Transcription
Playing the biblical view on the the little gods theory, Psalm 82:6 and John 10:34. Thank you and God bless you in your ministry.
Um, okay. There's this verse in the Old Testament you guys are probably somewhat familiar with, and it's in Psalm 82. Where I'm just going to be the whole psalm. God is, this is in the ESV, and your translation does matter here, right? Let me, I'll reduce the first verse in two different translations so you can see.
"God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment."
Okay, here's NASB: "God takes his stand in his own congregation; he judges in the midst of the rulers." Well, they're not called gods here, they're called rulers. Is it NASB or is it ESV? Oh, let's look at NIV.
"Okay, God presides in the great assembly; he renders judgment among the gods." But the, the NIV adds quotes around "gods" so that you know that "gods" is not literal. Okay, so these are the translators trying to wrestle with a challenging word, thinking, how do we translate this? Great assembly, or divine counsel, or what do we put "gods" in quotes? Do we call it, do we show that it's, it's not literal by just calling it "midst of the rulers," or do we do what ESV does and just call it "midst of the gods"? What is it, right?
Um, so I've given you just three translations there. Um, this is a complicated, challenging passage of scripture for sure. What makes it even, um, well, I'm gonna read the whole psalm, then I'll read what Jesus said about it, and then we'll discuss briefly a couple options and we'll show why the cults are all using this verse wrong.
Um, so guys, let's take the ESV for a second. "God's taking his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment. How long will you judge unjustly or show partiality to the wicked?" So guys, rebuking this group of people, they're obviously leaders, okay? They're obviously leaders of, of groups of people, of nations in a sense.
"Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. This is the call, by the way, every government should be doing this, right? Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. They have neither knowledge nor understanding; they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken." The security that comes from proper government is not there, and it, and it's, it's terrible.
Verse six: "Here's the judgment upon them: Now I said, 'You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you. Nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.'"
"Arise, O God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit all nations."
Um, let me just talk briefly, overview of options on Psalm 82. Option one: Um, you take it quite literal that there are these beings called gods that are literal and real beings, but they're gods in a very special, qualified sense. The English word "gods" is obviously not super good for translating because it's frequently seen as "midst of the rulers" or "gods" in quotes to show you it's not literal, or, uh, New King James says, um, actually does say "in the gods." New King James, I didn't expect that. I guess I forgot.
Um, at any rate, the, the word there is *elohim* in, in the, in the Hebrew, and the word *elohim* can be used of multiple different beings, not just God Almighty. When, when Samuel is dead and his spirit returns to speak to Saul, he is called an *elohim*. Okay? But, but they don't even mean to imply that he's a deity here, right? The word can be used to talk about a disembodied, powerful spiritual being. Okay? So it doesn't necessarily mean God in the English sense. So be it.
Um, so one option is though, that there are these angelic type beings, and they are the divine council. This is like Michael Heiser's, his whole thing, right? It's like this, based on this idea, and this divine council is a group of beings, not, they're not like Zeus and Thor and stuff like that, but they're a group of powerful spiritual beings. Somebody might call them angels, although I don't think that Michael Heiser would prefer that. And they are having, they have some governing authority over mankind, but that they have used this authority wrongly, and they are not properly, this is what Paul calls the principalities and powers, and they're not using the authority properly. And therefore, God is going to kill them. He's like, "You're going to die like, like men, you'll fall like any prince."
So one interpretation is, yes, there's these beings. Now, these would be, and I'm going to use this fancy term again, forgive me, ontologically different than Yahweh, than the God of the Old Testament, right? They're not eternal, they're not, they're created beings, they're limited in power, they're nothing like rivals to God. They are spiritual beings that have power and have influence in the lives of mankind.
