Pastor Koo -
I hope you read this whole email, and I hope to hear back from you.
I heard your message on “It’s Your Call” on TV about Psalm 82 where God says to humans that they are gods. I had a chance to mention over the air that when God says that He is using the word “elohim” to describe these humans, but the context of what he is saying shows that God does not recognize any particular advantage in these humans. You read verse 6 but you are ignoring verse 7, “but you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.” He is talking about people who are in a place of worldly power, and He says that they act powerful but they have no real power since they will die a mortal death. Only God has real power. The word elohim is used for false gods as well . And it is used when referring to God in general terms. So it’s not true what you said, that elohim refers to beings with above average power, because the Bible says in Isaiah and in 1Corinthians that false gods have no power. It's so important that verses like this one are treated properly because of the huge potential for them to be misunderstood and supposedly teaching something that is the exact opposite of what they actually say.
You mentioned that faith is important to you. I have to ask you, do you have faith in God or do you have faith in faith? I would rather have faith in God. Faith is not a substance, like Hagin or Copeland might say, faith is putting your trust in someTHING or someONE. My faith is in Jesus, the finished work that He did on the cross. You mentioned that you’ve learned to throw out all the doctrines and dogmas and just read the Word. But please do not allow yourself to throw out sound biblical teaching. I used to believe the same way you do, but it was reading the Word that got me out of the kind of things that you were hinting at on TV. I hope that since you are a pastor you want to shepherd the flock that God has placed under your care. I hope that the truth of God’s Word is important to you and not just repeating what you have learned from pentecostal or charismatic or faith-prosperity teachers. You may think that they teach the truth, but I challenge you to find what they teach actually in the context of the verses that they use. For example, if Paul was such a powerful apostle, then why did he have a thorn in the flesh that God would not relieve him of, but the Lord said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Why did Jesus say, “In this world you shall have tribulations, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” According to faith preachers, having weakness and experiencing hardships is supposed to be the sign of having weak faith, but the Bible describes this as the norm for people who place their trust in Him alone. God has given us all a measure of faith. Remember that Jesus is not as much interested in how much faith you have, but who are you putting your mustard seed sized faith in?
I hope that God in His Word will persuade you to rest in Him. And I hope that this Sunday, instead of telling people that they are gods, that you will tell them that God is more than able to sustain us and protect us and lead us into victorious living. Grace is God’s power, not ours. I look forward to continuing this discussion with you.
Your Brother in Christ,
Don Boone
Calgary AB
