I believe a fundamental—yet radical—message of the Bible can be summed up in a few short verses, and I’m going to share with it you in this post. I will probably get some hate mail because of it. I’ll probably even have a few people tell me I’m going to hell. But that’s what I expect from a message as powerful as the one you’re about to hear. Powerful messages are always misunderstood anyway. Jesus himself got crucified for it.
Without further ado, here are the verses:
“Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are Gods” (John 10:34).
“He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these” (John 14:12).
That’s it. Nothing fancy. Nothing complicated. But certainly powerful!
When you put those verses side by side, it gives the Bible a whole new meaning, doesn’t it? And just as important, it gives Jesus’ message a whole new meaning. It certainly isn’t the powerless traditional message we have received from the church.
Some will say that I am taking those verses out of context, but maybe those people are just be afraid of the truth. Maybe they are afraid to take a leap of faith to grow in ways their limited mindsets can’t fathom yet?
These verses are not taken out of context either. They both come from the Gospel of John. John is different than the rest of the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic Gospels because synoptic in Greek means “having a common view.” But the Gospel of John, with its different content, theme, and style, crosses over into heretical territory; it was rejected from the canon by many in the early Christian movement because it does not contain…well, “the common view.” The Gnostics—a dreaded enemy of the institutionalized church—used it extensively. Perhaps there is a good reason for that? Possibly it’s because the truth about who Jesus was and what his message meant was a lot more powerful than the one we have been given?
I wasn’t always so bold. I used to believe in the traditional church message preached around the world on Sunday mornings. The one that said I was a wretched sinner who was lost without the salvation Jesus provided by his literal death on a cross. But is that Jesus’ message or is it the church’s message? History is always written by the winners. Is it possible that religious doctrine is too? If you don’t think so, you ought to take a few months and read through all the arguments and fights the early Christians had in order to adopt the common faith that would eventually be preached around the world!
The meaning of the scriptures mentioned above
So what can we ultimately make of those two verses I mentioned at the beginning of this post?
I don’t think the first verse needs any explanation at all. Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees (religious) when he quoted it from the Psalms. I think its implications are pretty straight forward. Humans are gods. The problem is we don’t know it. And what we don’t know we can’t exercise, and least not fully. Maybe a better way to look at it would be to say that we are gods-in-potential, and we are on the journey to manifest this potential.
I would never have been so bold as to preach that six or seven years ago. But that’s only because I misunderstood the concept of a god. A god is one who creates. We are all creators. We are creating everyday with every thought and feeling we manifest, whether they are conscious or unconscious. Just because we don’t understand exactly how this happens doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Who knows? Maybe one day science will even catch up with what the ancient mystics, philosophers, and even earliest Christian theologians already knew: we are gods because we are constantly creating our reality with our thoughts (especially beliefs), feelings, and actions.
Perhaps one of the main reasons we don’t create something worthy of god is because we lack the knowledge and experience of who we are. God certainly didn’t make robots or puppets that obey simply because we trust him. Trust is earned, and God earns our trust through the lessons we learn from life.
“Though he [Jesus] were a Son, yet he learned obedience through the things [life experiences] that he suffered…” (Heb. 5:8).
It doesn’t get any plainer, folks. I don’t know one person who ever trusted God completely and never made a mistake, do you? God designed the universe to give us obstacles to overcome so that we could learn obedience (i.e. grow up).
People who refuse to accept this truth are the very ones who will remain in the tiny limited world view of reality that Jesus came to teach us how to move out of.
This brings us to the second verse I mentioned at the beginning of this post—Jesus said we would do greater works than he did. How can this be if we don’t become like him, and possibly more?
Although there are many good things about the church’s interpretation of Jesus’ message, there are also some very needless limiting ones. For example, is it really required that we believe the church’s version of salvation in order to be able to do some of the great works Jesus did? No way! There have been countless people from many other religions and belief systems who have done great and amazing miracles. Miracles certainly aren’t limited to the Christian.