Um, I don't lean that way. Okay? That's one interpretation of this, of this chapter. I, I lean the easy way out, some might call it, right? That these just are human kings. They're just human kings. They're called gods because it's sarcasm, right? But it's also, and I'm going to defend this in a minute because there's a reason why I might be wrong here. It's sarcasm, and they're called gods because all governing authority comes from God. Like when God said to Moses, "Moses, you will be like God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be like you are to me, right?" So Moses isn't actually a god, but Moses is being sent as God's messenger to give out God's commands to Pharaoh. So there's a sense in which all authority comes from God, and governing authorities, the massive power of government to control the lives of large numbers of people, and the leaders, usually monarchical leaders back in the day, right, one guy ruling the whole thing. These people are like, they're like gods. But Psalm 82 is like, "Hey, guess what? God judges you guys. You're like gods on earth, but God judges you guys." And he's rebuking you the whole time. And then he tells you, "Oh yeah, you're gods in the sense that you have power over mankind, but you're going to die, and you're going to fall like any prince." Okay? So that, I lean that way. That's, I lean towards that interpretation. Either way, there's still only one real God out there. That's important to understand. The cults always misuse that passage.
But things get even more challenging when you get to the New Testament, and I have some videos on this where I talk about it in greater detail. Um, I think in the New Age, the video I did on New Age beliefs with Melissa Doherty, we have, um, a, a, um, a section where I deal with this in greater detail, and it's all prepared, and I have notes, so it's not just off the top of my head. But here in John 10:34, let me read the passage to you.
So the Jews pick up stones to stone him, right, because he says that he and the Father are one, which implies the deity of Christ. Then Jesus answered them, "I've shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?" The Jews answered him, "It's not for a good work that we're going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself like God." Or "make yourself God," excuse me, I added "like" there unintentionally. "You make yourself God, but you're just a man, so you can't be a man and be God." Is kind of the complaint.
Jesus answers 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, do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?" Then he goes on and he gives them more reasons to affirm who he says he is.
But how is he quoting Psalm 82? Is Jesus saying that they're, you know, I'm just going to give you my interpretation because consider how long this is getting. Their complaint: "You're a man and you're making yourself God. That's wrong." And Jesus is going to say, "Hey, this kind of concept has been prefigured in the scriptures. Is it not written in your law, 'I said, you are gods'?" Right? So there's some kind of sense in which mankind is called *elohim* in some sense in the Old Testament. Then he, then he goes on, he says, "It is in a greater sense true of him." If he called them gods to whom the word of God came, and I interpret this not to be angels or divine beings or something like that, which would be the Heiser interpretation, I interpret this to be, um, the, the Israelites and the kings themselves. The psalm was written, and it was written for the humans, and the humans are called gods in a sense. Again, I think like the ES, or the, uh, NASB, I think it was, you know, if he puts it in quotes, the word "gods," I think that's an appropriate thing there. He calls them gods. But Jesus is greater than that, right? He's not the one to whom the word of God came; he's the one whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world.
Okay, let me offer then my big picture thought on this, at least at the moment. Forgive me for not always knowing what I'll think five years from now. But my thought on this is this: Human rulers, they're just humans, but they're called gods somewhat sarcastically, but also in a picture of the fact that they have divine authority. That's how they can rule. It's God's authority that, that government borrows when they rule. That is merely a picture. That's the one to whom the word of God came. But when the Word of God himself shows up, he fulfills that entirely. He becomes the fullness of that. Right? You guys are called gods in a sense, right? He is God with us. And so there's an elevation when it comes to Christ. And this is consistent when we see pictures of Christ in the Old Testament and the fulfillment in the New. There's this elevation. It intensifies over and over again. So that would be my understanding.
Now, the impact it would have on the Jews is interesting. When Jesus quotes this passage, they're just dumbfounded. They just, it's like he gave them a really hard puzzle they don't have time to solve, and then he just kind of walks away. And I think that's the impact it had. They were trying to stone him, and he got them caught up in a debate, and that's how it ends.
I, I, I hope that I, probably, I hope I provided more clarity than confusion for you guys there.