WHO IS THIS MELCHISEDEC #14
August 26, 2000
Brian Kocourek
Who is This Melchisedec 65-0221 pp. 34 Now, we find in the
Scripture that many people teaches that three personalities in the Godhead. So you
cannot have a personality without being a person. It takes a person to make a
personality. A Baptist minister a few weeks ago come up and--to my house--and
said, "I'd like to straighten you out on the Godhead sometime when you got
time," called me up rather. I said, "I got time right now, 'cause I
want to be straight, and we lay aside everything else to do it." And he
come up; he said, "Brother Branham, you teach that there is just one
God." I said, "Yes, sir." He said, "Well," he said,
"I believe there's one God, but one God in three persons." I said,
"Sir, repeat that again." He said, "One God in three
persons." I said, "Where did you go to school at?" See? And he
told me a--a Bible college. I said, "I could believe that. You cannot
be a person without being a personality, and if you're a personality, you
are one personality to yourself. You're a separate individual being." And
he said, "Well, the theologians can't even explain that." I said,
"It's by revelation." And he said, "I can't accept revelation."
I said, "Then there's no way for God to ever get to you, because it's hid
from the eyes of the wise and prudent and revealed to babes (revealed,
revelation) revealed to babes such as will accept it, learn." And I said,
"There'd be no way for God to get to you; you close yourself off from Him.
The whole Bible is the revelation of God. The whole church is built
upon the revelation of God. There's no other way to know God only by revelation:
'To whom the Son will reveal Him,' revelation. Everything is
revelation. So to--not to accept the revelation, then you're just a cold
theologian, and there's no hope for you."
Let's stop here because
there are several statements that Brother Branham made that need to be cleared
up or we could become confused at this point. Number 1) he said, You cannot be a person without being a personality, and if you're a personality, you are one personality to
yourself. You're a separate individual being. Now Brother Branham is
making the case that God could not be three; separate, individual persons,
without having three different personalities. If God were three persons as they
believe, then each person in the Godhead would have to have a separate
personality, if he were a separate being, or person. I hope you can see his
argument.
Now, the Trinitarian
theologians would have you to believe God is a committee of three. That the
three work together in a unity to make up the Godhead. This comes from a shear
lack of revelation concerning the Word of God and that will be our second point
that we will get to in a few minutes.
But first let's look at this
thought of each person having their own personality. The Word person according
to Webster comes from the Latin word, persona which literally means "an actor's
face mask; hence a character, or person, an individual human being as
distinguished from other forms of life". This then leads us to
look at the word personality and see how it's meaning differs from that of the
word person. Webster defines the word personality
as coming from the Latin word
personalitas and speaks of the
quality or fact of being a particular person. In other words, those habitual patterns and qualities of behavior that
distinguish one individual from another giving each a personal identity and
individuality from all others. Then
we can say that the personality are those qualities or traits, attributes which
give individual identity to the person.
EPHESIANS
PARALLELS JOSHUA 60-0515E 16 After Samuel had been dead for at least three to five years, and
the witch of En-dor called him up, and she fell on her face, and she said,
"You have deceived me, because you are Saul, yourself." She said,
"Because I see gods." She was a heathen (You see?), "I see gods
rising up." And Saul couldn't see him yet, and he said, "What does he
look like? Describe him to me." Said, "He's thin, and he has a mantle
over his shoulder." Said, "That's Samuel the prophet; bring him here
before me." I want you to notice that Samuel had not lost any of his
personality. He was still a prophet; he told Saul exactly what would happen
the next day.
So, you see,
death does not completely diminish us as we weep and wail and lament at the
grave. It only changes our dwelling place. It takes us from a place to... What
is age? If I live one more hour, I'll outlive a many sixteen-year-old person.
I'll outlive a many five-year-old person. Age is nothing. We're just set here
for a purpose, to do something.
Now, the question then
arises, can two persons have the same identical personality and yet be two
individual persons? The answer is no,
or not entirely. They can share many of the same traits, but not all the
traits. Thus, when we look at the Godhead, or Godhood of God, the thing which
distinguishes God from all others, is that He is omniscient, Omnipotent and
because He is omniscient, He can be omnipresent because he knows all things. No
other Being, person or spirit being has these attributes.
