CAN CHRISTIANS BECOME GOD

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CAN CHRISTIANS BECOME GOD?

By Eric V. Snow

Can men and women become God? Is this a blasphemous thought? Some associated with the Churches of God have recently questioned the God Family doctrine that Herbert W. Armstrong taught. If “one God” is only “one Person,” they obviously have to deny the Deity of Christ. But what about the belief that men and women will become part of the God Family? Will they one day be fully Divine, even God, themselves? Because the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) under Joseph Tkach, Sr. changed this teaching, many rejected it. But ironically we have far better arguments in print today for this teaching than appeared decades ago because they were evidently developed in response to the WCG’s rejection of mankind’s ultimately divine potential. So let’s briefly review some of the Biblical evidence favoring the teaching that men and women will become fully like God.

The doctrine of the Trinity is wrong because the Bible teaches that God is a Family composed of the Father and Son at present. God is in the process of reproducing Himself, since He made mankind after the “God kind” in Genesis 1:26-27. In order to interpret this text, it's helpful to read its immediate context and refer to other texts elsewhere in Genesis and the Bible. Let's look at its words, including the following two verses (Genesis 1:26-28), which arguably is the “theme statement” of the Bible:

"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 birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.'"

But on the other hand, notice that the texts in Genesis never says exactly how many members of the Godhead there are. John 1:1-3 only mentions two members of the Godhead, the Father and the Son. The Godhead has only two members at present (John 1:1-3; 17:5, 20-24; Hebrews 2:6-11).

When Jesus asserted that He and the Father were one, the Jews immediately interpreted that as a claim to Deity. Because they saw His statement as blasphemy, they picked up stones again to stone Him (John 10:30-31). He then noted that men were called “gods” in Psalm 82:6 as a way to parry their objections. In this general light, consider then the words of Jesus’ prayer for His disciples present and future the night before His crucifixion (John 17:21-23, NASB used throughout): “That they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. And the glory which Thou has given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity.” Now, if it was “blasphemy” for Jesus to proclaim His oneness with the Father, wouldn’t this prayer be even more blasphemous? For it describes in detail the Father and Son’s future unity with Christian men and women.

So what should we think of Christians’ future status when they are promised to have glory also? Verse 22 can’t be ducked by pointing out the past tense, which appears to be like a “prophetic perfect,” in which God’s prediction of the future was so certain it was stated in a past tense (cf. Isaiah 7:14; 9:5-6): After all, these future Christians weren’t even yet Christians when Jesus prayed, but they had glory because God was totally certain He was going to give it to them.

A passage that promises Christians future glory like Christ’s is Hebrews 2:6-11. Verse 7 is even stronger in the original Hebrew of Ps. 8:5: “Yet Thou has made him a littler lower than God [Elohim], and dost crown him with glory and majesty.” So if, by this translation (the Greek can be translated two ways) when combined with the Hebrew original, we are “a little while lower than [Elohim, not merely just “the angels”],” what will we be when the “little while” ends? Furthermore in verses 9-10, “Jesus, because of the suffering of death [was] crowned with glory and honor” is in the process of “bringing many sons to glory.” The ultimate condition of salvation involves total unity with God in His Family (verse 11): “For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” Verses 14, 17-18 then reveal that Jesus became like an average man. Most astonishingly, God became man so that man could become God!

Now Christians are supposed to become just like Jesus. If Jesus is God (as per John 1:1, 14; 5:18, 8:58-59, 10:30, 33-34; 20:28; Col. 2:9), what is implied by such a text as Eph. 4:12-13? “To the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.” If we’re ultimately fully like Christ, wouldn’t we fully be like God? Likewise, by loving our enemies, we “are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48).

At the time of the resurrection, our bodies will be raised in powerful glory: “It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power” (I Cor. 15:43). As Paul explains, Adam was from the earth, but Jesus from heaven. Then he reveals (verses 48-49): “As is the earthy [man], so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. And just as we have born the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” Likewise, Christians are (Romans 8:29) “predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren.” The Greek word translated “image” in such passages (“eikon”) doesn’t just refer to a superficial likeness, but refers to an underlying similarity, even identity, in essence and substance. (See Hebrews 10:1, which compares “a shadow” with “the very form [eikona] of things.”) After all, we today are of the same species, the same category that Adam was in. Therefore, after the resurrection, we shall be of the same “species,” the same category of Being that Jesus is presently in.

