Rightly Dividing the Deity and Humanity of Christ

This subject is a very thorny issue to delve into that people feel very strongly about. Unfortunately, many ministers and believers take one quote or one scripture and they go to seed on it, ignoring or explaining away every other quote. My point here is not to try to go into every detail on the Godhead. I want to narrowly focus on how Jesus is God and man. It is often stated that Jesus is 100% God and 100% man or fully God and fully man. I want to point out that Trinitarians, Jesus-only and Message believers all claim the same thing. Trinitarians stated the second person of the Godhead became flesh, entered into a state of being fully human and that the two natures share a hypostatic union. The two natures are in one person, Jesus Christ. Jesus-only believes that the Father took on flesh, thus bearing the title of Son. The Father is the Deity and the Son is the humanity. They essentially believe the same thing regarding the duality of the two natures of Christ, one person with two natures. The difference being that the divinity within the man Jesus is the one true and living God. As Message believers, we accept this as well, but there are some major differences that Brother Branham brings out that reformers and theologians have only probed at or mentioned as part of the history of the church. I will list these distinctive points and then go more deeply into them:

1. The life and genetics of God were given to Adam to pass on to the human race and was perverted by the injection of the serpent’s genetics into the human race. All are tainted by it. Jesus was born the Son of God with the very life and DNA of God himself.
2. Adam and Eve were made in the image and likeness of God, but Jesus was the express image, the exact imprint of God’s nature. When you saw the Son of God you were looking at the Father himself in flesh.
3. At Jesus’ baptism the anointing that came down upon him was the Logos, the fullness of the godhead.

The first point I made was: the life and genetics of God were given to Adam to pass on to the human race and was perverted by the injection of the serpent’s genetics into the human race. All are tainted by it. Jesus was born the Son of God with the very life and DNA of God himself.

Brother Branham said this:

“68. Now, but when Jesus, the Son of God, virgin-born, shed His Blood, the Life that was in that Blood was God Itself. The Bible said, ‘We are saved by the Life, the Blood of God.’ Not the blood of a Jew, not the blood of a Gentile; but the Life of God. God created this blood cell, virgin born. She never knew no man, neither did she… neither did the egg come from her.” [1]

The Son of God had the life of God himself, therefore, it was the blood of God. This is something that denominations never take into account.

“²⁷ For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. ²⁸ Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” Acts 20:27-28

The church of God is redeemed with his own blood. So, it is the blood of God that redeems the church. God is a Spirit and doesn’t have any blood, but he gave birth to a virgin born Son who carried the very life and DNA of God himself. When I was born I was brought together with the DNA of my mother and father and, therefore, I share in their nature. For Jesus to be sinless and the exact imprint of God’s nature he had to be born without any human instrumentality, not even the genetics of Mary. Jesus was formed as a little embryo within Mary. The nutrients she took in fed that little embryo. The blood of a mother never crosses the placenta into the baby. They have their very own circulatory system; in the case of Jesus, this was the circulatory system from the very DNA of God. The blood of the mother never mixes with the baby, otherwise this would be like a blood transfusion and if the baby and the mother had different blood types it would kill the baby. Only the nutrients from what the mother eats passes through the placenta’s capillaries into the baby’s capillaries.

“Why? The germ of God, the Life of God, was designed in the womb of a woman…” [2]

At the very same point I want to emphasize that a human body is not God. The life and DNA of God were in that body and therefore it was the blood of God, but the body itself was not God. God is a Spirit and Jesus is a man, in whom the fullness of the Spirit dwells. Which I will point out that Trinitarians and Jesus-only agree with this point, the humanity of Jesus is not the eternal Spirit whom we refer to as Almighty God. Jesus was not just a shell or body and inside of him was the Spirit of God which animated him. He was fully human; body, soul and spirit. Brother Branham says this:

“36 Now, notice now, God! Jesus said that, “Those who the Word came to, was called ‘gods,’” that was prophets. Now, not the man himself was God, no more than the body of Jesus Christ was God. He was a man, and God was veiled behind Him.” [3]

My next point was that Adam and Eve were made in the image and likeness of God, but Jesus was the express image, the exact imprint of God’s nature. When you saw the Son of God you were looking at the Father himself in flesh.

Hebrews 1:2-3 show us that the Son is the exact imprint of the Father’s nature and that he is the rays shining forth from God’s glory. Jesus is the beginning of the creation of God. God, as a Spirit, cannot be created, but he began to form himself in human flesh with Jesus. This is not the beginning of the old creation but the beginning of the new creation in Christ Jesus. God forming himself in human flesh. The life of God in the form of Jesus Christ and then through Jesus Christ forming a Bride through whom his very life is manifested. God’s purpose was to form himself in flesh through Adam and Eve in the beginning, but Satan spoiled this purpose. God being a great redeemer, through Jesus Christ, destroyed the works of the devil and is bringing his plan to fruition now. The Bride of Christ together with Christ is the perfect image and likeness of God. Jesus is the very exact imprint because the Bride was in Him.

Brother Branham consistently, throughout his ministry, emphasized the fact that he did not agree with the UPC Oneness doctrine.

