham is the principal officer of both Voice of God Recordings Inc. and Jehovah-Jireh Foundation Inc.

Sarah Branham's Open Letter to Message Believers

In 1989, Sarah Branham had an open letter to all message believers printed and distributed. The text of this open letter is as follows:

New York, July 1989 To the Bride of Christ – the followers of the message Because many people that I have approached for help through all these years have asked me the reason why I am in need – the only one of Brother Branham’s children, including grandchildren and in-laws, while all of them live in the luxuries and comforts that the world can provide. Since none of them have ever worked; why am I not included in this? I feel I should expose publicly several things that have happened all going back since the days when my father was killed. As you know my mother and I were the only survivors of it. Now she has passed away and I am the only living witness of what actually happened in the car. I don’t know how many times my mother told me: “Take it with you to the grave.” What she meant by that I have to tell you now. It seems that I cannot live with it no more and I am sure I couldn’t die with it. I’m getting so nervous even thinking about it, simply cannot bare it any longer. In the way I look at it, it is indirectly connected with my father’s accident. I remember that my father was very troubled before we left Tucson for the Jeffersonville meetings where he was to preach “The trail of the serpent” and expose names of the people of this message that were doing wrong including family members. In this tension we left Arizona. The last argument before we left was because my sister Becky wanted to stay in the apartment with her friend Betty Collins. My father never wanted her to stay. Finally he gave in as mother had already agreed and left her there. She gave her word that she would not leave the apartment. All day my father was troubled and he would stop and call but she didn’t answer. We traveled until we stopped at evening time to eat. My father ordered his food and then I hear him tell mother: “I am going to call Becky one more time.” He called and came back to the table very upset. He turned to mother and said: “She’s not there.” He had ordered a piece of pie but never ate it. When we left Joseph went in the car with Billy Paul and Loyce which never would have happened any other time. Just because my father was so troubled he never even noticed it. I got in the back seat, mother and father in the front. They started to argue right away. He was very upset, because Becky was not in the apartment as she had promised. Mother started taking up for her. My father turned to mother and said, “You know where she is.” Mother started crying saying, “Please, Bill…” I laid down in the back seat of the car, because I was very upset too, as this was the first time I had ever seen and heard them argue in that tone. My father said, “I am going to expose many things and names this time.” My mother kept begging: “Please, no, Bill…” I know my father was a very cautious driver, always keeping speed limits and observing the traffic. Under normal circumstances he would have reacted and avoided the car coming towards him. While speaking he looked over to mother during this unpleasant conversation. Just then it happened. That was the last thing I remember from ;before the crash until I came to myself in the ambulance. Later I found out that Rebekah was with Pearry Green and they had a difficult time finding her to let her know about the accident. I was two months in the hospital. When I came home my mother acted very nervous around me. Finally she approached me and wanted to know how much I had remembered from before the accident. She told me not to mention or talk about it ever again, but to take it with me to the grave. My father had a notebook on his sermon “The trail of the serpent.” My mother let me read where he had written: “I will be betrayed by someone very close to me.” Later when she wanted to see the notes again, she was told by Billy Paul that there were no notes, the pages were empty. Also I would like to mention something that happened after the accident that always bothered mother and me. My father needed a blood transfusion immediately after the accident. He had a rare blood type and they had to send to another city for it. If he could have had the blood transfusion in time maybe his life could have been spared. How strange his own son would not donate blood in that emergency case. Only God knows all the facts, but after I saw the document dated the 26th day of October, 1965, I began to wonder even more. Just imagine while my father was still alive, my brother appeared before a Notary Public as William Branham transferring the William Branham Evangelistic Association into another corporation. The document is in my possession. He signed it as William Branham Jr. It was registered on Nov. 4, 1965 at 3:45 p.m. with the “Arizona Corporation Commission.” Just recently a noted lawyer in New York looked into the matter and showed me different bank statements which are still in my possession. One shows the amount in cash of 3,113,676 plus stocks 130,645 plus other things. This money was left untouched since the departure of my father. According to the notary document it is fixed for 25 years. I am asking myself what will be done with the large sum of money accumulated by now after the 26th of October, 1990. After the accident things changed dramatically. Suddenly Billy Paul was in possession of lots of money. He built a custom home with all gold fixtures and custom furniture. My mother was very upset. She told me that Billy Paul had fixed it in such a way that he will end up with everything. This has become obvious. His house in Tucson is empty and I have no place to stay. Mother told me that he had forged my father’s signature on that mentioned document to make an association that would give him power and access over the money my father left behind. Billy had never anything to do with mother. He used to come to the house maybe once a year. But I used to see him get up in the pulpit at meetings and say how much he loves mother when I knew it was a lie. My mother used to get so upset at all the different doctrines that were going on and that Billy Paul would not try to stop them or at least stand for his father which he claimed to love so much. My mother lost her confidence and respect in the brethren pretending to preach