The Multiplication of Error

Since the early 1970s, the same people who today espouse the "little gods" teaching have forged a virtually unbroken chain of serious doctrinal deviation.  We were first told that the church had forgotten the "proper" concept of authority, so it was necessary for us all to have "shepherds" to disciple us.  Thus, the "shepherding movement" spread and divided many churches across North America.  When this failed, the so-called "faith teaching" or "positive confession" was resurrected from the writings of Kenyon.  The Christian church was then informed (and still is) that God can be "commanded" to respond to our prayers of faith and that we can create with our tongue both good and evil, prosperity or poverty, health or sickness.  Such a position presupposed, in effect, that our faith (not God's sovereignty) was seated on the throne of heaven.

With great speed, these teachings expanded to the dictum that Christians are "little gods."  As the faith movement is embraced by leaders within the Christian Reconstruction movement, the "little gods" are given a "dominion theology."  One key reconstructionist leader, Gary North, boasts, "It has already begun:  bringing together the post millennial Christian reconstructionists and the 'positive confession' charismatics. . . . A new fundamentalism is appearing."  Dominion theology, as it is called, states that until we do indeed subdue the creation, the return of the Lord Himself will be delayed.

The multiplication of erroneous doctrine is now complete.  Unlimited faith, unlimited health, unlimited wealth, unlimited power, unlimited divinity, and now unlimited dominion.

The study of the kingdom of the cults has taught me many profitable lessons, and this is one of them -- error begets error; heresy begets heresy and always in the name of truth, always in the name of the gospel.  Those who propagate these erroneous views (the "little gods," the "born again Jesus," and so on) have sadly crossed over into the kingdom of the cults and stand in need of genuine repentance, lest they come under the inevitability of divine judgment. [The unrepentant will be going to hell.]

It is dangerous, in the presence of God, to affirm oneself as a deity -- even with a small "g."  It is blasphemous to speak in the name of God and utter false prophesies.  It is the height of theological folly to reduce God the Son, second Person of the holy Trinity, to a lost sinner with the nature of Satan and then send Him to hell with the requirement of regeneration before He can complete the work of redemption.

The words of the apostle ring true, "From such turn away" (2 Timothy 3:5, KJV).  "Keep away from them.  For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites.  By smooth talk and flattery [what could be more flattering than being told you are a god?] they deceive the minds of naive people" (Romans 16:17-18).

Don't Take the Bait!

One of the great paradoxes of Holy Scripture is Satan's desire to be "like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:14).  He was hurled from the pinnacle of glory to eternal judgment as a result.  When God created man in His own image, jealous Lucifer tempted Adam and Eve with the luscious bait, "You shall be as gods."  Even after they had fallen, humanity was promised a Redeemer.  Through faith in Him, believers could have the relationship with God that Lucifer so desperately craved.  It is no wonder Satan hates the church, the bride of Christ, the building of God, because within it God has been pleased to dwell (I Corinthians 3:16).  Remarkably, He has described that relationship as "the body of Christ" built upon an unshakable, enduring foundation (Ephesians 2:20).

We are then, as believers, in a union of fellowship with the Trinity.  We are joint-heirs with Christ (John 17:11-26; Romans 8:17), eternally subject as He is Himself to the Father of spirits (I Corinthians 15:28) in love and by choice.  The church is not her own; she has been purchased by the sacrifice of Calvary. [not by Paul Mcullough]  Our identity is greater than any human concept of "godhood."  We are the heirs of eternity, recipients of an indescribable gift.

Let us not cheapen that inheritance or dilute it with perverted theology.  The cost is far too great.

-- by Walter Martin

Ezekiel 28:2 -- In the pride of your heart you say "I am a god; I sit on the 

throne of a god in the heart of the seas."  But you are man and not a god,

 though you think you are as wise as a god.

Also see Genesis 3:4-5 and Isaiah 2:6, 11