Jesus According to William Branham
For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. (2 Corinthians 11:4)
Most Message Believers (MB) think that William Branham was essentially a Oneness Pentecostal in his doctrine of the nature of God. This view is known as Modalism, which is the belief that God is one person who manifested Himself differently in 3 dispensations in time. That is, He revealed Himself in the Old Testament as Father; in the New Testament as the Son; in the Church as the Holy Spirit. However, WMB said that he was neither Trinitarian nor Oneness. He said, "And you Oneness brethren, many of you get off the wrong track when you try to think that God is one like your finger is one. He can't be His Own Father. He can't be" ("Palmerworm, Locust, Cankerworm, Caterpillar," sermon #59-0823). Most MBs don't know what he meant when he said that God wasn't one like your finger or that Jesus couldn't be His own father, so they continue believing that WMB's view was basically the same as the pseudo-Christian heresy of the Oneness Pentecostals. But he wasn't Oneness, and MBs such as Lee Vayle and Mark Strohkorb have searched the Message with great diligence to discover a more accurate (though still confusing) representation of what WMB believed and taught about the nature of God the Father, His Son, and the relationship between them. The following is a brief summary of William Branham's view of the nature of Jesus Christ according to his taped sermons. Each element of this synopsis can be found in the various quotes which we'll discuss in this article:
William Branham believed that before creation, God was a Spirit which was singular in person. He was all alone with nothing but His thoughts. But some time before creation, He put forth from His own being another person; a separate unique being called the Logos. This Logos was Jesus in spirit form. The Logos was a reflection of God's character. It is the Logos which then created the heavens and the earth. When God said, "Let us make man in our image," He was speaking to the Logos. The Logos was identified in the Old Testament as Michael the archangel. Then God created out of nothing in the womb of Mary a "blood cell" (what we would call a zygote, which is a fertilized egg) which was a physical body for the Logos to dwell in. The Logos was then born in Bethlehem and was named after the Father whose name was Jesus. Jesus the Son was not God, but the image of God (the Logos) in human form. It wasn’t until the time of Jesus’ baptism that the Holy Spirit came to dwell in Jesus’ physical body, making Him the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form. But before Jesus was to die on the cross, during the passion in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Holy Spirit left Jesus’ body because God cannot die. When Jesus reigns in glory, He will sit on His own throne, separate from and below the throne of His Father.
Now we will examine various facets of WMB's Jesus which redefine Him as a different Jesus than the biblical head of the Christian Church.
Trinitarianism
is of the Devil!
"Now, my precious brother, I know this
is a tape also. Now, don't get excited. Let me say this with godly love. The
hour has approached where I can't hold still on these things no more: too close
to the coming. See? Trinitarianism is of the devil! I say that THUS SAITH THE
LORD."--William Branham
"Revelation Chapter 4, #3," tape #61-0108
"You say, 'The blessed holy trinity.' Find me the word 'trinity' anywhere in the pages of God's Bible. It's a man-made scheme, an old dirty church rag wrapped around to take the place of the sap Line of God's Holy Spirit. There's no such a thing. There's no such a thing. You find it and come to me. You're duty bound to do it as a Christian, if you find it. It's not in God's holy Writings. And the 'Father, Son, and Holy Ghost' is hatched out of hell; there's no such a thing as three Gods."--William Branham
“Palmerworm, Locust, Cankerworm, Caterpillar,” sermon #59-0823
Here are a few quotes that William Branham
made regarding the Deity of Jesus Christ. Please note that most were
made after the Seals:
"The man, the body was not Deity, but
Deity was in the body."
“God’s Gifts Always Find Place,” sermon # 63-1222J
"Jesus was not God, but He was God. He
was a Man, yet He was God. He could cry, and yet He could raise the dead. He
could cry for a man being dead and raise him back up again. He was
Jehovah-jireh, Jehovah-rapha, Jehovah Manasses; He was Jehovah, all completely.
He was Jehovah, and yet He was a Man."
“Questions and Answers,” sermons # 64-0830M
Jesus was not God before His baptism--
"And when Jesus, a carpenter's Son, physically speaking, when He come to the earth here that's all He was known of, and the day that when John baptized Him, God a vindicated Him. God spoke from the heavens. John saw Him coming in the form a dove, and said, 'This is My beloved Son in Whom I'm pleased to dwell.' The right translation there is, 'In whom I am pleased to dwell in.' [William Branham got it wrong on both counts. The actual verse says, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."] Jesus immediately anointed with God, He was just a man till that time, but now He becomes the God-man."
Jesus Christ the Same Yesterday, Today and Forever, August 6, 1955, message #55-0806)
"He was--He was Jesus when He was born.
But when the Holy Ghost came upon Him after His baptism, He was anointed with
God. God was in Him, 'cause He come to fulfill the Word."
“The Messiah,” sermon # 61-0117
"And this little Boy, twelve-year-old
Child, no wisdom at all, why, but just a twelve-year-old Boy... The Father
didn't dwell in Him at that time, because He come on the day when He baptized
Him; he saw the Spirit of God coming down (See?), and went in Him."
