William Branham and the nature of God

The Godhead The Trinity Three Persons Oneness/Modalism Questions and Answers This article summarizes William Branham's teaching on the Godhead. Godhead means “the nature of God”, but is usually a term for “what” God is, rather than “who” God is. At its greatest depth, knowing about someone is much less rewarding that knowing someone. Still, it is a start. We do not spend time in this article highlighting the problems with William Branham's beliefs. The purpose of this article is simply to highlight what he believed. Other articles in this series, which can be accessed from the tabs at the top of the page, attempt to point out specific problem areas with William Branham's belief system. The Godhead and Respect In the past, some Christians in positions of power have persecuted heretics (or anyone who disagrees with their own favourite doctrine). But persecuting heretics is as spiritual as stoning the good Samaritan. The treatment of the Cathars at the hands of the Catholics, most notably in the massacre in Beziers in 1209 A.D., is a historic example of this persecution. The Apostle Paul wrote about people who "hold the truth in unrighteousness" (Romans 1). He describes people who understand the Godhead correctly, but still choose to live a life of corruption. Paul’s final description of these individuals is ‘unmerciful’, which is an apt description of Arnaud-Amaury, the Catholic ambassador to the Cathars of Bezier, who declared “Kill them all, the Lord will recognise His own.” Jesus taught that only those who had a pure heart would see God (Matthew 5:8). Jesus’ zeal for the condition of the heart was matched only by his zeal for the Temple of God, driving out the moneychangers and saying, “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” (Matthew 21:13) The temple was a place designed by God for worship, and is a symbol of Jesus Christ – through whom we have access by one Spirit unto the Father. William Branham's Continuously Changing View of the Godhead William Branham was ordained as an exhorter in the Pentecostal Baptist Church (see article on Roy Davis) and, early in his ministry, believed in the Trinity as evidenced by the following: THE.RESURRECTION.OF.LAZARUS ERIE.PA 51-0729A And now, there are those sitting here who are feeble this afternoon, that's in need of physical healing. And we have chosen these few words to read from Thine. And may the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, come in now, the Promise, the Comforter, that You said You would send. And He would take the things of God and would show them to us. EARLY.SPIRITUAL.EXPERIENCES_ HAMMOND.IN SUNDAY_ 52-0713A Truly, we're not much in this world, we're looked down upon, but, God, we believe we're accepted in Christ Jesus, and He in return, has give us the Holy Ghost. We love Him, that great, third Person of the Trinity Who burns through our hearts. And we love Him. O Holy Spirit, I thank You for Your Divine leading... THE.TESTIMONY.OF.JESUS.CHRIST_ CHICAGO.IL SATURDAY_ 53-0829 The same God the Father was made manifest in flesh, and now in the Holy Spirit. That's the reason the baptism is in the Name of Father, Son, Holy Ghost (See?) the Trinity--the Trinity, not three gods, but three persons in one God... In his early ministry, William Branham was very inclusive and extended open arms to both Trinitarians and Oneness believers (see the vision of the Plum and Apple Trees. In his sermon, The Godhead Explained, William Branham tells of when he was confronted by ministers of both the Assemblies of God (Trinitarian) and the United Pentecostal Church (Oneness) and forced to clearly define his doctrine. At the end of their discussion, William Branham had both representatives acknowledge that the other had the Holy Spirit. He then explained his method of baptism, which both representatives accepted. In this same sermon, William Branham tells of another confrontation with a UPC minister. This minister said "You know what we are going to do? We are drawing a little ring and drawing you right out of our circle." William Branham responded, "If you draw me out, I will draw you back in." While William Branham's view of the Godhead was hard to accurately pin down, he did appear to have changed his beliefs fundamentally on this subject in 1958, as his last reference to a Trinitarian understanding of the Godhead was in March 1958. He gradually became less and less tolerant of the Trinitarian view until he eventually classified anyone that believed in the Trinity doctrine as a non-Christian: I said, "Then you have to refuse Jesus Christ, for He is the revelation of God, God revealed in human flesh." Unless you see it, you're lost. Jesus said, "Except you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." He is the revelation of God, the Spirit of God revealed in human form. If you can't believe that, you're lost. You put Him a third person, second person, or any other person besides God, you're lost. "Except you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." A revelation! What William Branham Believed William Branham's teachings on the Godhead were all over the map. As a result, this is one of the areas that most message believers apply the doctrine of Progressive Revelation. William Branham stated many times that both the Oneness and Trinitarians were wrong and that the truth was somewhere in between. IS.THIS.THE.SIGN.OF.THE.END.SIR_ JEFF.IN V-2 N-11 SUNDAY_ 62-1230E Notice, the Book written... When this angel finishes all these loose-end ministries that through the battle they fought, Luther fought, and Wesley fought, and the Pentecostals fought, but there's coming one, says the Bible, that in the days of his sounding, all these mysteries... The Oneness run off on Jesus' Name. The Trinity went off on Father, Son, Holy Ghost, just like they did at the Nicaea Council: same thing. They both was wrong. But now, in the middle of the road, in the Scriptures lays out the truth. CALLING.JESUS.ON.THE.SCENE CHICAGO.IL 63-0804E There is God, see, not three gods. Oh, how many of you trinitarian people got that mixed up. And how you Oneness people got it mixed up, too, of Him being one