As a Christian, all of what I believe is completely and utterly centered around who Jesus Christ truly is.  However elemental this sounds, the born again believer will never move beyond it, only deeper into it.  The truth of  Jesus Christ is the absolute key to eternal life and is found in His Word, illuminated by the Holy Spirit of God.  To say we are Christians is to actually say we are followers of Christ and His truth.  It is not for us to claim anything other than His Word as our doctrine.  It has rightly been said that Jesus is not merely a good man.  He is either a liar, a lunatic or the Lord Almighty.  His claims to be The Messiah, The Prophet, The Word of God, The Savior of the World, and The Almighty God are not good unless they are true. 

For those who have moved beyond the stumbling stone of Jesus being God, there is a peace and comfort knowing God became a man, never stopped being God. Entering His creation, Jesus died upon the cross taking away the penalty of our rebellion against Him.  There is rest in knowing that Jesus is our Advocate, the Bishop and Shepherd of our souls.  He truly is the Lamb of God, and the Lord of Lords! 

Although there is comfort and rest in the wisdom that is beyond this world, we always need to be careful not to become complacent,  falling asleep to the lies which our adversary spews forth.  We are to always be on guard and alert against false teachings and teachers which claim to be from God, yet are not.  There is one word that will reveal the heart of false teaching. It is the little three-letter word “And.”  

Why is it that some who claim to hold so tightly to the divinity of Jesus Christ also hold onto the misguided and antichristian teaching of human godhood?  Although many who claim to be Christians would agree upon the fact that Jesus is God, some hold to what I would call the doctrine of “…And”.  “Yes, Jesus is God,” they would say.  But then they would go just a little further…”And…so are we.”  What!?  How can someone who truly knows the Lord of Lords not only fall for such heresy, but also teach such lies?  Is there still a small part of the old man in them that desires to share in the Glory of God?  Perhaps they do not really think they are that bad?  Or maybe they are happy their sins are forgiven, but don’t like it that they won’t get some of the credit for being good enough to get to Heaven.  Or maybe they have never truly believed the true Gospel of Christ.  Consider a few quotes from very popular teachers who claim to believe the Gospel of God…

  • Kenneth Copeland  “Every Christian is a god. … You don’t have a god in  you, you are one“. (Kenneth Copeland, The Force of Love (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1987), audiotape #02-0028, side 1.)  
  • Benny Hinn says “God came from heaven, became a man, made man into little gods, went back to heaven as a man. He faces the Father as a man. I face devils as the son of God. Quit your nonsense! What else are you? If you say, I am, you’re saying I’m a part of Him, right? Is he God? Are you His offspring? Are you His children? You can’t be human! You can’t! You can’t! God didn’t give birth to flesh…You said, “Well, that’s heresy.” No, that’s your crazy brain saying that.” (Benny Hinn, Our Position in Christ #2—The Word Made Flesh  Orlando Christian Center, 1991).
  • Mr. Kenneth Hagin, “Every man who has been born again is an incarnation and Christianity is a miracle. The believer is as much an incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth.”( the Incarnation Kenneth Hagin, p. 12). 
  • Creflo Dollar-“Now I gotta hit this thing real hard in the very beginning because I ain’t got time to go through all this, but I am going to say to you right now you are gods, little “g”, you are gods because you came from God and you are gods. You are not just human.  The only human part about you is this physical body that you live in.” (Sept. 15, 22, 2002, Made after his Kind)
  • Joyce Meyer– “You know, I was listening to a set of tapes by one man and he explained it like this, and I think this kind of gets the point across, he said, ‘Why do people have such a fit about God calling His creation, His man—not His whole creation, but His man—little gods? If He’s God, what’s He going to call them but the god-kind?’ I mean, if you as a human being have a baby, you call it a human kind. If cattle has another cattle, they call it cattle-kind. So, I mean, what’s God supposed to call us? Doesn’t the Bible say we’re created in his image? Now, you understand I am not saying you are God with a capital G.” Joyce Meyer, “Authority and Opposition,” audio tape 1236.

The false teachings here make the dangerous and unbiblical assumption that creation (ie. Adam and Eve) was not only created by God, but created from God.  So just as a kitten comes from a cat, men come from God- making men little gods.  I remember talking to a Mormon once reminding him that God went to great lengths to record how Adam was formed…He was formed out of the dirt.  Man was not made from God, he was made from the dirt which God made out of nothing on Day 3.  Yes God breathed life into man, but no where, absolutely no where does God’s Word teach that man was created from God. 

Interesting side note:  “After their kind…”   All trees, plants, sea and air and land creatures were all created to produce after their own kind.  For mankind, the difference is not that we were created to be something other than men, i.e. little gods, but that man was created to produce after our own kind as vessels for the True and Living God, our Creator and Savior- Jesus Christ. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” 2 Corinthians 4:7

So is Jesus God?  Absolutely!!!  But should the true follower of Christ ever believe or teach that we are little gods?  Absolutely NOT!!! May we carefully consider the warning from the One and Only God in Jeremiah 10:11…

“Thus shall you say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.” Jeremiah 10:11 

“Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me…”  Isaiah 46:9

“For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.”  Isaiah 45:18