“Paradox,” sermons # 64-0206B
Jesus the man talked things
over with God just before His death--
"Remember, Jesus was a Man; God was in
Him.
There come a time where the Spirit that was leading the Lamb, the Dove. There had to be a conference
between the Lamb and the Dove. And they formed a place to set it. After the
supper that night, they crossed over a little brook Cedron, and... or
somewhere, and went across the brook, and went into a garden called Gethsemane.
They had to have a conference. God and Christ had to talk it over."
“Conference with God,” sermon # 59-1220M
The Spirit left
Jesus' body in Gethsemane and He again became just a man--
"When God looked down upon the body...The
Spirit left Him in the Garden of Gethsemane; He had to die a man."
“Rising of the Sun,” sermon # 65-0418M
These are just a very few examples which give
a clue to what William Branham really believed about the Deity of Jesus
Christ. Mr. Branham believed that Jesus Christ was a man, but one created
especially for the incarnation of God's Spirit. Jesus was not God
Himself, but a body with its own will and conscioussness which became the fulness
of the Godhead bodily at His baptism. That Spirit left Jesus in the
Garden of Gethsemane where He became just a man once more. After the
Resurrection, the Spirit that was in Christ comes to all believers while Jesus
Christ the man waits in Heaven until His second coming.
Some have asked, "If God 'so loved the
world', why did He send His son rather than come Himself?"
Indeed! God so loved the world that He did come Himself, making
Himself one of us and putting Himself through the same temptations and suffering
that we as human beings endure. God didn't send someone else to do the
dirty work. He did it Himself!
This typifies why I maintain that one must
refer to the Bible and not the Message for sound biblical doctrine.
Preincarnate Jesus was the First Creation of God
Who was God talking to when He said, "Let us make man in our image"? WMB said:
Well now, if you'll notice close now, in Genesis 1:26, let's get the first part first. God said, "Let us..." Now, "let us," us is ... "Let us make man in our own image." Our, 'course, we realize He's talking to someone; He was speaking to another being.So God was speaking to another being, another person besides Himself. Who was this other being? WMB said:
("Questions And Answers On Genesis," sermon #53-0729)
The first creation was God Himself; then out of God came the Logos, which was the Son of God; then out of the Logos, which was the Word ("In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."), out of the Logos came forth the--the man.
("Questions And Answers On Genesis," sermon # 53-0729)
This other being was the Logos, the Son of God. Not God, but someone who came out from God; someone created by God. WMB said:
But in there is a great supernatural Being, Jehovah God, Who covered all space of all places at all times. He was from everlasting from everlasting; He is the beginning of creation. That's God. Can't see nothing, can't hear nothing, not a move of an atom in the air, not nothing, not no air, no nothing, but yet God was there. That was God. (Now, let's watch for a few minutes, and after a while...) No man has seen That, now; that's the Father. That's God, the Father.
("Questions And Answers On Genesis," sermon #53-0729)And the Logos, which was the Son of God went out, created by these great fountains of purity, God, as those Spirits went out, and it created the Logos. And it was a body. It was in the form of what we are now, which is called in the clergy way of speaking it, a theophany. It's a body that doesn't have a spirit in it.
("Thirsting For Life," sermon #57-0630)As we had it the other night: God, in the beginning, was Spirit. And then, from God, went out the Logos, or the theophany, which was a form of a man, called the Son of God, prefigured. He came in earth, in a body of flesh, even before He came in Jesus Christ. Now swallow that one once, brother.
("Hebrews, Chapter Four," sermon #57-0901E)The Logos, and this great Fountain, this great Fountain of Spirit which had no beginning or no end; this great Spirit began to form, in the creation, and the Logos that went out from It was the Son of God. It was the only visible form that the Spirit had. And It was a theophany, which means a body, and the body was like a man.
("Hebrews, Chapter One," sermon #57-0821)Let's go back a hundred million years before there ever was a star, moon, or anything in the world. Now, there was a time when there wasn't nothing here; it was just all forever and eternity. And all of ever and eternity was God; He was there in the beginning. Now, let's go out here on the edge of this banister and look over and see these things happen. Now, "No man has seen the Father at any time." No man can see God in the bodily form, because God is not in body form; God is a Spirit. See? All right. "No man has seen the Father, but the only begotten of the Father hath declared Him," First John. See? Now, but notice now, there's nothing; there's just space. There's no light; there's no dark; there's no nothing; it just seems nothing. But in there is a great supernatural Being, Jehovah God, Who covered all space of all places at all times. He was from everlasting from everlasting; He is the beginning of creation. That's God. Can't see nothing, can't hear nothing, not a move of an atom in the air, not nothing, not no air, no nothing, but yet God was there. That was God. (Now, let's watch for a few minutes, and after a while...) No man has seen That, now; that's the Father. That's God, the Father. Now, notice. Then after while I begin to see a little sacred Light begin to form, like a little halo or something; you could only see it by spiritual eyes to look now, while we're looking, the whole church now. We're standing on a great big banister, watching what God's doing. And we'll get right down to this question here and you'll see how He brings it in. Now, no one has seen God. And now, the next thing we begin to see, by eyes of supernatural looking, we see a little white Light forming out there. What is that? That was called, by Bible readers, "Logos," or "the anointed," or "the anointing," or the--as I was going to say, the--the part of God begin to develop into something so human beings could have some type of an idea what It was: it was a little, low--a little Light moving. He... That was the Word of God. Now, God gave Himself birth to this Son which was before there was even an atom in the--or air to make an atom. That was... See, Jesus said, "Glorify Me, Father, with the glory that We had before the foundation of the world." See, way back in yonder . . .
