Human potential is higher than most people think. God created man to enter His divine Family! Read this article and see the PROOF!
THE FACT that the express purpose of every human life is literally to become a full-fledged member of the God Family astounds many readers. Why? Because the idea doesn't agree with long-cherished beliefs! But it shouldn't be surprising. Most "long-cherished beliefs" of churchianity have little or nothing to do with the Bible. Most "traditional" doctrines cannot be found in God's Word, but are far more likely to be ancient pagan myths. (And all the while "theologians" and philosophers have been meticulously popularizing these heathen holdovers, the Bible has utterly condemned them.) Whatever the Bible does teach, people ignore. Or ridicule. Or change. Perhaps the very "best" example of this travesty may be seen from what follows.
Put Every Doctrine to the Test!
The Bible plainly states that God created every human being to join Him eventually in the "very family circle of God" (Rom. 8:15, Phillips translation). This is the great mystery alluded to in the New Testament (I Corinthians 2:7). And this is precisely what we intend to prove: that your destiny IS the God Family. That individual human beings can and will become members of the actual Family of Almighty God! But don't just "believe" what you have just read. We haven't yet proven this is true. Make us prove it. Open your Bible. Pore over each scripture. Check up on us. Read. Think. Reason. Put us to the test. Prove that your Bible teaches that your destiny is the God Family. A God Family into which each individual human being who qualifies will have been instantaneously resurrected (if then dead) or changed (if still alive) into a literal God Being himself, as much God as God the Father and Jesus Christ are God, in the broad, rich, full, expansive meaning of this overused and most-misunderstood word. A point of clarification here: We are not saying that human beings will become God the Father or become Jesus Christ. That would be utterly ridiculous. God the Father is God the Father and Jesus Christ is Jesus Christ. And nobody else can "become" them. Furthermore, we are also not saying that those who will be born into God's Family will ever have the same power or authority as the Father or Christ does. Of course not. What we are saying, indeed what the Bible is saying, is that human beings will become members of the same God Family — composed of the same Spirit, doing the same Work and living the same life as are God the Father and Jesus Christ. We will all exist on the same supreme God level.
Individuality Not Lost
Yet, with all this "sameness" we will assuredly not be "assembly-line robots" or "diffused love essence in a universal spiritual cloud." Far from it. We will be individuals — as individually distinct from one another as God the Father is individually distinct from Jesus Christ. We will have our own particular personalities, maintain our own special characteristics, generate our own unique ideas, create our own original thoughts, enjoy our own preferential activities, fulfill our own personal responsibilities, and on and on. And we will always be tightly united in the God Family. We will always be ruled by the Father and by Christ, fulfilling God's overall purpose, spreading the love of God throughout the universe, united in the Family of God. And this may make some people angry. Why? Simply because self-appointed philosophers and self-ordained theologians have long ago replaced the true God of the Bible with an incomprehensible "God image" — a mythical Fuzzy Being who is "too perfect," "too righteous," "too pious," "too holy" and "too downright religious" to be approached by human beings.
Bible Proof
The Bible itself, for those who are interested, tells a different story. God is not unapproachable. His easy approachability is inherent in the very reason why He created human beings in the first place — so that all mankind could be able to grow up spiritually into His Family. Now let's irrefutably prove this fundamental doctrine directly from the Bible. Many Biblical sections are relevant. But we want to be quite specific. We want scriptures which directly demonstrate and prove that man's ultimate goal — his only reason for being created as a species and his only reason for being born as an individual — is to become a full-fledged member of the Family of Almighty God. Now these Biblical sections themselves are not "lost verses" recently discovered in some archaeological investigation. Nor are they part of some esoteric "forgotten book" recently rescued from some dusty museum warehouse by a muttering graduate student. These verses have been in the Bible all the while. They are not even the difficult scriptures. They are remarkably straightforward. As a matter of fact, for the most part, the scriptures which prove the point are the "old favorites." And that's been the problem: They are "old" and "favorite" — but therefore much misunderstood. So as you read the rest of this article, simply read also the words of the following verses from your own Bible — with an open mind and a fresh outlook — and watch the Bible clearly state in plain English that man's purpose in life is literally to become God!
