Fred H. Sothman, a 52 year-old Canadian wheat farmer who moved to Tucson in 1962 to be closer to the religious leader, was one of two persons with Mr. Branham that day the cloud appeared. Sothmann’s account:
“Reverend Branham and another brother, Gene Norman, and myself were well up into the mountains hunting javelina. I remember it was late in the afternoon, a clear warm day with not a cloud in the sky. The Three of us were spread out in different directions, perhaps about half a mile apart from each other. Then all of a sudden I heard this tremendous blast like a jet plane breaking the sound barrier, only much louder. Many rocks began to roll down the mountain not far from me. I instinctively looked over in the direction of Brother Branham, but couldn’t actually see him because he was behind a knoll. But just above him I saw this strange circular-shaped cloud rise into the air. It was kind of small at first, but the higher it rose the bigger it became.”
Startled by the blast and the tumbling rocks, Southmann said he didn’t grasp the significance of the cloud then. “But when Brother Branham and I got together a few minutes later.” he said, “he told me that seven angels appeared to him and had instructed him to go home (to Jeffersonville, Ind.) and reveal the meaning of the seven seals of Revelation (chapters 6 through 8). Sothmann was not surprised by Mr. Branham’s explanation. “Everyone who knew Brother Branham knew that he had these experiences all the time,” Sothmann said, “So neither I nor Gene Norman doubted him for a minute.”
The following account in Mr. Branham’s own recollection of the experience as told by one of his biographers: “Reverend Branham bent over to pick a few sand burrs from his trouser legs and as he did so a mighty blast came out of the south, rocking the mountains so that the boulders rolled down the slopes. For a moment he was fearful that some hunter had shot him, he was so shocked by it all. Then there came in reality seven mighty angels like an (inverted) pyramid or the letter V swooping toward him with the speed of light. He seemed caught up in them, and with their awful thunder. Then a voice cried, “Go back East.” He knew it was time to go back to Jeffersonville and preach the seven seals and reveal the unwritten mysteries of the thunders in the Book of Revelation.”
Within days Mr. Branham returned to Jefferson where in the Branham Tabernacle he expounded for seven nights on the meaning of the seals. he explained to his congregation his interpretation of who were the riders of the red, the white, the black and the pale horses and of the meaning of the great plagues and judgments of the last three seals, relating everything to history and modern times.
His congregation here and abroad listened and believed, because they saw in him a man whose powers exceed those of ordinary men, the last of the major prophets before the Second Coming. He is to them the messenger, or angel, promised in the Book of Malachi (chapter 4, verses 5 and 6) to the Laodicean Church Age, the last of seven which began with the Apostle Paul and including Martin Luther and John Wesley.
The Figure 7 was important in Mr. Branham’s life. He was 7 years old, for example, when he received the word, according to his biographers. And seven was the number of a series of continuous visions he received in June 1933.
The first visions were the invasion of Ethiopia by Mussolini and the dictator’s death at the hands of his own people, the rise of Hitler and the holocaust that followed it and the rise of the three isms and how the first two (Nazism and fascism) would be swallowed up by the third– “Watch Russia, watch Russia,” a voice admonished him, “Keep your eye on the King of the North.” (Also, Rome will play an important part.)
The fourth vision as the great advance in science and technology after World War II and both the fifth and sixth concerned women, the part they have played in the moral decay of the United States and then the rise of a beautiful but cruel woman to power (He assumes part of Harlot Woman of Rev. 17) either by religious means or perhaps by popular vote dominated by women.
“The seventh and last vision was wherein I heard a most terrible explosion. As I turned to look I saw nothing but debris, craters and smoke over the land of America.”
Using these seven visions as a base, Mr. Branham predicted Christ would return to earth around 1977 to claim his bride, that is, the elect or hard core of Christian believers.
“I am convinced,” the Rev. Roy Carpenter, pastor of the Pentecostal Church of Mesa, said, “that William Branham is that Elijah-like spirit which Malachi prophesied would precede the Second Coming of the Lord.” But as church history has borne out, there will only be a relatively few people who will receive God’s message and God’s messenger.
“In the days of Noah, we are told that only eight people in the whole world were saved at the time of the flood, even though Noah preached about the flood for 120 years. In Sodom, only Lot and his two daughters were saved. And when the other six messengers, Paul, Irenias, Martin, Columbus, Luther and Wesley–were giving forth their messages, comparatively few in numbers believed them.”
Sothmann, one of the three trustees of the William Branham Evangelistic Association, recalled that after the incident of the cloud he was on another hunting trip with Mr. Branham near Sunset Mountain. On that occasion, he said, Mr. Branham predicted judgment in the form of three earthquakes would strike the West Coast. And he mentioned Alaska, Seattle and Los Angeles. On Good Friday of the same year (1964) Anchorage was hit and on Good Friday a year later a milder earthquake shook Seattle.
“Fish and sharks will be swimming over where we are standing,” Mr. Branham is quoted as saying when later he and Sothmann visited Los Angeles. A large portion of California, Mr. Branham predicted would slip into the sea. Who was this man who while he was predicting doom was offering salvation? Was he a charlatan, an egomaniac, a glory seeker or just a well-meaning preacher out of step with the established doctrines of the day? Or was he a man set apart? His followers, of course, believe the latter and use the incidents which occurred during his life as the basis for their belief.
His life, which ended on Dec. 24, 1965, when a drunk driver killed him on a Texas highway, began in Indiana. When he was a boy of 7 on his father’s farm in Kentucky a sudden strong wind rustled the leaves of the tree against which was resting. Out of the wind, which was localized in his vicinity, a voice spoke. “Never drink, smoke or defile your body in any way,” the voice admonished, “for I have work for you to do when you get older.”
