The Truth About The Godhead

The doctrine of the “Godhead” is a central theme of the Bible, both for the

Old Testament and the New Testament. The classic expression of the doctrine of “One God”

is found in Deuteronomy 6:4. “Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD.” This belief

in only one God is called monotheism, which comes from two Greek words: monos,

meaning alone, single, one; and theos, meaning God. Anyone who does not accept monotheism

can be classified as any one of the following: an atheist who denies the existence of God; an

agnostic - one who asserts that the existence of God is unknown and probably unknowable;

a pantheist - one who equates God with nature or the forces of the universe; or a polytheist

- one who believes in more than one God. Ditheism, the belief in two gods, is a form of

polytheism, and so is tritheism or trinitarianism, the belief in three gods. Among the major

religions of the world, three are monotheistic: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

THREE MAJOR BELIEFS

The three most common beliefs on the

Godhead, however, are (1) Trinitarianism,

(2) Unitarianism, and (3) Dualism.

TRINITARIANISM

The premise of the Trinity Doctrine is

that there are Three PERSONS in ONE GOD,

sharing the same powers, occupying three

thrones in heaven. Trinitarians use the diagram

of a triangle to explain that the three corners

represent the three members of the Trinity,

while the complete triangle represents God as the whole trinity. The Discrepancy, however,

in the Trinity doctrine is that THREE PERSONALITIES equals THREE GODS. This belief

breaks the very First Commandment of God that says, “Thou shalt have no other gods

before Me”. Revelation 4:2 states that there is only “one throne” in heaven. How can three

persons be one God?

UNITARIANISM / ONENESS

The premise of the Oneness Doctrine is that JESUS, THE MAN, IS ALL

THREE (Father, Son and Holy Ghost). The Discrepancy, however, in the Oneness doctrine

is that Jesus cannot be his own Father. If Jesus was the Father, why did Jesus pray to the

Father if He is already His own Father? Why did He cry at the cross, “My God, My God, why

hast Thou forsaken me?” Was Jesus just acting it out? Obviously not.

DUALISM / TWONESS

The premise of the Twoness Doctrine is that there are TWO GODS: THE

ETERNAL FATHER & THE ETERNAL SON; making the HOLY SPIRIT just a POWER and

MESSENGER OF THE TWO. The Discrepancy, however, in the TWONESS doctrine is that

a ‘SON” is ‘BEGOTTEN’. The word “SONSHIP” signifies a ‘BEGINNING”. There is no such

thing as an “eternal son”. The word “ETERNAL” means no beginning and no end”.

THE CORRECT UNDERSTANDING ON THE GODHEAD

God, all throughout the Old Testament did not have a body, but appeared

to the people in different forms, such as the Burning Bush to Moses, the Cloud by day, and

the Pillar of Fire by night, to the children of Israel. Though He sent His angels to many who

appeared as men, but no one ever saw God in physical form until Jesus Christ was born.

John 1:18 says, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which

is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him”.

GOD IS A SPIRIT

The Scripture states that, “God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him, must

worship Him in Spirit and in Truth” (John 4:24). In Isaiah 43 and 45, we can read that God

the Father said that He alone is God... “And [there is] no God else beside me; a just God

and a Saviour; [there is] none beside Me.”(Isa. 45:21) “Before Me there was no God

formed, neither shall there be after Me. I, [even] I, [am] the LORD; and beside me [there is]

No Saviour.” (Isa. 43:10-11)

In these Scriptures, we can clearly see that there is only one God, (not two or

three) for in His very First Commandment, Elohim (the self-existing One) solemnly said that

“Thou shalt have NO other gods before Me...” (Exodus 20:3)

GOD’S THOUGHTS AND ATTRIBUTES

Way back in eternity, before there ever was a star, a moon, or a galaxy, Elohim

has eternal thoughts and attributes that He wanted to express and manifest for His own

pleasure and glorification. He hath seen all things from the beginning, for He is infinite and

all-knowing.

Elohim wanted to be God. The word “God” means “an object of worship”.

But there was no one that worships Him at that time and so He then created the angels first,

so that He as God is worshipped and is proclaimed as the Almighty.

Elohim also wanted to become a Father. Yet how can He be called a “Father”

when He Himself has no children? And so in God’s mind He wanted to create sons

and daughters unto Himself so that He could become their Father. Thus, we know

that this plan of God was fulfilled and manifested later on. He created Adam and from him

He took Eve. It’s a type of the church which was taken from the body of Christ, for the Bible

says, “we are flesh of His flesh, and bones of His bones.”