It is my hope that we would all learn to think for ourselves instead of being told how to think. I don’t mean to slam religion. There are many positive aspects to it. I still enjoy the fellowship of the local church near my house. They’re wonderful, kind, caring people, and I actually enjoy most all of their company. But I still take everything I’m taught and asked to believe with a grain of salt. Hopefully you do too. There’s no place worst to be than believing everything your pastor or religious leader tells you just because he or she believes God gave them the authority to preach it.
In my next post I will address more on how we manifest the god-potential within us from the standpoint of the mind and our DNA. I believe we have a lot of room to evolve spiritually and physically yet still.
I’m glad you were bold! 🙂 I’ve been silently enjoying your blog. The “church” didn’t know what to do with those scriptures, did they?
What about Genesis 1-26?
“And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
Let US make man in our image. They kind of blew over that one as well.
Really enjoying your blog! 🙂
Laurie, you’re right. I have heard all kinds of religious theories about those scriptures that you mention, but they never seemed to make all that much sense to me. Thanks for kind words and I wish you the best.
Genesis again… 3-22
And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
There is that “US” again. 😉
Genesis 11-7
Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
“Us”.
The “us” you mention has been addressed by many theologians. I think I remember reading in Dake’s Bible that the “us” was referring to the heavenly court of God’s angels. Our theories range from the trinity and to God actually speaking about Satan himself. Again, none of it makes a lot of sense.
Joshua, thanks for an Excellent word.
This is taken from the book of (Allen 4:18-22).
‘We are his offspring’
Once upon a time, long long ago… The Infinite Celestial Spirit, our Heavenly Father/Mother,
who out of an act of pure LOVE, formed and conceived an entity, and from their Royal loins,
began a virgin ray of light and love, and by this, an infant spirit was set in motion, to embark upon an endless journey.
Who was this immortal infant spirit…God only knows…it could have been you… or me…or one of a trillion others.
While all spirits are genderless, they are androgynous, the same as its source…The Infinite God.
Yet within each spirit… there are twin souls, and they each bear a beautiful and unique personality all their own.
When we were formed, “Then God said, ‘Let US’ make man in ‘OUR image’, according to ‘OUR likeness’…” and created our souls.
In the image of God, God created them; ‘Male and Female’.
And eons ago, when we fell, “the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of ‘US’.”
At the writings about the tower of Babel, “Come, let ‘US’ go down and there confuse their language…”
When God was inquiring from Isaiah about a messenger, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for ‘US’?”
Meditate on this…
Anyone who thinks that ‘male’ is superior in any way to ‘female’, it’s usually because they believe “God” is only “male”, and this is being driven by the ego and lack of knowledge of their true Spiritual nature.
Jesus Christ was male because earth’s development – would not have accepted a female counterpart.
”For in him we live and move and have our being. …, We are his offspring.” – (Acts 17:28)
Nice version, Allen! That’s a whole blog post in itself. It is also interesting that you mention the “us” in your comments from Genesis just as Laurie did before I approved the comments. Glad to see a lot of us are on the same page. Blessings, my friend.
Awesome! I love that you took my favorite quote in The Bible. It is true we are all God. I believe before I came here i decided to create a certain path for my life. I picked who would be my friends, my family, and my goals for life. Eventually all of us will figure out the we are God. This is why The Bible states love your neighbor as you would yourself, because that neighbor is essentially you. Good posts by the way.
Matt,
Which quote were you referring to, ye are gods, or you will do greater works? And thanks for your encouragement. I definitely want to be more bold with this message in the future.
That’s pretty cool that Allen and I were thinking of the same scriptures.
I also keep thinking about
Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, [and] I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
“Before I formed thee in the Belly I knew thee”.
Laurie,
Very true. I believe that scripture teaches us a lot about reincarnation also. Hopefully I can get the time to do a blog post on it soon. I have wanted to revisit reincarnation on this blog for a while now.
Yes! Have you read the book “Proof of Heaven” by Dr. Eben Alexander?