the message and in everything they did. She used to refer to the “Branham Tabernacle” as “Collin’s corner” and made her remarks. She said that the spirit which was with my father was no longer there, but the Rev. Collins has made it a place of blasphemy. She wondered how Billy Paul would allow such a man to be a pastor of the tabernacle. Also I would like to mention that Billy Paul gave 75,000 dollars of the church money to Mr. Doug McQuiz in Tucson to start his church and a construction business. When mother found out she begged Billy not to do it. But, of course, he did. Mr. Doug McQuiz never paid it back to this day and he claims it was a gift from a rich friend. When I asked him to help me because I was in such a need, he said, “Go to work…” From the family inheritance I received my share of 55,000 dollars after my mother passed away. The Rev. Pearry Green of Tucson presenting himself nicely as the pastor of the Branham family suggested that I give him 50,000 which he would invest into a travel agency. He said, “From this time you don’t need to worry any more. You can go as missionaries to Guatemala and every month you will receive you’re your support.” I don’t remember exactly whether it was three, four or five times he sent a monthly support. Then he informed me that things did not work out the way he expected, and we didn’t see the rest of the money until this day. But we were not the only ones falling into the trap with him. Very soon I hope things will come to light which were done wrong including with all the pastors in the message who take the tenth (tithes) from the people and treat the large sums of money as their private income. They are hiding behind some statements my father made in this regard, not mentioning the fact that he himself drew a salary from the church. Up to this date the money given in the “Branham Tabernacle” in Jeffersonville goes in the church treasury. I was ready to take the whole matter to court but Bro. Frank told me not to do it because it’s against the Scripture (I Cor. 6). At this point I must mention that I had a very special experience in May 1989, when I was told to go and meet Brother Frank in Germany. Very clearly, and I say this before God Almighty, I saw a huge meeting where my father was preaching as usual. After the sermon a prayer line was called and I was in that prayer line. When my turn came to be prayed for I was told “Go and see Brother Frank.” Of course being taken by surprise, I asked spontaneously: “Brother Frank in Germany?” And the reply was quite commanding: “Yes, go and see Brother Frank in Germany.” At the beginning of June this year I spent a week at the Mission Center in Krefeld, West Germany. With my own eyes I saw how the stored-up food was made available in the different languages. Because I was told that I should go and see Brother Frank, I had confidential talks with him. As my husband and I could not go along with any of the strange doctrines we of course were pushed out from participating in the money that was so generously given to the members of the family as well as for mission purposes. When I was about to give birth to another child I asked my brother Joseph to give me 1,500 dollars to cover the hospital expenses, his reply was: “Where do you think I can get this money from?” I went to Rev. Pearry Green and he sent me off with “next to nothing.: My sister Becky took me to the Welfare while living in the house that is just as much mine as hers. We were of course not only disappointed we were upset seeing the luxury the rest of the family and also especially the ministers in this message are enjoying. We were getting bitter because we were humiliated so many times having to beg for money to feed our eight children. The brethren who present themselves pius before the believers have also finished my husband Eddy who is an ordained minister having a diploma of the Tucson University. Of course he could not go along with every wind of doctrine or become a slave of man. It is very easy to spread the rumor all over the world that Sister Sarah acts strange but cover up the facts that made me act the way I do. In the same way it is very easy to spread the rumor that Sister Jackson from South Africa is mentally ill, at the same time keeping secret why she landed in a mental institution. All insiders know about the 65,000 dollars Brother Sidney Jackson gave to Rev. Pearry Green who promised to take him as a co-pastor and accommodate him in Tucson. After the passing away of Brother Jackson of course Sister Jackson being left without money she begged Rev. Green and even other brothers approached him in this matter and finally he denies having received the money. I only hope that others who were also cheated will have the courage to come up with their stories and claims. I have said nothing but the truth. My family and others have pushed me through terrible things, sleeping in parks, airports, etc. For truly they are responsible along with the rich ministers for the mess in the Bride. Look at my family and most of the ministers, you see among them diamonds, designer clothes, fancy cars and offices. Most of them have used the tithes of the people to buy real estate and investments, travel agencies. Those having large well-off congregations have made themselves multimillionaires. All these ministers became rich using my father’s name. I would like to thank all of you who are helping us during this time of hardship. I believe that the return of our Lord is very near. The things which are not right amongst God’s people must be straightened out immediately. If we are not willing to do it the law will have to do it for us. I have just given you this little information to let you know that those who have taken responsibility after my father passed away are not at all the way they present themselves. God will have to raise up men after His own heart who have no desire for fame and money. Perhaps from the so-called Bride which is split up into so many different directions the Lord will have to call out His elect who will go in one direction and that is God’s ordained way according to the message my father preached from the Holy Scriptures. I believe he brought us back to the original Word. It is God’s ordained Message which will forerun the second coming of Christ, not all the false interpretations of the message. May God bless you all, please pray for us. Sarah Branham De Corado P.O. Box 20323 Columbus Circle New York, N.Y. 10023

