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| + | #REDIRECT [[Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe that they will one day 'supplant' God?]] |
| − | {{Resource Title|Is the doctrine of human deification unbiblical, false, and arrogant?}}
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| − | {{GodPortal}}
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| − | <onlyinclude>
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| − | == ==
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| − | {{Criticism label}}
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| − | Some Christians claim that the doctrine of human deification is unbiblical, false, and arrogant.
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| − | Related claims include:
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| − | *Mormons believe they will 'supplant God'
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| − | *Belief in ''theosis'', or human deification, implies more than one "god," which means Mormons are "[[Polytheism|polytheists]]."
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| − | *The Mormon concept of "human deification" is a pagan belief derived from Greek philosophy.
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| − | | |
| − | == ==
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| − | {{ChurchResponseBar
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| − | |link=https://www.lds.org/topics/becoming-like-god?lang=eng
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| − | |title=Becoming Like God
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| − | |publication=Gospel Topics on LDS.org
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| − | |date=February 25, 2014
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| − | |summary=Latter-day Saints see all people as children of God in a full and complete sense; they consider every person divine in origin, nature, and potential. Each has an eternal core and is “a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents.”1 Each possesses seeds of divinity and must choose whether to live in harmony or tension with that divinity. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all people may “progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny.”2 Just as a child can develop the attributes of his or her parents over time, the divine nature that humans inherit can be developed to become like their Heavenly Father's.
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| − | }}
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| − | == ==
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| − | {{Conclusion label}}
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| − | In conclusion, it is proper to cite Origen:
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| − | :Now it is possible that some may dislike what we have said representing the Father as the one true God, but admitting other beings besides the true God, who have become gods by having a share of God. They may fear that the glory of Him who surpasses all creation may be lowered to the level of those other beings called gods. ... [However], as, then there are many gods, but to us there is but one God the Father, and many Lords, but to us there is one Lord, Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 8:5-6). <ref>Origen, ''Commentary on John,'' Book II, Chapter 3.</ref>
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| − | To be sure, some may dislike this doctrine, but it is ancient, Biblical, and true.
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| − | {{:Source:Webb:BYUS:2011:10:Preexistent Jesus and a divinized humanity}}
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| − | == ==
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| − | {{Response label}}
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| − | Said the Church when asked about this doctrine:
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| − | :We believe that the apostle Peter’s biblical reference to partaking of the divine nature and the apostle Paul’s reference to being 'joint heirs with Christ' reflect the intent that children of God should strive to emulate their Heavenly Father in every way. Throughout the eternities, Mormons believe, they will reverence and worship God the Father and Jesus Christ. The goal is not to equal them or to achieve parity with them but to imitate and someday acquire their perfect goodness, love and other divine attributes. <ref>Fox News, "21 Questions Answered About Mormon Faith," (18 December 2007). {{link|url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,317272,00.html}}</ref>
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| − | ==Supplanting God?==
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| − | The first thing we must realize when we study this principle is that
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| − | :The Father is the one true God. This thing is certain: no one will ever ascend above Him; no one will ever replace Him. Nor will anything ever change the relationship that we, His literal offspring, have with Him. He is Elohim, the Father. He is God. Of Him there is only one. We revere our Father and our God; we worship Him. <ref>{{Ensign1|author=Boyd K. Packer|article=The Pattern of Our Parentage|date=November 1984|start=69}} {{link|url=http://www.lds.org/ensign/1984/11/the-pattern-of-our-parentage?lang=eng}}</ref>
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| − | A belief in human deification ''does not'' mean that the LDS believe their worship is or will be properly directed at anyone but God the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ.
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| − | Non-LDS church historian Ernst Benz insisted that the doctrine of deification was present in the early Church, and pointed out a potential risk for those who do not understand it:
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| − | :Now this idea of deification could give rise to a misunderstanding—namely, that it leads to a blasphemous self-aggrandizement of man. If that were the case, then mysticism would, in fact, be the sublimist, most spiritualized form of egoism. But the concept of ''imago dei'', in the Christian understanding of the term, precisely does not aspire to awaken in man a consciousness of his own divinity, but attempts to have him recognize the image of God in his neighbor. Here the powerful words of Jesus in {{b||Matthew|25|21-26}} are appropriate and connected by the church fathers to ''imago dei''...
