Religion vs. Sonship

That’s not what John chapter 17 alludes to. It’s a real theological look into the relationship the Father has with His Son and vise versa. The elect have been drawn by the Father and given to His Son. This in no way make us supernatural. If that’s not what you meant, than maybe I’m drawing the wrong conclusions. I just go by people words.

It appears John’s letter to his audience was pretty straight forward. It establishes the divinity of Christ much like his gospel. The issue with this type of teaching is it puts the focus on the individual We are but like mist; here one moment and gone the next. It’s just not biblical

Christ is not singular, Christ is corporate. We who are in Christ make up the body of Christ. He is our head and we are His body. This man, not Adam, fulfilled the decree to have a man “in the image and likeness” of God. And this was God’s intent from the beginning, spoken from the foundation of the world. Christ fulfilled this word and we are in Him.

I don't really see it like that. The Bible is all about how individuals and the human race as a whole relate to God. I don't see a problem with being like mist and having a short time on Earth: that's God's will too. Everything always comes back to God's will even when speaking about ourselves and our plans.

You made a reference to James 4:14, but what does the very next verse say? It's about the will of people giving deference to the will of God:

James 4:14-15
14Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 15For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.[/QUOTE

Correct. It’s God decision and not ours. That’s not my argument. I’m was trying to make a point that we as created beings are infinite in our abilities.

Religion is transactional: you do for God therefore He must do for you. By this, men hold God to account.

I agree, He's the Word and lives in us through faith, but to call ourselves the "Word made flesh" borders on blasphemy if you ask me.

Think and meditate on this and I believe it will be made clear for you, by Him.

Once we receive the Holy Spirit of our Maker, we are His priests in this age with Jesus Yeshua as our High Prist.
We are not the Origen of the Word, but we have certainly become members of His Body, His emissaries in this age.
Do we not all share theWord when we are given to do so? Did not our Savior give the Word to us for this reason also.
I do not believe I created all that is, but I do know that one of God's first teachings to me in Genesis is when He said, "C"ome let us make man in our image."
I pray for this molding of each of us every mornign and night. This, I believe, is the work He began in us in the beginning. Blessed be our Maker now and forever, amen.

I think he was simply meaning it as a metaphor....God using us flesh and blood human followers of Jesus to pass on the knowledge of God and His ways, to others.

I think it's more than that. If you study what he said closely it's clear he means we can become what Christ was by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Hand-in-hand with this doctrine is the teaching that the miracles Christ performed on earth were done as a man, not as God. This means anything He did, we also as humans can do by the same power of the Spirit.

Humans will never be revealed as the "perfect will of God" while in these bodies. Jesus was the only perfect one.

Men don't become the "Word made flesh" nor the "representation of the Father on earth." Jesus is the only true representation of the Father on earth.

I could be wrong, but I thought he was referring to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as being the influence that uses us as a channel for declaring God's word. If the OP feels that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit has made us Gods, then I agree, that would certainly be a wrong assumption, and a dangerous one. We are representatives and ambassadors, not direct representations of the Lord.

This is the definition of false religion. James gives us the definition of true religion: "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."

True religion is good. If someone tells me I have a religious spirit I say "thank you."

I don't think Aaron meant it like that. If we see John 1 as a parallel to Genesis 1 then it appears that the "word becoming flesh" is an allusion to God's creative force. God uses words to manifest His will and create things, actively, and ongoing:

Hebrews 1:3 KJV
3Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

What most people often don't realize is that God never stops speaking. Throughout the Old Testament we see that God periodically decides to reveal prophecies to people using words. All of the prophecies did not accidentally come to fruition by sheer statistical likelihood due to being placed on a long enough timeline: "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

But rather at the exact time in God's plans, He speaks into reality what He wants to happen.

So when we refer to ourselves as "the Word become flesh" it is not to say that we are Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Son of God, incarnate, but rather that our spirit is reborn by the will of God (God spoke our new spirit into existence with His words):

John 1:12-13 KJV
12But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

That's just how I understood it.

Well, to be precise, James 1:27 doesn't say that other forms of religion are false. It just defines what "pure religion" is.

I think it's more than that. If you study what he said closely it's clear he means we can become what Christ was by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Hand-in-hand with this doctrine is the teaching that the miracles Christ performed on earth were done as a man, not as God. This means anything He did, we also as humans can do by the same power of the Spirit.

Humans will never be revealed as the "perfect will of God" while in these bodies. Jesus was the only perfect one.

Men don't become the "Word made flesh" nor the "representation of the Father on earth." Jesus is the only true representation of the Father on earth.

There are only two sons in the earth: Adam and Christ. Both are corporate, meaning composed of many members. No one alone represents Adam. And no one alone represents Christ, together we are Christ: His body is in heaven and on earth. Also, there is one head: Christ Jesus. We have no earthly head.

The Lord said to His disciples: “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” And He was sent to “Show us the Father”. Now, corporately, we are sent to the same end: to show the Father. And not just to the lost but also to the angels. In short: I am explaining Ephesians 3:8-13

8To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 10to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, 11according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. 13Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

Here, fellowship is not a potluck gathering but a legal position of oneness with Christ and the Father. Or, rather, the answer to the Lord’s prayer:

20“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
24“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. 26And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

Okay. What is your point? Do you think the kind of religion the OP posted about is religion approved of by God. No, it isn't. But religion itself isn't bad. That was my point.

No, it's not that the Holy Spirit makes us Gods but that He makes us fallen humans capable of perfection. There's a difference. If Christ could attain perfection and work miracles as a man by the power of the Spirit, why not us? Or so the teaching goes.

I just mean that when someone says to someone "you have a religious spirit" it often isn't meant as a compliment.