Genesis 1:1
"Elohim" — the Hebrew word that should be translated "the God Family" — is a uniplural word. This demonstrates that there are multiple members in the one God-Family unit. (For a more complete discussion of this fundamental point, see "The God Family" in last month's TOMORROW'S WORLD.)
Genesis 1:26
In one short, most remarkable statement, the God Family sums up the whole purpose of human life — the primary, underlying reason which motivated the God Family to create all physical reality. This declaration gives the all-encompassing reason: "LET us MAKE MAN IN OUR IMAGE AND AFTER OUR LIKENESS." This is the very first Biblical reference to man — and with it the God Family announces the firm intention to begin to reproduce "after its kind." Prior to this verse, the basic life-principle "after its kind" (literally from the Hebrew "to, or for, its appointed division") is repeatedly stressed as God's guiding design for the reproduction and purpose of all life. And so, just as God had created the plants and the animals "after their kind," He created man after His own kind — after the God kind. Why is the phrase "after its kind" never applied to man — even though it is consistently applied to all other life? The answer is fundamental: Because the primary purpose of human life is not to physically reproduce after the human kind — but to be spiritually reproduced after the God kind! In the same manner as a newborn spider, bird or whale was designed to grow up to become exactly like its family and parents, every human being was designed to grow up to become exactly like his Family and Parent — exactly like God, exactly like the Father and exactly like Christ. Because just as the animals had begun to reproduce themselves, God had begun to reproduce Himself. Many have heard Genesis 1:26 recited often — and, as usual, familiarity has bred contempt. So, quite unintentionally, we water it down — so that "Let us make man in our image and after our likeness" is interpreted as 'representational," or as poetry, or as a metaphor, or figure of speech, or some other literary device, or a simile, or an analogy, or a figure of anything — anything but the simple meaning of the words themselves. Men have devoted multiple tens of thousands of volumes over the centuries in search of "the plan," "the purpose" and "the answer" to mankind's existence. To no avail. In striking contrast, God reveals all three — He spells out in precise detail the exact plan, the full purpose, and the ultimate answer for each human life — and He does it in just four original Hebrew words (11 in English): "Let us [the God Family] make man in our [the God Family's] image and after our [the God Family's] likeness." How much clearer could one state that the God Family — comprising, at the present time, only two Persons, God the Father and God the Son — created man for the purpose of joining them IN the God Family, to become literal, additional God Persons, just as they themselves (God the Father and God the Son) are and always will be, literal members of that eternally ruling God Family.
Genesis 17:8 shows that Abraham was promised the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. Romans 4:13 extends this promise to the entire earth. Yet Abraham died not having received the promise (Hebrews 11:13). Is something wrong? No — Romans 4:17 proves that God calls things which have not yet happened as though they had already happened — and furthermore that He will resurrect the dead to bring His promises to pass: So we can be sure that Abraham will be resurrected. Now, in this context, Leviticus 25:23 adds the critical complication: God states that "the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me." This means that Canaan and the whole earth belong to the God Family — and only the God Family can permanently own any land at all. Consequently, in order for God to make good on His promise to give Abraham the possession of Canaan and the whole earth as an everlasting possession — and God must do this — simple logic dictates that Abraham must eventually become a co-member of the God Family. There is no other alternative.
Leviticus 11:44-45
"Ye shall be holy, for I am holy." God commands human beings to attain the same level of holiness that God Himself reflects. But obviously we can't. Is God a sadist? No — He is trying to make us realize the crucial point: that we should be striving to become like God in holiness as in every other way, so that at some point in the future we can be given the full measure of God's holiness and be actually changed into Spirit Beings in God's Family.
Job 14:14
"If a man die shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come." Change? To what? To a GOD-LEVEL of existence.
Psalm 17:15
David looked forward to the time when he would awake from his death — and bear the likeness of God. (This will take place in the yet future resurrection — David is dead in his grave [Acts 2:29].) The Hebrew word here translated "likeness" — timoonah — is elsewhere used to directly represent God Himself (Num. 12:8; Deut. 4:12, 15, where "similitude" is the translation) but it is a completely different Hebrew word from the fleshly (Gen. 1:26) "likeness" of God in which human beings were created. How then can David bear the likeness (timoonah) of God without being in God's Family? The answer is, he can't.
