John 10: 43 Did Jesus advocate that people could become God?

Question

Jesus answered a group of Jews and said, " Is it not written in your law, ' I said, you are gods.'"

Does this mean that humans can become God?

I know New Agers tell us that "we can be the God that Jesus Christ proclaimed us to be: 'Ye are Gods'"

Mormons also cite this verse to support their view on plurality of gods ( McConkie, 1977, 24 )

John 10:34

Answer 1

No.

Jesus was referring to Psalm 82:6, which states that Israel's appointed judges (the Sanhedrin at Jesus' time) were "gods" to the people, in that they were authorities on the law and enforced the law's prescribed punishment.

The issue came up because Jesus had apparently claimed to be the Son of God (inherent to Christian beliefs), and the Pharisees accused Him of blasphemy. His response was, "doesn't it say in your law that you are gods? If you are gods, how can you call me a blasphemer for saying I'm the Son of God?" He was basically stating that if calling themselves gods isn't blasphemy, then neither is claiming to be the Son of God.

Moses was also referred to as being "God" unto Aaron, and unto Israel, meaning that he was their judge, leader, and intermediary to YHVH.

Edit: The Mormon (LDS) view of humans becoming gods was based on a 1843 "revelation" allegedly received by Joseph Smith, the founder of the original LDS Church. Smith himself apparently understood the true context of the verse, because he never used it to support his revelation. Years later, however, other Mormons who didn't necessarily understand that context used the verse to support the Eternal Progression doctrine.

Answer 2

No. This text should not be used to support view that we are or we can become little gods. That interpretation is taken out of context of the overall message of this passage.

Not everyone is called gods but only special class of persons, namely, judges about whom Jesus said , they are those to " whom the word of God came" ( v 35 ). Jesus was showing that if the OT Scriptures could give some divine status to divinely appointed judges, shy should they find it incredible that he should himself the Son of God?

Jesus was giving a defense for his own deity, not for the deification of man.

Answer 3

John 10:43 doesn't appear in any authoritative/official Christian version of the Holy Bible, nor do the words appear in the Greek, so I'd have to say that your source is the main issue here. Since Jesus never said that, he never advocated it. Also, it doesn't correlate with any other teaching in the Bible that men may become gods.

Answer 4

There is NO John 10:43!

John Chapter 10, only has 42 verses.

Answer 5

There is no such verse. John chapter 10 ends with verse 42

Answer 6

Remember in the old testament what happened with Moses. When the people began to set there complaints, they ordered there words against Moses. Even to the point that they began to worship the stick that he carried; because, they were befuddled by ignorance. The Lord, Most High, did not care, because he loved Moses enough that his word existed within him. All that he had he gave it too him, because he humbled himself to God, in God.

Now there is a term, God has no eqaul. If he did, when Jesus said, "making himself equal with God", the most high did not throw him out of heaven. Instead he embraced him because out of all he was the only one, both in heaven and on the earth, who understood him.

Lets get back to the point, as Moses stood with the people, Moses was being tempted as God was to smite the people when there complaints pierced heaven. The Lord simply told him, "Speak to the rock, that it will open, and spring forth water", and he obliged. But Moses added something to it, a righteous anger, that pierced the heavens.

His sin was seen both by man, by God, and the beasts that dwell below. The One God or the "Great I Am" was disappointed with him, because he had shared all and yet it all left him with temptation by the people. The Lord had expected a copy of himself, because the word spoke that he viewed him as a friend and brother, and not as a servant. Because he was now unseemly to cover the sins of the many people. Moses could no longer suitable to handle the complaints of the people, but God alone has utterance through the separation of powers between the Levites and the Sons of Aaron.

Even greater, we view David, the son in the lineage of the Almighty God, as the servant Almighty. This was known what God said to Saul and his servants, I will replace you with one who has a heart like mine. Then he sent his servant, Samuel the prophet, to annoint him with his most precious oil. (the part of God in Man) This symbolized the passing of the torch, as the touch of God annointed him to serve him as one whole vessel.

