“Man presumes Godhood for his own sake and reaches for God in vain, but God takes on manhood for man’s sake and successfully transforms him into Godhood” (Proverb 300, The Path of Truth).
A man red this proverb and vehemently rejected the truth of it, likening it to the Mormon doctrine that appears to be similar. What he was unable and unwilling to understand was that while the first half of the proverb identifies the false doctrine of Mormons, New Agers, and others, the second half describes the true Biblical doctrine of God. Many evangelicals professing to believe the Biblical testimony react negatively to the truth expressed in this proverb, condemning it as heresy, ready to stone those who believe and teach it.
The sons and daughters of God will grow to be as God Himself.
In fact, the Mormons and New Agers have it closer to the truth on this matter without their Bibles than do most nominal Christians with their Bibles.
The Truth is that the sons of God are gods of Very God in the making. As the children of men grow to be as men, so the sons and daughters of God will grow to be as God Himself.
Orthodox Christendom’s primary proof text used against this truth is much misinterpreted and misunderstood; it is from Isaiah:
Isaiah 14:10-14 MKJV
(10) All of them shall speak and say to you [king of Babylon], Are you also as weak as we? Are you like us?
(11) Your pride is brought down to the grave, and the noise of your harps. The maggot is spread under you, and the worms cover you.
(12) How you are fallen from the heavens, O shining star, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!
(13) For you have said in your heart, I will go up to the heavens, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north.
(14) I will go up above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.
This man did not realize that the proverb quoted in the beginning speaks of this very attitude of pride and carnal ambition: “Man presumes Godhood for his own sake and reaches for God in vain…”
Isaiah is not saying that man will NOT be made as God, in His image. He is not denying the work and power of God to accomplish His will. He is saying that man himself (particularly fallen man) will not make it happen by proud and selfish aspirations. Isaiah’s words imply, if not explain, that it is presumptuous of man to think he can be as God by his own power and virtue. The Word of the Lord by Isaiah condemns the pride of the king of Babylon (representing man), otherwise known in the King James Version as “Lucifer,” which means “shining star” or “son of the morning” or “morning star” – H1966, Strong’s Concordance.
All these things happened with purpose to bring man to perfection in His image.
Ezekiel said this of the king of Tyre (representing man):
“You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until iniquity was found in you” (Ezekiel 28:15 MKJV).
Adam fell – iniquity (lawlessness – the breaking of God’s Law) was found in him. It had to happen as part of God’s grand plan:
“For every living thing was put under the power of change, not by its desire, but by Him Who made it so, in hope that all living things will be made free from the power of death and will have a part with the free children of God in glory” (Romans 8:20-21 BBE).
Adam’s potentiality to sin was part of the perfection of God’s work in creating him. All these things have happened with perfect purpose to bring man to a perfect conclusion, perfection in His image. Hence, the second portion of the proverb:
“…but God takes on manhood for man’s sake and successfully transforms him into Godhood.”
This is God’s work, not man’s; it is first for God’s glory, not man’s, though when the work is complete, man will share in the glory of God:
“And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one…” (John 17:22 MKJV).
Those without understanding say that God will not give His glory to another, citing this Scripture:
“I am the LORD: that is My Name: and My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images” (Isaiah 42:8 KJV).
God is not saying that He will not give glory to those He creates in His image. He qualifies the statement of “not giving glory to another” when He says that He will not give glory to graven images, that is, to competing or alternative gods.
Do not the Scriptures speak of this magnificent inheritance, to be made part of the Body of God?
He is a jealous God and will not countenance other gods that presume, or are presumed, to be His equals or superiors; to those He will not give glory, but those He creates in His image will be full of His glory, praise be to God!
Take Moses, for example, who was faithful in God’s service, performing the work God gave him to do. What kind of glory did Moses have?
“And the LORD said to Moses, See, I have made you a god to Pharaoh. And Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh, he will send the sons of Israel out of his land” (Exodus 7:1-2 MKJV).
Now if God had made Moses a god, what does that say for those who are born of God through Christ?
“Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist [including Moses]: notwithstanding he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:11 KJV).
And do not the rest of the Scriptures speak of this magnificent inheritance, to be made part of the Body of God?
Colossians 1:12-18 MKJV
(12) Giving thanks to the Father, Who has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.
(13) For He has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son;
(14) in Whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins.
(15) Who is the image of the invisible God, the First-born of all creation.
(16) For all things were created in Him, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him.
(17) And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.
