Preserving Pentecostal History: William Branham's Lost Recordings

There were several recognized names involved with the rapid changes to William Branham’s stage persona from 1936 to 1947 and beyond. From Gordon Lindsay and Jack Moore to W. E. Kidson and Raymond “Chaplain Ray” Hoekstra and more, Branham’s images was molded and re-branded several times until his name was recognized in the healing revival. With these men came their powerful financial engines, marketing, and finely-tuned business operations.

Before the publishing companies that exist today, Spoken Word Publications and Voice of God Recordings, these men recorded, printed, distributed, and sold religious products that were widely popular among the participants in the healing revival. Many of these products are lost to time, but remnants of their existence still remain. Pentecostal groups interested in preserviing history are always excited to find these historical artifacts and are eager to re-publish them once located. This was not the case with William Branham.

The very first recordings and transcripts of William Branham start with the sentence, “We’re getting some new gadgets for recording”, suggesting that there were … old … gadgets for recording. This is somewhat verified by the revivals at Vandalia, which newspaper reporters described as very costly and very electronic. Loudspeakers carried Branham’s voice throughout the streets of Vandalia. Because of the changes in stage persona, however, cult leaders are not very excited about republishing these early recordings.

You can learn this and more on william-branham.org

Transcripts (From cult product “The Table”):
https://table.branham.org