{"id":2444,"date":"2017-02-08T12:19:55","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T10:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/w3.sonofcarey.com\/?p=2444"},"modified":"2017-02-08T13:40:15","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T11:40:15","slug":"little-gods-the-deification-heresy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/?p=2444","title":{"rendered":"Little Gods: The Deification Heresy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some false teachings are so bizarre that one wonders how anyone can believe them. Yet people do believe the charismatic doctrine of deification. Deification is the belief that the incommunicable (non-moral) attributes of God can be given to men. Examples: creative power, eternality, sovereignty. Many popular teachers and the immensely popular TBN teach this heresy.<\/a> See Christianity in Crisis<\/em>, pages 107-127 or Charismatic Chaos<\/em>, pages 328-336 for documentation and further examples.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Kenneth Hagin: Man \u201cwas created on terms of equality with God, and he could stand in God\u2019s presence without any consciousness of inferiority.\u201d<\/li>\n
  2. Kenneth Copeland: Adam \u201cwas not a little like God. He was not almost God. He was not subordinate to God even.\u201d<\/li>\n
  3. Joyce Meyer<\/a>: \u201cIf you as a human being have a baby, you call it a human kind. If cattle have another cattle, they call it cattle-kind. I mean what\u2019s God supposed to call us? Doesn\u2019t the Bible say we\u2019re created in His image?\u201d<\/li>\n
  4. Creflo Dollar: \u201cYou are gods because you came from God and you are gods, you\u2019re not just human.\u201d<\/li>\n
  5. Morris Cerullo: \u201cAnd when we stand up here, brother, you\u2019re not looking at Morris Cerullo; you\u2019re looking at God. You\u2019re looking at Jesus.\u201d<\/li>\n
  6. Paul Crouch (TBN president): \u201cI am a little god! Critics, be gone!\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I have heard more than one pastor in the rural areas of Africa claim to be god<\/a>, and many church attenders have told me they have either heard this teaching or they believe it themselves. Their videos aren\u2019t posted online, but they believe the same thing as these who are. After all, where did the Africans get this theology from?<\/p>\n

    Deification is an entirely false doctrine. It is no more Christian than Islam. Those who believe it are worshipping an idol or a demon. Here are seven deductive proofs and as a bonus, one inductive proof that men are not little gods.<\/p>\n

    Syllogism 1: One God<\/strong>
    \nProposition 1: The Bible clearly states that there is and only ever shall be one God. Deut. 6;4; Isa. 43:10; Mark 12:29; John 17:3; 1 Tim. 2:5
    \nProposition 2: The one true God is not merely a man.
    \nConclusion:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Therefore, no mere man can be the<\/em> God or a<\/em> god.<\/p>\n

    Syllogism 2: Blasphemy<\/strong>
    \nProposition 1: To lessen the perfections of God or to ascribe the incommunicable attributes of God to a creature is blasphemy. Col. 3:8
    \nProposition 2: To blaspheme is a sin that God or gods cannot do.
    \nConclusion: Therefore, men are not the<\/em> God or a<\/em> god.<\/p>\n

    Syllogism 3: Unconverted Men<\/strong>
    \nProposition 1: In an unconverted state men are children of Satan who hate God.
    \nProposition 2: Children of Satan are not God.
    \nConclusion: Therefore, men are not the<\/em> God or a<\/em> god.<\/p>\n

    Syllogism 4: Converted Men<\/strong>
    \nProposition 1: To reach a converted state, a man must be made into a new creation. 2 Cor. 5:17
    \nProposition 2: A thing that has been made or has a beginning is not God.
    \nConclusion: Therefore, men are not the<\/em> God or a<\/em> god.<\/p>\n

    Syllogism 5: Soli Deo Gloria<\/strong>
    \nProposition 1: If man is god in the sense that he has the power to create reality with his words or by sovereignly exercising some control over his Creator, then some glory should go to man. Isa. 45:5-6
    \nProposition 2: However, all glory belongs to God alone.
    \nConclusion: Therefore, men are not the<\/em> God or a<\/em> god.<\/p>\n

    Syllogism 6: Humility<\/strong>
    \nProposition 1: All true Christians must be humble about the reality of their creaturehood and sinfulness.
    \nProposition 2: But God must not be humble because He is neither a creature nor in any way sinful.
    \nConclusion: Therefore, men are not the<\/em> God or a<\/em> god.<\/p>\n

    Syllogism 7: Hermeneutics<\/strong>
    \nProposition 1: There is no Scriptural, hermeneutical reason to think that the image of God in man is evidence that man is the<\/em> God or a<\/em> god.
    \nProposition 2: The image of God in man is the key biblical \u201cevidence\u201d that Word Faith teachers offer to prove deification.
    \nConclusion: Therefore, men are not the<\/em> God or a<\/em> god.<\/p>\n

    Bonus: Church history
    \n<\/strong>Evidence: No reputable writer, preacher, pastor, or scholar in the history of the Christian church has ever believed that men have in themselves the incommunicable attributes of God.
    \nConclusion: Therefore, men are not the<\/em> God or a<\/em> god.<\/p>\n

    Why is this doctrine important? Because this teaching destroys Soli Deo Gloria. Because this teaching weakens total depravity as the gospel calls sinners to realize how bad they are not how good they are. Because this doctrine damages Solus Christus as Christ is reduced to one among peers.<\/p>\n

    If even one of these proofs is true, then deification as taught by the Word Faith teachers is false. What should be as obvious as gravity needs to be explicitly stated since the sin of man has so befooled our natural powers. There is only true God. Saving Jesus Christ, no man or woman is the <\/em>God or a <\/em>god.<\/p>\n

    \nsee here<\/a>
    \n    click here<\/a>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Some false teachings are so bizarre that one wonders how anyone can believe them. Yet people do believe the charismatic doctrine of deification. Deification is the belief that the incommunicable (non-moral) attributes of God can be given to men. Examples: … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,12],"tags":[411,414,408,213,409,413,410,415,412],"class_list":["post-2444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-missions","category-prosperity-gospel","tag-charismatics","tag-creflo-dollar","tag-deification","tag-false-teachers","tag-heresy","tag-joyce-meyer","tag-little-gods","tag-tbn","tag-word-faith"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3QrZa-Dq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2444"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2448,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444\/revisions\/2448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}