(18) And He is the Head of the Body, the Church, Who is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead, that He may be preeminent in all things.
Will not that which He perfects in His image be glorious even as He is glorious?
Jesus said, yea, commanded:
“Therefore be perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48 MKJV).
How does one get to be as perfect (complete, completeness, perfect, or, if you will, mature, as some argue to be the meaning of the word – G5046, Strong’s Concordance) as the Father without the very Nature of God, without “Godhood”? Who is perfect besides God?
Who can make anything perfect but God? Will He not be glorified when He makes man perfect? Will not that which He perfects in His own image be glorious even as He is glorious? Is that not glory?
How shall God’s children possibly escape growing up to be gods, as Him? The Scriptures solemnly yet joyfully testify:
“For it became Him, for Whom are all things and by Whom are all things, in bringing many sons into glory, to perfect the Captain of their salvation through sufferings. For both He Who sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of One, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, ‘I will declare Your Name to My brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You’” (Hebrews 2:10-12 MKJV).
Brothers! Are not brothers of the same blood? Is not the life in the blood (Leviticus 17:11)? Shall the children of God be like God, or shall they not? Brother John, speaking by His blood and Spirit, thinks so:
“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He shall be revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2 MKJV).
As a second witness, brother Paul also testifies:
“As all of us reflect the Lord’s glory with faces that are not covered with veils, we are being changed into His image with ever-increasing glory. This comes from the Lord, Who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18 GW).
Do those words speak of the very nature of God, or are they reflections of vain imaginations of men?
The creation of Adam was the beginning; the process continues to this day.
How did it all start? Here is Luke’s conclusion to the genealogy of Jesus Christ, going back to the creation of man in God’s image:
“…son of Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God” (Luke 3:36-38 MKJV).
I fathered my son, and that makes him a human being. Children also take on some of the unique, specific characteristics of their parents. Now if Adam is known as the son of God, will he not also possess the characteristics of God? Not only will he take on some of God’s characteristics, he will take on all of them in the fullness of time. How so? God created and is creating Adam in His image, in His very likeness.
The apostle Paul writes:
“The first man was out of earth, earthy; the second Man was the Lord from heaven. Such the earthy man, such also the earthy ones. And such the heavenly Man, such also the heavenly ones. And according as we bore the image of the earthy man, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man” (1 Corinthians 15:47-49 MKJV).
Some may argue that Adam was not like God; after all, he sinned, and God would not do that. But God wasn’t finished His work. The creation of Adam was only the beginning; the process continues to this day.
As human beings, we’re all the seed of the first man from the earth. We have been born in his image, like begetting like. Paul says, “as we bore the image of the earthy man.” If Adam was called a son of God, and we are born of him, then we must also be known as sons of God, being in the process God initiated and continues to this day.
By reason, experience, and the testimony of the Scriptures, we must come to the conclusion that we, as members of mankind, have been and are very much like the fallen Adam. Paul says we bear the image of the earthy man. As Adam has been proven a sinner, so we have also been proven to be sinners. We need only see the fruits in our own personal lives and throughout all of history to prove this fact. Sin has certainly done its horrific job, hasn’t it? We were born to Adam after his fall (separation from God – death and the establishment of hell) and do as he did. We have been perfect images of Adam after his fall, not as he was before he sinned.
But God has not left the process there with fallen Adam and his seed – us. This is where Jesus Christ comes in. Paul goes on to say that “as we bore the image of the earthy man [Adam], we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man,” Who is Jesus Christ, Lord of lords, King of kings, and Almighty God.
Will we only imagine or pretend to be like Him, as our disputers do?
Therefore, just as we have been in every way like Adam after his fall, so shall we in every way be like Jesus Christ, the Son of God from heaven, our Redeemer, raised from the dead to overcome sin and death and hell. Make no mistake; we will bear the image of the heavenly Man, His Very Essence.
Is that Godhood or is that Godhood? Receiving the testimony of the Scriptures in our hearts, can there be any credible alternative?
Will we, the true saints, only imagine or pretend to be like Him, as our disputers do? Are these statements of Scripture foolish prating from God’s mouth or from deluded, mistaken men, as these unbelieving gainsayers treat them, or are they declarations and promises of God, true in every respect?
The problem with those who deny the destined divinity of men born of the Spirit of God is that they aren’t born again. They can’t identify with God or perceive what He is about.
“But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14 MKJV).
