Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Little gods - The lie that got us into this mess

I opened up one of my Bible apps on my smart phone and it opens up to Genesis chapter 3, the fall of man. Most followers of Christ know the story about creation, Adam and Eve and the fall of man. It's taught in Sunday school to little children and it seems like folks think they are too mature or its below them to go back and study how sin came about. The lie of mankind being little gods, has infiltrated the church body.

 The little gods doctrine is taught outside of church as well in other world religions. The little gods doctrine has been established in some churches even though the doctrine is in complete contradiction of the Bible. Isaiah 37:16 "O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all kingdoms of the earth, thou hast made heaven and earth." We were never to be like God and we will never be God or even little gods. God, there is only one like Him and it is Him who dwells in heaven. 

The little gods doctrine then makes Jesus deity lesser than it actually is. Jesus was 100% man and 100% God at the same time. Jesus was God, who came and dwelled with us . Read John 1:14. The only one who could live up to God's high and perfect standard is God. So then are we saying that we can meet this perfect and high standard? We cannot on our own without Jesus Christ. Which is the entire reason why Jesus came and died for our sins so that we can be reconciled unto Himself.

From the beginning of chapter 3 of Genesis the serpent inserted doubt into the mind of Eve. "Didn't God say that you could eat off of every tree in the garden?" Eve's response is that they could but the tree of knowledge of good and evil we shall not eat and NOT EVEN TOUCH THE TREE. From the beginning it was in our nature to add to God's command. God never said to NOT touch it. God said don't eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But I suppose to be safe and to not fall into temptation, Adam and Eve agreed to not even touch that tree because they did not want to die.
Genesis chapter 2:17 is where you can read the very words of God and He never said to not touch the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 

Genesis chapter 3, verses 4 and 5 is the lie that our ancestors fell for and unfortunately, many are still falling for now. The serpent told Eve that they would not surely die, but that God did not want Adam or Eve to be like Him. That their eyes would be opened and that they would know between good and evil. Eve then saw that the tree was good for food, it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, so she took the fruit and ate and gave to her husband and he ate also. Their eyes were opened and realized that they were naked. 

We all know the rest of the story. Adam and Eve made aprons of leaves to try to cover themselves. God came and they hid from Him because they were afraid and were naked. God punished the serpent, the woman and the man. But even after that God was still merciful. He clothed Adam and Eve with skins and to make sure that they did not live forever in this fallen state, God drove them out of the garden of Eden so that they would not eat of the tree of life. 

Some will use and twist the context of Genesis chapter 1 verses 26-27 that God had to submit to the idea that everything must reproduce its own kind. The idea is that when God gets together, he makes little gods like as if God is like an animal or a human that reproduces and births its own kind. Didn't God say that there is no one like him, never has been and never will be? So why all of a sudden does God have to submit to some sort of idea and why are we trying to make Him out to be like us or even worse, to be like an animal? 

God's image is His the mind, will, feelings, character, and personality of God. God did not say let make gods. He said let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness. In Psalm 82:1 "God stood in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the gods." Psalm 82 6:-7 "I said "You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you, nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince." John 10:34 Jesus said "Is it not written in your law 'You are gods?" In Aramaic and Hebrew it is judges, not gods. They were judges who ruled over Israel before the days of the kings, these judges had the power of life and death of the people.  As a Christian you have to judge. We are children of God, adopted into His family via Jesus Christ. We are suppose to speak on behalf of God and we represent God on earth. As the New Testament church we are to pass judgment on spiritual matters. We are  not gods but we speak on behalf of God as people hearing the word of God through us. Let me give you this example. Have you ever given a power of attorney or received power of attorney from a family member? What does this mean when you have power of attorney? It means you can legally speak on behalf of someone or act on their behalf. God has given us His authority to speak on His behalf and to act on His behalf. So if I gave my wife, for example, a power of attorney, does that means she becomes me? No because that is ridiculous. But my wife can act on my behalf with my permission. So why then do people think that because we have this God given authority to have dominion on earth and represent Him, that it makes us God? 

2 Peter 2:1 "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction." We are taught in scripture to be humble and not to think highly of ourselves. Does not then this doctrine of little gods claiming to be a little god to me sounds like those who teach and those who believe this doctrine are not very humble at all and want to put themselves in the same class as God? God is uncreated, so how can something created be in the same class as the uncreated God? We are creatures, we are not deities. Brothers and sisters, open your eyes, open your ears and open your Bible! Listen to what the word of God has to say! If your Pastor, Bishop, teacher, etc teaches that you are little gods, leave that church immediately! This type of teaching will send you straight to hell along with the leaders of your church. "My Pastor said so" will not be a legitimate excuse before a holy God on the day of judgment. 