What Distinguishes the
Father from the Son is that the Son did not know all things. He said, "No man knoweth the time or season, except the Father".
QA HEBREWS PART
1 57-0925 233-145 Now, the oneness
teaching of the oneness church, I certainly disagree with them, thinking that
Jesus is one like your finger's one. He had to have a Father. If He didn't, how
could He be His own father? And if His Father was a man like the Trinitarian
says, then He was borned a illegitimate birth with two fathers. So you see,
you're both wrong by arguing. See? But the truth of it is, that both Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, is one Personality. [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]... God
dwelling in a tabernacle of flesh to take sin from the world... That's exactly
right, "God with us." Now, therefore, when Matthew 28:19...
QA HEBREWS PART
2 57-1002 281-Q-63 63. Please explain
the Trinity. How can the Son set at the right hand of the Father, interceding
for the--to the Father, if they are not two persons? Well, beloved
friend, that's a... That's--that's a revelation. If Jesus said, "I and My
Father are One," then how can they be two? See? Now, they're not two. A
woman once said to me, and I was explaining that, said, "You and your wife
are--are two, yet you're one." I said, "But God and the Son is
different from that. See?" I said, You see me?" "Yes." "Do
you see my wife?" "No." I said, "Then Father and Son's
different; Jesus said, 'When you see Me, you've seen the Father.'" See?
The Father and the Son... The Father was Almighty Jehovah God dwelling in a
Tabernacle called Jesus Christ, which was the anointed Son of God. Jesus was a
Man; God is a Spirit. And no man has seen God at any time, but the only
begotten of the Father has declared Him. He was... He... His Personality,
His Being, His Deity, whatever He was, He was God. He was nothing less or
nothing more than God. Yet, He was a man. He was a man, a house that God dwelt
in. That's right. He was God's dwelling place.
SIRS WE WOULD SEE
JESUS 57-1211 E-21 Now, Jesus was
born for one purpose, that was for God to manifest Himself through that body. God was in Christ
reconciling the world to Himself. He was a body that was made physical,
that men and women could see what He thought, and His expressions to the people
in His gratefulness. And His attitude towards all mankind, He (God) expressed it
through Christ. Christ seemed to be a dual personality. He would speak
sometimes and they'd scratch their heads; and--and they didn't understand Him.
He'd speak one thing one time, look like, and something else another time. What
it was, was Jesus speaking, and then Christ speaking. Jesus was the man. Christ
was the God that was in Him. "Not Me that doeth the works: My Father
that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the work." See? God will
not share His glory with no one.
BALM IN
GILEAD 61-0218 80 You know, Jesus right
at the end of the--right at the end of His ministry, His disciples couldn't
understand Him. No one understood Him. How know--how that... How many know that
they couldn't understand Him? Sure. Why? They thought He had a dual
personality. No. Sometime it was Jesus talking, sometime it was the Father
in Him talking. See, see? That was it, the man... So Jesus said like... They
said, "Now, we believe. Now, we believe that You know all things and no
man needs to teach You. We..." Jesus said, "Do you now believe?"
See? Let's sing it "Now, I believe, Lord." You've done enough, You've
give us the Holy Ghost; You give us speaking in tongues.
PATMOS VISION
60-1204E 66 The revelation showed that He is not three gods, neither is
He chopped up in three pieces. But He's one God that was God in the days of the
Fatherhood; He was God in the days of the Sonship; He's God in the days of the
dispensation of the Holy Spirit, the same God, not three different ones, not
three persons, not three personalities. He's one Person, one Personality.
You cannot be a personality without being a person. Some people said,
"He's not three persons, but He's three personalities." You cannot
divide that; 'cause if He's a personality, He's a person; has to be a person
to make a personality. So He is one Person, one Personality: the same
yesterday, today, and forever; Alpha, Omega; He that was, which is, and shall
come. Oh, He's just all. I love that.
67
Watch His nature, His Life, His works. It should be manifested
right here in this tabernacle, just like it was in His day (not saying this
prejudice, God knows that), not only here, but across the world. I'm glad that
it is. Then we know where we are standing, because we have that same Spirit in
us, moving with us and showing that He's here. It's not us; it's Him; we can't
do those things; it's God. Besides that, in the scientific world He permitted
His picture to be taken. With us, in us, around us, over us, through us,
working in and out of us, oh, how wonderful.
