How are we to be like God?

[AdHoc]

If you can only use one word to describe a characteristic of God that we should follow as an example what word would you use?

And why do you choose that word?

[onewithhim]

How are we to be like God?

There are two differences between men and angels as described in the book of Genesis. They are body type and knowledge of good and evil. Trees in the Garden of Eden represented each of these differences:

Eating from the tree of knowledge would result in mankind knowing good from evil.

And eating from the Tree of Life would result in mankind gaining everlasting life.

"The tree of the knowledge of good and bad" was not how you figured it to have been. It didn't mean that it HELD knowledge of good and bad. It meant that anyone who ate from it was declaring that they wanted to decide for the


mselves what was good or bad. In other words, they would be declaring themselves independent of God. That is exactly what Adam and Eve indicated to God---they didn't need Him.

And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: . . . (Genesis 3:22)

Then God Got it wrong also!

And....they already had everlasting life, as long as they left the one tree alone.

God claimed they were ejected from the garden so that they could not eat from the Tree of Life and gain everlasting life:

. . . and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

So God got that one wrong also.

You do not understand everlasting life.

If one has everlasting life, their life will last forever.

If one lives for a billion years and then dies, then he did not have everlasting life.

(1) God said that man had become like them in that man has insisted that he be able to decide what is good and bad, for himself. Essentially Adam made himself a god because now he dictated, for himself and any others, what he considered to be good and bad.

(2) God had already put in play Adam and Eve's eventual death. He blocked their access to the Tree of Life so that they could not return and reverse their situation and gain life again. Why do you say that "God got that wrong"? Whatever He said was true. The humans He had created rebelled because they wanted to be independent and decide for themselves what is right and wrong, thus making themselves like gods. They also were expelled from the Garden and the location of "the Tree of Life." What did God get wrong about that?

(3) I understand what "everlasting life" is. I don't understand your objections to what I said.

[myth-one.com]

Why do you say that "God got that wrong"?

I claimed almost exactly what God said in the Bible:

Eating from the tree of knowledge would result in mankind knowing good from evil.

The scriptures state that the result of man eating from the tree of Knowledge was to know good and evil:

And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:

And eating from the Tree of Life would result in mankind gaining everlasting life.

And the scriptures state that eating from the tree of Life would result in man gaining everlasting life:

. . .and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

You claim that I got both of those facts wrong.

But If I'm wrong so are the scriptures as inspired by God because my responses agreed with the scriptures.

So if you are correct, then God and I are both wrong.

[Checkpoint]

Do you honestly think that God would create humans and not tell them what was good for them or bad for them? If you do, then you have a very low opinion of God.

Do you honestly think God would create a machine and have it malfunction a few hours after it was installed? Today it would be brought back to the makers and a new one offered in its place.

The Genesis story mentions "tree". There is absolutely no way of being definitive as to what "tree" means metaphorically. We can take our pick. The fact that an argument arose about Adam's "nakedness" suggests that sexuality is buried somewhere in the metaphor.

Adam is not only light years from divinity, he is a poor second to our modern five-year olds. We become like God when we anesthetise a patient and transplant an organ into the injured body, making the sick well again. Or when we take basic metals and bits we've found on the planet and make of them a machine that can penetrate space and report back to us what mysteries lie of the surface of Mars. And, sadly, when we drop bombs on cities we are imitating God's actions with Sodom and Gomorra.

When God made man he did not make them as an inanimate machine.

Rather, he made an animate being, but not as a programmed robot.

No, he made them male and female, well able to feel, to think, to plan, to act accordingly, and to give orders and to take orders, and all this with the ability to choose freely.

He did not make them perfect, and he did not make them immortal. But he made them with that potential, just not its actuality.

God knew what he was doing; he had and has a long-term plan that features mankind being "brought back to the makers and a new one offered in its place."

[Aetixintro]

[Replying to post 1 by AdHoc]

1 Corinthians 3 (NIV):

16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

Romans 2 (NIV):

6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.� a 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.

John 4 (NIV):

23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.�

So I choose Goodness, yet Goodness and Justice are 2 sides of the same coin. I believe that when I honor and live by the 10 Commandments, I actually go to Heaven!

Note: My source is Biblehub: https://biblehub.com/.

[onewithhim]

[Replying to post 21 by Checkpoint]

I agreed with your post except what you said about mankind not being made perfect. God doesn't make something that isn't perfect.

"The Rock, perfect is his activity." (Deuteronomy 32:4)

Why would He create something imperfect? Just to watch humans struggle to become perfect? No, Adam and Eve were created perfect and they were supposed to live forever. They became imperfect and lost their lives because they disobeyed Jehovah and declared their independence from Him. Now we are in the unpleasant position of having to struggle in this system of things run by the Devil (because of Adam's rebellion), endure to the end, and gradually wend our ways back to perfection during the Thousand-Year Reign of Christ.