("Questions And Answers On Genesis," sermon #53-0729)
When Jesus Was Created, We Were a Part of Him
If you are a son of God, and if I am a son of God, or a daughter of God, we were in God at the beginning. And when Jesus became the fullness of the Word, then we were in Him, germ form. When He was crucified, we was crucified in His body. When He arose from the dead, we rose with Him. And now, since we have recognized it, "now we set together with Him, in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus." See? For He… We, if we are sons and daughters of God, we are God's children, then we are attributes of God. Then we were… got Eternal Life. And God is the only Eternal Life there is. Then, we were in Him from the beginning. And when Jesus became all that Word, then we were a part of Him then.”
(“Christ Is Revealed In His Own Word,” sermon #65-0822M)
Did
Jesus Christ Come in the Flesh?
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that
confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is
not of God: and this is that [spirit] of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that
it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
1 John 4:2-3
For many deceivers are entered into the world, who
confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an
antichrist.
2 John 1:7
We've been disussing lately how Wm. Branham
did not believe that Jesus was literally God, but only became God as the Holy
Spirit (Spirit of Christ, or the Logos) indwelled Him at His baptism (see Deity
of Jesus Christ). While pondering the significance of this
teaching, I thought of the 2 passages which appear at the beginning of this
post. Now here is the problem: Did Wm. Branham teach that Jesus Christ
came in the flesh? I would contend that he did not. Here's
why. John is clearly stating that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh,
that is, that He came to us as a human being. But WMB taught that
the man came first, then 30 years later, Christ descended and dwelt in that
man. In other words, Jesus Christ did not come as a man, but
came and dwelt in
a man. John is addressing a particular heresy which actually
distorted the revelation that Jesus Christ was literally God come in the form
of a man. The heresy he wrote against was a form of Gnosticism
known as Cerinthianism:
GNOSTICISM {Introduction to I John, NIV Study
Bible}:
"Christ’s true humanity was denied in two ways: (1) Some said that Christ
only seemed to have a body, a view called Docetism, from the Greek dokeo
("to seem"), and (2) others said that the divine Christ joined the man Jesus at
baptism and left him before he died, a view called Cerinthianism, after its most
prominent spokesman, Cerinthus. This view is the background of much of I John
(see 1:1; 2:22; 4:2-3)." [emphasis added]
http://www.geocities.com/xjweason73/Do_You_Have_Another_Gospel.html
Cerinthianism. A first century Gnostic doctrine named after an early proponent,
Cerinthus, who held that Jesus and Christ were separate beings. According to
this view, Jesus was a human born naturally (not of a virgin), while Christ was
a spirit that came upon Jesus at his baptism and left before his crucifixion.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/pentecostal/One-Glos.htm
Among those who taught that John wrote his
epistles to combat Cerenthianism was Irenaeus, Wm. Branham's choice as
the second Church Age Messenger, who wrote:
[Cerenthianism] ...represented Jesus as
having not been born of a virgin, but as being the son of Joseph and Mary
according to the ordinary course of human generation, while he nevertheless was
more righteous, prudent and wise than other men. Moreover, after his baptism,
Christ descended upon him in the form of a dove from the Supreme Ruler, and
that then he proclaimed the unknown Father, and performed miracles. But at last
Christ departed from Jesus, and that then Jesus suffered and rose again, while
Christ remained impassible, inasmuch as he was a spiritual being. (Irenaeus, Contra
Hereses 3.4)
www.theology.edu/biblesurvey/1john.htm
In his epistles, John warns the church
against this early heresy, calling it antichrist. John affirms that
God's true revelation is that Jesus the man was in fact God in
human flesh.
Wm. Branham's teaching of the nature of Jesus
is nearly identical to Cerenthus', the main difference being that Wm.
Branham beleived Jesus' body was created ex nihilo in Mary's womb
while Cerenthus believed Jesus was conceived naturally by the
union of Joseph and Mary. But the error which John argues
against most strongly is the teaching that Jesus was not God, but a
man in whose body God's Spirit dwelled between the time of His baptism and
just prior to His crucifixion--the very thing that Wm. Branham taught as a
restored revelation to our day!
For those who see Wm. Branham's teaching
on the Deity of Jesus Christ as a minor issue and having no real consequence in
the larger scheme of salvation, I would suggest that John has made it perfectly
clear that a proper understanding of who Jesus Christ of
Nazareth really was is vital to our eternal relationship with the
Creator of the Universe and our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ!