Although it is true that God will not share His glory with another (false) god, He does share His glory with Christians after their resurrection. A critic of the God Family doctrine may quote Isaiah 48:11 against it: “My glory I will not give to another.” Similarly, there’s Isaiah 42:8, which makes a similar statement: “’I am the Lord [Jehovah], that is My name; I will not give my glory to another, nor My praise to graven images.” So God will not share His transcendent majesty, ineffable beauty, and awesome power with false gods that are represented by idols.

However, these texts in Isaiah don’t prove that only one Person is God. As already pointed out above, Jesus asked the night before His crucifixion to have back the glory that he had before the world was (John 17:5). That same night Christ prayed to the Father about granting Christians “glory” (verse 22) as well. Now, as this passage helps to show, “glory” is a defining attribute of God, as research using a concordance will help show. Arians and Unitarians, who deny that Jesus is God, clearly do have major trouble with Jesus’ request earlier during this same prayer (verse 5) to be given back the glory He had with the Father before the world was. This request proves His pre-existence and implies by itself that He was God before the world was created.

Compare this prayer of Jesus in John 17 to John 14:20, which Jesus said earlier that night: "In that day [after I'm resurrected] you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you." In the context of John 14, this refers to the Holy Spirit (verses 16-17), which Paul equates to the Lord elsewhere (II Cor. 3:17-18).

What makes this passage (John 17:21-23) particularly striking is the marvelously high, ultimate destiny it promises to Christians. Compare now this passage with John 10:30-34, in which Jesus asserts His complete unity with the Father, which the Jews consider blasphemous: "'I and the Father are one.' The Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, 'I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?' The Jews answered Him, 'For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.' Jesus answered them, 'Has it not been written in your Law, "I said, you are gods"'" Now, if the Jews thought it was seemingly disrespectful to God for Jesus to say He was one with the Father, what about the wording of John 17:21, 23, as it describes Christians? Doesn't it say future Christians will be fully at one with the Father and the Son? So then, wouldn't Christians become just as Divine as the Son was then? It's a stunning, seemingly incredibly presumptuous thought. But when the Bible is used to interpret the Bible, it's hard to avoid the conclusion. Furthermore, Jesus promised them glory in verse 22, which is a defining attribute of God, as implied in part by Jesus' own request earlier in this same prayer to have His glory back again (v. 5, see also v. 24). The Eastern Orthodox Church has a mystical teaching called "theosis," in which salvation is considered to be deification. Texts like these show they aren't crazy to say such things, although they don't take this teaching ultimately literally.

We are made in His image, which is ultimately supposed to become a reality in character, if we live righteously as Jesus said so that we would be as the Father is (Matt. 5:48). We are to become just as Jesus is, who is God (Eph. 4:13), which is arguably part of the key thematic text of the New Testament. The glory that Jesus had before the world was (John 17:5) is a characteristic that the glorified, resurrected saints will have as well (Romans 8:18; 9:23; Col. 1:27; II Cor. 3:18). For although Christians now bear the image of the earthly man, Adam, they will bear the image of the Lord from heaven, who is God (I Cor. 15:47-49). Clearly “image” doesn’t mean merely a superficial physical resemblance in this context (after all, we’re literal men just as much as Adam was), but the actual substance or essence, especially when the meaning of the Greek is examined (cf. Hebrews 1:3). This teaching isn’t unique to the United Church of God. The booklet "Is God a Trinity?" can be downloaded at https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/who-is-god/is-god-a-trinity, which was used for writing some of this essay. Another excellent booklet on this subject is Roderick C. Meredith’s “Your Ultimate Destiny,” which can be downloaded from the Living Church of God’s Web site here: https://www.tomorrowsworld.org/booklets/your-ultimate-destiny. Although the Eastern Orthodox Church teaches “theosis,” its concept of the deification of man by God to become God doesn’t go far enough. The Mormon concept is different since it denies the unity or oneness of God, which the God Family teaching does not do. We will be God, not “gods.”

So in conclusion, we in the Church of God today have better arguments as derived from Scripture for the future deification of man than Mr. Armstrong himself used, such as those that Roderick Meredith and Ian Boyne have employed. In this light, we should indeed see Genesis 1:26 as a kind of thematic text for the entire Bible and God’s plan for humanity: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.’” We should then go on to behave and live more like God does after becoming “partakers of the divine nature” (II Peter 1:4) since Christ is in us, “the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27) by the Holy Spirit God puts into us (II Cor. 3:17-18).

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