Psalm 82:6
John 10:34
"Ye are Gods (Elohim); and all of you are children of the most High." Can anything be clearer? Or easier to understand? Or more obvious? You are Gods! Plain and simple.
Of course, people have interpreted this basic three-word statement (just two words in the Hebrew) as they have wished. They have transformed the meaning of "You are Gods" into everything but what it really says. Here are a few choice examples: "You are righteous judges," "holy people," "Godlike beings," "angels," "men invested with a Divine prerogative," "representatives of God," "Heavenly appointed princes," "sons of the Covenant," etc.
Anything but what the text actually says!
It says, "You are Gods."
The highly reputable Soncino Commentary on the book of Psalms introduces Psalm 82 with this highly circumspect appraisal: "The interpretation of this Psalm depends upon the meaning attached to the word Elohim." We heartily concur. Simply "consider" this same word in the first verse of Genesis: "In the beginning, God (Elohim) created the heaven and the earth." What is the "interpretation" of Elohim here? Why should it be any different in Psalm 82?
Certainly it ought to be clear when "Elohim" creates mankind in Elohim's "likeness" (Gen. 1:26) and then says to His creation "You are Elohim."
In the New Testament, Jesus Christ quotes Psalm 82:6 and corroborates its obvious meaning. Read John 10:34, "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?" — and then notice the declaration which immediately follows in verse 35: "The scripture cannot be broken." In other words, the Creator Himself, Jesus Christ of Nazareth (John 1:10; Eph.3:9; Heb. 1:2), states that the purpose of human life is to become God. He then quickly establishes this fundamental point — for those who thought that perhaps they didn't hear quite right — that the scripture cannot be broken!
Isaiah 58:8
"The glory of the Lord shall gather thee up" (the literal Hebrew meaning). This intimates that human beings can eventually have exactly the same glory now possessed by God.
Malachi 3:17
"And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels [special treasures), and I will spare them, ("they that feared the Lord and thought upon his name," verse 16) as a man spareth His OWN SON that serveth him."
Matthew 5:48
Genesis 17:1
"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." God our Father is perfect. We know that. But Matthew 5:48 insists that we human beings must become just as perfect — perfect at the same level of perfection at which God Himself is perfect!
How is that possible? How can we fulfill that requirement?
Only by being resurrected into the God Family. There is no other way. If we are to become a spiritual creature with a plane of existence anywhere below the God Family, then we can never be perfect even as God is perfect, and therefore these scriptures would be in error.
This call to perfection is not restricted to the New Testament. The very same demand "be thou perfect" was made of Abraham as the one, all-important condition of the everlasting covenant with God described in Genesis 17.
Matthew 6:9
John 6:27
Matthew 6:9 is one of the multitude of scriptures which mentions the Father: "OUR Father which art in heaven." John 6:27 states His full name, God the Father.
This theme of God being called the Father and His people being called children or Sons is one of the fundamental characteristics of the Bible.
But we know that — well. Perhaps too well. We have heard "Father in heaven" and "God the Father" so many times that the breathtaking meaning has become smothered by familiarity. God is OUR Father.
Now, rather than lampooning the Father-child relationship with sick religious overtones, let's focus upon the fact that in such a relationship, both the Father and the child are composed of, and enjoy, the same quality of life. We're surely not that way today. So we must become that way eventually.
Matthew 13:43
Revelation 1:16
Matthew 13:43 states that in the resurrection, the righteous (those Christians who overcome the world and themselves) "shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."
Revelation 1:16 shows that Jesus Christ's "countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength."
In other words, converted human beings will eventually be exactly like Christ — and shine like the sun. And since Christ is God (John 1:1) and equal with God (Phil. 2:6), likewise, in the same manner, so will every converted human being eventually be.