William
Branham's Different Jesus
If Jesus was created out of nothing in the womb of
Mary as WMB taught, then He was not a descendant of Adam and therefore not a
part of the human race we belong to. He may have looked just like one of
us, even down to having 46 chromosomes and having and identically human genome
in His DNA. But without having been descended from Adam as we are, He is
not at all related to us. He would be no more related to us than a man
from Mars.
We have all inherited original sin from Adam because
we are descendants of Adam. The one exception, of course, is Jesus
because He is God in flesh. Paul says in chapter 5 of the book of
Romans that as in Adam all have sinned, so in the obedience of Jesus
Christ we are made righteous. Jesus is the anti-type of Adam in this
passage. Just as we inherit sin from the first man, Adam by virtue of
being of his race, in order for us to benefit from Jesus' obedience to the
Father, we have to be part of His race. Jesus must be our federal head
for His righteousness to be transferable to our account just as Adam was our
federal head in original sin being imputed to us. But if Jesus were not
descended from Adam as WMB said, He is not related to us and the type depicted
by Paul doesn't work.
The law of the Kinsman Redeemer, as portrayed in the
book of Ruth, illustrates the necessity of a redeemer of property to be a near
kinsman, or relative of the one whose property he's redeeming. I'm sure
you know that WMB placed great importance on the fact that Jesus Christ was our
Kinsman Redeemer. Jesus is portrayed in the New Testament as the redeemer
of His people (Luke 1:68), indicating that He is indeed related to humanity.
But if WMB's teaching that Jesus was created in Mary's womb were true, then
Jesus is not a member of the human race we belong to and could not be our
Kinsman Redeemer. WMB's Christology is demonstrably inconsistent.
If Jesus were not a Jew by birth (which He could not
have been if Mary wasn't His mother. In fact, WMB taught that Jesus was
not a Jew), then He would not have been under the Covenant of Moses, the very
Covenant He was sent to fulfill. Jesus considered Himself to be a Jew
(John 4:22). He had to have been a descendant of Mary in order to be
Hebrew and therefore qualified to fulfill the requirements of the Law under the
Covenant God made with the Hebrews. He is shown to be a descendant of
Abraham (Matthew 1:1; Galatians 3:16) and of Judah (Hebrews 7:14). Jesus
was, in fact, a Jew according to the scriptures.
Indeed, Jesus is not only related to us as a fellow
descendant of Adam, but is heir to the throne of David because He is also a
descendant of David (John 7:42; Romans 1:3; 2 Timothy 2:8).
If Jesus were not a direct physical son of Mary,
then He would not be a part of the human race which owed the debt of sin to God
that we do. He would not be qualified to die for our sins if He were not
part of the human race. The Father might as well have just forgiven our
sins without punishing the human race for our sins. But He didn't.
The Father demonstrated His justice in punishing Jesus Christ for the
sins of humanity, and demonstrated His mercy by imputing the righteousness of
the one, perfectly sinless member of our race to our account. The blood
of bulls and goats was not sufficient. Only the blood of a spotless human
being would work (Hebrews 10).
If WMB's teaching that Jesus was not the son of Mary
were true, none of what the Bible says about His purpose in the incarnation can
be true and we would all be lost in our sins.
Jesus
Was Created, Not Conceived
"God created both egg and blood cell [in
Mary’s womb]. And He [Jesus] wasn't Jew; neither was He Gentile. He was God,
God in the form of sinful flesh. That's the reason "I'll not see--let My
Holy One see corruption, neither leave His soul in hell." He was the
manifestation: God, to come into a tabernacle that He created Himself. Jesus
never did in all the Scripture call her mother. He called her 'woman'; not
mother, 'woman'".
“A Paradox,” sermon # 62-0128A
Jesus
Incarnate Was not the Son of God
"Now, when Jesus came to the earth, He
came in the name of three Sons: Son of man (which is a prophet), Son of God,
and Son of David. Now, He lived here on earth; He never did say He was the Son
of God. He said, 'I'm the Son of man.' Jehovah Himself called Ezekiel in the
prophets 'son of man,' because He had to come to fulfill Scripture as a
prophet. Moses said, 'The Lord your God shall raise up a Prophet likened unto
me.' That's the reason He could not be the Son of God there, because He was the
Son of man. He... The Word came to the prophets and He was the Word in Its
Fullness: Son of man, the major Prophet, not the major Prophet, but the God
Prophet. The Fullness of the Godhead bodily was in Him; therefore, He was the
Son of man.
Now, for two thousand years He's been known to us as Son of God, Spirit. And in
the millennium He'll be Son of David upon the throne. We all know that, who
believe the Scriptures."