After many trials and temeptations the Lord had suffered by the hands of David. He cried out in the much debated statement "We are Gods, and all of us are children of the Most HIgh". It is very interesting, when David spoke this the spine of the people tingled. But the feared the stretch of the Father's Hand on his Life. He said that the Spirit of God is in Us, Let Us not take It Half-Hearted.

The commission of the new testament stated that we all have the opportunity to act under God to act in full power and authority, just as He had commissioned. But fear, doubt, miscommunication, and lack of understanding overtook the body in the will. So once again David had wrote in the Psalms, "We are little gods" serving in the will of the Lord.

Since we are not equally bound, we will not have equal interpretations of the scripture until all of us decide to wholly serve him. It is a term that we were made like Christ, to be like Christ, who served God beyond repair. That the annointing, that he has past, and the Word (our praise) can multiply and heal any wound. Including the destruction of Death and Hell, which he gave to Us to destroy, but refused. So it was written, that he took guardianship of us until he could raise a few of us up to save the rest.

Answer 7

Jesus quotes Psalm 82:6 to get out of a tough spot. He was claiming to be God for which the Jews accused him of blasphemy.

Answer 8

"We are stoning you, not for a fine work," they answer, "but for blasphemy, even because you, although being a man, make yourself a god." Since Jesus never claimed to be a god, why do the Jews say this?

Evidently it is because Jesus attributes to himself powers that they believe belong exclusively to God. For example, he just said of the "sheep," "I give them everlasting life," which is something no human can do. The Jews, however, overlook the fact that Jesus acknowledges receiving authority from his Father.

That Jesus claims to be less than God, he next shows by asking: "Is it not written in your Law [at Psalm 82:6], 'I said: "You are gods"'? If he called 'gods' those against whom the word of God came, . . . do you say to me whom the Father sanctified and dispatched into the world, 'You blaspheme,' because I said, I am God's Son?"

Since the Scriptures call even unjust human judges "gods," what fault can these Jews find with Jesus for saying, "I am God's Son"? Jesus adds: "If I am not doing the works of my Father, do not believe me. But if I am doing them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, in order that you may come to know and may continue knowing that the Father is in union with me and I am in union with the Father."

When Jesus says this, the Jews try to seize him. But he escapes, as he did earlier at the Festival of Tabernacles. He leaves Jerusalem and travels across the Jordan River to where John began baptizing nearly four years earlier. This location apparently is not far from the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee, a two-day journey or so from Jerusalem.

Many people come to Jesus at this place and begin to say: "John, indeed, did not perform a single sign, but as many things as John said about this man were all true." Thus many put faith in Jesus here. John 10:22-42; 4:26; 8:23, 58; Matthew 16:20.

False charge of blasphemy. Because of Jesus' references to God as his Father, certain opposing Jews leveled the charge of blasphemy against him, saying, "You, although being a man, make yourself a god." (Joh 10:33) Most translations here say "God"; Torrey's translation lowercases the word as "god," while the interlinear reading of The Emphatic Diaglott says "a god." Support for the rendering "a god" is found principally in Jesus' own answer, in which he quoted from Psalm 82:1-7. As can be seen, this text did not refer to persons as being called "God," but "gods" and "sons of the Most High."

According to the context, those whom Jehovah called "gods" and "sons of the Most High" in this psalm were Israelite judges who had been practicing injustice, requiring that Jehovah himself now judge 'in the middle of such gods.' (Ps 82:1-6, 8) Since Jehovah applied these terms to those men, Jesus was certainly guilty of no blasphemy in saying, "I am God's Son." Whereas the works of those judicial "gods" belied their being "sons of the Most High," Jesus' works consistently proved him to be in union, in harmonious accord and relationship, with his Father.-Joh 10:34-38.

Answer 9

Actually, we are invited to be like God by obeying the commandments and loving God and our neighbor. Naturally, we cannot become God Himself.

Answer 10

No. You need to take the scripture into context, and then look up the scripture He's referring to. He's referring to the fact that judges, kings, and leaders on earth have a "god" like authority.