It can’t be plainer that they don’t believe the Scriptures they profess to believe. To the carnal man, the declarations of the Scriptures are foolishness. That’s because he’s still in the spirit and substance of the fallen Adam, who was severed from God. As God said to him:
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may freely eat of every tree in the garden, but you shall not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17 KJV).
These carnal believers have not been raised from the dead or been given to realize the new nature of God through the new birth of the Spirit of God by Jesus Christ, our only Mediator and Savior. Those who deny that men will be as God are nothing more than tares, appearing as wheat, but without the Seed of God in them. Their religion is little more than a game, a fanciful pastime. In their pretense, they cannot believe the reality – that God is doing and will finish His work exactly as He said He would. He is creating man in His image, an image of Himself, His Nature, nothing less than Godhood. And when those who experience the reality of these things speak of them, those to whom this wondrous reality is hidden are offended.
If being fashioned by Him in His image is not Godhood, then what is?
What do these deniers, who profess faith in Jesus Christ and claim to be born again of God, do with these Scriptures?:
“And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creepers creeping on the earth. And God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him. He created them male and female” (Genesis 1:26-27 MKJV).
If being fashioned by Him in His image is not Godhood, then what is? Or do these people accuse God of creating a cheap counterfeit that doesn’t really have the essence of God’s nature? Are they not aware that Jesus Christ, as a man, was “the shining splendor of God’s glory, and the express image of His essence,” and that God imparts that same essence to those who receive His Spirit?
Aren’t the tares spoken of by the Lord cheap counterfeits made by man? Isn’t it true that tares know only their own natures and can’t imagine a higher one?
Jesus had His conflicts with the forefathers of these people, who accused Him of blasphemy and sought to stone Him when He declared Himself to be one with the Father:
“My Father Who gave them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand. I and the Father are one! Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, I have shown you many good works from My Father; for which of these do you stone Me? The Jews answered Him, saying, We do not stone You for a good work, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a man, make Yourself God” (John 10:29-33 MKJV).
And here is what He answered them:
“Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, You are gods?’ If He called those gods with whom the Word of God was, and the Scripture cannot be broken, do you say of Him Whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world, You blaspheme, because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me. But if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works so that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him” (John 10:34-38 MKJV).
We will be the brightness of His glory and the express image of His Person!
“But,” these who profess faith in Christ retort, “you aren’t Jesus! You can’t have the same relationship with God as He!” To which we reply with the very Scriptural record of His words that they claim to believe, yet of which they are willingly and grossly ignorant:
“Sanctify them through Your truth. Your word is truth. As You have sent Me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world. And I sanctify Myself for their sakes, so that they also might be sanctified in truth. And I do not pray for these alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one” (John 17:17-22 MKJV).
Are not the sons of God to be one with God? Our detractors shout “NO!” But shall we believe men, who are liars, or God, Who alone is true? Are the saints not sent into the world even as He was sent?
“Then Jesus said to them again, Peace to you. As My Father has sent Me, even so I send you” (John 20:21 MKJV).
How can we be sent as He was without His likeness? Is our being fashioned in His image real or not? Is the likeness somehow inferior? Hear what Jesus continues to say:
“I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that those whom You have given Me, that they may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me, for You have loved Me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:23-24 MKJV).
Of the Son, in relation to the Father, it is written: “Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person…” (Hebrews 1:3 KJV).
As it is recorded of the Son and the Father, so will it be written of the sons and The Son. We sons and daughters of God, born of Christ’s Spirit, will be the brightness of His glory and the express image of His Person! Amen! Praise be to God Almighty!
Effulgent with the wonder and glory of God, John said, “Behold what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him” (1 John 3:1 MKJV).
John knew what he was talking about; his gainsayers have no clue. What do our unbelieving disputers have to say about these Scriptures? How shall they defend their diabolical, Christ (God-man)-denying doctrine?
The Bible says that like begets like. “Let Us make man after Our likeness.”
If the disciples of Jesus Christ are without Godhood, then they can’t do His works, much less what Jesus Himself promised they would do:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes on Me, the works that I do he shall do also, and greater works than these he shall do, because I go to My Father” (John 14:12 MKJV).
The Scriptures declare by a son of God:
“But as many as received Him, He gave to them authority to become the children of God, to those who believe on His Name, who were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh [Mormon and New Age doctrine], nor of the will of man [Mormon and New Age doctrine], but were born of God” (John 1:12-13 MKJV).
The Bible says that like begets like:
“And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and creepers, and its beasts of the earth after its kind; and it was so” (Genesis 1:24 MKJV).