“This
Day This Scripture Is Fulfilled,” sermon # 65-0219
The Holy Spirit is the Son of God
Now, anyone knows that God is a Spirit. Is that right? And the Holy Ghost is the Son of God; He's supernatural. Son of man was a prophet, a man. David was a king. But God is a Spirit. And in the church age He's revealed as Son of God. We believe that. You don't believe He's the Son of God, you're lost. Michael
the Archangel Was Jesus Preincarnate "'And at that time Michael shall stand,
the great prince.' Michael was Christ, of course, Who fought the angelic wars
in heaven with the devil. Satan and Michael fought together, or fought against
each other, rather." "Notice, Lucifer in the last days is
doing as he did at first. What did Lucifer do? The first thing that Lucifer
done to separate the fellowship of God and man, he wanted to build him a united
kingdom of greater splendor and seemingly more cultured, a greater kingdom than
Michael, Christ had. You got it? Now, now, if you miss it, just hold up your
hand and I'll say it again. You see? See? Lucifer at the beginning, his purpose
in heart was to achieve a brighter and greater thing in heaven than Christ had
(Is that right?) by seemingly a more cultured, more beautiful, more splendor
than the Kingdom of Christ." "I'll say something here, maybe I
oughtn't to say, but yet I believe I ought to say it. If you noticed,
Lucifer is exactly doing the same thing today that he did at the beginning.
See? Lucifer, at the beginning, wanted to build himself a kingdom which was
greater and more beautiful than Michael's Kingdom, Christ. He want... That was
his ambitions to achieve something like that." Of what importance
was William Branham's belief that Michael was Christ?
There were two main opinions concerning the doctrine of Michael being
Christ before Wm. Branham began his ministry: Neither version is based on sound
biblical exegesis, but on inferences made by the 7th Day Adventists and the
JW's based on dubious interpretations of the Scriptures. The Bible does not
ever connect Michael the archangel with Christ in any way. On what basis did Wm. Branham
believe Michael was Christ? We know that he taught that the preincarnate Christ
was the "Word", or the manifestation of God's thoughts. Did Mr.
Branham believe that Michael was God Himself before His incarnation, as the 7th
Day Adventists do? We also know that Mr. Branham
taught that Jesus was born as a man and did not become God in flesh until His
baptism. Did Mr. Branham believe that Michael was merely the creation of the
preincarnate Jesus--not God, but not yet man--as the JW's believe? We may never know what Mr.
Branham meant by his remarks because he didn't explain them. He merely parroted
a borrowed doctrine from the teachings of previous false prophets and left his
followers with yet another ambiguous, unbiblical doctrine to contend with. If Michael Was
Jesus, Then Jesus Wasn't Lord Jude 1:9 says, But Michael the archangel,
when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not
dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke
you!" WMB said that Michael the archangel was
Christ. Now, if Christ did not dare pronounce a railing judgment against
Satan, then to whom did he refer when he said, "The Lord rebuke you"?
It would seem that Christ was not claiming Lordship of Himself in this
verse. According to WMB theology, this verse asserts that Christ is not
Lord! "There's no man can heal,
not even Jesus. Jesus didn't claim to be a Divine Healer. He said, 'It's not Me
that doeth the works; It's My Father that dwelleth in Me; He doeth the
works.'" "Jesus didn't claim to do
any healing. He said, 'What the Father shows Me I don't do nothing. I can heal
nothing, but just--I do just what the Father shows Me by vision; that's what I
do.' And you know that's the truth, isn't it? Every Bible reader, scholar knows
that's the truth." Jesus is the 3rd Person of the
Trinity "Now, tonight Jesus
Christ has risen from the dead, and is living right here among us in
Spirit form, called the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, which is Jesus
Christ, the third Person of the
trinity." WMB Denies the Doctrine of the Dual Nature of Jesus Christ "The Father was Almighty Jehovah God dwelling in a Tabernacle called Jesus Christ, which was the anointed Son of God. Jesus was a Man; God is a Spirit. And no man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten of the Father has declared Him. He was... He... His Personality, His Being, His Deity, whatever He was, He was God. He was nothing less or nothing more than God. Yet, He was a man. He was a man, a house that God dwelt in. That's right. He was God's dwelling place." William Branham and Dynamic Monarchianism William Branham said:
This view of God that WMB just described is called Dynamic Monarchianism and was denounced by the 3rd century as a heretical explanation of God. Why is it heresy? From GotQuestions?org:
"Dynamic Monarchianism fails [to present a biblical understanding of God] in that it does not recognize the true deity of Jesus Christ." Due to many ambiguous and confusing statements WMB made about the nature of God, most Message believers hold to a Oneness view (aka, Modalistic Monarchianism) which is no less heretical than Dynamic Monarchianism, but that is not what WMB actually believed and taught.
Jesus Jr. "And now we find out that Jesus said, also, 'I came in My Father's Name, and you received Me not.' Then, the Name of the Father must be Jesus. That's right. The Name of the Father is Jesus, 'cause Jesus said so. 'I carry My Father's Name. I come in My Father's Name, and you received Me not.' Then, His Name was Jesus. . . Father is a title; I'm a father. Son is a title; I'm a son. Human is a title; that's what I am. But my name is William Branham. And the Name of the Father, Son, Holy Ghost is the Name of "Jesus Christ." Jesus said, "I come in My Father's Name." What is the Father's Name? Any son comes in his father's name. And the Father's Name is Jesus Christ. See? See what I mean?
Sons of God Equal to the Son of God!