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| − | :Hence, the concept of ''imago dei'' does not lead toward self-aggrandizement but rather toward charity as the true and actual form of God's love, for the simple reason that in one's neighbor the image of God, the Lord himself, confronts us. The love of God should be fulfilled in the love toward him in whom God himself is mirrored, in one's neighbor. Thus, in the last analysis, the concept of imago dei is the key to the fundamental law of the gospel—"Thou shalt love . . . God . . . and thy neighbor as thyself" ({{b||Luke|10|27}})—since one should view one's neighbor with an eye to the image that God has engraven upon him and to the promise that he has given regarding him. <ref>{{reflections|author=Ernst W. Benz|article=''Imago Dei'': Man in the Image of God|start= 215|end=216}} Reprinted in {{FR-17-1-10}} <small>Note: Benz misunderstands some aspects of LDS doctrine, but his sketch of the relevance of ''theosis'' for Christianity in general, and Joseph Smith's implementation of it, is worthwhile.</small></ref>
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| − | {{:Source:Webb:BYUS:2011:21:Joseph Smith's theosis does not supplant God or veer into polytheism}}
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| − | =UnChristian?=
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| − | Some Christians insist that the doctrine of ''theosis'' is unBiblical and unChristian. However, a review of Christian history illustrates that this doctrine was and is a common belief of many Christians.
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| − | {{:Source:Webb:BYUS:2011:15:Christian beliefs do not need to have Neo-Platonic influence to be true}}
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| − | {{:Source:Webb:BYUS:2011:6:Mormons retrieved early Christian beliefs rejected by creeds}}
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| − | ===Irenaeus (ca. AD 115-202) ===
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| − | Saint Irenaeus, who may justly be called the first Biblical theologian among the ancient Christians, was a disciple of the great Polycarp, who was a direct disciple of John the Revelator. <ref>{{ECF|start=16|end=17}}</ref> Irenaeus is not a heretic or unorthodox in traditional Christian circles, yet he shares a belief in ''theosis'':
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| − | :While man gradually advances and mounts towards perfection; that is, he approaches the eternal. The eternal is perfect; and this is God. Man has first to come into being, then to progress, and by progressing come to manhood, and having reached manhood to increase, and thus increasing to persevere, and persevering to be glorified, and thus see his Lord. <ref>{{ECF1|start=94}}</ref>
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| − | Like the LDS, Irenaeus did not believe that this belief in any way displaced God, Christ, or the Holy Ghost:
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| − | :there is none other called God by the Scriptures except the Father of all, and the Son, and those who possess the adoption....Since, therefore, this is sure and stedfast, that no other God or Lord was announced by the Spirit, except Him who, as God, rules over all, together with His Word, and those who receive the Spirit of adoption. <ref>{{Anf|author=Irenaeus|article=Against Heresies|citation=|vol=1|page=463}}</ref>
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| − | Yet, Irenaeus—whom it would be perverse to exclude from the ranks of orthodox Christians—believed in ''theosis'' in terms which agree with LDS thinking on the matter:
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| − | :We were not made gods at our beginning, but first we were made men, then, in the end, gods. <ref>{{ECF1|start=94}}</ref>
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| − | Also:
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| − | :How then will any be a god, if he has not first been made a man? How can any be perfect when he has only lately been made man? How immortal, if he has not in his mortal nature obeyed his maker? For one's duty is first to observe the discipline of man and thereafter to share in the glory of God. <ref>{{ECF|start=95|end=96}}</ref>
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| − | And:
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| − | :Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, of his boundless love, became what we are that he might make us what he himself is.” <ref>{{ECF1|start=106}}; Citing Irenaeus, ''Against Heresies'', 4.38 cp. 4.11.</ref>
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| − | And:
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| − | :But of what gods [does he speak]? [Of those] to whom He says, "I have said, Ye are gods, and all sons of the Most High." To those, no doubt, who have received the grace of the "adoption, by which we cry, Abba Father."” <ref>{{Anf1|author=Irenaeus|article=Against Heresies| citation=|vol=1|start=419, chapter 6}}</ref>
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| − | And, Irenaeus considers the doctrine clearly Biblical, just as the LDS do:
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| − | :For he who holds, without pride and boasting, the true glory (opinion) regarding created things and the Creator, who is the Almighty God of all, and who has granted existence to all; [such an one, ] continuing in His love and subjection, and giving of thanks, shall also receive from Him the greater glory of promotion, looking forward to the time when he shall become like Him who died for him, for He, too, "was made in the likeness of sinful flesh," to condemn sin, and to cast it, as now a condemned thing, away beyond the flesh, but that He might call man forth into His own likeness, assigning him as [His own] imitator to God, and imposing on him His Father's law, in order that he may see God, and granting him power to receive the Father; [being] the Word of God who dwelt in man, and became the Son of man, that He might accustom man to receive God, and God to dwell in man, according to the good pleasure of the Father. <ref>{{Anf1|author=Irenaeus|article=Against Heresies| citation=|vol=1|start=450, chapter 6}}</ref>
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| − | Further quotes from Irenaeus available [[/Quotes|here]].