[onewithhim]

[Replying to post 22 by Aetixintro]

Hello, Aetixintro. Have you, by chance, looked at the thread "Paradise Earth"? I am wondering why anybody really wants to go to heaven when God made us to live on Earth and enjoy its wonders forever. His original purpose was for humans to live here and take care of this planet. The only reason we don't live forever is because our original parents rebelled against God and tried to run their own lives independent of Him.He told them they would die if they did that, and they chose to take the consequences of eating from one tree that was forbidden.

Are there things that you enjoy here on the earth? What are they? Would you like to be able to enjoy those very things but without pain and suffering and even death?

The Bible tells us that the earth will one day be free of wars, hatred, insecurity, starvation, homelessness, suffering and death. God's original purpose will be fulfilled.

God "did not create [the earth] simply for nothing, but formed it to be inhabited." (Isaiah 45:18)

"As for the heavens, they belong to Jehovah, but the earth he has given to the sons of men." (Psalm 115:16)

"For evil men will be done away with,but those hoping in Jehovah will possess the earth....The meek will possess the earth, and they will find exquisite delight in the abundance of peace....The righteous will possess the earth and they will live forever on it." (Psalm 37:9,11,29)


Don't you want to be among the righteous who will live on the earth forever?



(An excellent source for information is www.jw.org . You might find it interesting.)

[AdHoc]

PERFECTION

For Jesus tells us so:

Matthew 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Apparently this is not only a description of a characteristic of God, but it's also a commandment that Jesus himself commands us to obey.

Hi DI, this was the scripture I had in mind when I made this OP.

It my opinion it also relates to what onewithhim said before this "Love".

In verse 44 Jesus says to love love your enemies and then He goes on to say "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

This is Jesus' description of perfection... blessing our friends and our enemies.

What do you think?

[AdHoc]

If you can only use one word to describe a characteristic of God that we should follow as an example what word would you use?

And why do you choose that word?

Everything.

We are to become as He is. We don't know exactly what we'll be like, but we know we shall be like Him at His appearing.

I said choose one word and you chose "everything" haha that's not fair.

Also isn't that technically two words?

[AdHoc]

If you can only use one word to describe a characteristic of God that we should follow as an example what word would you use?

And why do you choose that word?

RESPONSE: Simple. "existent"

What could be simpler or more basis. Anything that does not in fact exist cannot be God.

This is an interesting choice...

I agree something that doesn't exist can't be God but does that mean that all things that exist are God?

For example evil exists.

[PinSeeker]

[Replying to post 21 by Checkpoint]

I agreed with your post except what you said about mankind not being made perfect. God doesn't make something that isn't perfect.

"The Rock, perfect is his activity." (Deuteronomy 32:4)

Why would He create something imperfect? Just to watch humans struggle to become perfect? No, Adam and Eve were created perfect and they were supposed to live forever. They became imperfect and lost their lives because they disobeyed Jehovah and declared their independence from Him. Now we are in the unpleasant position of having to struggle in this system of things run by the Devil (because of Adam's rebellion), endure to the end, and gradually wend our ways back to perfection during the Thousand-Year Reign of Christ.

Almost agree with you, here, onewithHim. Here are the two things I disagree with:

1. Though things certainly now seem to be "run by the Devil," God certainly is in control, as He always has been and always will be. As we see in the experience of Job, the Devil can do nothing outside of God's authority. But God works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28)

2. We do have to struggle and endure to the end, but thanks be to God that it is the power of God Himself that gives us faith (Ephesians 2) and "keeps us from stumbling," as Jude puts it (Jude 24). He sustainins us to the end (though we fail from time to time)... we are "protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:5). Jesus Himself is the author and protector/perfecter/finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). For us Christians, He has begun a good work in us and will -- WILL -- bring it to completion at the Day of Christ (Philippians 1:6). Thanks be to God, it is not up to us alone to "wend our ways back to perfection," else we never would. God does this in us by His power via the Holy Spirit, by Whom God dwells in our hearts NOW, in the ongoing Millennium, which will come to a close when Christ returns and, as the hymn-writer says, Christ is truly satisfied and earth and heaven are one (once again).

To the original post ("How are we to be like God?"), I agree with you: LOVE. And the Person of Jesus Christ was and is the perfect Expression of that love, and as Christians, we are being conformed to Him. Yes, love. Everything else follows (good works) and is (are) the natural result of that love:

• "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another... We love, because He first loved us." [1 John 1:7-19; emphasis added]

Grace and peace to all.