You're reading too much into it.
By reading the very next verse after it...?
The reference back to the verse is establishing that the concept did indeed exist once upon a time and so people shouldn't be surprised by it.
How does it establish the concept if it isn't actually dealing with the same thing? That's the point of my question: You say it is evidence for the Mormon concept, but it contradicts Mormonism completely in the very next line. So how is it evidence for that? Just because it says "Ye are gods", regardless of whatever may come directly before or after it (i.e.,
context)?
If memory serves, Jesus himself refers back to it in John 10.
22 Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. 23 And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon's porch. 24 Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, "How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly." 25 Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me. 26 But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. 30 I and My Father are one." 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. 32 Jesus answered them, "Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?" 33 The Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God." 34 Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods" '? 35 If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), 36 do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'? 37 If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38 but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him."
+++
In other words,
you (accusing Jews) are called 'gods' in scripture for being the recipients of the scriptures, whereas
I (Jesus) am sent by the Father
directly, and yet you want to say that I am blaspheming for calling Myself the Son of God, as though I would not have the right to do so? You are called gods for much less, and not even anything that you have personally done, whereas I am
actually doing the works of My Father and
still you can't figure out Who I am.
When you look at it in this way, Ironhold, does it seem to be a very positive appraisal of those who are called 'gods'? Not really, right? But even more to the point, Christ is clearly not establishing anything like the Mormon soteriological plan here by simply saying "The scripture says this". He's reminding them of what the scriptures say in order to expose their own hypocrisy, not saying "And if you're good Mormons, you'll be exalted and become gods." Consider this: They're
already called gods (that's the whole reason Jesus can reference it in the first place; it's in the preexisting scriptures of the day), and clearly they wouldn't be classed as good Mormons, as these same people are about to stone Him!
But basically, people who do indeed achieve an exalted status in Heaven will be godlike in nature, in pretty much every sense of the word.
This doesn't answer my question. If they will become gods, then how can Psalm 82 be a defense or instance of this doctrine found in the Bible since it says that they'll die just like regular people do? Do Mormonism's 'exalted-man gods' die? Is that why you have written "in pretty much every sense", rather than "in every sense"? If so, that's a rather large caveat, and it kinda makes exaltation sound pretty much just like being a regular, non-god person (only maybe you get your own planet or something; I've never been able to get a straight answer out of Mormons about
that, either).