Now, I want to continue and
look at the second thought that came forth from brother Branham's first
thought. Remember he said, you cannot be a person without being a personality, and if you're a personality, you are one personality to
yourself. You're a separate individual being….And then he said, The whole Bible
is the revelation of God. The whole church is built upon the revelation of God.
There's no other way to know God only by revelation: 'To whom the Son will
reveal Him,'
38 Now, now, we find out that this Person had no father, no
mother, no beginning of days or ending of life. It was God "En morphe".
Now, the world--the word comes--the Greek word means "change," was
used, changing Himself, "En morphe", from one person to... One
person... The Greek word there, "En morphe," means... It was taken
from the stage act, "that one person is changing his mask to make him some
other character." Like in--in school just recently--I believe, Rebekah,
just before she graduated, they had one of Shakespeare's plays. And one young
man had to change his clothes several times, because he played two or three
different parts, but the same person. He'd come out; one time he was the
villain. And when he come out next time, he was another character.
40 And now the Greek word "En morphe" mean that he
changed His mask. And that's what God did. It's the same God all the time.
God in the form of the Father, the--the Spirit, the Pillar of Fire, the same
God was made flesh and dwelt among us: "En morphe," brought
out so He could be seen. And now, that same God is the Holy Ghost. Father, Son,
Holy--not three Gods, three offices, three acts of the one God. The Bible said
there's one God, not three. But that's how that they couldn't... You can't get
this straightened out and have three gods. You'd never sell a Jew that; I tell
you that, one who knows better; he knows there's only one God.
42 Notice, like the sculptor, he hides with a--a mask over it. That's
what God's done to this age. It's been hid. All these things has been hid, and
is supposed to be revealed in this age. Now, the Bible says they would be
revealed in the latter times. It's like a sculptor keeping his--his piece of
work all covered over until the time he takes the mask off of it and there it
is. And that's what the Bible has been. It has been a work of God that's been
covered up. And it's been hid since the foundation of the world, and its
sevenfold mystery, and God promised in this day, at the age of this Laodicea
church, He would take the mask off the whole thing and we could see it.
What a glorious thing, God, "En morphe", masked in a Pillar of
Fire, God, "En morphe" in a Man called Jesus, God,
"En morphe" in His church: God above us, God with us,
God in us, the condescending of God. Up there holy, no one could touch
Him; He settled upon the mountain, and even if a animal touched the mountain,
had to die. And then God come down and changed His tent, and He come
down and lived with us, become one of us, and we held Him. The Bible
said, I Timothy 3:16, "Without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness, for God was manifested in the flesh," handled with
hands. God eat meat. God drank water. God slept. God
cried. He was one of us: beautiful, typed in the Bible. That was God above
us, God with us; now it's God in us, the Holy Spirit, not the third person, the
same Person.
44 God came down and become flesh and died the death in Christ so
that He could clean the church in order to get into it for fellowship. God
loves fellowship. That's what He made the man at the first time for, was for
fellowship. God dwells alone with Cherubims. And notice now, He made man, and
man fell. So He came down and redeemed man, because God loves to be worshipped.
The very word "god" means "object of worship." And this
that comes among us as a Pillar of Fire, as something that changes our hearts,
that is the same God that said, "Let there be light," and there was
light. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
WHY I AM A HOLY
ROLLER 53-0830A E-33 brother Branham said, Why, I tell you, it means something when
a man's really borned again of the Spirit of God. He becomes acquainted, a
personality of God is in him.
MARRIAGE OF THE
LAMB 62-0121E E-46 All that God was He poured into Christ; and
all that Christ was, He poured into the church to continue the work of the
Gospel. Then we become, not by artificial name, but by a reality of the Holy
Spirit of Life, connecting us into Christ. Then, through the power of His
resurrection, we are raised from the dead things of the world and setting with
Him in heavenly places. Amen. I like that. Tonight, we're setting in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus (See?), resurrected with Him, died to the things of the
world, and took on Christ. And when we take on Christ, then the world is dead.
Then we no more care for the world. The world is dead to us, and we're... And
it's dead to us, and we're dead to it. You're a different person, different
personality, because you are a new creation: creation, not the same creation
polished up, not a--a man that's turned a new leaf, but a man that's died and
been borned again, and become a new creation in Christ Jesus. And the Spirit of
the living God lives in the person. Now, just like the woman that's no more
Broy, she's a Branham, and she goes by that name. And the church is no more of
the world, but it's in the Name of Christ she is. She's connected with Him by
His own Life.
