Question 2: About God’s words in Genesis “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness(Gen 1:26), I don’t fully understand this. If God made man in His image, doesn’t it mean we have the image of God? If we were made in God’s image, are we man or are we God?

Answer: In Genesis, God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness …(Gen 1:26). But God never said that He made God in His image, after His likeness. The fact that God made man in His image and after His likeness doesn't mean that He would make man into God. God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness….” In this verse, what does “image” refer to? “Image” here refers to God’s disposition, what God has and is, and the substance of God’s life, which also refers to the truth. If we live out all the truth God expresses, this image of truth will have God’s image. But we all know, God’s disposition and God’s life being are so rich. And what God manifests through His work is very limited. Do you dare to say that God’s disposition and His life being can be summed up and fully described by the words that God has expressed? Anyone who has experienced God’s work in the last days and knows God will surely say that the truth and what God has and is that God has expressed, is merely one ten thousandth or one trillionth of the totality of God’s life disposition. God is the Creator and the source of the life of all things. Compared with God’s real life disposition, His possessions and being that He has expressed are merely a drop in the ocean. In fact, if we can manage to live out one drop of truth in that ocean, this is quite an accomplishment. Even if we pursue the truth for our entire lives, the truth that we are capable of living out is limited. We will never live out all the truth that God expresses. Anyone who has experienced God’s work will acknowledge this fact. Someday when God’s work ends, if we have managed to live out a tiny bit of God’s image and His life being by this point, you still can’t say that we have become God. Because God is the Creator and the substance of His life is unfathomable to us humans. God created and governs the whole universe. God’s life embraces and fulfills all things. The greatness of God can’t be described in our words. What God has expressed in His work is but a small fraction of what God has and is. Even if we lived out all the truth God expresses in His work, it still wouldn’t mean that we have truly possessed God’s image, much less that we are completely possessed of the truth and have attained the truth. So even if we are able to live out a little bit of God’s image, how can we possibly say that we have become God? It is absolutely impossible. Therefore, the idea that “Man has God’s image and so he can become God” is absolutely groundless. It’s an absurd fallacy.

Even if we finally manage to live out a bit of God’s image through our experience of God’s work, we can never become God. I’ll give an example. Although it’s not the most pertinent example, it will shed some light on this problem. Just like a father and son, the son looks a lot like his father from the outside, but their personality and character will certainly be different. Although the same blood runs through their veins, their character and personality can’t be identical, and they each walk different paths, too. In some families, the father is a good man, but the son is an evil man. They look alike and are of the same bloodline, but they have a huge difference in character. And in some families, the father resists God while his son believes in Him and obeys Him. This sufficiently proves that having the same appearance and bloodline doesn’t mean you’ll have the same personality or character. So, even if we humans can live out a little bit of God’s image, it still won’t mean that we possess the substance of God’s life. Man can never become God, this is for certain.

—The movie script of Rapture In Peril

Previous: Question 1: “God became man that man may become God” is the supreme vision of Brother Lin’s preachings! Even though what God created in the beginning was man, God’s purpose in creating man was to get them to become God. At first, because mankind lacked God’s life disposition, Satan was able to trick them into sinning. God’s purpose in saving mankind is to dispense His life disposition into us. Won’t we become God once we have acquired God’s life disposition?! How could there be anything wrong here?

Next: Question 3: Man can never become God, even if he lives out a bit of God’s image. I can totally get behind that. But when we say man can become God so long as he can manage to live out God’s image, we are not referring to the God with His person, we are instead referring to the God with His life disposition but without His person. If we live out God’s image, then we will become God with the life of God, it’s just that we won’t have the person of God. So, I think the words “God became man that man may become God” are still perfectly valid.

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