like your finger. Uh-huh. See? They, they both of them got it mixed up. See? That's right. He's the one God like your finger, one, how could He be His Own Father? See? See, He can't be His Own Father. And if He had another Father outside of the Holy Spirit, and if God is a man, a person, then He is a... the Holy Spirit was His Father, and God is His Father, Matthew 1, so then He was an illegitimate Child. See? So you can't make it either way, you, it's both wrong. He was God manifested in a flesh of His creative Son. See? Now, that's, God created the Son. Jesus Christ I said, "Yes, He was Divine. He was the created Son of God." And I said, "God was in Him reconciling the world to Himself." Now notice! And after then the wise men identifying Him what He would be, and we find through the Scripture that's exactly what He was: Deity in service for death. What for? Deity in service to God for death. Jesus was Deity in service for death, to redeem the world. But what did the world do to It? They refused It. They rejected It. Why? Some of them, a big part of them, did that because this: because He did die! They said, "He couldn't be Deity and die." The Man (the body) was not Deity, but Deity was in the body. This body has to perish. The very Christ that's in you is the only thing that can raise you up. That's Deity, God in you. The Tabernacle of the Body When you distill everything down, it appears that William Branham taught a view of the Godhead that was most similar to that taught by Emmanual Swedenborg. The Bible teaches that Christians are temples of the Holy Spirit. William Branham compared the temple in the Bible to a person, linking your physical body to the temple court, your spirit to the Holy place, and your soul to the Most Holy place. Each fully functioning human being has these three parts, but your soul is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Now, remember, you’re in a cycle of three, but you’re one person. Like Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, cycle of three, but one Person. …And you are: body, spirit, and soul. Now, the outside body has five inlets to it, to contact your earthly home: see, taste, feel, smell, and hear. The inside, which is a spirit, it has five senses: conscience, and love, and so forth. But the inside of that, the soul, has one thing. That’s where you live. ~ William Branham, Sermon: Works is Faith Expressed, November 26, 1965 As support for his teaching, William Branham used the following scriptures: God created humanity in the image of God.(Genesis 1:26) Our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 6:19) God designed the body of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:18) Jesus called his body a temple. (John 2:21) Jesus came to find people to worship God (John 4:23) God designed the tabernacle (the first temple) in the wilderness. (Exodus 25:9) There was one tabernacle (Exodus 26:6) The tabernacle had three parts, The Court (Exodus 27:9) The Holy Place (Exodus 26:33) The Most Holy Place (Exodus 26:33) The tabernacle was a place where God could be worshipped (Psalms 138:2) The tabernacle (the tent) became the temple (the building) by the work of the son of David. (I Chron. 17:12) The temple was a pattern of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 8:5-6). Jesus perfectly fulfilled the three-fold instruction “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all they soul, and with all thy mind” (Matthew 22:37). The temple on earth was a pattern of the things in heaven (Hebrews 9:23-24). Every person has a body, spirit, and soul (I Thessalonians 5:23) We should think of our own creation when we think about the Godhead (Acts 17:29) When our bodies die, we have a new body waiting in heaven (2 Corinthians 5:1-2). Jesus rose from the dead (I Thess. 4:14) and was seen by Paul in a heavenly body (Acts 22:6-8) The children of Israel worshiped God in his tabernacle from their own tents (Exodus 33:10) Thomas worshipped the LORD God in the tabernacle of Jesus Christ (John 20:28) The problem with this reasoning is that none of these scriptures deal with the Godhead. Using these as support for William Branham's view of the Godhead requires very oblique reasoning. Jesus is the Name. And the Name was placed in a Man; not a church, not a denomination, not a creed, but a Man. He chose to place His Name in Jesus Christ. Now we find out that then He becomes the place of God’s worship, where you worship Him. (William Branham, Sermon: God’s Chosen Place of Worship, February 20, 1965) The order of the Tabernacle Swedenborg and Branham argued that dividing God into three persons would be like dividing the tabernacle into three temples. Over-unifying God (denying his three-fold being, or saying God is one like your finger) is like having all of the pieces to the tabernacle in one big circle. Both of these ideas are out of order with God’s original design. Outline of the three parts of the temple God’s original design given to Moses was that the Court surrounded The Holy Place, through which the high priest could access the Most Holy Place. In the same way, it is through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ (the Court) that we have access through his Spirit (the Holy Place) to the head of Christ, which is God (the Most Holy Place). Here is a more detailed description of the operation of the tabernacle and its parallel to Jesus Christ: The Court is where the sacrifice was washed and slain – which corresponds to the body of Jesus Christ, which was baptized and crucified. The Holy Place is where incense was burned, bread was offered, and the candlesticks were lit – which corresponds to the work of the Spirit of Christ in the Christian era through the prayers of the saints, communion, and the fire of the Holy Spirit that fell on the church in the book of Acts. The Holy of Holies held the Ark and the Judgement/Mercy Seat – which corresponds to the work that Jesus Christ will accomplish in the future, fulfilling the will of the Father at the judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10) as he stands as the judge of all(2 Timothy 4:1). 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