Response from Junior Jackson to Billy Paul Branham

The following is the text of a letter from Raymond M. Jackson to Billy Paul Branham concerning Sarah Branham De Corado:

June 25, 1990 Elizabeth, Ind. R.R. #3 Box 163-I 47117 Dear Brother Billy Paul, Christian greetings to you in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. I write this letter with deep concern in my heart, after having read the tract sent to me from some brethern in africa. The one which Sarah [your sister], had printed and sent out. All of these things stated in the tract are between you and her. But my purpose in writing to you these words, is to find out why Sarah has been put on the outside of the family and treated worse than a stray dog? Why doesn't she have the same right to receive some of her living from the ministry of her father, Brother William Branham? You sure have been doing it for the past 25 years. Why can't she also have access to some of the material benefits? There has to be some reason why all of you have rejected her from the family circle. I am sure of one thing, if Bro. Branham was alive and given a choice to set things in order, Sarah would be given an equal opportunity to share in the things of his ministry. Billy Paul, I am not writing this to you, just to try and get Sarah's influence. I don't need anyone's influence. After reading the tract which she had printed and sent out, I could not help but feel concerned for her, her children and her husband. Maybe you don't consider her children as nieces and nephews of yours, but I am sure that Bro. Branham would see them as his grandchildren. It seems strange, Becky and her family are living in the home in Tucson, Joseph and his family are living in the home on Ewing Lane, and you are living in a good home in Sellersburg. So why can't Sarah have a good home also from her father's ministry? The money stated in the tract is a considerable amount. It is not right for her to be turned away from her rightful inheritence. Since all the money that was put in there, as the Lord's money, was due to Bro. Branham's ministry. No one child in the eyes of God has any more right to it than another. Sarah called me, and told me how she has been treated. I felt very sad in my heart for her and her family. She never asked me to wite this or do anything. I am doing this out of respect for her, being Bro. Branham's daughter. Billy Paul, you may say that this is none of my business. It is true that I am not a member of the Branham family, but I am a member of the family of God. And in the eyes of God this whole thing is not right. Do you remember in 1966, when certain men were going to make me their Joshua? I was in North Carolina at the time. You wanted to talk to me on this. So when I came home I met you and Bro. Nevile at the Tabernacle. There you told me how wrong it was for me to allow that spirit to go ahead. I told you then that I did not accept that Joshua teaching. Later in Christianburg Va you requested that I make a public statement condemning that Joshua teaching, which I did. It was in Ernest Fulcher's church in the afternoon service. Even though there are some that still condemn me on that. Now after almost 25 years since Bro. Branham's departure, you still cater to men who hold Bro. Branham as being Jesus Christ, Lord, or God. I well remember the Sunday that Bro. Branham preached on the "Bruised Serpent". How he condemned that spirit that wanted to make him Jesus Christ. Then that afternoon these men all came and parked in the driveway of his home and were suppose to have repented to him of that. Now almost 25 years later some still go on believing tat. And you go along with that, plus a lot of other things that some men teach. Not one time have you reached out to touch them, or corrected them. Billy Paul, in these last 25 years I have not left my wife for some other woman, though some have said that I did. I love my wife and she loves me. She has went around the world three times with me, enduring conditions that many would not have. I have never hoarded up money. In the past 20 years I have managed to feed people that have come to our meetings. I have also put many up in motel rooms that could not afford to do it for themselves. I want people to be able to enjoy the fellowship of each other no matter what their financial status may be. Many times people have asked me, "How do you do it?" Billy Paul, when Pastor Armon Nevile was on his death bed, he told me how that Banks Woods told him that Bro. Branham had said "Don't ever let Billy Paul get in control of the money, because it will ruin him." Now after these many years have gone by, It looks strange that you seem so eager to cut your sister and her family off. Billy Paul, I would think twice before I would let this condition fo on much longer. Your sister has as much right to any material benefits that Bro. Branham's ministry left behind, as you do. Could it be that she does not agree with all these wild revelations that some hold too? If so, then you are just using the financial condition as a leverage on her. Billy Paul, you have went with men who hold to quotes, etc. for years now. And you yourself have gone nowhere in the true spirit of God. During the last few years you have projected you brother Joseph, as God's next Prophet. That