Expert: Marilyn - 4/30/2008

Question
Hello Marilyn, I hope all is well with you and your loved ones.

I have a situation here, where a person thinks that this scripture means that we are God and equal to him, here is his dialog:
MAN IS GOD

I HAVE ALREADY ADRESSED THIS

THE PEOPLE THAT PERSECUTED JESUS SAW A MAN


SO WITH THE PHYSICAL EYE THEY SAW A MAN THAT CLAIMED TO BE GOD ...HOW CAN A MAN CLAIM TO BE GOD.
BLASPHEMY.

HE SAID ITS WRITTEN IN YOUR OWN BOOKS I HAVE SAID YOU ARE GODS

HE IS TRYING TO SHOW THEM THAT EVEN THOUGH WHEN THEY SEE THEMSELVES AS MEN JUST AS THEY SEE HIM AS MAN THEY ARE GODS.


NOW CAPITALIZATION IS NEVER EXPRESSED IN SPEECH SONNY

IF I SAY GOD YOU COULDNT POSSIBLY DITSINGUISH CAPITALIZATION

PLEASE YOU ARE NOT SEPERATE FROM GOD YOU ARE HIM

Please help me in breaking this scripture down to him, thankyou in advance and Blesings.

Junior


Answer
Howdy Junior;

When God created Adam and Eve He gave them the earth, and by extension, the universe, and commanded them to have dominion over it, Genesis 2:28.  God commanded Adam to "subdue" the earth (NIV).  In order to subdue something one must come to understand it, which results in the creation of the activity called "science," and he must manipulate his resources, which results in invention called "technology."  Technology and science often go hand in hand, but they are not the same thing.  We were commanded to use, shepherd and be stewards of the earth--this is the god-like power we've been given.  

Further, to Adam, God gave the ability to begat living souls.  This god-like power is the ability to bring eternal human beings into the material realm in human bodies.  This power is in the man's sperm and is activated when the man's sperm joins with a woman's egg.  Then, the man has the god-like power to shape not only his own destiny, but that of his child and his family.  And he has the god-like power to shape the destiny of his nation and the world beyond, even to the moon and Mars.

But to say that these powers are equal to God's powers is to define God down to mere man.  Man cannot be defined up to God.  Man cannot create anything from nothing.  Man takes what God created and rearranges it to make something or applies its properties to do something--man doesn't create anything from nothing.    

Some scientists have been trying to get a population of fruit flies to change into something besides fruit flies, but they have failed.  They chose fruit flies because fruit flies have short generations; the idea being that with fruit flies a person can have the equivalent of a few billion years of generations.  They've managed to create fruit flies with different colored wings, fruit flies that have "evolved" with various other difference, but none of the fruit flies have stopped being fruit flies.  We can't even change what God has made into something else.  We've made some new elements, but not from scratch--we used some materials God had already created.  But we haven't changed a living thing into something else or created any living things from nothing.  So, if we're equal to God, where's the creative power?

But, I digress.  When God gave the earth to man He essentially made man a little "g" god of it.  These are god-like powers we have, to decide the fates of all the beings on the planet, to create vast cities, to discover new worlds--oh, sounds like Star Trek--but you get my drift.  

Jesus never out right and utterly said He was God.  He came as a Man, He lived as a Man, He operated as a Man emptying Himself of His God with a capital "G" power, Philippians 2:5-8.  He said we could literally do everything He did, but few of us ever have.  In saying this Jesus refers to a life lived by faith committed utterly to God, doing His will only and speaking His Words only--that is what Jesus said we could do.  He's referring to those things He did while here on earth living as a Man, He's not referring to those things He can do when vested with His own God power.  

God sent Jesus to be a picture of Himself to the world.  As only God could do, He lived a sinless life as a Man.  Jesus figured His deeds, words and love were sufficient evidence for His identity so that He didn't need to say straight up "I am God."  And, apparently, given what happened when He asked His disciples who He was, and Peter answered, "You are the Messiah," Jesus expected the Holy Spirit would help out in the revelation part.  He always called Himself the "Son of Man" or occasionally the "Son of God;" He never said literally, straight up that He was God.  But, the Pharisees rightly figured it out and it incensed them completely.  They were always trying to catch Him in a trap.

In this passage in John 10, Jesus is turning it all back on them with a vengeance.  The Pharisees ask, verse 24, "How long will You keep us in suspense?  If You are the Christ (Messiah), tell us plainly."  Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe.  The miracles I do in my Father's Name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep...I and the Father are One."  Again the Jews picked up stones to stone Him, but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you great miracles from the Father.  For which of these do you stone me?"  "We are not stoning You for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."  Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods?' If He called them 'gods' to whom the Word of God came--and the Scripture cannot be broken--what about the One whom the Father set apart as His very Own and sent into the world?  Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son?'  Do not believe Me unless I do what My Father does.  But if I do it, even though you do not believe Me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father."  Again they tried to seize Him, but He escaped their grasp,"  ending with verse 39.  

Jesus refers to a written passage in the Psalms, specifically Psalm 82.  Psalm 82:1, "God presides in the great assembly; He gives judgment among the "gods"..."  Oh, wait.  According to this WRITTEN and not spoken passage, we're not equal to Him, we are not Him, He's our Over-King; we are little 'g' gods.  And if you read the rest of Psalm 82, we're not even very good at it.  We don't defend the weak and the fatherless; we don't maintain the rights of the poor and the oppressed; we don't rescue the weak and the needy.

Jesus refers the Pharisees back to Psalm 82 because He knows full well they aren't doing their jobs.  He challenges them to live up to their own calling as little "g" gods.  Naturally, that sets them off all over again because they know full well they've manipulated God's Laws in disgusting fashions to justify their own selfish desires and greed.  

Psalm 82:6-8, ""I (God) said, "You are "gods"; you are all sons of the Most High.  But you will die like mere men; you will fall like every other ruler."  Rise up, O God, and judge the earth, for all the nations are your inheritance."  

If we're so equal to God how come we're so pathetic?  How come we die?  Jesus calls the Pharisees out for a duel of god-like power and they can do nothing more than become enraged idiots.  We can hardly do more.  If we humans are equal to God, where's our ability to raise the dead?  Can we heal the sick whenever we like?  Can we command fig trees to die and watch while they do?  Can we walk on water?  Let the man who says he is equal to God prove it.  Either he is full of vanity and stupidity or he has defined God down to mere man, who dies just as we do like the grass.

Capitalization or no, these passages taken together, as intended, in their full context are clear:  We're little "g" gods who must answer to our Over-King for how we conduct ourselves while residents here in  the domain God created and gave to us.  Hardly equal to our Creator.

Great to hear from you Junior!

Marilyn