Are We "gods"?

I heard Benny Hinn preach last night to his church that they are not human, they are spirits. It blew me away. There is a popular doctrinal teaching that humans are actually gods. It’s called the “Little gods” doctrine. It says that we are superhuman. Here is a popular quote from the popular mega-church pastor Creflo Dollar:

Dollar: "If horses get together, they produce what?"
Congregation: "Horses!"
Dollar: "If dogs get together, they produce what?"
Congregation: "Dogs!"
Dollar: "If cats get together, they produce what?"
Congregation: "Cats!"
Dollar: "So if the Godhead says 'Let us make man in our image', and everything produces after its own kind, then they produce what?"
Congregation: "Gods!"
Dollar: "Gods. Little "g" gods. You're not human. Only human part of you is this flesh you're wearing."

Dollar leads his congregation down a slippery slope and they buy it hook, line and sinker. There is a huge problem with this theology however. There are actually several problems with it, but there is one glaring problem that should have been evident to his parishioners.

Here is the issue, horses, dogs, and cats all reproduce. They engage in a sexual act, a sperm is delivered to an egg and they reproduce. God on the other hand, creates. He does not reproduce, therefore the “Godhead” does not get together and “mate” to make little “gods”. Dollar has blatantly put God, the Almighty in the same category as horses, dogs and cats. Clearly, his view of God is highly anthropomorphic in that he sees God as a man. Kenneth Copeland views God in much the same way, as a man with a given height and weight, etc. God is Spirit and we should worship Him in Spirit and in truth! God is not a man and God does not reproduce! If you think that the virgin birth is reproduction, then that is also incorrect. There was no intercourse, simply the implantation of Christ into the womb of Mary. She was simply the vessel through which God chose to come through and begin his existence as a human being. He implanted himself as the Son and came forth as the Son, never once losing any of his divinity. Man, as a result of reproduction, is not divine at all. Man was not created divine either, but was created from the dust of the earth.

Reproduction does not allow for ones reproducing to input ANYTHING other than the reproductive material. They cannot choose what traits are transferred to the embryo. For example, two parents with sickle cell trait cannot lower probability (50%) that the trait will be passed on to the child that is being produced. They cannot tell the child what color or texture hair to have, what complexion or what color eyes to have. Reproduction, as God intended it, is purely population driven. It is intended for the survival of a species. God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply.

Creation is totally different. The creator decides what traits are put in and what traits are left out. Just like God could have created Adam and Eve with the knowledge of good and evil ingrained in their mind, but he did not. That was not a property that he wanted them to have. He also could have created them as immortal beings, but in doing that and knowing omnisciently that the fall of man was imminent; God would have basically cursed Adam and Eve to live eternally in sin. The creator says I want them to be this way, and he creates it the way that he wants it. When Genesis speaks of man being made in the image of God, and in his likeness, it is talking about man taking on the transitive properties of God- his love, his compassion, the ability to think, the ability to reason etc. Creation occurs out of the desire of the Creator to share something of Himself. Unlike reproduction which is a survival mechanism, creation is at the discretion of the creator and is not necessary for the creator’s survival. Creation is on such a higher order than reproduction that it is embarrassing for a teaching such as this to be perpetuated or even believed.

Let’s look at it from a different angle. The bible says in Isaiah 44:6 “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.” Isaiah 43 and 44 is a manifesto from God! He asserts Himself to the chagrin and disdain of all false gods and idols. I am not foolish enough to believe that God would contradict himself by creating little “gods” to compete with Him for His glory. I am not foolish enough to believe that God, who forbids idol worship, would create us to be self-contained idols to be worshipped by others or to worship ourselves.

Without a doubt, someone will come back to me and say, well Jesus said in John 10:34 “Doesn’t it say in your Law ‘I have said you are gods’?” Jesus does not say outright that “you are gods”, he is quoting Psalm 82:6. He is also refuting the Pharisees opposition to him calling himself the “Son of God”. A proper discussion of this statement would look to Psalm 82 and see that when God made this statement, he also followed it up with “yet you will die like men “. Psalm 82 is a rebuke of those in offices that represented Him who did not operate in that office properly. By the nature of their office, they were “gods” or “rulers” as Psalm 82:1 points out. However, their mortality was also emphasized when the scripture says that they would die like men. To further establish the premise that man is not a “god”, Ezekiel 28:2 God says to the king of Tyre through Ezekiel, “…you are no god, although you make your heart like the heart of a god.”

The truth is, we are not gods. We are human. We are created a little lower than the angels (Hebrews 2:7; Psalm 8:5). We are not supernatural, but God is and His power works through us and in us to accomplish His will. The desire to be a “god” is selfish and man-centered. 2 Thessalonians 2:4 speaks of one who is coming, the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction who exalts himself above everything and wants to be in the place of God. I am not trying to imitate that, and we all know who this scripture is referring to. It is easier for us to humble ourselves than it is to try to be a “god”. At what point does the “god” try to exert himself/herself and contend with THE ALMIGHTY GOD to their own folly and destruction? Let God be God. There is a reason that He created us the way that He did. It is to our benefit to trust that God did not make a mistake in creating us. He made us fearfully and wonderfully. We are complex and intricate. He gave us the ability to love Him and others. I’m ok with that. I don’t need to have any special powers or superhuman ability- I just want to serve God with all my heart and to love Him with everything within me. I’m not a god, you are not a god- we are human beings created in God’s likeness, not after his kind- there is but one God.