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| − | Said one Protestant theologian of Irenaeus:
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| − | :Participation in God was carried so far by Irenaeus as to amount to deification. 'We were not made gods in the beginning,' he says, 'but at first men, then at length gods.' This is not to be understood as mere rhetorical exaggeration on Irenaeus' part. He meant the statement to be taken literally. <ref>Arthur C. McGiffert, ''A History of Christian Thought, Vol. 1—Early and Eastern: From Jesus to John of Damascus'' (New York: Scribner's Sons, 1932), 141.</ref>
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| − | ===Clement of Alexandria (AD 150-215)===
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| − | Clement, an early Christian leader in Alexandria, also taught the doctrine of deification:
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| − | :yea, I say, the Word of God became a man so that you might learn from a man how to become a god. <ref>Clement of Alexandria, ''Exhortation to the Greeks'', 1. {{link|url=http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/clement-exhortation.html}}</ref>
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| − | And:
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| − | :...if one knows himself, he will know God, and knowing God will become like God...His is beauty, true beauty, for it is God, and that man becomes god, since God wills it. So Heraclitus was right when he said, "Men are gods, and gods are men." <ref>Clement of Alexandria, ''The Instructor'', 3.1 see also Clement, ''Stromateis'', 23.{{NeedCite}}</ref>
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| − | :Those who have been perfected are given their reward and their honors. They have done with their purification, they have done with the rest of their service, though it be a holy service, with the holy; now they become pure in heart, and because of their close intimacy with the Lord there awaits them a restoration to eternal contemplation; and they have received the title of "gods" since they are destined to be enthroned with the other "gods" who are ranked next below the savior. <ref>{{ECF|start=243|end=244}}; ''Stromata'' 7:10 (55–56).</ref>
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| − | ===Origen (ca. AD 185-251)===
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| − | :And thus the first-born of all creation, who is the first to be with God, and to attract to Himself divinity, is a being of more exalted rank than the other gods beside Him, of whom God is the God, as it is written, "The God of gods, the Lord, hath spoken and called the earth." It was by the offices of the first-born that they became gods, for He drew from God in generous measure that they should be made gods, and He communicated it to them according to His own bounty. The true God, then, is "The God," and those who are formed after Him are gods, images, as it were, of Him the prototype. <ref>Origen, ''Commentary on John,'' Book II, Chapter 2.</ref>
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| − | :The Father, then, is proclaimed as the one true God; but besides the true God are many who become gods by participating in God. </ref>Origen in Bettensen, Henry. ''The Early Christian Fathers'', 324.</ref>
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| − | Origen also defined what it means to "participate" in something:
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| − | :Every one who participates in anything, is unquestionably of one essence and nature with him who is partaker of the same thing. <ref>Origin, ''De Principiis'', 4:1:36 in Ante-Nicene Fathers 4:381.</ref>
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| − | ===Justin Martyr (d. ca. AD 163)===
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| − | Justin the Martyr said in 150 A.D. that he wishes
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| − | :to prove to you that the Holy Ghost reproaches men because they were made like God, free from suffering and death, provided that they kept His commandments, and were deemed deserving of the name of His sons... in the beginning men were made like God, free from suffering and death, and that they are thus deemed worthy of becoming gods and of having power to become sons of the highest... <ref>Justin Martyr, ''Dialogue with Trypho'', 124.</ref>
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| − | Also,
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| − | :[By Psalm 82] it is demonstrated that all men are deemed worthy of becoming “gods,” and even of having power to become sons of the Highest. <ref>Justin Martyr, ''Dialogue with Trypho'', 124.</ref>
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| − | ===Hippolytus (AD 170-236)===
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| − | :Now in all these acts He offered up, as the first-fruits, His own manhood, in order that thou, when thou art in tribulation, mayest not be disheartened, but, confessing thyself to be a man (of like nature with the Redeemer,) mayest dwell in expectation of also receiving what the Father has granted unto this Son...The Deity (by condescension) does not diminish anything of the dignity of His divine perfection having made you even God unto his glory. <ref>Hippolytus, ''Refutation of All Heresies'' 10:29-30, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 5:152.</ref>