John 6:46
Revelation 22:4
John 6:46 states that no man can see God except He who is OF God. "He" refers to Christ who was actually God Himself — a co-member of the God Family (John 1:1-3; Heb. 1:8) the God of Israel (I Cor. 10:4). Yet, Revelation 22:4 states that many will eventually see God. These individuals will have God's name written in their foreheads (same verse). Who are they? Revelation 3:12 and 14:1 prove that these same individuals were once physical human beings.
Now since no man can see God except he is of God, and many who were once physical human beings will eventually see God, then a simple logical deduction demands that many physical human beings will eventually be OF God. And not "OF God" in some sanctimoniously generalized manner. But "OF God" in precisely the same manner that Jesus Christ was (and is) exactly OF God — which means that when all is said and done, when the present plan of God is completed, "all nations" (Rev. 21:24) will have literally BECOME God! Because Christ is literally God.
If this is not true — if many are not to become members of the God Family — then either John 6:46 or Revelation 22:4 is wrong. Which would make the whole Bible wrong. Which would make God a myth. Which would doom mankind to a rapidly approaching extinction.
John 17:5, 22
Christ knew He had had — before His human birth — identically the same glorious level of God-plane existence as had God the Father. "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was" (John 17:5).
Consequently, Christ knew full well both what He was saying — and what He was doing — when He gave precisely this same glory to His human followers. He was adding NEW members to God's growing Family. "And the glory which thou gayest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one" (John 17:22).
Romans 6:5
John 17:5
Romans 6:5 shows that "we shall be also in the likeness of his [Christ's) resurrection." What is Christ's likeness in His resurrected condition?
John 17:5 gives the answer: After He was resurrected, Christ was glorified with God the Father's "own self" — this was the same glory which Christ had had "before the world was." Now add John 1:1: Christ was literally God "before the world was." Putting John 17:5 together with John 1:1, we quickly see that Christ was again a full-fledged member of the God Family after His resurrection.
Returning to Romans 6:3, we can reach no conclusion other than that human beings in the resurrection will be of exactly the same essence as the resurrected Christ is now. Which means that all of us who will have qualified will become brothers of Jesus Christ in the God Family.
Romans 8:14-16
Genesis 32:32
In three powerful and all-encompassing verses in the eighth chapter of Romans, Paul states that converted Christians — those in whom God's Holy Spirit dwells (Rom. 8:9) — are literally "sons of God" and "children of God," having received "the Spirit of Sonship [which is the proper translation) whereby we cry, Abba, Father."
To appreciate more fully the intimate and profound family relationship between God and His children, let's refer back to the directly analogous relationship between the man Israel and his children.
Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel) had 12 sons. And here's the point: They were just as human as he was, even though they were the children and he was the father. Jacob's sons were in no way inferior to him with respect to the fundamentally and uniquely human qualities of body, mind, work and life. Only in overall authority and responsibility within the family structure was there any difference between the father and his sons.
And so it will be in the God Family between the Father and His Sons.
Continuing the analogy, history has recorded the incredible geometric expansion of the children of Israel. From a dozen to millions in a few hundred years. How much more for the Family of God!
Romans 8:17
John 5:18
Philippians 2:6
"If we are his children, we share his treasures, and all that Christ claims as his will belong to all of us as well! Yes, if we share in his sufferings we shall certainly share in his glory" (Rom. 8:17, Phillips translation).
What did Christ claim as His? Both John 5:18 and Philippians 2:6 give the same answer: Christ said, "that God was his Father, making himself equal with God." "Who [Christ], being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." No robbery. He owns the universe!
I Corinthians 15:49
"As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." Previous verses show that "the earthy" refers to Adam specifically and man in general, and "the heavenly" refers to Christ specifically and the God Family in general.
Now read that crucial verse again' It states that in exactly the same manner — and just as surely — as we now "bear the image" of our physical parents and resemble the members of the human family (the earthy), we shall likewise in the future "bear the image" of our spiritual Parent and resemble the members of God's Family (the heavenly).
How have we "borne the image" of the earthy? We are earthy. How do we resemble human beings? We are human beings. So how will we resemble the members of God's Family? We will be members of God's Family.