LCG's J. Davey Crockett III writes:
Our human form is like our Creator’s form, which is to say that we are like God, and not that God is like us. Jesus explained this to His disciples when He said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Christ is like the Father in form and character.
The Apostle Paul made it very plain when he explained, “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth…. Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising” (Acts 17:26–29).
When one understands our origins as human beings and where we are going in the plan our heavenly Father has for mankind, the pervasive fog of confusion clears, revealing the purpose for human life. There is no basis for racial prejudice. Paul stated emphatically that “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all” (Colossians 3:11). Every human being has been created in God’s image.
This understanding reveals why Star Wars biology does not resemble actual biology: God specifically designed intelligent life—truly intelligent life—to be like Him. The diverse races of fantasy and science fiction can easily make one’s head spin; by contrast, God’s design of mankind is so perfect in its simplicity that there is confusion only if we clumsily misinterpret ourselves.
Wonderfully, God intended us to share not only His form but also His substance. Paul made this important point to the Christians in his day: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit… from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).
To become like God, not only in form but in our spirit and character, is a destiny that few can really imagine—yet it is our Creator’s true and glorious purpose for us.
25 comments:
He writes: “When one understands our origins as human beings and where we are going in the plan our heavenly Father has for mankind, the pervasive fog of confusion clears, revealing the purpose for human life. There is no basis for racial prejudice. Paul stated emphatically that “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all” (Colossians 3:11). Every human being has been created in God’s image. “
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But when it comes to the council of elders, interracial marriages, descendant of Britain & American English speaking, , segregating blacks in Worldwide prejudice reigns. And they were led by a man that thought that the church would be ready as the bride of Christ in 1975. You are still in confusion.
If your not faithful in the smallest of things LCG, how are you going to be given the greater things.
We cannot become God.
And we shall be gods of the newsmax kingdom. For God and his beliefs somehow line up with whatever you can call American right wing politics.
We are made in His image & His likeness. That does not mean we can become God. We want to become more like Him -- think, speak, and be a doer of the Word. That is a far cry from becoming God.
This may be the single most absurd conclusion drawn from proof texting (and badly) I have ever read. How he got from A to B with those verses is just beyond me. God the Father and God the Holy Spirit do not have corporeal bodies. He is spirit. But to say we share like SUBSTANCE with God is so incredibly blasphemous, not to mention ignorant. Our ontology is as far from that of God's as east is from west.
But it does explain a whole lot about how cogdom "studies" Scripture to arrive at their egregious heresies. This one, though, is in a category all its own. Anyone who actually believes this (like the Mormons, who are the originators of it) had better think long and hard about it. This one incorrect belief is enough to set your fate in the wrong direction, permanently. This fool has clearly never read the dozens of times in the Book of Isaiah alone, in which God clearly states before Him was no god formed and after Him shall no god be formed. There is no other God but Me and if you know of one, please tell Me. That is as plain as the English language gets. How do these groups miss this and deceive so many people? You are not God now and you never will be...that includes you Bob, to which I say thank God!
The "God Family" doctrine has never made complete sense to me. Supposedly, keeping "the law" (as Herbert W. Armstrong defined it) for whatever part of our lifetime we were part of his church would "qualify" us for the Kingdom, in which we would become God in the full scope and meaning that that implied. Omnipotent, omnipresent, perfect knowledge, perfect character, incapable of sin. But, in our human lives, there was no "once saved, always saved". Any day, we could wake up, sin, not repent, and fall away. How would obeying by applying our willpower until we died somehow freeze our character for all eternity? Angels had been created as perfect beings, without the human emotions which cause sin. Yet a third of them, and their leader, somehow rose up in their ego and vanity, and turned against God. It was as if they had been part of an experiment by an all-knowing, and perfect God. An experiment which had failed and now needed to be revised and perfected.