Elohim wanted to become a Saviour. But you see, how can He become a

Saviour when there’s no one to be saved in the first place? There has to be a fallen

entity first before He could ever display his attributes as a Saviour. We can

therefore conclude from this case that God hath foreseen the fall of man and He permitted

man to fall from grace in order for God to fulfill His majestic plan of saving them. Man was

placed as a “free moral agency” to choose for himself between good and evil. Adam and Eve

fell for the wrong choice. But God prepared the solution for sin even before the foundation

of the world. Revelation 13:8 tells us that the “Lamb was slain “before” the foundation of the

world” to act as an atonement for sin. And God wrote our names (God’s elected seed) in the

Lamb’s Book of Life even before man could ever commit sin. Christ came to redeem these

predestinated seed.

Elohim wanted to be a Healer, too. Yet how can He become a Healer when there’s

nobody that’s sick? There has to be a sickness first before He could become a

Healer. Which was first, the sickness or the Healer? We can then conclude from here that

sicknesses and afflictions are part of God’s permissive will unto men in order to show and

manifest to mankind His attributes of being a Healer. Psalms 103:2-3 states, “Bless the

LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who

healeth ALL thy diseases.” Consider the afflictions of Job, blind Bartimaeous, the woman

with the blood issue, and more. Through their affliction, they have declared the glory and

healing power of God and served as testimonials of God’s grace through their generations.

God also wanted to manifest Himself as a King, as a Priest, and as a Judge. So

there has to be a kingdom set-up, a holy tabernacle set-up, and a judgment bar

set up. These are His eternal thoughts and intentions before the foundation of the world, to

get glory unto Himself.

Yet God knew that as a Spirit He will never be able to fulfill these plans of his

without having a “body” that will act out His plans. For example, it is written in His Law that

“Almost all things are by the Law purged with blood; and without the shedding of

blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). Redemption requires death. Can a Spirit bleed

and die?

It takes BLOOD, therefore, to pay the penalty for sin. Yet no man’s blood,

no angel, no priest, no animal’s blood, was ever worthy to redeem man in his fallen estate.

God must do it Himself, for there is no Saviour but Him alone. He must do it in order to show

that He alone is the ONLY Redeemer. In Isaiah 45:22, God said, “Look unto Me, and be ye

saved, for I AM God, and there is none else.” “Thou shalt know no God but Me; for there is

NO SAVIOUR BESIDE ME”. (Hosea 13:4).

God, therefore, is the only Saviour there is. The key to the whole mystery of the

Godhead is this: God knew that He, as God, could not die and bleed in the Spirit, for

a Spirit has no flesh and bones. But His own law required blood for an atonement. So in

order for God to fulfill His plan of redeeming mankind, He had to put on a veil of

flesh, in order to taste death and pay the penalty for His own law, to justify the

ungodly. That is to fulfill Romans 3:28, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by

faith without the deeds of the law.” “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of

yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph.2:8,9).

GOD’S THOUGHTS EXPRESSED INTO “WORD” (LOGOS)

God, then began to express Himself from eternity, by His spoken Word.

Time began when God started speaking. This great Fountain of Spirit which had no beginning

or no end, began to express His attributes by the Spoken Word. Out of the existence of the

Father went out the “Logos”, which was the Word, which was God’s “Theophany”. It

was was a visible body of the great Jehovah God going forth in the beginning. It was called

the “Logos”, which in the original Greek, means “something spoken; which includes the

thoughts of the Speaker”.

That Logos was God’s “express image”. It was God Himself made into

Word. That Logos that went out from the great eternal Spirit was called the “Son” of God.

It was the only visible form that this Spirit had. And It was a “theophany”, which means

a celestial body, and that body was like a “man”.

Time, then, began when that “Logos” came out of God, as evident in the

succeeding scripture. John 1:1-3, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was

with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things

were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made” ..And the

Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.” (John 1:1-3,14).

From that “theophany” is where man was also created by God, after

His own image, which was a “spirit-man”:

“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. 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).

The “Let US make man in OUR own image” in the above verses refer to God the

Father (the great Spirit) talking, speaking to His Theophany Body, which was His begotten

Son. We can see here that man was created from that pattern, with both spirit and body

realms. We were never created in the image of angels.