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| − | ===Athanasius===
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| − | In 347, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria and participant in the council of Nicea, said:
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| − | :the Word was made flesh in order that we might be enabled to be made gods....just as the Lord, putting on the body, became a man, so also we men are both deified through His flesh, and henceforth inherit everlasting life...[we are] sons and gods by reason of the word in us. <ref>Athanasius, ''Against the Arians'', 1.39, 3.39.</ref>
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| − | :For as Christ died and was exalted as man, so, as man, is He said to take what, as God, He ever had, that even such a grant of grace might reach to us. For the Word was not impaired in receiving a body, that He should seek to receive a grace, but rather He deified that which He put on, and more than that, gave it graciously to the race of man. <ref>Athanasius, ''Against the Arians'', 1:42, in ''Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers'', Second Series, 4:330-331.</ref>
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| − | He also states that Christ "became man that we might be made divine." <ref>Athanasius, ''On the Incarnation'', 54.</ref>
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| − | ===Augustine (AD 354-430)===
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| − | Augustine, considered one of the greatest Christian Fathers, said
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| − | :but He himself that justifies also deifies, for by justifying He makes sons of God. For He has given them power to become the sons of God, ({{b||John|1|12}}). If then we have been made sons of God, we have also been made gods. <ref>Augustine, ''On the Psalms'', 50:2.</ref>
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| − | ===Jerome (AD 340-420)===
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| − | Jerome also described the deification of believers as an act of grace, which matches the LDS understanding precisely:
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| − | :“I said 'you are gods, all of you sons of the most high.’" let Eunomius hear this, let Arius, who say that the son of God is son in the same way we are. That we are gods is not so by nature, but by grace. “but to as many as receive Him he gave power to becoming sons of God” I made man for that purpose, that from men they may become gods. We are called gods and sons!...[Christ said] "all of you sons of the Most High," it is not possible to be the son of the Most High, unless He Himself is the Most High. I said that all of you would be exalted as I am exalted. <ref>Jerome, ''The Homilies of Saint Jerome'', 106–107.</ref>
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| − | Jerome goes on to say that we should
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| − | :give thanks to the God of gods. The prophet is referring to those gods of whom it is written: I said ‘you are gods’ and again ‘god arises in the divine assembly’ they who cease to be mere men, abandon the ways of vice an are become perfect, are gods and the sons of the most high... <ref>Jerome, ''The Homilies of Saint Jerome'', 106–353.</ref>
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| − | ===Modern Christian exegesis===
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| − | The ''Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology'' describes "deification" thusly:
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| − | :Deification (Greek ''Theosis'') is for orthodoxy the goal of every Christian. Man, ''according to the Bible'', is ‘made in the image and likeness of God’...it is possible for man to become like God, to become deified, to become God by grace. This doctrine is based on many passages of both O.T. and N.T. ({{b||Psalms|82|}} (81) .6; {{b|2|Peter|1|4}}), and it is essentially the teaching both of St. Paul, though he tends to use the language of filial adoption ({{b||Romans|8|9-17}}, {{b||Galatians|4|5-7}}) and the fourth gospel ({{b||John|17|21-23}}). <ref>Alan Richardson (editor), ''The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology'' (Westminster: John Knox Press, 1983). ISBN 0664213987. (emphasis added).</ref>
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| − | Joseph Fitzmyer wrote:
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| − | :The language of 2 Peter is taken up by St. Irenaeus, in his famous phrase, ‘if the Word has been made man, it is so that men may be made gods; (adv. Haer v, pref.), And becomes the standard in Greek theology. In the fourth century St. Athanasius repeats Irenaeus almost word for word, and in the fifth century St. Cyril of Alexandria says that we shall become sons ‘by participation’ (Greek ''methexis''). Deification is the central idea in the spirituality of St. Maximus the confessor, for whom the doctrine is corollary of the incarnation: ‘deification, briefly, is the encompassing and fulfillment of all times and ages’,...and St. Symeon the new theologian at the end of the tenth century writes, ‘he who is God by nature converses with those whom he has made gods by grace, as a friend converses with his friends, face to face...’