Psalm 82:6 John 10:34
"Ye are Gods (Elohim); and all of you are children of the most High." Can anything be clearer? Or easier to understand? Or more obvious? You are Gods! Plain and simple. Of course, people have interpreted this basic three-word statement (just two words in the Hebrew) as they have wished. They have transformed the meaning of "You are Gods" into everything but what it really says. Here are a few choice examples: "You are righteous judges," "holy people," "Godlike beings," "angels," "men invested with a Divine prerogative," "representatives of God," "Heavenly appointed princes," "sons of the Covenant," etc. Anything but what the text actually says! It says, "You are Gods." The highly reputable Soncino Commentary on the book of Psalms introduces Psalm 82 with this highly circumspect appraisal: "The interpretation of this Psalm depends upon the meaning attached to the word Elohim." We heartily concur. Simply "consider" this same word in the first verse of Genesis: "In the beginning, God (Elohim) created the heaven and the earth." What is the "interpretation" of Elohim here? Why should it be any different in Psalm 82? Certainly it ought to be clear when "Elohim" creates mankind in Elohim's "likeness" (Gen. 1:26) and then says to His creation "You are Elohim." In the New Testament, Jesus Christ quotes Psalm 82:6 and corroborates its obvious meaning. Read John 10:34, "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?" — and then notice the declaration which immediately follows in verse 35: "The scripture cannot be broken." In other words, the Creator Himself, Jesus Christ of Nazareth (John 1:10; Eph. 3:9; Heb. 1:2), states that the purpose of human life is to become God. He then quickly establishes this fundamental point — for those who thought that perhaps they didn't hear quite right — that the scripture cannot be broken!
Isaiah 58:8
"The glory of the Lord shall gather thee up" [the literal Hebrew meaning]. This intimates that human beings can eventually have exactly the same glory now possessed by God.
Malachi 3:17
"And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels (special treasures), and I will spare them, ["they that feared the Lord and thought upon his name," verse 16] as a man spareth HIS OWN SON that serveth him."
Matthew 5:48 Genesis 17:1
"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." God our Father is perfect. We know that. But Matthew 5:48 insists that we human beings must become just as perfect — perfect at the same level of perfection at which God Himself is perfect! How is that possible? How can we fulfill that requirement? Only by being resurrected into the God Family. There is no other way. If we are to become a spiritual creature with a plane of existence anywhere below the God Family, then, we can never be perfect even as God is perfect, and therefore these scriptures would be in error. This call to perfection is not restricted to the New Testament. The very same demand "be thou perfect" was made of Abraham as the one, all-important condition of the everlasting covenant with God described in Genesis 17.
Matthew 6:9 John 6:27
Matthew 6:9 is one of the multitude of scriptures which mentions the Father: "OUR Father which art in heaven." John 6:27 states His full name, God the Father. This theme of God being called the Father and His people being called children or Sons is one of the fundamental characteristics of the Bible. But we know that-well. Perhaps too well. We have heard "Father in heaven" and "God the Father" so many times that the breathtaking meaning has become smothered by familiarity. God is OUR Father. Now, rather than lampooning the Father-child relationship with sick religious overtones, let's focus upon the fact that in such a relationship, both the Father and the child are composed of, and enjoy, the same quality of life. We're surely not that way today. So we must become that way eventually.
Matthew 13:43 Revelation 1:16
Matthew 13:43 states that in the resurrection, the righteous (those Christians who overcome the world and themselves) "shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Revelation 1:16 shows that Jesus Christ's "countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength." In other words, converted human beings will eventually be exactly like Christ — and shine like the sun. And since Christ is God (John 1:1 ) and equal with God (Phil. 2:6), likewise, in the same manner, so will every converted human being eventually be.