Bro William Branham taught us this: “You will never be an Angel. God made Angels,

but God made man. And what God does is off of God, which is as eternal as God is. And

man’s just as eternal as his Creator, because he was made from eternity.

The “theophany”, which was the Son, is also what’s spoken of in

Colossians 1:15-17, which reads: “Who is the IMAGE of the invisible God, the

firstborn of every creature: For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and

that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or

principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: and He is before all

things, and by him all things consist.”

That theophany of God was then made FLESH on earth later on in the

Person of Jesus Christ through the womb of Mary.

In the following paragraphs, Brother Branham relates to us about the

mystery of the Godhead in the Message LAODICEAN CHURCH AGE - CPT.9, 336-

2:

“Revelation 3:14 speaks of Jesus as the “Beginning of the Creation of

God”. That is Who the Lord Jesus says He is. But those words don’t mean exactly as they

sound to us. Just taking them the way they sound has made some people (in fact multitudes

of people) get the idea that Jesus was the first creation of God, making Him lower than

Godhead. Then this first creation created all the rest of the universe and whatsoever it

contains. But that is NOT right. You know that doesn’t line up with the rest of the Bible. The

words are, “He is the BEGINNER or AUTHOR of the creation of God.”

Now we know for a surety that Jesus is God, very God. He is the

Creator. John 1:3 “All things were made by Him, and without Him was not any thing made

that was made.” He is the One of Whom it is said, Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God

created the heaven and the earth”. Also it says in Exodus 20:11, “For in six days the Lord

made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day.” See,

there is no doubt that He is the Creator. He was the Creator of a FINISHED PHYSICAL

CREATION. Surely we can see what these words mean now. To have any other

interpretation would mean that God created God. How could God be created

when He, Himself, is the Creator?”

GOD MANIFESTED IN FLESH

And thus, God fulfilled His plan of salvation, the fulfillment which is written in 1

Timothy 3:16 which states: “And without controversy, great is the mystery of

Godliness, God was manifest in the flesh.”

When did God manifest in flesh? It was when Jesus Christ was born

through a woman; without any resulting sexual act but it was God Himself making both

hemoglobin and egg cells in the womb of Mary, God Himself taking the form of a man.

Jesus Christ was the FLESH of God, none other than God Himself

creating a BODY of His own. That fleshly BODY was called the “SON”, while the

SPIRIT indwelling that body was the “FATHER”. Not two Gods now, but God

veiling Himself in FLESH. That’s the reason Jesus said “I and My Father are one.” (John

10:30). Philip, the apostle, one time said to Jesus (John 14:8-9), “Lord, shew us the Father,

and it sufficeth us.” And Jesus answered him saying, “ Have I been with you so long and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”

The name “Jesus” means “Jehovah has become our Saviour”. Jesus

was also called “Emmanuel”, meaning, “God WITH us”, God dwelling with men.

When the Father decided to come down as our Saviour, He put on a robe

of flesh and planted Himself, as a seed, in the womb of Mary. This seed was to

produce the flesh and blood of the Body He would dwell in as the Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus

is God becoming man, to redeem man back to Himself. God could not die in the Spirit

because He’s eternal. But He had to put on a MASK and ACT the part of death. He

did die, but He couldn’t do it in His God form. He had to do it in SON form, as a Son

of Man on earth.

JESUS IS BOTH MAN AND GOD

Jesus, talking to the Jews one day, said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my

day: and he was glad.” Then said the Jews unto Him, ‘thou art not yet fifty years old and hast

thou seen Abraham?’ Jesus said unto them, “Verily, verily, I

say unto you, before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:56-58).

Who was the great “I AM”? Remember the burning

fire that talked with Moses on the holy mountain? That was

the “I AM”, the self-same Jesus speaking to the Jews. They

could not see that Jesus was their own God VEILED IN FLESH.

”The Jews answered him saying, “For a good work we

stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that Thou,

being man, makest Thyself God” (John 10:33). They really

failed to see that He was the Emmanuel - both MAN and GOD.

Jesus also is the WORD that became FLESH and dwelt amongst

us (John 1:1,14).

JESUS certainly was a man weeping at the

grave of Lazarus. But when He shouted, “Lazarus, come

forth!”, and a dead man, four days and stinking, arose and

lived again - that was more than a MAN! Who can raise the dead but God alone.