"Oh, brother, you that's borned-again are sons and daughters of God, co-equal with Jesus Christ, in His Presence." Someone asked me, said, "Well, then, how could He pray to the Father if the Father was in Him?" I said, "How do you pray to the Father if the Father is in You?" See? There you are. You pray to the Holy Ghost. So, you sure do. See? "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." Great Jehovah God dwelt in Christ.
Now you say, "How could He be God and be man?" See, there is the mystery. See, in body He was man, in Spirit He was God. See? Someone asked me, said, "Then how did, Who did He pray to in the garden of Gethsemane?" I said, "I'll answer you that when you answer this: Do you believe you have the Holy Ghost?" "Yes" I said, "Then Who do you pray to? Where is He at when you are praying to Him? When, you claim you have Him, and yet you're praying to Him." See? People just… they just get some little idea and run wild with it, you see, that's the way it goes.
We got a Mother that answers when you… a Mother who is in Heaven, who Mothers us all. "As a hen hovers her brood, and coos to them, and—and woos over her… broods over her chickens, so will I brood over you."
Notice Jerusalem, the word. "Jerusalem is from above," the Bible said, "which we're… is the Mother of us all." And Christ is our Mother. We realize that God is our Mother, for we are born of Him.
Jesus and the Father Are Separate Individuals But the
Same Person?! Jesus
and the Father was the selfsame Person, just the same as the Holy Spirit in
me. You're looking to me preaching, but it's not me. It's not me
can speak a word that could bring, as you know, an animal; set there and
looked at it, and kill the animal and eat it. That's creative
power. That doesn't lay in a human being. On top of Mount Zion will set the Lamb. And the city will need no light, for the Lamb is the Light thereof. And above the Lamb will be the Father, which is the Logos, God, the great Light, the eternal Light that'll shine just above the throne. And Jesus will not be on His Father's throne, He'll be on His throne. And the Father will hover over the Son, which the Father and Son will be One.--William Branham
He said he knew what Jesus looks like because he's seen Him: I say it with reverence; I've seen Him twice. I thought, "That looks like the Lord Jesus." I thought, "I wonder if it is?" He was looking just exactly, directly towards where our house sets now. So I moved around this way to see if I could see Him. And I could see the side of His face like that. But He... I had to turn way around this way to see Him. And I said, "Uhm!" Never moved Him. And I thought, "I believe I'll call Him." And I said, "Jesus." And when He did, He looked around like that. That was all I remember; He just reached out His arms.There's not an artist in the world could paint His picture, the character of His face. The best I've ever seen was that Hofmann's Head of Christ at Thirty-three, I've got it on all literature and everything I use. That's it, 'cause that looks just like it, and so then--or pretty near, as close as it could be. And as I was praying, I heard Something say, "Stand up on your feet." And I just went ahead, praying, 'cause I--I--I just thought maybe I imagined that. And as I prayed on, Something said, "Stand up on your feet." And I stopped praying, and looked up. And the picture of Christ, the one that...I never did care for Sallman's picture. I--I like Hofmann's picture, the Head At Thirty-three, you know. And I've got a big picture of it, 'cause, when I seen Him in the vision that time, that's just the way He looked. Now, I'm not allergic to illusions as I know of; but visions are real. And there stood the Lord Jesus, the first time I'd ever saw Him in a vision of that type. He was just about, oh, probably ten feet above my head, standing in mid air with one foot just making a step. He had on a white garment with fringe around the side of it. He had hair down to His shoulders, and He looked to be about--a man about what the Bible said He was, about thirty, but a small, thin built Fellow, very small. Looked like He wouldn't weigh over a hundred and thirty pounds. He said nobody knows what Jesus looks like because nobody's ever seen Him: Now, what if we go downtown to look for Jesus, that He's the same? We'd see a man come along with a robe on like He wore, and the psychological thought of it that He had long hair... We have no record of that, that He ever had long hair. We don't know. But say that we did--we did see a man that looked like the artist's picture that painted of Jesus. And He had scars in his hands, scars in his feet, and--and thorn marks, and so forth, and looked like maybe the Hofmann's picture of Him, the "Head at Thirty-three," or maybe some of the other ones, like the inspirational, or--or some picture...That still couldn't be Jesus, because I'll tell you why. Because no man will see Jesus on earth in a physical body until first he goes to glory; because we'll be caught up to meet Him in the air. That's right. For He said in the last days, there'd be false Christs, and everything saying, "Lo, He's in the desert, and in the secret chamber. Believe it not." And how do we know that He had a robe on and how He dressed? We only know it... Would He look like the pictures that we see the--the painters paint? No. That's the psychological painting that some man had, his conception of what Christ would look like. And if we had go to by that, which one would be right? There's Hofmann, Sallman, and how many more? All different descriptions of Him. So you'd be a bit confused what He would look like. Would He look like Hofmann's painting of Him, or Sallman's, or some of the rest of them? We don't know. If Hofmann's right, then Sallman's wrong. See? Sallman's right, then Hofmann's wrong, and (See?) you wouldn't know what to look for. Now, if he stood here with scars, that would be a human being; that's flesh. Anybody can impersonate that; a human being can disfigure himself. Or, maybe, we don't know what Jesus looked like; we just got the--the--the artist's idea, the psychology of it, what He looked like; Hofmann had one kind, Sallman another, and how many more... So then, we find out that He must've looked a little aged, setting over against the side of the wall. We don't know just what He looked like. I wouldn't know. Psychiatrists, or psychology, paints us a picture. But Hofmann, and one, and Sallmon, and whoevermore... But that's just what they think about it. See, we don't know just what He looked like. And there He was setting there. And then He said this. There's so many people has so many different ideas about Him. See, each one as an individual try to draw up our idea about Christ, what He was, what He looks like, and--and how the psychologist's have painted the picture, like Hofmann's "Head of Christ at Thirty-three," and Salman and different ones. But see, we don't know He looked like that. So we could never understand, or what He looked like and by just a painting of some picture. Now, He appeared here as a physical body, looked just exactly like Hofmann's Head of Christ at Thirty-three, and blood running out of His hand, and so forth, nail scars all over Him, I wouldn't accept it. No, no, no, no. When He comes, Hisself, "Every eye shall see Him, every tongue shall confess Him; and as the lightning cometh from the east unto the west, so shall it be." Would you consider this man a credible witness in a court of law?