Later Mr. Branham told his followers that in his early years he tried to take a drink or smoke a cigarette but each time he was repelled by the recurrence of the wind. In June 1933 while he was baptizing a large group in the Ohio River near Jeffersonville “a blazing, whirling star appeared out of the heavens with the sound of rushing wind” and a voice spoke to him saying “as John the Baptist was the forerunner of the First Coming of Christ, so your message is the forerunner of the Second Coming of Christ.”
It was after that Mr. Branham secluded himself in a lonely cabin in Kentucky praying until he was exhausted. It was then he said an angel appeared–who was said to minister beside him all his life–and granted him two powers, that of being able to heal and that of being able to read men’s hearts and thoughts. Both powers, his followers say, were demonstrated throughout the world.
He was an easy man to talk to, his followers say, but often secluded in prayer, usually on behalf of someone who had asked him to, for as long as eight hours at a time. His experiences with his divinity were private, however. The 4,000 persons at the river in 1933, for example, heard the wind but none except him heard the voice.
The Rev. Perry Green, pastor of the 400-member Tucson Tabernacle, points out that in the scriptures clouds have always played a prominent role, and they are either identified with the presence of God or the presence of heavenly witnesses, in other words, angels. “God Himself appeared in the form of a pillar of cloud when He led the Israelites out of Egypt into Canaan,” he said. “And God came down from heaven in a cloud and talked with Moses. God also spoke of times; Jesus was taken up into heaven in Clouds at His times; Jesus was taken up into heaven in clouds at His ascension; and the Bible says that when Jesus comes again, He’ll come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
The Supernatural Cloud
The cloud that Brother Branham described as a constellation of Angels was photographed multiple times from the southern border of Arizona, all the way to the northern border. It was not only documented in Arizona, but it was also seen in northern Mexico, western New Mexico, and southern Colorado. Experts estimated its height at about 26 miles, which science says is more than 17 miles higher than clouds can form, and about 15 miles higher than any airplane can fly. Although experts never really explained the event, science is never without some sort of explanation. Their best guess is that the cloud traveled from the West Coast, about 500 miles east, at a speed of 135mph. That would be quite a miracle in itself, considering wind speeds were about 95 mph, it stayed intact the entire distance, and there were no reported sightings in one of the most populated areas on earth (Los Angeles).
The supernatural is something that mankind does not fully understand. How the entire world flooded with water, how the Nile River was turned to blood, how a strange star appeared to the wise men, or how a supernatural cloud formed over Arizona, are things that we will never understand while in these carnal bodies. So-called Christian scientists can come up with explanations that seem to make sense, but the bottom line is that their best guess, just like science’s best guess, is no more than educated speculation. Our faith is not in carnal understanding but in the revelation provided by the Holy Spirit.
The same Holy Spirit that wrote the Bible prophesied that these Angels would come when the prophet said this a few months before the cloud appeared: “I just heard that great blast that went forth, that sounded like it was south, from me, towards Mexico. But, it shook the earth. And when it did, I was still looking westward. And way off into Eternity, I saw a constellation of something coming. It looked like it might have been little dots. There could have been no less than five, and not more than seven. But, They were in the shape of a pyramid, like these messengers coming. And when it did, the Power of Almighty God lifted me up to meet Them.” (62-1230E)
A couple of months later, while hunting near Sunset Arizona, a supernatural cloud appeared, a blast shook the earth, and the prophet was caught up with the Angels. How it happened, we don’t know. Neither do we know the exact timing or why God chose to do it that way, but we do have a lasting memorial that is displayed in homes and churches around the world.
The Cloud
What really happened on this day, fifty years ago? Scientists tried to explain it, but they offered no more than a few ideas. Skeptics still try, but they only use the failures of science as their justifications. The only true explanation came from the prophet of God, named William Marrion Branham:
They took the picture, still they don’t know what about it. Here sometime ago, everybody said, “Looky here. This looks like this, and the Angels’ wings, how they’re folded in there.”
One day, turning it to the right, looking, there was Jesus Christ just as perfect as Hofmann ever drew Him. It was standing there with a white wig on, looking back down towards the earth, showing that He is Supreme Authority. The Heavens declare it, the Bible declares it, the Message declares it, all the same.
65-0718E Spiritual Food In Due Season
The progression of events that led to the photograph started a few months earlier. At about 10:00 in the morning on December 22, 1962, Brother Branham was in his room in Jeffersonville and a vision of seven Angels in the shape of a pyramid came before him. The power of God lifted him up to meet them, and turned him eastward. He didn’t know the meaning of his vision, but he knew something great was about to happen.
A couple weeks later, he was high in the Catalina Mountains of Arizona, asking the Lord what the vision meant. With his arms in the air, he felt something strike his hand. He opened his eyes to see a beautiful sword, with a pearl handle, a golden guard, and a glistening, razor-sharp blade. A Voice thundered out, “This is the Sword of the King,” representing the Word of God in the prophet’s hand.
The next month, a mysterious cloud spread itself across Arizona for a sign of vindication that God is with his servant, William Marrion Branham.
Brother Branham did not know it at the time, but the cloud was photographed by numerous people in Arizona near the time the Angels met him in the mountains, about 40 miles northeast of Tucson. There, he received the fulfillment of the vision and returned back east, to Jeffersonville, where he would reveal the Seven Seals.
Months later, he saw the picture in the May 17, 1963 issue of Life Magazine and immediately recognized the cloud as the constellation of Angels that met him in the Arizona mountains.
Today marks 50 years since that great day when God gave us one of the most obvious and supernatural signs the world has ever seen.