He was a man hungry that night looking on a tree for something to eat.

But when He took five bread and two fishes and feed five thousand - that was more than

a man. That was the creator, JEHOVAH!

He was a man laying on the ship that night, tired and asleep, while the

waves come up. But once he arose and rebuked the winds and the waves and said, “Peace

be still!”. That was more than a man. That was God Who can control all nature.

It was a man crying for mercy at the cross, “My God, My God, why hast

Thou forsaken Me?” But on Resurrection morning, when He broke the seals of death, hell and

grave, and rose up again and said, “I AM HE that was dead, and behold, I AM ALIVE FOREVERMORE!” Who was that? That was the same God Who also said, “ I have

power to lay my life down, and raise it up again” (John 10:18).

JESUS, THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD

The Apostle Paul says this about Jesus in Collosians 2:9-10: “For in HIM all the

FULLNESS of the GODHEAD dwells BODILY, and ye are complete in Him, which is the

Head of all principality and power”...”In Whom we have REDEMPTION through His BLOOD,

even the forgiveness of sins : Who is the IMAGE of the INVISIBLE GOD... And He is before

all things, and by Him all things consists” (Collosians 1:14,15,17).

JESUS, therefore, is the EXPRESS IMAGE of the unseen God, God creating

a FLESH-BODY of His own. Men could have never seen God except through Jesus Christ,

the FLESH of God.

THREE DISPENSATION OF THE ONE GOD

“God ABOVE Us” - that’s how God was known in the Old Testament, in the

Fatherhood dispensation. God dwelling in the heavenlies, where no man could ever touch

Him.

When the the time for the Sonship dispensation came, fulfilling the prophesy of

Isaiah 9:6 which says, “For to us a child is born, for to us a SON is given: the government

shall be upon His shoulder; and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty

GOD, and everlasting FATHER, Prince of Peace”, these all pertain to the FLESH of God -

JESUS, being God Himself becoming Emmanuel, which being interpreted “God WITH us” -

God Who can now be touched by the feeling of our infirmities.

It was God also fulfilling Isaiah 53:5, “But He (God) was WOUNDED for our

transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon

Him: and by His stripes we are healed” - all fulfilled and completed at the Cross of Calvary.

In these last days, after Jesus has been resurrected and glorified, God has sent

us back His Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to indwell every believer. Thus, we are now living in

the HOLY GHOST Dispensation - “God IN Us”. As 1 Cor. 6:19-20 states, “What? Know ye

not that your body is the TEMPLE of the Holy Ghost which is IN YOU, which ye have of God,

and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify GOD IN YOUR

BODY, and in your spirit which are God’s.”

THE SPIRIT OF JESUS IN THE CHURCH

JESUS is that self-same Holy Spirit; as He has attested in John 14:18, saying, “I

will not leave you comfortless, “I“ (Personal Pronoun) WILL COME TO YOU.” “I will be with

you, even IN YOU until the end of the world.” Galatians 4:6 states this, too, “And because

ye are sons, God has sent forth the SPIRIT of His SON into your hearts, crying Abba,

Father.” Jesus’ own Spirit is now “God IN Us”, the “Hope of Glory” (Colossians

1:27). It is the SELF-SAME GOD all the time, never changing His power, just changed His

form from the heavenly to the earthly, and then back again as the Great Spirit, after having

fulfilled His great redemptive story.

He was “GOD ABOVE US” in His Fatherhood dispensation; “GOD WITH

US” in His Sonship dispensation; and now “GOD IN US” in the Holy Spirit

dispensation.

Jesus said, “ I AM ALPHA AND OMEGA, the Beginning and the Ending, saith the

Lord, Which IS, WHICH WAS, and WHICH IS TO COME, THE ALMIGHTY” (Rev.1:8) Not

three persons in One God but ONE GOD in three dispensations, in three

manifestations.

JESUS, BACK TO A “PILLAR OF FIRE”

Let us remember that after Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, Jesus ascended

up into the heavens. And when SAUL of Tarsus was on His road to Damascus to persecute

the Christians (Read Acts 9:1-5), a BIG LIGHT, a PILLAR of FIRE struck him, and he asked,

“LORD, who are You?” SAUL knew that It was the same Pillar of FIRE that appeared to

Moses, but that Pillar of FIRE answered him, saying, “I AM JESUS, whom thou persecutest.”