I had heard of the book, but didn’t want to read it because I thought it was going to be religious. I caught an interview he did with Oprah and decided to get the book because it wasn’t “Religious” it was more Spiritual from a scientists perspective. He was a neurosurgeon who developed Bacterial meningitis, went into a deep coma and was consider “Brain dead” and went to “Heaven”. Fascinating book. It goes along with the different things on the subject of the Brain that you have spoken about. As a matter of fact, the book goes a long with a lot of the things you have been sharing. It really is worth a read. He doesn’t call God, “God”. He calls him “Om”. Going back and reading the reviews of the book on Amazon, he drove a lot of religious people nuts because he didn’t SEE Jesus. Fascinating book.
Laurie,
Thanks for providing this information. I actually read an article about that on CNN sometime last year. I distinctly remember telling myself that I should get that book. I never got around to doing that, but now you have piqued my interest again. I am especially interested in the fact that he called God “Om.” Did he say why? I was under the impression that OM, when pronounced correctly, is the sound of creation and life on a level beyond the ordinary senses.
You HAVE to get the book. Seriously.
YES, that’s why he calls it OM. SO many things that you have shared are “bits” in the book.
He talks about the Brain being the FILTER. That we knew all this stuff BEFORE but most don’t remember any of it because of our Brain filters it to live here on earth. Terms might be different, but it’s on the same line.
He took no memories of who he was on earth when he went. So, he didn’t have any preconceived ideas. That’s what’s so fascinating about it, no other NDE (near death experience) was like that. People took their beliefs and memories with them when they went. He didn’t.
I don’t want to spoil it for you by saying more, I’ll just say…it’s a fast read and I know you will enjoy it. I was sorry when it ended. I wanted to hear more.
The term “heaven” in his book seems wrong to me, but that’s the only name that people could relate to it. It’s more like going back and being connected with the Universe.
Here’s a clip from Oprah’s interview with him. He says why he calls called Om. WOW, I just realized he heard that Sound you talked about. It’s in the clip.
http://www.oprah.com/own-super-soul-sunday/Dr-Eben-Alexander-Shares-What-God-Looks-Like-Video
Hi Josh,
Have you read the Gospel of Thomas? That was a favorite of Father Charlie Moore, a “radical” Catholic priest who was dismissed from the Church for his views. I listened to a few of his lectures in the early 90s. (He is no longer with us.)
Allen, I believe Jesus had a special role to play in the “fall in consciousness” on Earth that then allowed him to be a forerunner 2000 years ago, hence his teaching path. I believe Jesus was one of the “first born” souls, a revolutionary. His role and experiences during the Fall allowed him to gain deep spiritual truths that he otherwise wouldn’t have had access to. His wisdom did not come to him just because he wanted it to, but because of the experiences of his soul and his very important role in the Fall itself, many millenia before his incarnation as Jesus. Jesus was able to retrieve his wisdom through meditation, through accessing his “Akashic records” (his soul “remembered” the learnings of his “infinite life”). And Jesus had a “twin soul” in Mary Magdalene.
This is something I pieced together from intuitive knowings, as well as insights from experiences I had.
We all have access to our wisdom from our infinite lives by connecting with our soul / higher self in meditation and then listening to inner guidance and responding appropriately. We are all sparks of the divine, as was Jesus. But Jesus was “special” in that he had a “special” role to play in the Fall–the experience of which would teach souls *who they really are.*
Christine, the Gospel of Thomas is a MUST read for anyone who wants to understand more about the Christ! I recommend everyone read it at the same time as the Gospel of John. It will open new doors for them.
Laurie, re: your comment “That we knew all this stuff BEFORE but most don’t remember any of it because of our Brain filters it to live here on earth.” Yes, when you say we “knew” all this stuff before, to me it really means that we experienced a whole variety of things in previous lifetimes but your brain does not have ready access to those earlier lifetime experiences, only your “higher self” (soul) does. And this is by divine design, not because of some fault in you, or in human design.
This is all interesting stuff, yes! But I feel that the application of these principles is more interesting than the theory. Theory can be very dry, but the application is amazing. (Unless your purpose is to discover and “fine tune” the theory!)
