Dake Bible Discussion Board ⇒ divine

[macca]

why do some people call themselves 'divine' ?

This is what I found with Google Gemini: "A "divine" is a theologian or minister, particularly one who is eminent in religious knowledge. The term was frequently used in the 17th century to describe the clergy and scholars".

Not sure if that was the usage you were talking about. But, it was used that way, historically.

I believe this bunch follow Kenneth Copland's revelation that he got from Philippians. 2:5-6;
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.
who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery TO BE EQUAL WITH GOD.
Ken believes that 'Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God'
He stopped reading at the end of verse 6 and stated," there it is'
we are equal with God. He has always tought that we don't have a God in us, WE ARE ONE!.
So they believe they are divine in the same way God is.

[Spiritblade Disciple]

I believe this bunch follow Kenneth Copland's revelation that he got from Philippians. 2:5-6;
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.
who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery TO BE EQUAL WITH GOD.
Ken believes that 'Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God'
He stopped reading at the end of verse 6 and stated," there it is'
we are equal with God. He has always tought that we don't have a God in us, WE ARE ONE!.
So they believe they are divine in the same way God is.

I learned a lot from Kenneth Copeland, a while back. He was kind enough to send me one of his New Testaments with his notes in it for my birthday, once.

That said, his position on the believers not having a God in them, but being gods is challenging to accept. I don't think he's the only one in the Word of Faith or similar groups that have taught similarly.

I just saw an headline where folks, today, are actually worshiping William Branham, for instance.

That said, let's take a look at another passage in the New Testament where it seems that humans are being called gods, under certain circumstances.

John 10:35 New King James Version
... He called them gods, to whom the word of God came...

What did Jesus mean when He said that "He called them gods, to whom the word of God came"? Did Jesus mean that God calls those to whom the word of God comes gods?

[macca]

i still have the tape.
He stated very strongly, you don't have a God in you,
you are one.

one of the most evil statements ever mouthed by a christian.

1 john. 4:4; for greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the world.
1 Cor. 6:19; Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own.

2 Cor. 6:16; And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
I will dwell in them and walk among them.
I will be their God, And they shall be my people.
1 Cor. 3:16-17;
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

Rom. 8:9-11;

[Spiritblade Disciple]

i still have the tape.
He stated very strongly, you don't have a God in you,
you are one.

one of the most evil statements ever mouthed by a christian.

Why is it "one of the most evil statements ever mouthed by a Christian"?

[macca]

I am supprised you even asked that question and very supprised no one else commented.
It is evil because Copland added to the word of God and destroyed what was written plainly in many places in the NT.
He also calls Jesus a liar.
Jesus said in many places in the Gospel of John that God the Holy Spirit will be in the believers. Just start at John 14:17; and keep reading.

[Spiritblade Disciple]

Macca wrote:
"I am supprised you even asked that question and very supprised no one else commented."

Well, the board isn't all that active, anymore. So, I'm not surprised that no one else commented.

I asked because I am aware of God making men into gods in the bible. Moses, for example (Exodus 7:1). And, those to whom the word of God comes (as already quoted in this thread).

And, I'm also aware of Dake's teaching on the word "in" meaning "in union with" and not literally "in." Meaning that (according to Dake) believers don't actually have God in them, just in union with them. So, if that's what Copeland had in mind, I can see how he could say what he said about not having a God in you.

Macca wrote:
"It is evil because Copland added to the word of God and destroyed what was written plainly in many places in the NT."

I can see how you'd conclude that. But, given Dake's teaching on in versus in union with and the Bible's teaching on men becoming gods, I can see how Copeland might have came to his conclusion.

Macca wrote:
"He also calls Jesus a liar. Jesus said in many places in the Gospel of John that God the Holy Spirit will be in the believers. Just start at John 14:17; and keep reading."

I see how you come to that conclusion. But, I also see how Copeland might come to the conclusion that he came to.

How do you explain Jesus giving God's glory to believers (John 17:22) when Isaiah 42:8 says that He won't give His glory to another without accepting what Copeland is saying?

[Spiritblade Disciple]

I asked Grok to review the best available data on Copeland's teachings and to provide the strongest arguments in support of Copeland's statement that "You don't have a God in you. You are one!"

Here is Grok's answer:

**The strongest biblical case for Kenneth Copeland’s statement—“You don’t have a God in you. You are one!” (from his 1987 audiotape *The Force of Love*)—rests on a coherent chain of Scripture interpreted through his Word of Faith emphasis on the new creation, the exact replication of God’s nature in the born-again spirit, and humanity’s original design in the “god class.”**
Copeland’s teaching is not that believers are sovereign deities equal to the Father in every respect (he repeatedly stresses God alone is sovereign), but that the regenerated human spirit belongs to the same spiritual class as God and Jesus: identical in nature, authority, and creative capacity, though dependent. “You are one” means your spirit *is* that divine reality, not merely a container housing a separate “God inside you.” Below is the rigorous, Scripture-driven argument, drawn directly from Copeland’s own explanations and the texts he cites or echoes.

### 1. Original Creation: Humanity Was Made as an Exact Spiritual Duplicate of God (Genesis 1:26-27)
Copeland teaches that when God created Adam, “He actually copied Himself.” In *The Blessing of the Lord*, he describes God standing face-to-face with Adam, merging His very Being into the man so that Adam became “a living, speaking spirit like God”—identical in radiance, faith, love, light, and creative speech, the only difference being dependence versus sovereignty.

