Anniversary Edition - 55 Years in God’s Service

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Heb 13:8)

Heartfelt greetings to all brothers and sisters worldwide in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ with the Scripture from Rev 1:1:

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John …”

The Apostle John was such a servant unto whom the prophetic part of the Plan of Salvation was revealed. The Apostle Paul was such a servant who was given the revelation of all things that were to take place during the time of grace until the Return of Christ.

Paul was able to write: “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry …” (1 Tim 1:12). I can say the same. The following remains true as well: “And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings …” (1 Cor 12:28).

According to His Plan of Salvation, the Lord God Himself has placed ministries into His Church. In our time, the special ministry of Brother Branham played a significant part in the Plan of Salvation for the entire church all over the world, as does the ministry through which the last message directly foreruns the second coming of Christ.

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah: “But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child (I was 29.): for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. … Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it. … And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.” (Jer 1:7, 12, 19).

The high priest Joshua was told: “Thus saith the Lord of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.” (Zec 3:7).

Truly, God revealed to His prophets and apostles what He had determined for His sons and daughters from eternity – and in these final days He has also revealed it to us. The Word and the whole counsel of God have never before been revealed in such clarity and entirety as they have in our time.

In previous Circular Letters I have reported about the many years and mentioned special experiences that are directly connected to the ministry with which the Lord Himself commissioned me on April 2, 1962.

As requested by various ministering brethren, I will briefly provide some personal data once more. As many of you know, I was born in December 1933 in the region of Danzig, formerly West Prussia. After fleeing the war front with my parents and family members in January 1945, we settled in northern Germany in March 1945. Beginning in 1947, I attended evangelistic meetings and international Christian conferences, particularly in Hamburg. In 1948 I experienced my conversion and was baptized, and in 1949 I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and consecrated my life to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I repeatedly visited the meetings in the Elim Pentecostal Church on Bach Street as well as the Free Pentecostal Church on Eimsbütteler Street in Hamburg. In the postwar years, the Holy Spirit was particularly moving among the refugees and expellees. In some cases, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was so mighty that even the entire congregation harmoniously praised God, speaking in tongues while praying.

The first time I heard about William Branham was in 1949 during the Pentecostal Conference, namely from the American evangelist Hal Herman. He had been a war correspondent in 1945 and filmed the ruins of Hiroshima after the nuclear bomb attack. Also Albert Götz later wrote in his magazine Mehr Licht about William Branham and the extraordinary things that took place in his ministry. He published the German translation of the book William Branham – A Man Sent from God written by Gordon Lindsay.

Since January 1952, I lived in Krefeld. Here was a small Free Pentecostal Church in which I was also asked to preach at times. After reading the book William Branham – A Man Sent from God, the desire arose in me to hear this man of God in person.   

In August 1955, I witnessed the blessed meetings of Brother Branham in Karlsruhe. His simplicity and humility made a deep impression on me. In the meetings we saw the gift of healing combined with the gift of prophecy to see in visions what God revealed in that moment about the lives of the sick who were in the prayer line. The same ministry as the one of our Lord reported in the Gospels was happening in front of us. Indeed, the blind received their sight before our eyes; the lame were healed, and the critically ill were made well. The full Gospel of Jesus Christ was preached, and God confirmed it with signs following (Mk 16:20). From the first day on, I was convinced that no one could do the works which were taking place here unless God was with him and did them. They were meetings as described in the Bible, days as in the time of the apostles that I experienced in August 1955 as an eye and ear-witness in Karlsruhe.

I knew how differently the various churches taught, believed, and baptized. For that reason, I wanted to know what this man of God believed and taught; after all, God confirmed the Word then and there before thousands of people. With this profound longing, I attended the large Voice of Healing Convention in Dallas, Texas, USA, from June 6 to 15, 1958, which had been arranged by Gordon Lindsay. World-renowned evangelists spoke during the morning and afternoon services, but in the evening services Brother Branham was the main speaker. That gave me the opportunity to draw a comparison, and the first three days were more than enough to gain clarity: It was the divine legitimation of his ministry which distinguished Brother Branham from all the other evangelists.

Before the evening service in Dallas on June 12, 1958, I approached him and said to him, “Brother Branham, I recognize the difference between you and the other evangelists. I would like to know what you believe and teach.” His answer was, “I have a message that I must bring. Go and see Leo Mercier afterwards; he is the one who records the sermons on tape. Ask him to give you some of them …” At the end of this conversation he said, “Brother Frank, you will return to Germany with this message.” At that time, I had been living in Canada for 2 ½ years. And that instance was the first time I heard about a “message.” At the end of the conversation, we hugged each other. The next day, I went to Brother Mercier, and he gave me five sermons on tape. I left my address and from then on received every sermon that Brother Branham preached.