idea in itself lets me know that you are all mixed up. Oh yes! I know what Bro. Branham said. And it would do you well to listen to the scriptures on this. The Bible only spoke of one major Prophet for our age, Malachi 4:5-6. Any other prophet will have to come under Eph.4:11, New Testement prophet. Which he could become a prophet along with others. Such as in 1 Cor. 12:28, not, the Prophet, one and only. Which I am sure you would like for it to be. Because this would give you a great hold over God's people. Billy Paul, I am not picking on you. I'm telling you that for almost 25 years, you have played both ends against the middle, hoping to come out the winner. It won't work. Billy Paul, you have a nice personality, but it is minus the true love of God. Because if you can treat your own sister the way you are, then I know how you must look on others who refuse to go along with you and your motive of belief. Sarah is in New York struggling to survive, under conditions that aren't fit for a dog. You could make life much more enjoyable for her and her family. They have no furniture of there own, no car, and no future, only God. Little do you realize it Billy Paul, God could have allowed you to act this way through the years. To show the real christian people throughout the world, that you need Jesus in your heart and life in a greater way. You don't need all those deity people around you, using you t o put forth their carnal purpose- even though they have money to throw away. In 1966 when you talked to me on the Joshua spirit, I want you to know, you never offended me. I have always had respect for you as a brother in the faith. But now, years later. I see you catering to people of many carnal revelations. That never will be accepted by the true bride of Jesus Christ. Billy Paul, I remember that Sunday morning when Bro. Branham wept as he did, and preached his heart out, because of what those men and people had done to him, in making him Jesus Christ. Now that he is gone, you seem to hold to those people like they are glued to you. And their revelation, now in 1990, is even worse that it was then. You will have to give an account to God one day why all this has been tolerated. A few years back two men from the United Pentecostal Church wrote a booklet abut Bro. Branham. The title of the booklet was "Branhamism Fact or Fiction". In that booklet they condemned Bro. Branham's teaching on Serpent Seed, Predestination, and him being a prophet to the gentiles. Of which they said was unscriptural for there to be one. In this booklet they said that, "His body was kept in state at Faith Assembly Church, Jeffersonville, In.". After reading the booklet I wrote an open letter an rebuked the whole thing and challenged them on their statements. I sent it to the U.P.C. headquarters at Springfield Mo. and to the Rev. Post in Canada, who I had met one time up there in an airport. I expected to at least get some resonse from headquarters. But to this day, they have said nothing. Why do I say this? Because I used the Bible to defend him and not a bunch of quotes taken out of context of the sermons. I never heard any of your people say or do anything in defense of Bro. Branham's ministry in regards to what was said in their booklet. Billy Paul, you may think that God doesn't speak to anyone anymore unless they are in your camp. But please wake up and listen. I am going to send you a tract, telling what the Lord showed me back in 1988. When Jim Bakers ordeal first started. And also, last year there was a man from Costa Rica in our convention. He gave a great testimony in which he related how God spoke to him in two different dreams. To get ready and come to the states, and there he would lead him to a man that would give him new wine. Meaning a new revelation. He is coming again this year to the convention, and we will be making plans to go there to minister to those people. Billy Paul time is running out. It will not go on for another 25 years. But time will soon tell where we will all wind up at in heaven or tribulation. In the past 25 years, preachers and laymen around the world have taken Bro. Branham's name and message and run wild. Not only with their lives in an immoral way, but their revelations are as evil as their deeds. I have a filing cabinet full of some of the things they have preached and propogated. Some in print and some on tape. All done in the name of William Branham, God's prophet. Billy Paul, I saw the figures of the amount of money that was in the corporation name in Tucson. It doesn't bother me if it is three billion. If you can use it for the glory of God. Since your sister Becky and family have a home in Tucson, Joseph and family have the home on Ewing Lane, and you have one in Sellersburg, Please! in the name of Jesus Christ reach out your arms to your sister. And let her have a roof over her head. So that she and her family can spend a little of their time, while left here, living at least a life of peace and comfort. As you have. Please give those little children something of their grandfather's ministry. Becuase time will not go on another 25 years. and we shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ and give an account of the things that we have done in His name while in this life, II Cor. 5:10. Amen Raymond M. Jackson

