Are We As Christians "little Gods"?

ARE WE AS CHRISTIANS “LITTLE GODS”?

Key Scriptures: Psalm 82:6-7, John 10:22-36

I 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.

Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in temple are walking at Solomon’s Colonnade. The Jews gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, 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. My sheep listen to my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me, is greater than all, no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.

Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father, for which of these do you stone me?”

“We are not stoning you for any of them,” 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 own and sent into the world?”

The Bible doesn’t teach that we are believers are little Gods. This teaching originated from the Prosperity Gospel, that have taken Scriptures outside the original context of what the scriptures actually do teach. As Christians we are to bear God’s image which means we are to share His character, not share His divinity. If we claim to be divine it is a repetition of Satan’s lie in the garden of Eden, thus seeking self worship, instead of us worshipping the One true God.

Throughout the Bible there is only one God, and those who claim that we as Christians are “little Gods” do not take into careful consideration the context wherein this Psalm was actually written.

1. From the Old Testament

Psalm 82:6 is addressed to the judges of Israel in the Old Testament. It doesn’t, as the prosperity gospel claims, mean that they have taken on God’s divine nature, but it does mean that they represent Him when they issue civic judgment and exercise civic power.

It serves as a warning to them that they are to exercise their judgment under God’s power, and not their own.

Isaiah makes it clear that there is only one God, not many gods and no little gods either. (Isa 43:10)

God says there is no other god besides Him either. (Isa 44:6)

2. From the New Testament

Paul makes it crystal clear that God is supreme. (1 Cor 8:5-6)

We reflect God’s image through our love for one another and by being obedient to His will (John 14:15, 1 John 3:24). There is only one who is supreme, omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient and we will never come to that stature. Only God can create and save.

3. What are he implications for us as Christians today?

The teaching that Christians are little gods is totally unscriptural and we are not, as the prosperity gospel teachers, little gods. People that teach this need to be reminded that they are mere mortal men that will die. (Psalm 82:7) If we declare ourselves to be little gods, we are putting ourselves on the same level as God. This lie originated in the garden of Eden where satan tempted Eve to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen 3:5). What happened to them was they died spiritually the day that they ate from it. Only Jesus and the Holy Spirit can claim equality with God because they both came from the Father.