William Branham used several key elements from the theologies of other cult leaders, enabling his cult of personality to become a sponge that soaked up members who left other groups. One cult leader that Branham plagiarized was Watchtower Society’s Charles Taze Russell, otherwise known as the leader of the “Jehovah’s Witnesses”.

The group was nicknamed Jehovah’s Witnesses because they chose the Latin translation of “Yahweh” (YHWH) first introduced by William Tyndale in his translation of Exodus 6:3, “Jehovah” (JHVH). Russel began claiming that God’s name was NOT Yahweh as declared in the original text, but instead, that the translated name of God was better than the original. Branham frequently declared that “Jehovah of the Old Testament was Jesus of the New Testament”. Interestingly, Branham’s sons created a business entity to move large sums of money, and they called it “Jehovah Jireh”, which translated means, “Yahweh will provide”. The original translation was “YHWH-Yireh”

Not only did Russel change the name of God, Russell demoted the deity of Jesus Christ. According to Russell, Jesus was an archangel named “Michael”. This theology was also picked up by Branham in 1955, though it did not become integrated into “Message” cult theology. Branham declared that Michael was the Christ, but apparently decided that demoting Christ would hurt attendance in his revivals.

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

Jehovah’s Witnesses:
https://william-branham.org/site/research/topics/jehovahs_witness

Jehovah’s Witnesses Michael the Archangel:
https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/archangel-michael/

Jehovah Jireh Foundation:
https://william-branham.org/site/research/topics/jehovah_jireh_foundation

Jehovah Jireh:
https://www.gotquestions.org/Jehovah-Jireh.html