Yes! I know what you are saying and agree!
There is so much to refute about what you mention however I’ll just point out two verses:
Philippians 4:13 – “I can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens me. Not through myself but through the one who enables us. In other words, without Christ, we can do nothing.
Deuteronomy 4:39 -“See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me” . Plus there are over 20 other verses throughout Scripture that gives us a clear and unmistakable picture that there is no other God except Yahweh. Just ask Job after he had his discussion with God!
2 Timothy 4:3 – we are seeing this unfold before our eyes with this post. (read it for yourselves)
Stop tickling the ears and start driving the sword of TRUTH through the hearts of men – Spurgeon.
Joshua…….
James 3:1 – “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” Joshua, I say this out of sincere love…..please heed these words and be careful of the doctrine you teach.
John,
I appreciate you taking the time and care to state what you believe to be true. I do find it admirable when the motivation is right. And I believe yours is. However, I would implore you to dig a little deeper than the superficial reading of those scriptures you quote to me.
In a sense, you are correct. It is Christ who strengthens and not yourself. But who is this Christ that strengthens us? If you strip away John, you’ll find Christ there. It is never through ourselves that we manifest God. And it is only when we truly humble ourselves that Christ can manifest. Don’t you truly believe that God is omnipresent? Of course he is. How could it be another other way? And how would you talk with Christ (or Yahweh) unless Yahweh himself manifested through a body? And how would you receive and perceive him unless there were two bodies that ONE spirit manifested in?
You quote 2 Timothy and tell me to teach truth, but you have offered no truth yourself. You say it is Christ that is truth, but WHAT is that? It’s easy to spout scriptures. Not so easy to experience God through the veil of separation we all have experienced.
And finally, the scripture also teaches us that we should have NO teacher. So if the scripture is the perfect word of God, what does it mean?
John, I I say this out of sincere love…..please heed these words and be careful of the doctrine you teach.
Blessings!
Hi Joshua,
Thanks for your reply. What is terribly concerning about your original post, is that your exegesis of John 10:34 is totally wrong and misleads others. When Christ quotes this verse, he is using Psalm 82 as a reference. And in Psalm 82:6, it talks about gods “Elohim” to refer to judges, and other people in authority, not to illustrate that people can be “gods” nor to show that we are somehow divine. There are other places in the Old Testament where the word “Elohim” is used which the correct translation would be “judges” (Exodus 21:6 and 22:8, 9, and 28) You are using the two verses you mention in your original post as proof-texts without any regard to context. No, I’m not afraid of the “truth” as you state above in your original post. Any Biblical scholar or freshman theology major will tell you that context is everything and unless you understand the context of a passage of Scripture, it’s best to keep silent. This is an all too common mistake and leads to poor interpretation as well as misleading to others.
Lastly but by no means least, you say that Scripture teaches us that we should have no teacher? I’m not sure which Bible you are getting your information from but all one needs to do is read John 14:26 “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will TEACH you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (emphasis mine) There are many more verses I could cite, but let’s just leave it with this one.
John,
You are correct; human judges in the Old Testament were compared to God (elohim) because of the spiritual authority that they had over the people. There are many examples of this in the Old Testament. The Hebrew word Elohim is often substituted for the Hebrew word pronounced paw-leel, meaning magistrate, in certain scriptures.
Many scholars have pointed out that Psalms 82 refers to God’s heavenly angels, but, like you, I think it is clearly talking to Israel’s leaders.
But, let’s break this down a little more. Psalms 82:6 states:
“Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the most high”
Jesus basically told the Pharisees that they were being hypocrites because they said he blasphemed for saying he was a Son of God, when the law clearly states we are all sons of the most high.
Jesus then defends his position by stating that the works he does proves he is in the Father and the Father is in Him. The Christ nature is manifested by higher consciousness. We are all sons, and it is the works that we manifest which prove whether God, the higher qualities of the soul, are in us. There is a much deeper meaning here than what we read on the surface.