More quotes by William Branham pertaining to Jesus and the Trinity:
"And His Name was called what? Jesus. All right. Father, Son, Holy Ghost, now, Father and the Holy Ghost is the selfsame Spirit. What is Ghost? It's the Spirit of God. And when it was, He came on the baptism of Jesus and dwelt in Him, "This is My beloved Son in Whom I'm well pleased to dwell in." He came down and dwelled in Jesus, and that made Him Emmanuel on earth. So what was the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? [Congregation answers, "Jesus Christ." --Ed.] Certainly it was." "God became man. He had to become kinfolks. And He couldn't be God... And us sinners, creations of His creation, creative beings of His creation, 'cause He couldn't be kinfolks there. So God became man, that man might became God--become God." "When God made His first man in the garden of Eden, did you notice, He made him both male and female? He was a man made in God's image, a Spirit. He put him in flesh, Genesis, the next chapter, after He already made him, male and female. And there still was no man to till the soil. So then He created man out of the dust of the earth, not in His image, but then God came down in the form of man by Jesus Christ, to redeem the man that fell from the image of the earth. And he was made in the image of the earth.O God, can't you see what Gospel means? When God became man, so man became God; we're sons and daughters of God. "Why did God raise up a sexual part of a person? In the resurrection, why didn't He leave His body see corruption? Because He was holy. And how could He be holy if He'd have had a conception with Mary, and the pollen had come from Mary, the egg down through the tube into the womb? There'd have had to be some sensation to bring the egg down. Then the woman would be... "And all that God was, which was the Word, He poured into His Son, and His Son became God the Word." "Now, we realize, heavenly Father, that when You died for our sins, then every sin in the world was forgiven." "Now, John said in the 1st chapter, 'In the beginning was the Word.' Now, a word is a thought expressed. It's a thought first. You think it, then you speak it. And He was the Word. 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.' Is that right? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word... 'Cause it was His thought before He'd expressed It, and It was God. And when He expressed It, It became God, because the Word is a part of God, just like you are a part of your word. And when He expressed It, It became God. And that Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." "I used to think years ago that maybe God was angry with me, but Christ loved me. Come to find out, it's the same Person." "And Jesus is the Holy Ghost, in Spirit." Notice Revelation 16:13 to 14, between the Sixth and Seventh Vial, "Three unclean spirits like frogs" (did you notice that?) "went out of the mouth of someone." Now notice, quickly. Are you ready? Say, "Amen." A trinity of spirits! Now denominational brother, set still just a minute. Don't get up and walk out of the room, back out there on this radio, telephone hook-up. Don't turn your tape recorder off. Set still just a minute, and listen. You're born of God, you will. A trinity of frogs! A frog is an animal that always looks backward. He never looks where he's going; he looks where he's come from. See? Don't you see? Where was trinitarianism born at? Remember, 'three unclean spirits,' individual spirits. Are you getting it? Notice, they look back to the Nicaea Council where the trinity doctrine was born at, not in the Bible. There's no such a thing. They look back to the Nicaea Council at Nicaea, Rome, where the trinity was born at.
And you Oneness brethren, many of you get off the wrong track when you try to think that God is one like your finger is one. He can't be His Own Father. He can't be. But He is God. God is Jehovah, the Spirit; Christ was the House that He dwelt in.
"A Trial," sermon #64-0427
“Beginning and Ending of
the Gentile Dispensation,” sermon ##55-0109E
“Christ is the Mystery of
God Revealed,” sermon #63-0728
“There is Only One Way
Provided by God for Anything,” sermon #63-0731
“Expectations,” sermon #
50-0405
“Testimony,” sermon #53-1129
“South Africa Testimony,” sermon
#54-0902
"Questions and Answers on Hebrews 2," sermon #57-1002
But now the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ is the same-self Spirit. The anointed One, Jesus, the Man, was the Son of God, but the Holy Spirit was on Him was God. "My Father dwells in Me." See, It's the Holy Spirit, so it's still God.