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| − | :Finally, it should be noted that deification does not mean absorption into God, since the deified creature remains itself and distinct. It is the whole human being, body and soul, who is transfigured in the spirit into the likeness of the divine nature, and deification is the goal of every Christian. <ref>Joseph A. Fitzmyer, ''Pauline Theology: a brief sketch'' (Prentice-Hall, 1967), 42. AISN B0006BQTCQ.</ref>
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| − | According to Christian scholar G.L. Prestige, the ancient Christians “taught that the
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| − | destiny of man was to become like God, and even to become deified.” <ref>G.L. Prestige, ''God in Patristic Thought'' (London Press, 1956), 73.</ref>
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| − | William R. Inge, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote:
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| − | :"God became man, that we might become God" was a commonplace of doctrinal theology at least until the time of Augustine, and that "deification holds a very large place in the writings of the fathers...We find it in Irenaeus as well as in Clement, in Athanasius as well in Gregory of Nysee. St. Augustine was no more afraid of ''deificari'' in Latin than Origen of ''apotheosis'' in Greek...To modern ears the word ''deification'' sounds not only strange but arrogant and shocking. <ref>William Ralph Inge, ''Christian Mysticism'' (London, Metheun & Co., 1948[1899]), 13, 356.</ref>
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| − | Yet, these "arrogant and shocking" doctrines were clearly held by early Christians!
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| − | This view of the early Christians' doctrines is not unique to the Latter-day Saints. Many modern Christian writers have recognized the same doctrines. If some modern Christians do not wish to embrace these ancient doctrines, that is their privilege, but they cannot logically claim that such doctrines are not "Christian." One might fairly ask why modern Christians do not believe that which the ancient Christians insisted upon?
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| − | =UnBiblical?=
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| − | The previous section demonstrates that ''theosis'' has been taught by many Christians through the centuries. They pulled these beliefs from the Bible itself.
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| − | <!--Table removed until we can sort out some copyright issues. Will insert link back in afterwards. - Greg Smith, FAIR wiki managing editor-->
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| − | ===The concept of deification derived from Greek philosophy?===
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| − | Evangelical Christians claim that the Latter-day Saint idea of "deification" was derived from pagan Greek philosophy. The simple answer to this question is "No." Why? Greek philosophy was an attempt to discover the First Things. What is it that is behind the multiplicity of things we encounter? Some said water, others argued for fire--building on Ionian notions. Still others argued for numbers. In doing this they began to deal with three issues, or what were called the "parts" of philosophy. The first two parts involved theoria (theory), and included two issues: ''physis'' (from which we get the word "physical") and ''logos'' (from which we get the word "logic"). Put in question form, the Greeks debated about the nature of reality and how we can know, or not know, the answer to this question. The third part of philosophy—''praxis'' (from which we get the word "practical," meaning for the Greek philosophers the question of how, given the limits on our knowledge and what we can know of the nature of things, how ought we to behave?). The question of the nature of divine things or of God was never settled.
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| − | Plato is an especially useful instance of what might be called "theoretical atheism" in his physics, while in his practical or moral philosophy he has a rather large place for God as a kind of "noble lie," since believing in divine punishments is a way of controlling children or childish adults—that is, most humans most of the time. It is also true that in Plato's dialogues there are many instances in which a wise saying by one of the participants will draw forth from one of the others expressions such as "oh divine man" or "worthy of being a God" and so forth. This may merely be a way of indicating that wisdom is the highest attainment of human nature, and not anything like theosis (deification) in the sense that word was used by early Christians.
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| − | When Latter-day Saints refer to the Hellenizing of Christianity, they are following the lead of Protestant authors who have used that expression. What that label often means, for the Saints, is that the authors of the great ecumenical creeds borrowed categories, which they only half understood, from pagan sources—that is, from Greek philosophy. In doing this they seem to have corrupted both Greek philosophy and Christian faith. This may not have caused the apostasy, but may have instead been a desperate attempt on the part of really passionate believers to sort of issues that were tearing the church to pieces.