**Scriptural foundation**:
“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness’ … So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him” (Genesis 1:26-27, NKJV).

The Hebrew *tselem* (image) and *demuth* (likeness) denote exact representation, not vague similarity. Copeland reasons: Adam was placed in the “god class,” not the animal class—endowed with the same creative faith and dominion authority God used to speak the universe into existence (Hebrews 11:3; Genesis 1:28). Fallen man lost functional dominion, but the *design* was divine. Pure logic: If the prototype was a precise spiritual copy, then the spirit of man was never meant to “have” God; it *was* the God-kind of being operating under God’s sovereignty. Copeland: “You’re created in the same spiritual class as God (in His image—Genesis 1:26). … There’s no such thing as a sovereign human being.”

### 2. God Himself Declares Human Rulers “Gods” and Jesus Applies the Title Without Qualification (Psalm 82:6; John 10:34-35)
This is the cornerstone text Copeland and the broader Word of Faith movement use to prove believers are legitimately “gods” (lowercase *elohim*—mighty ones or judges in God’s class). God states it directly; Jesus quotes it to defend His own divine claims.

**Scripture**:
“I said, ‘You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High’” (Psalm 82:6).
Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’? If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken)…” (John 10:34-35).

Copeland’s logic (echoed on KCM.org): The Israelite judges were called *elohim* simply because they carried God’s delegated authority and received His word. How much more the born-again believer, who carries the *indwelling* word-made-flesh and the exact Spirit of the Son? Jesus uses the verse not to limit the title but to expand it—Scripture “cannot be broken.” If God called fallen human agents “gods,” then regenerated sons, recreated in the exact likeness of the Son, *are* that class. Copeland: “Am I a god? Man was created in the god class … Now Peter said … you become partakers of the divine nature. Alright, are we gods? We are a class of gods.”

### 3. The New Birth Recreates the Human Spirit as *Identical* to Jesus—Not Merely Indwelt, but *Reborn as God-Kind* (2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 Peter 1:23; 2 Peter 1:4; 1 John 4:17)
Here Copeland drives the point home: the old spirit dies; the new spirit is not improved—it is *conceived* by the Holy Spirit as a holy thing identical to Jesus Himself. “You don’t have a God in you; you *are* one” flows directly from this.

**Key texts and Copeland’s exposition**:
- “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Greek *ktisis* means a new species.
- “Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever” (1 Peter 1:23). The seed is God’s own Word—pure divine DNA.
- “By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). Copeland: “Alright, are we gods? We are a class of gods…. God Himself spawned us from His innermost being.”
- “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).
- Copeland explicitly: “At the moment of spiritual birth ‘the spirit of God hovered over you, and there was conceived in your body a holy thing *identical to Jesus*…. And there was imparted into you *zoe*, the life of God.” “You and I and Jesus are spiritually identical.” “Every born-again believer’s spirit is the same.” “Your old self is gone forever, and your spirit has been made exactly like Jesus.”

**Rigorous reasoning**: If the incorruptible seed produces an identical spirit (Colossians 2:10—“you are complete in Him”), then the believer’s spirit *is* the divine nature in operation. You do not “have” God as a tenant; your recreated spirit *is* that God-kind reality functioning under the headship of Jesus. This is why Copeland can say, “When I read in the Bible where He [God] says, ‘I AM,’ I just smile and say, ‘Yes, I Am too.’” The “I Am” nature now lives as *you* in the spirit.

### 4. Joint-Heirship and Delegated Sovereignty Confirm Functional God-Class Authority (Romans 8:17; Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:17-18)
Believers are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). Jesus received “all authority” (Matthew 28:18) and immediately transferred it to us with the command to exercise it. Copeland ties this to Genesis 1:28 dominion and the “underlord” responsibility in every believer’s sphere (body, household, words). You speak creative words with the same faith substance God used (Hebrews 11:1, 3; Mark 11:23). The logic is airtight within the system: a joint heir shares the inheritance of divine nature and authority; therefore the spirit is not a subordinate container but the active expression of that inheritance.

### Synthesis and Copeland’s Own Summary
Putting it together with strict logic:
- Premise 1: Adam was an exact spiritual duplicate (Gen. 1:26-27).
- Premise 2: The Fall did not erase the class; redemption restores and elevates it through the new birth (2 Cor. 5:17; 1 Pet. 1:23).
- Premise 3: Scripture itself calls those who receive God’s word “gods”/sons of the Most High, and Jesus affirms the unbreakable truth of that title (Ps. 82:6; Jn. 10:34-35).
- Premise 4: The new spirit is identically zoe-God-life, partaking of the divine nature, “as He is, so are we” (2 Pet. 1:4; 1 Jn. 4:17).
- Conclusion: The born-again believer does not merely contain God; the spirit *is* that God-class being—dependent, not sovereign, yet fully divine in nature and authority. Hence Copeland’s precise statement: “You don’t have a god in you. You are one.”

This is the strongest, most internally consistent biblical case possible from Copeland’s teachings and the verses he and his ministry explicitly cite. It rests on the new-creation reality that the spirit is not improved humanity but a brand-new species of divine sonship.