The little gods doctrine is one that Satan used from the very beginning and still uses it today. God's people are destroyed by their lack of knowledge. So get knowledge and while you do that, get understanding! God gives wisdom and revelation to those who ask for and He gives it with out reproach. The devil wants you dumb so that he can deceive you. God wants you smart so that the devil cant deceive you. God through His word, which is in the Bible, has equipped us to know what is acceptable in His eyes and what is not. But to fully understand these things we must have the Holy Spirit to teach us. So if you don't understand the Bible, ask God to teach you through the Holy Spirit. It is very important because your life and the lives of others depend on it. 

The context of God's word is also very important. To get the context of a verse read before and after it. For example, Philippians 4:13. Oh this beloved verse that many people say is their Bible verse. But if they read the context of the verse, they would see its not about being to do anything through Christ. Some have even gone as far as saying that you can sin because Christ strengthens them. Paul was saying that whether he was flat broke or in abundance, in good or bad times, he could do anything through Christ who strengthened him. If you don't believe me, I invite you to dust off your Bible and read it for yourself. The little gods doctrine is wrong. It is blasphemy and heresy. People who teach this need to repent and also those who believe it. 







Monday, September 12, 2016

Questions Christians cant answer

I came across a post on Facebook that was shared by Sam Shamoun. He has a ministry where debates Muslims to show them that the God of the Bible is the one and only true God, and not Allah, the god of the Qu'ran. Look him up on YouTube and see his videos and learn how to answer questions that you may have to answer one day. I actually met Sam once at the Phoenix Arab Festival about 2 years ago. What an honor to meet such a great man of God. But I digress. The picture that he shared asked the following questions:

1) Where in the Bible did Jesus say He was God?
2) Where in the Bible did Jesus say "worship Me"?
3) Where in the Bible did  Jesus say He was the incarnation of God?
4) Where in the Bible did Jesus say He came to die for our sins?
5) Where in the Bible did Jesus say He was the begotten Son of God?

Disclaimer: I do not consider myself a Bible scholar or some type of Bible know it all. I just love Jesus, I love the truth and I love to read the word of God. But these questions are not very hard to answer. Not to make excuses, but I can only speak for myself when I say that right off the top of my head I don't know where the answers are located in the Bible, but I know the answers. The first question is definitely one I remember because it is a question that most Muslims and nonbelievers like to ask and try to stump Christians. Memorize John 8:58 and Exodus 3:14.  So I would like to encourage my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to learn how to answer these questions because we must be ready in and out of season to give an answer for the hope that we have. Read your Bible! Your life and the life of somebody else depends on it.

So here is my attempt at answering these questions...

1)  Where in the Bible did Jesus say He was God? John 8:58 "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM." Reference Exodus 3:14, God said to Moses "I AM who I AM; He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent you.'" Also, in John 18:6, when the Jesus was arrested and He had asked whom the Roman soldiers were looking for, the soldiers said they were looking for Jesus the Nazarene. Pay attention to the reply of Jesus. "I AM He" and the group that came to arrest Jesus fell back.

2)  Where in the Bible did Jesus say "worship Me"? Jesus never said to worship Him but He did not refuse worship from anyone who did. If He did not want for anyone to worship Him, He would have told them to stop. One example can be found in Matthew 14:33 says And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, "You are certainly God's Son!" Another example of Jesus not refusing worship is the story of the ten lepers in Luke 17. I want to point out in, starting in verse 12 through 15 the following:, "As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; and they raised their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us" When He saw them, He said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they were going, they were cleansed. Now one of them, when he say that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him." Once again, someone worshiped Jesus and the Lord did not correct them or stop them from worshiping Him.

3)  Where in the Bible did  Jesus say He was the incarnation of God? John 14:8-11 - 8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.  Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.

4) Where in the Bible did Jesus say He came to die for our sins? Matthew 20:28 - "just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” So in this verse Jesus explicitly says that His purpose was to serve and not be served and to give His life for the ransom of many." This particular verse is crystal clear and there should not be any ambiguity or question that Jesus did in fact come to die for our sins.

5) Where in the Bible did Jesus say He was the begotten Son of God?  Son of God means that Jesus shared the same attributes as God the Father. It does not mean that God has sexual intercourse with a woman and had a son like humans do. The problem is that people try to make God into a man when the Bible clearly states that God is nothing like us. He is HOLY, HOLY, HOLY. He is perfect in his holiness. Another way of putting this is if God could take a "selfie", the picture would look like Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 14:9 "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." Jesus is the personification of God. In  John 18:37 the Bible says "For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth." When Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was, Peter said in  Matthew 16:16 "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Jesus actually  praised Peter for this. If Peter was in error, Jesus would have rebuked Peter.

My conclusion is the problem is "Does the Bible answer my questions exactly as I word them?" But the Bible does answer the questions that are being asked and is very clear. If the word of God which is in the Bible is not good enough for you, then nothing else will. In Proverbs chapter 1 the Bible says that fools refuse wisdom and instruction.