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| − | For further information, see: {{FR-11-1-7}}
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| − | ====Scriptures====
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| − | '''''Theosis'' or deification is discussed in the following biblical scriptures''':
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| − | * {{b||Psalm|82|5-6}} (cf. {{b||John|10|34-36)}}
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| − | * {{b||Daniel|12|3}}
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| − | * {{b||Matthew|5|48}} (cf. {{b||Luke|6|40}})
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| − | * {{b||Matthew|24|45-47}}
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| − | * {{b||Acts|17|29}}
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| − | * {{b||Romans|8|16-17,32}}
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| − | * {{b|2|Corinthians|3|18}}
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| − | * {{b|1|Corinthians|15|49}}
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| − | * {{b|2|Corinthians|8|9}}
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| − | * {{b||Galatians|4|7}}
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| − | * {{b||Philippians|3|14-15}}
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| − | * {{b||Philippians|3|20-21}}
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| − | * {{b||Hebrews|12|23}}
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| − | * {{b|1|Jn|3|1-2}}
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| − | * {{b|1|Peter|3|7}}
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| − | * {{b|2|Peter|1|4}}
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| − | * {{b||Revelation|3|21}}
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| − | * {{b||Revelation|21|7}}
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| − | In regard to the Mormon doctrine, non-LDS scholar Ernst W. Benz has observed:
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| − | :One can think what one wants of this doctrine of progressive deification, but one thing is certain: with this anthropology Joseph Smith is closer to the view of man held by the ancient Church than the precursors of the Augustinian doctrine of original sin. <ref>{{reflections|author=Ernst W. Benz|article=''Imago Dei'': Man in the Image of God|start= 215|end=216}} Reprinted in {{FR-17-1-10}}<small>Note: Benz misunderstands some aspects of LDS doctrine, but his sketch of the relevance of ''theosis'' for Christianity in general, and Joseph Smith's implementation of it, is worthwhile.</small></ref>
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| − | ''For more quotes about ''theosis'' see: [[Primary sources:Theosis]]
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| − | <!--Extra quotes not yet integrated into article
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| − | In an early Jewish document (mid. Alpha Beta dir. Akiba, bhm 3.32) the concept of
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| − | deification can be found. “the Holy One... Will in the future call all of the pious by their names,
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| − | and give them a cup of elixir of life in their hands so that they should live and endure forever.
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| − | ..and He will also reveal to all the pious in the world to come the ineffable name with which new
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| − | heavens and a new earth can be created, so that all of them should be able to create new
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| − | worlds.” (The Messiah Texts, pg. 251)
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| − | The catechism of the Catholic Church, part 1 Profession of Faith reads “The Word became flesh
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| − | to make us "partakers of the divine nature": (2 Peter 1:4) "For this is why the Word became man,
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| − | and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the
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| − | Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God." (St. Irenaeus, Adv.
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| − | haeres. 3, 19, 1: PG 7/1, 939)"For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."
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| − | (St. Athanasius, De inc. 54, 3: PG 25, 192B) "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make
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| − | us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods." (St.
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| − | Thomas Aquinas, Opusc. 57, 1-4)
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| − | The noted Christian author, C.S. Lewis, also expressed his views on the deification of
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| − | man. “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that
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| − | the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you
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| − | saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.” (In Cross and Livingstone, Oxford
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| − | Dictionary of the Christian Church, pg. 1319)
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| − | Again he states “It is so very difficult to believe that the travail of all creation which God
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| − | Himself descended to share, at its most intense, may be necessary in the process of turning finite
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| − | creatures (with free wills) into--well, Gods.” (C.S. Lewis’ letter to Mrs. Edward A. Allen, 1 Nov.
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| − | 1954, in Letters of C.S. Lewis, pg. 440)
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| − | He also writes “the command be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to
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| − | do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in
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| − | the bible) that we were ‘gods’ and He is going to make good his words. If we let Him-for we can
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| − | prevent Him, if we choose-He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess,
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| − | dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom
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| − | and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God
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| − | perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and
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| − | goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for.
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| − | Nothing less. He meant what he said” (Trinitarian Controversy, pg. 6, Mere
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| − | Christianity, p.174)
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| − | "For now the critical moment has arrived. Century by century God has guided nature up
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| − | to the point of producing creatures which can (if they will) be taken right out of nature,
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| − | turned into gods." (ibid. p.187)
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| − | He says in his book The Grand Miracle that “The people who keep on asking if they
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| − | can’t lead a good life without Christ, don’t know what life is about; if they did they would know
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| − | that ‘a decent life’ is mere machinery compared with the thing we men are really made for.