“Now somebody says, “Brother Branham is a oneness.” No, sir, I am not a oneness. I do not believe that Jesus could be His own father. I believe that Jesus had a Father, and that was God. But God dwelled and tabernacled in this body called Jesus, and He was Immanuel, God with us. And there’s no other God besides this God. He is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And the Name of the Father, Son, Holy Ghost: Father, the Lord; Son, Jesus; Holy Ghost, Logos, Spirit of God. Father, Son, Holy Ghost: Lord Jesus Christ; that’s Him. And in Him dwelled the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” [4]

Notice, Brother Branham identifies why he disagrees with the Oneness doctrine and that is because they effectively teach that Jesus was his own Father. Since Jesus is the Son of God he therefore has a Father, who is God. I am the Son of James and therefore we can identify that my father is James. We also recognize, within this statement, I am not James and James is not me. But immediately Brother Branham emphasizes that God dwelled in this body called Jesus. Remember these things, Jesus said I can do nothing of mine own self, not my will, but thine be done, the testimony of two men is true, I am one and my Father bears record of me also. He also said I and my Father are one, he that has seen me has seen the Father. There is a scriptural distinction between and oneness of Jesus and the Father. This is why Brother Branham’s teaching is distinct from Oneness and Trinity. His explanation of the distinction between Father and Son and the unity of Father and Son is distinctly different. There are not two coequal and coeternal persons. Jesus is not his own Father. Jesus Christ is a human, born of a virgin and the Holy Spirit, making him the Son of God and genetically divine—i.e. the blood of God. He is the very life of God in human flesh.

This brings me to my third and final point in the discussion today, which is: at Jesus’ baptism the anointing that came down upon him was the Logos, the fullness of the Godhead.

“107. Now, that Pillar of Fire is the Logos that went out of God. The Logos, which is actually the attribute of the Fullness of God. When God become into a form to where It could be seen, It was the anointing of the great Spirit that went forth, It’s condescending, coming down, God, the Father, the Logos that was up over Israel, that…He was holy, could not bear sin. There had to be a blood offering right in Eden. Then that Logos become flesh and dwelt among us; and where this Logos dwelt in a human body, which was the sacrifice…

110. Now, this Logos that was in Him, which was the Spirit of God, the Anointing, through the sanctifying grace of the Blood, brought many sons to God, which is anointed with this same Logos.
111. Now, on the day of Pentecost It come down, that Pillar of Fire, and broke apart like that, and tongues of fire set upon each of them, not their tongues, but tongues of fire set upon each of them, a elected, selected group, identified by this Pillar of Fire, showing that God had separated Himself into man. Do you get it? God, the Logos, separating Himself into man! God, not in one person, He’s in His Church universal. That’s the reason Jesus said, “The works that I do shall you also, more.” Now, I know the King James says, “greater,” but the right translation there is “more than this shall you do.” God was bottled and confined in one Man, Jesus Christ. But now He’s bottled and confined in the whole universal Church of the Living God.” [5]

“80 Said, ‘There is the Messiah, I see a Light above Him, like a dove coming upon Him,’ bore record. Said, ‘He that told me in the wilderness, ‘Go baptize with water,’ said, ‘Upon Whom thou shall see the Spirit, that Light, like a dove coming down.’” Was perhaps the same Pillar of Fire that followed the children of Israel in the wilderness, coming upon Him, because that was the Anointed, the Logos. Came upon Him, and he said, “I bear record, this is the Messiah!” [6]

“137 The Pillar of Fire that Moses saw was not the invisible God. That Pillar of Fire was the Shekinah Glory that represented that the invisible God was at hand.

138 When John baptized Jesus, the Son of God; God, the invisible God, come down in the form of a Light, shaped like a dove sailing down through the air, the invisible God identified in the Shekinah Glory.” [7]

The consistent teaching of Brother Branham in the latter part of his ministry was, the Logos, in the form of the Pillar of Fire, as a Dove, came down and entered into Jesus: Jesus being the temple or tabernacle of God. Then that same Logos came on the Day of Pentecost to anoint sons. One-time God was tabernacled in one body and now God is tabernacled in his Bride universal. The Logos is the identification of the presence of the invisible God.

These three things that we have discussed bring a great distinctive to the teaching of Brother Branham as compared to Oneness and Trinity. Trinitarians teach that the Logos is a second eternal person. Oneness teaches that the Logos was in God prior to the birth of Jesus and then when Jesus was born God expressed the Logos in the birth of Jesus. But Brother Branham makes it clear that the Logos came down and dwelt in the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, at his baptism in the Jordan River.

“41 Many Jews wants to say He was a Jew. Many of us wants to say He was a Jew. He was neither Jew nor Gentile. He was God. He was the creative Being, by the hand of almighty God. He created the tabernacle He lived in, which we know as the Son of God. That’s right. The deity, supreme deity of Jesus Christ, ’cause God dwelt in Him.

42 Peter said, “Ye men of Israel; Jesus of Nazareth, a Man made known by God, by signs and wonders, you’ve took with wicked hands and crucified Him. We were witnesses of His resurrection,” when the Holy Ghost had been poured out upon them.” [8]

[1] 64-0322, Possessing The Gate Of The Enemy After Trial, Rev. William Marrion Branham

[2] 64-0802, The Future Home Of The Heavenly Bridegroom And The Earthly Bride, Rev. William Marrion Branham

[3] 64-0617, The Identified Christ Of All Ages, Rev. William Marrion Branham

[4] 59-0628e, Questions And Answers, Rev. William Marrion Branham

[5] 64-0823e, Questions And Answers #2, Rev. William Marrion Branham

[6] 64-0304, Sirs, We Would See Jesus, Rev. William Marrion Branham

[7] 63-0804e , Calling Jesus On The Scene, Rev. William Marrion Branham

[8] 64-0208, The Token, Rev. William Marrion Branham