And then God said:
“Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creepers creeping on the earth” (Genesis 1:26 MKJV).
Like begetting like again! God begetting gods:
“For it became Him, for Whom are all things and by Whom are all things, in bringing many sons into glory, to perfect the Captain of their salvation through sufferings” (Hebrews 2:10 MKJV).
The Hebrews writer speaks of Jesus being made a little lower than the angels:
Hebrews 2:6-10 MKJV
(6) But one testified in a certain place, saying, “What is man, that You are mindful of him; or the son of man, that You visit him?
(7) You have made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of Your hands.
(8) You subjected all things under his feet.” For in subjecting all things to Him, He did not leave anything not subjected to Him. But now we do not see all things having been subjected to him.
(9) But we see Jesus, Who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He by the grace of God should taste death for all.
(10) For it became Him, for Whom are all things and by Whom are all things, in bringing many sons into glory, to perfect the Captain of their salvation through sufferings.
Can any reasonable father deny that his children will be human?
No doubt, the sequence begins with a quote from the Psalms:
“What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man, that You visit him?” (Psalms 8:4 MKJV)
You see then that we children of God, being men, are placed together with Jesus Christ, and the writer then says:
“For both He Who sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of One, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, ‘I will declare Your Name to My brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You’” (Hebrews 2:11-12 MKJV).
We see the reality of like begetting like everywhere in nature. Fool evolutionists say, “No! We all come from gases, rocks, amoeba, and apes.” Are the vain professors of faith in Christ who resist the truth of the Word of God any different from the evolutionists they may deplore and criticize? How are they not, for they say that those who are born of God can’t be like God, that like does not beget like! In essence, isn’t that what they’re saying? Of course it is.
Born of God! What does that mean? Can any reasonable father who begets children deny that his children will be every bit as human as he is? Yet vain professors of Christ with unregenerate hearts, hearts foreign to the nature of God, say that very thing of God’s offspring and seek to stone Christ with their denials and denunciations. Thinking they do God service, they kill His seed, His sons and daughters, those in His likeness, His image, His Godhood.
As cows beget cows, dogs beget dogs, poplars beget poplars, geraniums beget geraniums, and humans beget humans, so God begets gods. Any man arguing otherwise is an ignorant fool.
Speaking of His impending death, Jesus used the illustration of a wheat kernel:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit” (John 12:24 MKJV).
We are speaking of men becoming God by the power and will of God.
Like begets like; sow wheat and up comes wheat. Jesus sowing Himself brings many sons to glory, in His express image. He multiplies Himself and isn’t ashamed to call them His brethren, they being like Him, even as the many new wheat kernels are, by very nature and substance, as the wheat kernel that was sown.
This isn’t Mormon or New Age doctrine! We aren’t speaking of earthly arrogance and presumption. We aren’t speaking of men’s vain works of self-righteousness or promoting the notion of sprouting wings on our own and flying to other galaxies.
“But Jesus looked on them and said to them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26 MKJV).
We’re simply speaking of the work only God can do with man, as testified from Genesis to Revelation. We’re speaking of men becoming God by the power and will of God, through Jesus Christ:
“Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13 KJV).
We saints will be One with Him, and man will be seated in the throne of God.
Lest we be found causing our antagonists undue distress, let us qualify something at least a tiny bit:
Jesus Christ is the Lord of lords. There is only One Lord; He is the One and Only Lord (orthodox Christendom primarily teaches there are three). God will be all in all. There is no man who will ever be in a position of superiority or competition with God. There will not be many Gods of gods, all calling for worship. Only One is to be worshipped, even as John’s brother instructed him (Revelation 22:8-9). God is the King of kings and always will be.
But we go so far as to say that we saints will be One with Him (yet it is not only we who say it – the Scriptures declare it), and man will be seated in the throne of God, with God, in God, One with God, by God, judging and reigning as God! These things the Scriptures plainly declare:
“To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame and have sat down with My Father in His throne” (Revelation 3:21 MKJV).
All honor, worship, power, glory, thanksgiving, and praise to Jesus Christ, Almighty God!
Godhood – the heritage of the saints and the destiny of those born of God.
Victor Hafichuk
How sure is a man in his knowledge! “I know; therefore I am!” It’s been this way ever since Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden Tree. The only way out of this state comes by faith and obedience, which allow men access to the Tree of Life and to become as He is in this world. Then it’s, “I am, therefore I know!”