John 6:46 Revelation 22:4
John 6:46 states that no man can see God except He who is OF God. "He" refers to Christ who was actually God Himself — a co-member of the God Family (John 1:1-3; Heb. 1:8) the God of Israel (I Cor. 10:4). Yet, Revelation 22:4 states that many will eventually see God. These individuals will have God's name written in their foreheads (same verse). Who are they? Revelation 3:12 and 14:1 prove that these same individuals were once physical human beings. Now since no man can see God except he is of God, and many who were once physical human beings will eventually see God, then a simple logical deduction demands that many physical human beings will eventually be OF God. And not "OF God" in some sanctimoniously generalized manner. But "OF God" in precisely the same manner that Jesus Christ was (and is) exactly OF God — which means that when all is said and done, when the present plan of God is completed, "all nations" (Rev. 21:24) will have literally BECOME God! Because Christ is literally God. If this is not true — if many are not to become members of the God Family — then either John 6:46 or Revelation 22:4 is wrong. Which would make the whole Bible wrong. Which would make God a myth. Which would doom mankind to a rapidly approaching extinction.
John 17:5, 22
Christ knew He had had — before His human birth — identically the same glorious level of God-plane existence as had God the Father. "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was" (John 17:5). Consequently, Christ knew full well both what He was saying — and what He was doing — when He gave precisely this same glory to His human followers. He was adding NEW members to God's growing Family. "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one" (John 17:22).
Romans 6:5 John 17:5
Romans 6:5 shows that "we shall be also in the likeness of his {Christ's} resurrection." What is Christ's likeness in His resurrected condition? John 17:5 gives the answer: After He was resurrected, Christ was glorified with God the Father's "own self" — this was the same glory which Christ had had "before the world was." Now add John 1:1:Christ was literally God "before the world was." Putting John 17:5 together with John 1:1, we quickly see that Christ was again a full-fledged member of the God Family after His resurrection. Returning to Romans 6:3, we can reach no conclusion other than that human beings in the resurrection will be of exactly the same essence as the resurrected Christ is now. Which means that all of us who will have qualified will become brothers of Jesus Christ in the God Family.
Romans 8:14-16 Genesis 32:32
In three powerful and all-encompassing verses in the eighth chapter of Romans, Paul states that converted Christians — those in whom God's Holy Spirit dwells (Rom. 8:9) — are literally "sons of God" and "children of God," having received "the Spirit of Sonship (which is the proper translation) whereby we cry, Abba, Father." To appreciate more fully the intimate and profound family relationship between God and His children, let's refer back to the directly analogous relationship between the man Israel and his children. Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel) had 12 sons. And here's the point: They were just as human as he was, even though they were the children and he was the father. Jacob's sons were in no way inferior to him with respect to the fundamentally and uniquely human qualities of body, mind, work and life. Only in overall authority and responsibility within the family structure was there any difference between the father and his sons. And so it will be in the God Family between the Father and His Sons. Continuing the analogy, history has recorded the incredible geometric expansion of the children of Israel. From a dozen to millions in a few hundred years. How much more for the Family of God!
Romans 8:17 John 5:18 Philippians 2:6
"If we are his children, we share his treasures, and all that Christ claims as his will belong to all of us as well! Yes, if we share in his sufferings we shall certainly share in his glory" (Rom. 8:17, Phillips translation). What did Christ claim as His? Both John 5:18 and Philippians 2:6 give the same answer: Christ said, "that God was his Father, making himself equal with God." "Who (Christ), being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." No robbery. He owns the universe!
I Corinthians 15:49
"As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." Previous verses show that "the earthy" refers to Adam specifically and man in general, and "the heavenly" refers to Christ specifically and the God Family in general. Now read that crucial verse again! It states that in exactly the same manner — and just as surely — as we now "bear the image" of our physical parents and resemble the members of the human family (the earthy), we shall likewise in the future "bear the image" of our spiritual Parent and resemble the members of God's Family (the heavenly). How have we "borne the image" of the earthy? We are earthy. How do we resemble human beings? We are human beings. So how will we resemble the members of God's Family? We will be members of God's Family.
II Corinthians 318 Philippians 3:21
"We are being transformed into the same likeness as himself (God)" (Moffatt translation). Christ will change our present vile bodies "and give it a form like that of his own resplendent [God-Family] body" (The New English Bible). Direct and to the point.
Ephesians 4:13 Revelation 1:13-17
Ephesians 4:13 gives us the life-goal for every human being: to attain "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." What is "the stature of the fullness of Christ"? Revelation 1:13-17 tells us — it describes Christ as He is today. Read it — it is a vividly personal picture of God. And that is precisely what human beings were created to attain.