("A Paradox," sermon #65-0117)"Dynamic Monarchianism is the view that Jesus was not in His nature God. It is the view that God existed in Jesus, just as God exists in all of us, but that God existed in Jesus in a particularly powerful way. Jesus was God because God inhabited Him."
God never put His Name in any church. He put It in His Son, Christ Jesus, when He and His Son became One."
"God's Chosen Place of Worship," sermon #65-0220
"The God Of This Evil Age," sermon #65-0801M
(or, "Jesus was just a man filled with God's Spirit just like us!")
"God Perfecting His Church," sermon #54-1204
“Convinced Then Concerned,” sermon #62-0118
"Calling Jesus On The Scene," sermon #63-0804E
Jesus, the Lord Jesus Himself was a Tabernacle in which God dwelt in to manifest Himself, 'cause He was a Spirit. He was a Spirit.
Now, Jesus wasn't eternal. God's Eternal. Jesus now is eternal because God has taken up a Body.
"Palmerworm, Locust, Cankerworm, Caterpillar," tape #59-0823
"Hebrews, Chapter Seven #2," sermon #57-0922E
"Thirst," sermon #65-0919
It's not me could take a
little boy here laying--the doctors laying him on his back, with heart trouble
tonight, and say, "Thus saith William Branham..." No. "THUS SAITH THE
LORD, it's finished." And bring him down to the doctor the next day and
it's all gone.
A kid with leukemia, till its eyes were bulged out, and
yellow all over, and its stomach... until they taken it to the hospital to
give it blood and things to even get it here; and in five minutes time, cry
for a hamburger, and take it back to the doctor the next day and can't even
find a trace of it. That's Thus Saith William Branham? That's THUS
SAITH THE LORD. Yet He is an individual different from me, but the only
way He's expressed is through me. See.
That's how Jesus and the Father
was. Jesus said, "It's not Me that doeth the works, it's My Father that
dwelleth in Me."
"Questions and Answers on the Seals," March 24, 1963, message #63-0324M
"Questions and Answers #2," August 23, 1964 (tape # 64-0823E)
Exploits of Faith, December 13, 1953 (tape #53-1213E)
How the Angel Came to Me, And His Commission, January 17, 1955 (tape #55-0117)
Testimony, November 28, 1963 (tape #63-1128M)
And I looked, and I thought there was something that I might've--be wrong. So I--I rubbed my eyes and--and looked up again. And he was standing kinda sideways, kind of a profile of His face. And the looks of His face, which I've always seen in the visions, has been like Hofmann's head of Christ at thirty. That's the reason I have that in my house, on my literature, wherever I can put that, because that's the way it looked, more like that. Only He seemed to be small.
The Seed is Not Heir With the Shuck, February 18, 1965 (tape #65-0218)
We Would See Jesus, February 8, 1961 (tape #61-0208)
Jesus Christ the Same Yesterday, And Today, And Forever, June 4, 1963 (tape #63-0604)
A Greater Than Solomon Is Here, March 6, 1964 (tape #64-0306)
Sirs, We Would See Jesus, March 18, 1963 (tape #64-0318)
Christ is Identified the Same in All Generations, April 15, 1964 (tape #64-0415)
Spiritual Food in Due Season, July 18, 1965 (tape #65-0718E)
"Questions and Answers," sermon #59-0628E
"The Kinsman Redeemer," sermon #60-1002
"Jehovah Jireh," sermon #61-0312
Well, you say, 'The egg might have been laying there. Could have been possible.' But that, if so, then look what happens here, then He wasn't altogether God. He wasn't God, inasmuch as He was human."
"Oneness," sermon #62-0211
"Behold, a Greater Than All of Them is Here," sermon #62-0715
"Sir, We Would See Jesus," sermon #62-0724
This prayer of WMB's actually assumes the ancient heresy known as, patripassionism, that is, that the Father suffered on the cross. This is interesting because in other places discussed on this page, WMB said that the Spirit of God left Jesus' body so He could die a man since God could not die.
"We Would See Jesus," sermon #62-0727
"The First Seal," sermon #63-0318
"The Easter Seal," sermon #65-0410
Notice where they come from. Notice. And the trinity of frogs came out of an old trinity, give birth to a new trinity, their mother. What'd it come out of? A trinity, 'the dragon,' see, 'the beast,' and 'the false prophet.' A trinity, new. For when were these frogs come out? When did it? Notice, they was there all the time, but it wasn't manifested until between the Sixth and Seventh Vial, just before the Seals opened to reveal it.
"For in the Message of the seventh angel, the mysteries of God would be known," all these trinitarian things, and false baptisms, and everything was to be made manifest. God help us to see what's Truth!
“The Anointed Ones at the End Time,” sermon #65-0725M
“Palmerworm, Locust, Cankerworm, Caterpillar,” sermon #59-0823