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| − | Morality is indispensable: but the Diving Life, which gives itself to us and which calls us to be
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| − | gods, intends for us something in which morality will be swallowed up. We are to be remade. All
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| − | the rabbit in us will be swallowed up-the worried, conscientious, ethical rabbit as well as the
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| − | cowardly and sensual rabbit. We shall bleed and squeal as the handfuls of fur come out; and then
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| − | surprisingly, we shall find underneath it all a thing we have never yet imagined: a real man, an
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| − | ageless god, a son of God, strong, radiant, wise, beautiful, and drenched in joy.” (The Grand
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| − | Miracle, by C.S. Lewis pg. 85)
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| − | He goes on to say “Christ has risen, and so we shall rise. St. Peter for a few seconds
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| − | walked on the water, and the day will come when there will be a remade universe, infinitely
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| − | obedient to the will of glorified and obedient men, when we can do all things, when we shall be
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| − | those gods that we are described as being in Scripture.” (The Grand Miracle, C.S. Lewis, pg.
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| − | 65)
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| − | "Sometimes, Lord, one is tempted to say that if you wanted us to behave like the lilies of
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| − | the field you might have given us an organization more like theirs. But that, I suppose, is
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| − | just your...grand enterprise. To make an organism which is also spirit; to make that
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| − | terrible oxymoron, a 'spiritual animal.' To take a poor primate, a beast with nerve-endings
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| − | all over it, a creature with a stomach that wants to be filled, a breeding animal that wants
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| − | to mate, and say, 'Now get on with it, become a god.' (A Grief Observed, p.84-5)
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| − | Even Martin Luther spoke of the "deification of human nature," although in what sense it
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| − | is not clear. (Jack R. Pressau, I'm Saved, You're Saved…Maybe (Atlanta: John Knox, 1977), p.
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| − | 57; A. Nygren, Agape and Eros, trans. Philip S. Watson (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press,
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| − | 1982), p. 734.)
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| − | The seventeenth-century Anglican thinker Ralph Cudworth remarked, “The gospel is
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| − | nothing but God descending into the world in our form and conversing with us in our likeness
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| − | that He might allure and draw us up to God and make us partakers of His divine form, Theos
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| − | gegonen anthropos (as Athanasius speaks) hina hemas en eauto Theopoiese; ‘God was
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| − | therefore incarnated and made man that He might deify us’’ that is (as St. Peter expresseth it)
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| − | makes us partakers of the divine nature” (cited in Allchin, Participation in God, pg. 14)
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| − | Another non-LDS clergyman named Father Jordan Vajda agrees with this doctrine when
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| − | he stated “Members of the LDS Church will discover that there fundamental belief about human
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| − | salvation and potential is not unique of a Mormon invention. Latin Catholics and Protestants will
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| − | learn of a doctrine that, while relatively foreign to their ears, is nevertheless part of the heritage
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| − | of the undivided Catholic Church of the first millenium. Members of Eastern Orthodox and
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| − | Eastern Catholic Churches will discover on the American continent an amazing parallel to their
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| − | own belief that salvation in Christ involves our becoming ‘partakers of the divine nature’” (as
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| − | quoted in FARMS Review of Books, vol. 13, pg. 14)
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| − | Then referring to the anti-Mormon video the godmakers, Father Vajda said: “The
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| − | Mormons are truly ‘godmakers’: as the LDS doctrine of exaltation explains, the fullness of
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| − | human salvation means ‘becoming a god’. Yet what was meant to be a term of ridicule has
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| − | turned out to be a term of approbation, for the witness of the Greek Fathers of the Church...is
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| − | that they also believed that salvation meant ‘becoming a god’. It seems that if one’s soteriology
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| − | cannot accommodate a doctrine of human divination, then it has at least implicitly, if not
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| − | explicitly, rejected the heritage of the early Christian Church and departed from the faith of first
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| − | millenium Christianity.”(ibid pg.94-95)
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| − | | |
| − | Jaroslav Pelikan notes, "The chief idea of St. Maximus, as of all Eastern theology, [was]
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| − | the idea of deification." (The Spirit of Eastern Christendom, p. 10.)