Philippians 2:5-6
"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Christ was equal with God — Christ's mind was God's mind. And we human beings are implored to allow that very same mind — the mental capacity of God — to become our minds. When this fully occurs, when we have the full range of God's mental capacity in our minds, we must at that point be in God's Family ourselves.
I Peter 1:23
"For you are sons of God now (in the process of being born again): the live, permanent Word of the living God has given you his own indestructible HEREDITY" (Phillips translation). Heredity! That's the key word. We are promised God's heredity. To begin to appreciate the concept of God's heredity, we must first understand human heredity. The fundamental differences between the DNA (heredity) molecules of animals and humans exemplify the far-reaching realities and implications of heredity. The heredity of a human being is distinctly of the human kind. Likewise the heredity of God is distinctly of the God-kind. And that indestructible and distinct heredity of God is His Holy Spirit — which is given to every true Christian (Acts 2:38; Eph. 1:13-14).
II Peter 1:4
"We have exceedingly great and precious promises — that we may be partakers of, and share, the essential Divine Nature" (King James Version and Phillips). How can it be possible to partake of, and share, the essential divine nature and yet not be God? It can't.
I John 2:24-25
"You will be living in fellowship with both the Father and the Son. And that means sharing his [God's) own life forever, as he has promised" (Phillips). Again, how can it be possible to share God's own life forever and still not be God? It can't.
I John 3:1-2
And now two remarkable verses. They do not need any explanation. They can't be "interpreted"! "Consider the incredible love that the Father has shown us in allowing us to be called 'children of God' — and that is not just what we are called, but what we are. Our heredity on the Godward side is no mere figure of speech.... Here and now we are God's children. We don't know what we shall become [we cannot yet comprehend how we shall appear] in the future. We only know that, if reality were to break through, we should reflect his likeness ("we shall be like him" — King James Version), for we should see him as he really is" (Phillips). Just read these words. Each one. And one following another. Literally. We can't make any comment to strengthen them. They plainly say what they say: Christians — humans — will become members of the God Family.
Revelation 3:9 Revelation 19:10; 22:8-9
Revelation 3:9 states that physical human beings in Tomorrow's World — living under the soon-coming Government of God — will worship before the feet of God's present-day human servants. But Revelation 19:10 and 22:8-9 state that human beings must not worship before the feet of even the greatest angelic beings (and certainly not before other human beings). We are commanded to worship God alone. Now there is only one logical way for these two statements not to be in diametric contradiction of one another — there is only one way to make sense out of these scriptures — that is if God's human servants of today will literally be changed into individual members of the God Family in the World Tomorrow.
Revelation 3:12 Revelation 21:22
Revelation 3:12 shows that when converted Christians are changed into Spirit Beings at the resurrection they will be pillars in the temple of God and shall "go no more out." Yet, in the light of this fact, Revelation 21:22 seems contradictory: "And I saw no temple therein [in the New Jerusalem]: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." How can Christians become "pillars in the temple" if God the Father and Jesus Christ are the temple? And the only temple! Is this a contradiction? Of course not. These verses are in perfect harmony — but only when we come to realize that the God Family (God the Father and Jesus Christ up to now) IS the "temple" — and that converted Christians will be resurrected into the "temple of the God Family" as "pillars." Which means that converted Christians will be resurrected into the God Family as literally God, just like God the Father and Jesus Christ are literally God already in the "God-Family temple." (See also I Cor. 3:16-17 and Rev. 7:15.)
Revelation 21:7
"He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God and he shall be MY SON." How could one "get around" this verse? How does one try to "prove" that human beings will not become God? Only by making the assumption that God's Son does not really mean God's literal Son. But by making such an assumption, the careless "assumer" accuses God of not being able to generate as close a family relationship between Himself and His Sons as exists between a physical human father and his sons.
