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.
The resurrection of Lazarus
50-0813A §48
A woman said to me here not long ago, said, "Brother Branham," said, "He was a good man, but He wasn't Divine. He was just like an ordinary man." I said, "Oh, yes He was Divine. He was Divine." Said, "He was a good man, but he wasn't Divine." I said, "Yes He was." "I'll tell you what." She said, "Here's the reason He wasn't." Said, "When he went down to the grave of Lazarus, it proved that he wasn't Divine because he went to crying. And that showed that he was a man. The Bible said, 'Jesus wept.'" I said, "Look, la...
Faith
56-0815 §67
Now, if we notice this, how that God keeps His promise. This lady said to me, she said, "Mr. Branham, if I'll prove to you he wasn't nothing but a man..." I said, "He was more than a man." I said, "He was God." I said, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself." Said, "Oh, no. He was Joseph's son." I said, "He was God's Son." I said, "He was divine." She said, "I'll prove to you by your Bible that He wasn't divine." I said, "I want to see you do it." She said, "All right. In St. John, the 11th chapter, t...
Show us the Father and it will suffice us
62-0722 §61
And she said, "I'll prove to you by your Bible that He wasn't divine." I said, "Let's hear you do it." She said, "St. John, the 11th chapter, the Bible said that when Jesus went to the grave of Lazarus He wept." And I said, "Is that your scripture?" She said, "Yes. He could not be divine and weep." I said, "Lady, you know what? That argument you've got is thinner than the broth made out of the shadow of a chicken that's starved to death." I said, "Well, you haven't got room for nothing there." I said, "You failed t...
Life
58-0519 §17
I was talking to a woman here not long ago who was... I don't call people's religions out, but you'll know what it is by what I say it. They claim they believe in healing, but they don't believe that Jesus was no more than just a philosopher. And that's a social gospel. They said, "He's a good man. He's a good teacher, but He wasn't divine." Why, certainly He was divine. He was the God of the prophets. This lady said to me, she said, "Mr. Branham, you brag too much on Jesus." I said, "I differ with you. I can't bra...
Fellowship by redemption
55-0403 §44
Job, the oldest book in the Bible (back to our Scripture reading), he used it. The book of Job was wrote before Genesis was written. Job is the oldest book in the Bible. Now, 'course, Moses wrote Genesis several hundred years after. But Job: Now the only way that he had to come to God for fellowship, was through the shed blood of the lamb, and a burnt offering. And one time God had blessed him, and he become a great man. He had riches piled up, camels, and ox, and sheep. Oh, what a great man he was. And everybody b...