Who Was the Bible Referring to When He Said Let Us Make Man in Our Own Image?
1) Direct Answer
It was the one God speaking in counsel with His own Word—His Logos—the expression of Himself by which He would create all things and later be manifested in Jesus Christ. It is not three persons, and it is not angels.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Genesis 1:26-27 says, “Let us make man in our image… So God created man in his own image.” The very next verse returns to the singular—one Creator.
- Isaiah 44:24: “I am the LORD that maketh all things… that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.” God did not share creation with another person.
- John 1:1-3: “In the beginning was the Word… and the Word was God… All things were made by him.” The Word is God’s own expressed thought made manifest—God creating by His Word.
- Ephesians 1:11: He “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” God’s “us” is His own divine counsel—God communing with His Word.
- 1 Timothy 3:16: “God was manifest in the flesh.” The image God had in view would be fully revealed in Christ, the true image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15).
Now notice: Genesis 1 shows man created in God’s image (spirit nature and dominion), and Genesis 2:7 shows man formed from the dust. First the image; then the body.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- If “us” meant three divine persons, we would have three creators—yet God says He made all things alone and by Himself (Isaiah 44:24).
- Angels did not create the world.
- “Us” is God deliberating with His own Word, His plan, His self-expression. As a man speaks within himself, God spoke with His Logos.
- “In our image” points to God’s nature reflected in man—spirit, holiness, and dominion—and finds its perfect fulfillment when God Himself was manifested in Christ.
4) Reinforcing Statement
It’s one God, not three. The “us” is the one Lord counseling with His own Word, creating all things and purposing to reveal Himself perfectly in Jesus Christ.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Questions and Answers on Genesis
53-0729 §30
But now notice. Now, that man when he come down here... Now look, here. You say, "Now, what about it now, Brother Branham?" Now, here you get God in just exactly, and between the oneness and trinity you'll get the thing just exactly right then. Now look! When God dropped ... unfolded Himself, unfolded Himself down till He come down to this man... Now, man sinned not in his spirit, but in his body: lust, passions. Then when he sinned, he separated himself from his Maker. And then God, the Logos, the very Creator of...
Adoption, part 2: Manifested sons of God
60-0518 §33
Now, but He wanted to put things in time. He had to make something to worship, so his attributes produced this. Then He made the man. Then, in this man... He looked lonesome, so, now, to show now his great mind, what He had in picture of the Christ and the church, He took---not a different piece of clay and made a woman ---but He took from the side of Adam a rib; and took from the spirit of Adam the feminish, and put it in this rib. When you see a man that acts like a sissy, there's something wrong. And when you se...
The Identified Masterpiece of God
64-1205 §30
Now, and when he made Adam, that first man, how perfect it was! He looked like God. God, the great Holy Spirit, brooding over the earth, and the birds come out, maybe, and the animals, different things. And kept coming more in the form of the one that was brooding, until finally there come up a species just exactly like the one that was doing the brooding, God. God was, or, man was made in the image of God. Then when He placed him in this great garden... Like Michelangelo has placed his great life's work, and all g...
Going beyond the camp
64-0719E §76
A Christian Science woman... Excuse me if I hurt your feelings; I don't mean to. A Christian Science woman right from this church met me out there one day, and she said, "Mr. Branham," she said, "I like your preaching, but there's one thing you do too much upon it!" I said, "What's that?" Said, "You brag too much on Jesus." I said, "I hope that's all He's got against me," She said, "You make him divine." See, they don't believe He was divine. They believe He was just an ordinary man, good teacher, philosopher. Said...
Perseverant
64-0305 §49
I was talking to a woman that belongs to another faith, that don't believe that He was no more than just a prophet, or a good man. I'll admit He was a prophet; but He was more than a prophet. He was the God of the prophets. He was ... all the prophets was, was in Him plus God. And all of it together made Him. We was going down one night, she said, "If I prove to you, Mr. Branham..." Said, "I've just got one fault with your message." And I said, "I hope the Lord only has one fault. Fine with me." Said, "You brag too...