See, He had TURNED BACK, exactly back to THE SAME FORM before He took on a tabernacle

of FLESH - the Pillar of FIRE that met Moses in the wilderness.

Remember, It was the SAME Pillar of Fire that came to PETER that night and loosed

him out of the prison cell (Read Acts 12:5-7).

That SAME Pillar of Fire (Cloven Tongues of Fire) appeared on the Day of

PENTECOST and set on each of those at the upper room, dividing Himself, giving part of His

Spirit among His church (Acts 2).

Peter declared in Acts 2:36, “Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God

hath made that SAME JESUS, whom ye have crucified, BOTH LORD AND CHRIST”.

There He is - LORD (Fatherhood), JESUS (Sonship), CHRIST (Anointed Holy Ghost)

- The LORD JESUS CHRIST, the complete manifestation of the ONE TRUE GOD.

Finally, consider this: Who was the FATHER of Jesus? Matthew 1:18

says, “She (Mary) was found with child of the HOLY GHOST.” But Jesus Himself claimed

that GOD was His FATHER. Therefore, God the Father and God the Holy Ghost make the

Father and the Spirit ONE, OR ELSE JESUS HAD TWO FATHERS. But notice also that Jesus

said that “I and My FATHER ARE ONE”, NOT TWO. That makes ONE GOD, NOT THREE.

The entire Bible does not say a thing about a First or Second or Third Person in a

ONE GOD. The mystery is found in 1 Timothy 3:16: “And without controversy, great is the

MYSTERY of Godliness, GOD was manifest in the FLESH, justified in the Spirit, seen of

angels, preached unto the Gentiles; believed on in the world, received up into glory”. The

ONE TRUE GOD was manifest in the FLESH. That’s how SIMPLE it is. GOD CAME IN

A HUMAN FORM. That didn’t make Him another God. He was GOD, THE SAME GOD.

If you cannot accept this TRUTH of the Godhead, but refute it, Jesus said that you

are still living in SIN; for He said in John 8:24, “For if ye believe NOT that I AM HE (God), ye

shall die in your sins”. “He that believeth not the SON shall not see life; but the wrath of

God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

JESUS IS JEHOVAH MADE FLESH

JEHOVAH of the Old Testament is JESUS of the New Testament. That is

the great MYSTERY of the Godhead. NOT THREE GODS, but THREE DISPENSATIONS and

three OFFICES of the same ONE GOD. Never can we find any Scripture that declares that

there are THREE GODS in the Holy Writ. If you do, you are breaking the First Commndment

which says, “I alone am GOD, thou shalt have no other Gods before Me.” GOD Himself

declared in Isaiah 45:21 that, “There is NO GOD BESIDE ME; a just God and Saviour,

THERE IS NONE BESIDE ME..”

JESUS confirmed this truth in Mark 12:29 saying, “The first of all the

commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is ONE LORD”.

The whole thing was JEHOVAH GOD condescending Himself from His heavenly

estate to an earthly body He called JESUS, fulfilling His sovereign purpose of becoming

Saviour, Redeemer and Healer by shedding His OWN BLOOD as the Lamb of God who

takes away the sins of the world. ”Of Whom as concerning the FLESH, CHRIST came,

Who is OVER ALL, GOD Blessed Forever” (Romans 9:5). AMEN.

Here are some Scriptures that tell us that JESUS, THE MAN, ACCEPTED

WORSHIP : (See Scriptures: Matt. 8:2, 9:18, 14:33, 15:25, 28:9, 28:17; Mark 5:6; Luke

24:52; John 9:38)

MATTHEW 8:2-3, “And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying,

Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth [his] hand, and touched

him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”

MATTHEW 9:18, “ While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain

ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy

hand upon her, and she shall live.”

MATTHEW 14:32-33, “And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then

they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the

Son of God.”

MATTHEW 15:25-27, “Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.

But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast [it] to

dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their

masters' table.”

MATTHEW 28:9-10, “And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them,

saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. Then

said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and

there shall they see me.”

MATTHEW 28:16-17, “Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a

mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped

him: but some doubted.”

MARK 5:6-7, “But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, And cried

with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, [thou] Son of the most

high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.”

LUKE 24:51-52- “And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from

them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to

Jerusalem with great joy.”

JOHN 9:35-38, “Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he

said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he,

Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him,

and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped

him.”

source: The handbook