What about the polar nature of the entire creation? There is "the thing", and automatically the direct opposite of "the thing". This repeats itself in many ways throughout the universe, to the point where you cannot have one without its polar opposite. You cannot have knowledge of "good" without a contrasting automatic knowledge of its opposite "evil". If a being had had no knowledge of good and evil prior to the eating of the fruit, that being would by very nature have to be terminally dumb. The angels, in fact, would have to know what good and evil were, because the fall of Lucifer predated the creation of man. Was mankind cursed with a total lack of what we know as human emotion prior to Eve and Adam eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge? Do not human emotions also make us stronger than the animals?
I do not see how a church group can explain any of this with certainty. To some, what we were taught can make sense if repeated by rote and never questioned. However, to those who need answers to hard questions, the types of answers to the how and why which can truly lock one in, it lacks the depth to accomplish that.
God is uncreated and absolute. We may partake of those things that he grants us but we can never be just like him. He is infinite we will always be finite. We are contingent and he is necessary. God states in Isaiah, "But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create". He creates and we rejoice. Forever. If we were going to be "God as God is God", would we not be rejoicing in those things that we create? And if we are not creating, we are absent a fundamental attribute of God.
Armstrongists need to think about the implications of what they are saying rather than parroting easily disproved clichés from the past.
6:19
The Armstrongites version of Theosis pivots on the word "likeness". HWA interpreted this to mean "kind" used in the Genesis context to mean biological category. The phrase is "after their kind." To my knowledge this is the only exegesis HWA had for "God as God is God." And it is a misapplication of a biological concept to God. And it mistakenly places us in the God category where we do not belong because we are created beings.
Athanasius said that in the 3rd century.
"God became man so that man might become God."
This is not an Armstrong-invented doctrine.
God himself was created. He is an evolving being. Everything evolves. Every law in nature proves it.
Your god is whoever you allow to teach you about god.
I prefer the phrase: "God has a family", not the phrase "God is a family."
To become an engineer, it takes many years of hard study. Some engineering courses are now 5 years post high school. Then years of practical experience are required to learn the ropes and develop the thinking and technical skills. That's the way the world works. Herbs claim the humans will be given on a plate all of God's design abilities and similar on entering the kingdom is ridiculous. It's simply him being the lying salesman. HWA taught his followers to tolerate being eaten alive by his Gestapo ministers in exchange for being given all the abilities that God developed over trillions of years. It's a monstrous self serving lie.
When resurrected into the kingdom, people will have no extra knowledge or abilities. They will have glorified bodies, and that's it.
7:35
Where did you get all that vitriol from. You are still alive and kicking. So, what is the problem? Please, I’m not trying to start a fight, I want to know why so many are so extreme. I went through and left the worldwide but never felt such anger. So, what was so bad to cause that?
Herb became a Bible engineer/theologian after only six months of self-directed study.
God learns so he must evolve his thinking. Since god is pure thought, he is evolving in his entire being. Got is not absolute because if he were he could not grow. He couldn't even understand what was going around him if he could not learn. He would be dumb.
9:31, what in the world are you talking about? What vitriol is 7:35 supposed to have expressed? His statements seemed pretty calmly expressed, just a statement of fact. Perhaps a warning to others. Could you be overreacting to 7:35 exposing your Apostle for what he really was?
I can't help but wonder if Mr. Crockett's comments about ebing one in Christ are one LCG official's way of counteracting Mr. Weston's false teaching against inter racial marriage.
Like that comment, "Herb taught them to be eaten alive by his gestapo ministers." How opposite of Jesus giving His life for the church.
Sorry, 11:50, learn to check your assumptions before sticking foot in mouth. He is not my apostle, as you falsely wrote.
Some here appear to be fixated on assumptions as fact. Be nice to read some real facts versus hearsay rumors and devious bias for a change.
Thanks for the inaccurate response.
So you say, 6:47. So you say!
4:07, that would be my guess as well. It’s interesting that it’s 2023 and these groups such as Living still practice showing respect of persons. Something that the Bible is against.
For the first time in years, I watched a few LCGs Tomorrows World programs on YouTube. I was surprised by the high quality. They throw in a few new technical facts to avoid the core material from becoming stale. Sure beats Herbs torturous two trees sermons.
June 14: 6:22
God was created??? Evolving???
What???
God said, "There was no one before Me or after Me." You need to open up your Bible and read it..You don't know scripture.
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