Jesus said ye are gods

The wrong interpretation of this statement and verse formerly been found in the cults is now rampant in the church by those who teach word faith doctrine and metaphysical teaching. It is identified as our being little gods.  Many are allowing misguided men to bring them in harmony with what the New Age and the Occult has promoted all along.

Did Jesus mean we are gods, or, does it communicate the opposite? So many have misused this Scripture to prove that the Bible actually tells us we are or can become gods.

In John’s gospel account we see a pattern where Jesus makes a statement and the hearers misunderstand it by interpreting it literally. This is one event in numerous confrontations that Jesus corrects the hearers

The background of this statement is in John 10:24-28. It "is at the festival of Dedication (Lights, Channukah) at Solomon’s porch where Jesus is confronted by his people to tell them if he is the Christ. How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus responds that “you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. V.27 -28 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.”

These are things only God himself can do.  Then speaking of the Father he says V .30 “I and My Father are one.”(we are one in Greek)

So they understood what Jesus meant and especially when he said “I and my father (we) are one.” First, he called God his Father (not our father as he taught in prayer). Second, he conveyed that he is united in a relationship they do not have, the father and son are one. So they picked up stones to rock him to sleep, which is the penalty for blasphemy.

We then read in John 10:31-37 “Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, "Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?"  The Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God." Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods" '? If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?

Now we hear Jesus’ retort that many have been stumbled by because they misunderstood what he was actually saying to them. Saying God is his father is the same as him saying he is the Son of God. Singular, meaning he alone is this son, he is unique, there are no others.

This discourse Jesus quoting is found in Psalm 82:6. This is said only once in the Old Testament and repeated by Jesus but it become meaningless if it is not read in context and understood with the consistent revelation all through the Bible. No true prophet ever taught of gods, be it men or angels.

To understand this correctly we must go back to the original quote and read the context of the passage quoted by Jesus which is Psalm 82:1-8. “God stands in the congregation of the mighty; he judges among the gods. How long will you judge unjustly, and show partiality to the wicked? Selah. Defend the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy; free them from the hand of the wicked. They do not know, nor do they understand; they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are unstable. I said, “You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.” Arise, O God, judge the earth; for You shall inherit all nations.”

This was addressed to the rulers of Israel. This term applied to man is mentioned only once in the Old Testament. Jesus who is the truth used it against a group of religious rulers who rebelled against him abusing their authority.

These rulers were called gods not because they were divine but because they represented God to the people. The word Elohim is used here and it can be used for false gods as well as the true God. It can be used for men and angels, but it is never used for man or the angels to imply they are God, or like Him, the true God in his nature. In Psalms 96:5 and Psalms 97:7 the "worthless idols" of the pagans are referred to as "elohim."

Jesus quoted a portion of the Psalm, but the Pharisees knew the whole portion Jesus used “gods” to describe them. The use of “gods” here is a title to show that they are representatives of God on Earth to lead His people. They were to be serving God giving justice, showing God’s character and be just and fair judges and magistrates. But they were not.

At the end of this discourse in the psalm, because they neglect the people they rule over, because they are unfair in their judgment He tells them their end “But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes."

The prince was more than likely a reference to Satan who also rebelled against God, to be like him.

What Jesus meant is this is what will happen to you because you rule over people as Gods representatives, you will be judged severely. The Pharisees were blinded to who Jesus truly was and rebelled against him. Jesus in John 10 is mocking them as if to say, you're called gods yourselves (rulers) and rightly so (this is a tongue and cheek expression). But you do not recognize THE true God among you.

In fact God directly addresses any who claim to be gods.

Zeph. 2:11 “The LORD will be awesome to them, for He will reduce to nothing all the gods of the earth”

All other gods other than the one true God are false. God says so. There is only one true God who is forever God and there are no others after him or like him.

Here's what the God of the Universe says in Jer.10:11: “The God’s that have not made heaven and earth will perish.” This means any gods that were not the creator will perish. Why? Because there is only one true God. All others, called large and small or medium are false.

God has told us, the one true God says he is unaware of any other god. Isaiah 45:6“I am the LORD, and there is no other.”

Deut. 4:35 “To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD Himself is God; there is none other besides Him.: God knows of no other V.39 “consider it in your heart, that the LORD Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.”

 1 Kings 8:60 “0’ that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other.”

He being the only God, is something affirmed over and over. Isa. 45:5 “I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me.” V.6 I am the LORD, and there is no other.” Isa 45:18"I am the LORD, and there is no other.” V.21 “And there is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Savior; there is none besides Me.” V.22 "Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other."

Isa 43:10-11 “understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me.”  So we should understand God is not making other gods with a small g.

Anyone who comes along and says you too will be as god is saying exactly what the Devil said to Eve.

Since there is only one true God no one can ever be of the same kind as a creature created by God. This is a delusion of unprecedented proportions to claim to be a god even with a little g, it is the height of arrogance. It is the same sin in the beginning that caused Lucifer, the greatest creature God created to fall.

Let us understand a principle that is all through the Bible. This is polytheism not Monotheism. The distance of the creator and the created will always exist. If you do not get the nature of man and God correct you will not have other doctrines correct. God is and has always been separate from His creation. He is not making anything of creation into himself. We will always be created by God, never to become him.   

God is uncreated and infinite. How does he make the created into what He is, uncreated and always existing? God was always God he cannot make another, God became man, not man becomes god. This is the lie of the Devil given to Eve that made man fall.

God does not make other gods, He can’t. The very first principle definition of the creator is that He is uncreated, he always existed, before time commenced before anything was created, before both the angels and the universe or heaven he was there.

When did man first believe he would be god? In the garden, which by disobedience produced the fall, the temptation to disobey. The devil who is an angel could not just get them to believe this lie, he also needed to get them to disobey God’s command, so he coupled them together, using the fruit of the forbidden tree to produce this.

If Eve or Adam were already gods there would be no need to tempt them to be like Him. In Gen.3:22 it tells us that God said, man had become like one of us, by knowing good and evil. It was after they fell that man became like him, and it was by knowing evil along with the good, not when we were created. How did we become like him? Evil was something that God wanted to keep from us. Eve desired what she did not have by deception from the Devil. So whatever is meant for one to be called "like god", it was not a good thing because it was knowledge that we were not to at experience.