And here’s where we are going to have trouble agreeing: I see the scripture as allegorical, and you see it as literal. Paul himself told us the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Agar was an allegory in Galatians 4:24. I know that you will reply that is wasn’t just allegorical. That however, is your opinion. I believe Paul was more of what today we call a gnostic. That’s why he never mentions the virgin birth. He wrote his epistles before the Gospels, and the Jesus story evolved over time to include a virgin birth like the other god stories before it after Paul wrote the Epistles.
Here’s the real problem. I can show you literal scriptures which clearly contradict themselves, and you will use another scripture to reinterpret and make them agree. You will accuse me of doing the same thing. So it seems we are both stuck..
No hard feelings. Just two different perspectives. Blessings!
Hi Josh,
Let me just say for the record, I never read superficially, especially when it comes to the Scriptures. I am trained not to.
I hope my last reply to you proved that and made sense and that YOU would dig deeper and exercise better exegesis, especially when you post a blog for others to read. I know you may not publish my last reply but it is my sincere prayer that you will look closer at Scripture, asking the Holy Spirit for discernment, illumination and YES, teaching. Believe it or not, the Scriptures do actually say that we have a teacher.
What you are doing is expressed in 2 Timothy 4:3 – that’s why I mentioned it. You are telling people what they want to hear rather than sharing the truth. You want to know what truth is? (since you asked) It is what’s contained in God’s word – John 17:17 That’s what truth is. It’s the very opposite of what you’re teaching people. My last request is the following: (by the way, I won’t reply any more but would be happy to continue our dialog – you have my email address), I implore you to read James 3:1
My sincerest best to you,
John
John,
You state the truth is in God’s word. God’s word, as we just proved, can be interpreted many ways. If I asked two pastors (both Christians) to tell me who the scripture says God is, then I might get two different answers. Some say God is three persons, some say he is one person manifested three ways. And you know what? I can quote you scriptures that support both arguments! You know this to be true.
I do wish you the best too. And I would be happy to continue communicating by e-mail. I have many friends who take the Bible literally (just about every word), and we have great conversations! I welcome all suggestions and communications. Sometimes I just get busy and may not be able to respond right away, so be patient. Blessings my friend.
Hi Josh,
If you asked two pastors who God is, they would answer “it’s not us and it’s not you”. That much they will agree on and if they were to answer any differently, then anything else they would have to say would not be a good use of anyone’s time. And if they say that God manifests himself in three ways, there again I would have to doubt their aptitude for correctly dividing the truth of Scripture. Of course you could show that God manifests himself; so can’t I. All one would have to do is read the Bible to see this. (Fire, Cloud, etc) However, when it came to the person of Jesus Christ, God did not manifest himself or change his “mode” (i.e. Modelism). The Bible is quite clear on this.
We were discussing something much different in your original post. “Humans are gods. The problem is we don’t know it. And what we don’t know we can’t exercise, and least not fully. Maybe a better way to look at it would be to say that we are gods-in-potential, and we are on the journey to manifest this potential.”
Now, if you are saying that we all have great potential to do amazing things, then I agree with you. However, if you are positing that we are (or can be) gods and you are getting this from scripture, then this is a self-defeating statement. Scripture says that there are no gods besides him. (Isaiah 44:6, et al.) So either God is a liar, which you might be inclined to think or He is telling the truth. But you can’t have it both ways. When you understand this in the context of what Christ was saying in John 10:34, how can you say that we are (or can be) gods?
John,
You stated: And if they [pastors] say that God manifests himself in three ways, there again I would have to doubt their aptitude for correctly dividing the truth of Scripture.
Isaiah 45:5 states:
“I am the Lord, and there is none else, and there is no God beside me.”
Hosea 13:4 states:
“…there is no savior beside me.”
Who is speaking in those instances? Is it God the father, or Jesus? If it’s God the Father, then how is Jesus savior? I am just interested to see what your stance is on this.
Now back to our original discussion, but before I elaborate, one more question:
How could God be omnipresent if you aren’t God? if God is everywhere, isn’t he in you? And if he’s in you, what does that make you?