Quotes of William Branham

I remember our first experience here, we were very, very poor. That's the reason today that I, my choice... And I--I say this with reverence. My choice is to be a poor man. I could've been a multi-millionaire if I had wanted to be. One person brought me a check, FBI agent, for a million, five hundred thousand dollars, a bank draft, and I refused to look at it from the Mission Bell Winery in California.

And I--what little money I get a hold of, why, I put it in foreign missions, all we don't just have to eat on, and we--we live poor. Come to my home and find out, or let the investigation find out anything you want to know. I come poor; I will return poor. My people are poor, and I--I'll desire to remain that way.

Oh, how everything was gone. I stood upon the hill up there when the baby laying on the mother's arms... I heard the preacher say, "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust." They buried my heart. When I seen that young wife of twenty-two years old, been married a little over two years. Holding little old Billy on my arms, and him looking, "Mama, mama," reaching for her, and his little sister laying on the mother's arms... An old turtledove set in the bush a cooing. I heard the clods drop. We were poor, had to bury her almost in a potter's field.

And I said, "Well, value!" I said, "Could you..." I remember years ago when I got my first little T-model Ford. I was a sinner. About 1926... And I would just shine that little thing all day Sunday to make it shine, stay home, didn't go to church, and shined it. Now, what if today I tried to find one piece of that car? It's gone. You couldn't do it. It's finished.

I'm a poor man. I haven't got no capital. And I go along. I've never took an offering in all my life, never did, just what people freely send me. Then I take that and hold it together, what I can, and then, as soon as I get enough built up, I take right off to the heathens and preach the Gospel with it, so... I'll have to answer for your tithing, the people that give it to me.

Looky here today, what they're going on now. Hollering at me about spending some money out yonder for Christians, and wanting to give me twenty years in the state prison for spending money to operate a religious move. And whiskey and beer and cigarettes write off tens of millions of dollars a year to corrupt the nation. And me trying to preach righteousness, standing in the door of Jesus Christ, and send me to the penitentiary for it. And take stuff like that of the evil, lowdown, smart, intelligence, and let them write it off for television programs which corrupted the world, sent women to the dogs. One of the greatest curses the nation's ever had, and they get by with it. They send me to penitentiary for preaching the Gospel taking a few dollars out here to--to preach the Gospel, that people give me to preach the Gospel with. I'm not rich, and I can't write that out. But yet they want to send me to the penitentiary, hold me two years, and got a trial coming soon. Oh, how lowdown, how filthy. God, be merciful.

All expenses was made. You had to sponsor that. You had to pay for it. Wish I could've just paid for it myself, but I--I can't do that. I can't afford it; I haven't got money like that. And I... The reason I can come to small meetings, as I have explained...Now, there's some of our brethren, such as Brother Roberts, and many of those men, who have great business, and they have radio and television, and so forth, that they've got to make so many thousands of dollars every day to sponsor that. See? They have to have it.

Why, these cars that we got today, couldn't run over these highways we used to have. My first trip west, it taken me sixteen days to go from Jeffersonville to Phoenix, Arizona, eighteen hundred miles. But, my, the most of--it was 1926, they had nothing but just old rock roads. I was a little boy setting there, holding this spool-top Ford; I thought I was making good time. Would took a horse two or three months to do it, if my daddy would've come.

When the income tax put me under a burden the other day, and for checks that people had signed in a meeting, to pay off the meeting. The income tax went back fifteen years, and—and made me pay to them forty thousand dollars. I had to get men with collateral and things. And they’re setting right in this building now, to sign a ticket, that I could pay it off at four thousand dollars a year, or be brought in before the courts. I said, “I—I don’t owe it. Here is my sheets, of my income tax.”<63-0126 - Investments, para. 291</ref>

Out into the land where this Message is going, from the East Coast to the West, from California to New York, down into the South, up into the North, out into the missions, and wherever It's going, and in this tabernacle. We are poor. We don't have these great, big, flowerly things, and television casts. We're just trying to do the best we can.

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