WAY OF A TRUE
PROPHET 63-0119 E-74
Oh, others reason. But,
see, Amos couldn't reason because he was a prophet. The Word come to him. No.
Same as the Word today, you must interpret It--let the Holy Spirit interpret it
by vindicating it in your life. That's what was said, what, you know, Jeremiah
said to the--to the prophet Hananiah. He said, "When that prophet speaks,
and what he says is manifested, then the prophets knowed he was right." If
Amos was here, what do you think he would do? He would--he would stay with the
Word. That's what he would do. You know what? He'd tell us that we been taught
off of the foundation of the original Word of God. He'd tell us that we're far
away from the first Pentecostal church. That's what he'd tell us Pentecostals.
Say, "Now, they had almost fifty years to get yourself in gear, and you've
never come there yet." E-75
Oh, what would he say to denominational personality? Oh, if he wouldn't
give that... If he wouldn't tear up the churches for their immorals, for
accepting creeds, joining the church instead of being born into it. Well, if
you're born into it, brother, sister, you act different. You--you stay with the
Word. If the Holy Spirit's in you, It only feeds on the Word. Jesus said,
"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word (not part of the
Word, but every Word) that proceedeth from the mouth of God." He, being a
prophet, he would see this thing in us. If Amos was a prophet...
QA ON THE SEALS
63-0324M 519-4 {374}
Now, here's one, I don't know how to touch it. And I got another one
just before this one, and then I'm going to ask them to snap the tape just a
minute. 48. If God is one personality, why, or how could He talk to Himself on
Mount Transfiguration? Well, I've just explained that. You see, see? I'd like
to ask you this. I'm going to... When Jesus prayed to the Father. You see? I
believe you have the baptism of the Holy Ghost, don't you, brother? Why don't
you stand up just a minute? You claim to have the baptism of the Holy Ghost?
[The brother says, "Yes, sir."--Ed.] I do too. Then what is that?
Then I don't claim that I'm have the--I have the powers within myself to unfold
these mysteries. I don't have the power to heal the sick. It's God. I believe
you're a minister. If I'm not mistaken, you're from Arkansas. All right. Now,
and in you you have--is--is to preach the Gospel. Ordinarily you was raised on
a farm and around like that. You just don't know nothing about it. But
something come into you to preach the Gospel. You don't claim that to be
yourself at all. That's another person, called the Holy Ghost. Is that right?
Okay.
520-2
{377} Now, I want to ask you.
Do... That Holy Ghost dwells within you, is that right? Do you talk to Him?
Speak to Him? Pray to Him? All right, that's all I want... Thank you very much.
See? Now, do you get it? I'll ask you one: How did it come that when Jesus in
St. John 3, He said, "When the Son of man shall be, which now is in heaven
(See?)--now is in heaven, shall come to earth." See? "The Son of man
which now is in heaven," and here He stood right here talking to the
person. Now, you answer me that one. Jesus and the Father was the selfsame
Person, just the same as the Holy Spirit in me. You're looking to me preaching,
but it's not me. It's not me can speak a word that could bring, as you know, an
animal; set there and looked at it, and kill the animal and eat it. That's
creative power. That doesn't lay in a human being. 520-5 {380} It's not me could take a little boy here laying--the
doctors laying him on his back, with heart trouble tonight, and say, "Thus
saith William Branham..." No. "THUS SAITH THE LORD, it's
finished." And bring him down to the doctor the next day and it's all
gone. A kid with leukemia, till its eyes were bulged out, and yellow all over,
and its stomach... until they taken it to the hospital to give it blood and
things to even get it here; and in five minutes time, cry for a hamburger, and
take it back to the doctor the next day and can't even find a trace of it.
That's Thus Saith William Branham? That's THUS SAITH THE LORD. Yet He is an
individual different from me, but the only way He's expressed is through me.
See? That's how Jesus and the Father was. Jesus said, "It's not Me that
doeth the works, it's My Father that dwelleth in Me." Now, the Son of man
shall ascend from heaven, which now is in heaven. See? What was it? He was
omnipresent because He was God