Now, the New Testament clearly teaches that we will be transformed into His likeness. What does this mean if not to be God. And how can we be one with God and Christ if we do not become that which they are? What do you think it means to do greater works than Christ did?
And finally, how was Jesus both fully human and both fully God at the same time? This is like adding 2 and 2 and getting 5.
Before we go any further, I am just a little curious as to how you would address these questions.
I think where the conflict and confusion comes in is when people like us quote from that scripture the receiver automatically presumes that we are speaking of a External authority, which is not the case. This comes from the indoctrination of society needing a new drug outside of themselves to make them happy.
Govern ones self or be governed, the people who left Rome were they not given the same choice?
I recently read in Ecclesiastical Law (blue laws) it says: ” may every human being be subject to the Pope ” , also within the french revolution treaty the king calls himself ” God King “. If you will also notice the Pople calls himself ” The Vicar of Christ ” , well Vicar means ” in place of “. So if this is not obvious enough of distinction i do not know what is. Again, it is internal manifestation of having authority over the bodies we were given. The majority of people have never read through the whole verse of Hosea 4:6 , they see the first part quoted on the internet all the time and fail to go read the whole verse in relation to the first part, the second part of that verse is probably even more important then the first part. Another thing to consider which I even overlooked myself is that it is the spirit within us not the bodies who are gods, in Genesis there was man created before Adam came along, the bible mostly is an allegory (Galatians 4) telling of Adam’s lineage. Here is the authority of the creation of man >> Elohim > Yahweh > Yashuah > man, in Hebrew the word for this is ” man-isu ” so given what i said about the lineage earlier you could say we were issued by man before a name on paper (survey) even existed. I agree with Christine, this is all a story to encourage us to ” grow up ” within ourselves instead of heavily depending on external forces ( a God King ) to survive. Yahweh provides ! Nemaste’
TRULY… What we do not KNOW Can & Will HURT Us!!! :’-( Im so glad I know it now!!! THANK YOU Joshua 😀
Paula,
An interesting perspective. There is a scripture in the Bible which states:
“My people perish for a lack of knowledge.”
Thanks for commenting.
This is a wonderful thread. One thing I Am sent me to remind you of is that the scriptures can only be discerned through the spirit, not the intellect.
Peace and Agape
Very true.
Hi, Very interesting reading. Thank you for your insights. I have a favor to ask: please ask John to send me an email and let him know that we have more in common than just having the same first and last names. I tried to reach out to him several years ago, but he never replied. I suspect he thought it was just a hoax or something. Be assured it’s not: I’m sincere. Thanks.
There is an end for the involution-evolution process; when man and creation maya ceases to be. In the meantime Ye are gods..continues to be from our side of the curtain. Existence is and all there is and has no knowledge or awareness of itself in its absolute state. Ever seeking equilibrium within itself its tension seems to create. It is only aware in its Dream of creation sort to speak. Awakened from that dream absolute existence remains ignorant and just IS. Likewise we have moments when we are conscious and other moments when we are not even aware of ourselves. (deep sleep)
It is great to see “New Age” Christian teaching. Before any fundamentalist(s) take offence or are dismayed, another way of presenting it; “It is uplifting to read End Times or New Earth inspiration!” Doctrine & dogma centred teaching drove many from mainstream Christian
churches as it was vacuous & without the Living Spirit. (plus the revelations of child abuse in clergy/priests, etc).
It is really passe to argue Scriptures – where does it get you, how does it raise humanity? (Eg : How was Jesus both fully human & God at the same time? 2+2=5. Consider that truth is often paradoxical; then 1+1 = 11! It is all how the Living Word communicates to your heart.
It is all about love when all is said & said & said! God Bless you/all – one in God as gods!
“Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are Gods” (John 10:34).
It seems, in the KJV, “ye are gods” appears three times – “gods” (not “Gods”).
Thank you.
PS I came upon your site only a few minutes ago – after looking for more info about “boat” in Chinese characters where one can see references to “eight” and “people.”