Father and Son: Same Person and Individual Different

We received this question in our comments on the article entitled Oneness View vs. Biblical View of the Godhead.

Dear Brother Jason,
The last quote really caught my attention. How do you reconcile this with where he says “he was the self-same person”?
I have always wondered.
Brother, this is a great question that you have asked. The quote he was referencing is this;

“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.”
-William Branham “Question and Answers on the Seals” 3/24/1963
So, at the end, brother Branham is stating that Jesus and the Father are individuals different from one another. We will provide a little more background on this quote later. So, in light of this statement the Father is an individual different from Jesus, how can we reconcile the statements that Jesus is the self same person as God? Let’s examine a few quotes that provide a broad spectrum of how this subject is brought up.

SAME PERSON

And there’s been three dispensations: the Fatherhood, the Sonship, and the Holy Spirit dispensation. See what I mean? But those three all… We don’t say, “our Gods.” That’s heathen, and the Jew knows that. But when you can make it to him that this Jesus is God, Jehovah God, not a second person or a third person; it’s the same Person all the time making Hisself manifest… See? And then with signs and wonders to prove that Jesus has rose from the dead… 53-0729 QUESTIONS.AND.ANSWERS.ON.GENESIS_ JEFFERSONVILLE.IN COD WEDNESDAY_

« 74 † They couldn’t understand how that that holy Man could ever, being what we say, the Christian saith, would die. I said, “The reason He had to die was to take away our sins.” I said, “He wasn’t no third Person, or second Person; He was the same Person, made flesh in order to take away our sins.” I said, “He–He had to come and make…”
And I give them the little story I preached on here, the night before I left, of the bee, you know, how it stings, then leaves its stinger, you know, and it can’t sting no more. And it had to be human flesh, for the–for the bee of death to sting, because death is not in the soul. Death is in the spir… in the flesh. So it had… God had to become flesh, in order to take away the sting of death. 54-1003M THE.WORD.BECAME.FLESH.INDIA.TRIP.REPORT_ JEFFERSONVILLE.IN V-26 N-5 SUNDAY_

Now notice, only thing He done, He took off His mask of humanity and become in a glorified state. See, He changed His fashion.
Now, not–not three people, as they try to say today, the denominations. Oh, brother. Not three people, not three… Change… Not three people, but three changes of the same Person. Oh, my, goodness. One time He appeared as a Father; He took off the mask; He was a Son; now He takes off the mask of flesh, and He’s the Holy Ghost: not three gods, three changes of the same God. Oh, blessed be the Name of the Lord: Three changes of the same Person. See? 60-1218 THE.UNCERTAIN.SOUND_ JEFFERSONVILLE.IN V-16 N-3 SUNDAY_

God, en morphe, masked in the Pillar of Fire. God, en morphe, in a Man called Jesus. God, en morphe, in His Church. God above us, God with us, God in us; the condescending of God.
Up There, holy, no one could touch Him, He settled upon the mountain; and even if a animal touched the mountain, had to die.
And then God come down and changed His tent, and come down and lived with us, become one of us. “And we held Him,” the Bible said. First Timothy 3:16, “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; for God was manifested in the flesh, handled with hands.” God eat meat. God drank water. God slept. God cried. He was one of us. Beautiful, typed in the Bible!
That was God above us; God with us; now it’s God in us, the Holy Spirit. Not the third Person; the same Person! 65-0221E WHO.IS.THIS.MELCHISEDEC_ JEFFERSONVILLE.IN V-5 N-10 SUNDAY_

Here we have four quotes showing that Jesus and God are the same Person. So, Jesus is the same person as God and yet an individual different. How can it be? Are there any explanatory statements Brother Branham gives us as to in what manner or how Jesus and the Father are the same Person?

CAREFUL ANALYSIS

We will take the four quotes above and analyze them more closely.
Here’s the message we have here. Jesus was Jehovah inveiled in flesh, come down inveiled. Now, God (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) is not like your finger, one, like some people thinks it. The whole thing’s just like… No, God is… I just unfolded it for you awhile ago (See?); that there’s a trinity in the One.
I’m a trinity in one. I’m soul, body, and spirit in one person. Is that right? Sure. I’m–I’m made up of–of cells, blood, and nerves, and yet one being. See? Everything you look at is in a trinity, and a trinity in one.
There was a trinity in the ark: the bottom floor, the creeping things; the second floor for the fowls, flying things; and the third floor for the Noah and his family. Everything…
In the tabernacle there was a congregation, the holy place, the holiest of holy. See?
And there’s been three dispensations: the Fatherhood, the Sonship, and the Holy Spirit dispensation. See what I mean? But those three all… We don’t say, “our Gods.” That’s heathen, and the Jew knows that. But when you can make it to him that this Jesus is God, Jehovah God, not a second person or a third person; it’s the same Person all the time making Hisself manifest… See? And then with signs and wonders to prove that Jesus has rose from the dead… 53-0729 QUESTIONS.AND.ANSWERS.ON.GENESIS_ JEFFERSONVILLE.IN COD WEDNESDAY_

Jesus is Jehovah inveiled
God is not one like your finger is one

These are the qualifiers, God unfolded himself and was veiled in Jesus. So Jesus is the veil, the manifestation of God. The Bride (you and I) are the manifestation of God for today. Jesus was for his day.
In the next quote we read in the Word Made Flesh in India that God became flesh. Based on our previous article, God became flesh when Jesus was baptized and the Spirit descended and said this is my beloved Son in whom I’m pleased to dwell in.

In Uncertain Sound he says that it’s the same Person manifesting himself all the time, God, who is a Spirit was manifested and took on a mask in various forms and times during history.

In Who is this Melchisidece we read that God was manifested and changed his tent. He dwelt in the tent of the man Christ Jesus. So, let’s look at brother Branham’s further explanation of Jesus and the Father being the self same person.

This is from our original quote where he explains that the Father and Jesus are different individuals.

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. 63-0324M QUESTIONS.AND.ANSWERS.ON.THE.SEALS_ JEFFERSONVILLE.IN SUNDAY_

So, brother Branham was a man that needed to rely upon, submit and surrender to God, so that God could be manifested through him. He tells us that this is how Jesus and the Father were the selfsame Person. We remember that man was made in the image and likeness of God and this was marred by sin, but Jesus was that image of God restored, he was perfect and without sin. So when you saw Jesus (the image) you were seeing God. Jesus was a man that needed to surrender and submit his will to God. In doing this, you were seeing God himself in the form of a man.

SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES

Let’s examine some scriptures that bear record to both sides of this coin. I do believe, being able to see that Jesus is the same person as God and that he is an individual different is critical to the Bride in this day. We cannot stay in the Jesus only doctrine and miss what brother Branham was teaching.

Jesus being an individual different from God

Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. John 7:16 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. John 5:30 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. John 5:19 And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. John 8:29 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. John 6:38 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. Mark 10:18 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. Luke 22:42 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: Ephesians 1:17 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. 2 John 1:9 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. John 17:3 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. 1 Corinthians 8:6

Jesus being the same person as God

Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? John 14:9 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:19 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: Colossians 1:15 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: Philippians 2:6 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; Hebrews 1:3
I and my Father are one. John 10:30

CONCLUSION

Jesus is the image of God, the express image of his person, when you see him you are seeing God, God was in him, the Son and the Father are one. If we fail to undertand the distinction between “the only true God and Jesus Christ” (John 17:3) and the unity showing that Jesus “and my Father are one” (John 10:30) then you are missing the teaching of the message and the Bible. The church is built upon the revelation that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:17-18).

If you have any questions regarding this, please feel free to write them below in the comments section or email us on the contact page.