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William Branham's understanding of Jesus Christ: Difference between revisions
William Branham's understanding of Jesus Christ (view source)
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=What the Bible says= | =What the Bible says= | ||
:''In the beginning was bthe Word, and cthe Word was with God, and dthe Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Jn 1:1–2.</ref> | |||
John is clearly stating here that Jesus Christ is God and make 3 statements in this regard. | |||
The first statement is that Jesus existed “in the beginning.” In other words, Jesus was preexistent. He was “before” all things. There are several ways in which the phrase “in the beginning” is used in the Bible. In 1 John it is used of the beginning of Christ’s earthly ministry. John writes, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life” (1 John 1:1). In the first verse of the Book of Genesis the phrase is used of the beginning of creation: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The use of the phrase in John’s Gospel goes beyond even that, however, for John says that when you begin to talk about Jesus Christ you can do so properly only when you go back beyond his earthly life—back beyond the beginnings of creation—into eternity. That is where Jesus Christ was. | |||
The second statement is that Jesus Christ was with God. This is an affirmation of Christ’s separate personality, and it is a very subtle statement. John wishes to say, and indeed he does say, that Jesus is fully God. He reports Jesus as saying, “anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). But John is aware also that there is a diversity within the Godhead. Thus he also expresses this truth in his statement. | |||
The final phrase is a declaration that Jesus is fully divine, for John says, “and the Word was God,” or literally, “and God was the Word.” This means that everything that can be said about God the Father can be said about the Son. In Jesus dwells all the wisdom, glory, power, love, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth of the Father. In him, the Father is known. John then sums up his teaching by saying, “He was with God in the beginning” (v. 2). With these words the highly emphatic and unequivocal statement of the full divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ is ended.<ref>James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005), 22-23.</ref> | |||
=Who did William Branham think Jesus was?= | =Who did William Branham think Jesus was?= | ||