Genesis 3:5
Finally, we go back to the beginning. To Genesis. To the crucial third chapter. We do this for two reasons: 1) Some have tried to use Genesis 3:5 to refute the Biblical doctrine that man was created to enter the God Family — and we must now expose the fallacies in their logic. 2) This verse reveals the truth about what is perhaps the most pivotal and crucial period of human history — and is thereby appropriate to complete this entire presentation. First of all, let's summarize the critic's argument. It goes something like this: "In Genesis 3:5 Satan is quoted as saying 'ye shall be as gods' — and since Satan is a liar, this statement cannot be correct. Therefore, because Satan asserted it, God could not possibly have created human beings to be 'as Gods.'" Now let's analyze the "reasoning" employed. To begin with, the "logic" is either absent or incredibly naive. True, Satan is a liar, but to assume that every statement he makes is a lie is a false and dangerous premise. Satan makes many true statements, his facts are often correct — it's his intent, motivation, aims and goals which are diabolical. Notice in Genesis 3:5 that Satan also said, "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof [of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil], then your eyes shall be opened." And that remark was 100 percent true. You can prove it by Genesis 3:6-7. Adam and Eve did eat of the forbidden tree (verse 6) and indeed "the eyes of them both were opened" (verse 7) — precisely as Satan had stated. So just because Satan states something in no way means that "that something" must be 100 percent wrong. Satan is clever. If he made statements which were obviously wrong, nobody would ever believe him. Or look at it this way: If Satan always tells a lie, then the listener could always be sure of at least one aspect of the truth (what the truth is not). Consequently, in order to destroy as many human beings — as many potential God Beings — as possible, most of Satan's words are correct — he just adds a perverted twist to them, just enough to fool the individual and send him on his "merry" way to eternal death. Now, let's evaluate Genesis 3:5 in its proper perspective. We are going to discover that the very verse which supposedly disproves the fact that man was designed to become God could well be one of its strongest proofs! Because we will see that the very fact that Satan mentioned to Eve "ye shall be as gods" in his first "sermon" suggests that God had already told Adam and Eve precisely that same truth sometime before. Because this is the overall purpose of human life — to become a member of the God Family. This was the only reason why God started the human race through Adam and Eve in the first place — to begin to reproduce Himself. SO it is wholly logical that God immediately instructed our first parents about this most basic, trunk-of-the-tree doctrine when He taught them all the fundamentals of human life on the first Sabbath, the day after they were created. For God to have commanded Adam and Eve to blindly obey His Law without having first explained to them why they should do so — in other words, what the ultimate goal of their law-abiding lives would be — would have degraded the human mind to the level of a mere robot. Sure, God desires obedience. But He also wants us to know why. Because God is creating Sons, not robots. So the Creator God spoke face-to-face with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Most likely, God (the Person who became Jesus Christ) made it abundantly clear to them that they were created to eventually become exactly like He Himself was — a full-fledged member of the eternally ruling God Family. Indeed, only this would explain why neither Adam nor Eve expressed any surprise when Satan stated later they could immediately become "as God." Most of what Satan said was nothing new — God Himself had already told them almost exactly that. However, God had also revealed how Adam and Eve were to become members of His God Family. It was going to be a long haul — it was going to be a struggle. They would have to live hundreds of years — rising early, working late, rearing children, fighting sin, continuously obeying God. Sure, God was offering His personal help. Adam and Eve could have received the gift of God's Holy Spirit, but it would still require a long life of hard work and struggle. And so it was in this context — the context of hard work and struggle — that Satan came along and offered Adam and Eve "the easy way out." Satan was going to appeal to their human vanity. Of course, Satan had to entice them with exactly the same reward that God had offered. Because nothing else could possibly compare with such a prize. Satan had to offer Adam and Eve the prospect of literally becoming God — as mentioned in Genesis 3:5. Only Satan added a "new twist." In Satan's way there was no wait, no work, no struggling against sin, and, of course, no obedience to God. They could use their own powers of intellect and reasoning. They could conduct their own "scientific" experiments. They could determine for themselves what was right and what was wrong. They could start producing knowledge by themselves. They could aggrandize themselves with all of God's prerogatives. They had allowed their minds to think that since they already possessed such great intellectual powers, they would therefore assume for themselves anything that God had reserved for Himself. Adam and Eve could become God immediately — without any strain. Or so they were told. All that was required was one quick bite of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Or so Satan said. Adam and Eve wanted to become God — just as God Himself had promised. Only they wanted to become God the "easy way" — Satan's way. What better proof than Genesis 3:5 that God Himself taught Adam and Eve — our progenitors — that the very purpose of human life was literally to become born again into God's Family! What better proof than the entire Bible that your personal destiny is in the God Family!
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