Why Does God Say “Let Us” in Genesis 1:26?

“²⁶ And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.’ ²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Genesis 1:26-27

As message believers many read this verse and search “The Table” to get an answer. In order to arrive at the proper answer, we need to see the gradual and progressive revelation the Lord gave to Brother Branham. We cannot just find one quote and rest on that but see the whole of the subject, to see how his thought grew and expanded on any given subject. One example is that of the new birth and the baptism of the Holy Ghost. In the early part of his ministry, up until 1962, he taught that the new birth comes first and then later comes the baptism of the Holy Ghost, but in the latter portion of his ministry he begins to teach differently, and in “The Exposition of the Seven Church Ages” he clearly states that the baptism of the Holy Ghost is the new birth.

It is the same with his understanding of the Logos. I will provide the quotes for your references. To give you an overview: In 1953 Brother Branham says that the Logos is the Son of God, another being distinct from the Father. He states that is who God is speaking to in Genesis 1:26. In 1957 he clearly shows that the Logos is the body of Jehovah God not a distinct being. Then in the 1960’s he began to teach that the Logos came down in the form of a dove and entered into Jesus at his baptism. This is a clear and distinct issue of the progressive revelation that the Lord developed within his prophet. Here are the quotes:

“15. 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 a… “Let us make man in our own image.” Our, course, we realize He’s talking to someone, He was speaking to another being. “Let us make man in our own image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the cattles of the field.” [1]

“23. Oh, I got a beautiful picture in my mind now, if you can take a little trip with me. I believe I’ve talked on it before, but to get this to the place where you’ll be sure to see it. Now, let’s take a little trip and go back for a little while. Now, don’t think about how hot it is, let’s get our minds right on what we’re going to talk about and think now.

24. 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.
25. Now, let’s go out here on the edge of this banister and look over and see these things happen.
26. Now, “No man has seen the Father at anytime.” 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,” 1^st… John, see.
27. Now, but notice now, there’s nothing, there’s just space. There’s no light, there’s no dark, there’s no nothing, it’s 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.
28. 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.
29. But 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.
30. 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. Was a little, low…a little Light, moving. He…That was the Word of God.
31. 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.
32. Now, in Saint John 1, He said, ‘In the beginning was the Word.’ And the first… ‘And the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.’ God unfolding Himself, down to a human being. Now watch how He did it.
33. Now, back there, then, when this little halo comes. Now, we can’t see nothing yet, but just by eyes of just supernatural we see a halo standing there. Now, that’s the Son of God, the Logos. Now, I can see Him playing around like a little child, before the Father’s door, with all Eternity. See? And, now, then in His imaginary makeup He begin to think of what things would be, and I can hear Him say, ‘Let there be light.’” [2]

“129. Now, here is what happened. Oh! Excuse me. I—I—I just get on this, this just gets me right where I love it. See? 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.” [3]

“59. The great fountain of all Eternity was that Spirit of love, joy, that Spirit of honesty, that Spirit of trueness, in this perfection. And then, out of the existence of the Father, went the Logos, which was the Son, which was a Theophany, which was the Body of the great Jehovah God, went forth in a celestial Body. That’s the Logos. The Word spoke out of them great fountains of Life, and went forth. And there was the—the Theophany, which was God made into Word.” [4]

“132. 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.” [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]

“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.” [7]

Sometimes, referring to the verse in Genesis 1:26, people say it was the Father speaking to the Son. However, as we see in the progressive revelation of Brother Branham that first the Logos is one for one with the Son of God. Then you see that the Logos is one for one with God and that the Logos is the prefiguration of the Son of God. That is, it is showing forth what the Son of God will be like even before he was born. Brother Branham clearly states that the beginning of the Son of God was in the womb of a virgin.

“The Bible says, “He is the beginning of the creation of God.” How did He begin? In the womb of a woman.” [8]

“306. And this Melchisedec was not Jesus, for He was God. And what made Jesus and God different, that, Jesus was the Tabernacle that God dwelt in. See? Now, Melchisedec. Jesus had both father and mother. And this Man never had father or mother. Jesus had a beginning of life and He had an end of life.” [9]

“Melchisedec, at that time, had no father and no mother, and no beginning of days or no ending of life; ever who He was, He remains the same. Jesus had father and mother; but this Man had neither father nor mother.” [10]

“75. Jesus Christ had a beginning of days. When did he begin? In the womb of a virgin. Ok, then, so we have God speaking ‘Let Us’ and who was he speaking to?

76. Watch God in His ways of work. When He created the Heavens and earth, He called the Angels together, and He said, ‘Let us.’” [11]

This follows the scriptural pattern we find in Isaiah 6:

“¹ In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. ² Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. ³ And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. ⁴ And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. ⁵ Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. ⁶ Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: ⁷ And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. ⁸ Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then said I, ‘Here am I; send me’.” Isaiah 6:1-8

The picture is set, that God is sitting upon his throne in heaven and he is surrounded by his angels. Then he says, “… whom shall I send and who will go for us?” This is parallel to, “Let us make man in our own image.” God is a Spirit and in Hebrews 1:7 he said angles are spirits and in Genesis 1:26 he says that he made man in his image and likeness, in spirit form. At the end of this study I hope you may see the development of Brother Branham’s thoughts, progress through his ministry and also the reality that God was speaking to angels in Genesis 1:26, thus disproving any sort of multiple god scenario.

[1] 53-0729, Questions and Answers on Genesis, Rev. William Marrion Branham

[2] 53-0729, Questions and Answers On Genesis, Rev. William Marrion Branham

[3] 57-0821, Hebrews, Chapter One, Rev. William Marrion Branham

[4] 57-0602, Life, Rev. William Marrion Branham

[5] 57-0901E, Hebrews, Chapter Four, Rev. William Marrion Branham

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

[7] 64-0823E, Questions and Answers #2, Rev. William Marrion Branham

[8] 64-0802, The Future Home of the Heavenly Bridegroom and the Earthly Bride, Rev. William Marrion Branham

[9] 57-0922E, Hebrews, Chapter Seven #2, Rev. William Marrion Branham

[10] 64-0419, The Trial, Rev. William Marrion Branham

[11] 59-1227M, A Super Sign, Rev. William Marrion Branham