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| − | John Calvin said “From this follows the other point: since Christ exercises the office of
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| − | Teacher under the Head [the Father], he ascribes to the Father the name of God, not to abolish
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| − | his own deity, but to raise us up to it by degrees” (Institutes I.XIII.24)
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| − | Around 1300 A.D., the Dominican Meister Eckhart preached the doctrine that “the seed
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| − | of God is in us. Given an intelligent farmer and a diligent farmhand, it will thrive and grow up to
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| − | God whose seed it is, and accordingly, its fruit will be God-nature. Pear seeds grow into pear
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| − | trees; nut seeds grow into nut trees, and God-seed into God” (Plancher, A History of Christian
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| − | Theology, pg. 169)
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| − | Origin (185-254) wrote “everything which, without being, ‘God in Himself’ is deified by
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| − | participation in his Godhead, should strictly be called ‘God’, not ‘The God’. The firstborn of all
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| − | creation, since He by being with God first gathered Godhood to Himself, is therefore in every
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| − | way more honored than others besides himself, who are ‘gods’ of whom God is the god, as it is
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| − | said, ‘God the Lord of gods spoke and called the world’. For it was through His ministry that
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| − | they became gods, since He drew divinity from God for them to be deified, and of His kindness
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| − | generously shared it with them. God, then, is the true God, and those who through Him are
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| − | fashioned into gods are copies of the prototype.” (The Early Christian Fathers, pg. 324)
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| − |
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| − | Lactantius (about 325 A.D.) ,an ancient Christian scholar and apologist, affirms that the
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| − | chaste man will become ‘identical in all respects with God’ (The Mystery Religions and
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| − | Christianity, S. Angus, pg. 106-107)
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| − | | |
| − | Tertullian (160-230 A.D.) ,who was a Christian Apologist, and Theologian, wrote: “If,
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| − | indeed, you follow those who did not at the time endure the Lord when showing Himself to be
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| − | the Son of God, because they would not believe Him to be the Lord, then call to mind along with
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| − | them the passage where it is written, "I have said, Ye are gods, and ye are children of the Most
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| − | High;" and again, "God standeth in the congregation of gods;" in order that, if the Scripture has
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| − | not been afraid to designate as gods human beings, who have become sons of God by faith, you
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| − | may be sure that the same Scripture has with greater propriety conferred the name of the Lord.
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| − | on the true and one-only Son of God.” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3, p. 608.)
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| − | He also said "The first-born of all creation, who is the first to be with God . . . is a being
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| − | of more exalted rank than the other gods beside Him, of whom God is the God, as it is written,
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| − | "The God of gods, the Lord, hath spoken and called the earth.' It was by the offices of the first-
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| − | born that they became gods, for He drew in generous measure that they should be made gods,
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| − | and He communicated it to them according to His own bounty. . . . Now it is possible that some
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| − | may dislike what we have said representing the Father as the One true God, but admitting other
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| − | beings besides the true God, who have become gods by having a share of God. They may fear
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| − | that the glory of Him who surpasses all creation may be lowered.”
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| − | | |
| − | Clement of Alexandria wrote, "To him who has shall be added;" knowledge to faith, love
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| − | to knowledge, and love to inheritance. And this happens when a man depends on the Lord
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| − | through faith, through knowledge, and through love, and ascends with him to the place where
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| − | God is, the God and guardian of our faith and love, from whom knowledge is delivered to those
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| − | who are fit for this privilege and who are selected because of their desire for fuller preparation
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| − | and training; who are prepared to listen to what is told them, to discipline their lives, to make
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| − | progress by careful observance of the law of righteousness. This knowledge leads them to the
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| − | end, the endless final end; teaching of the life that is to be ours, a life of conformity to God, with
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| − | gods, when we have been freed from all punishment, which we undergo as a result of our
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| − | wrong-doings for our saving discipline. After thus being set free, those who have been perfected
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| − | are given their reward and their honours. They have done with their purification, they have done
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| − | with the rest of their service, though it be a holy service, with the holy; now they become pure in
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| − | heart, and because of their close intimacy with the Lord there awaits them a restoration to
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| − | eternal contemplation; and they have received the title of "gods," since they are destined to be
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| − | enthroned with other "gods" who are ranked next below the Saviour.” (Henry Bettenson, The
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| − | Early Christian Fathers, London: Oxford University Press, 1956, pp. 243-244.)
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| − | St. Cyril of Jerusalem “When thou shalt have heard what is written concerning the
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| − | mysteries, then wilt thou understand things which thou knewest not. And think not that thou
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| − | receivest a small thing: though a miserable man, thou receivest one of God's titles. Hear St. Paul
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| − | saying, God is faithful. Hear another Scripture saying, God is faithful and just. Foreseeing this,
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| − | the Psalmist, because men are to receive a title of God, spoke thus in the person of God: "I said,
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| − | Ye are Gods, and are all sons of the Most High." But beware lest thou have the title of "faithful,"
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| − | but the will of the faithless. Thou hast entered into a contest, toil on through the race: another
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| − | such opportunity thou canst not have. Were it thy wedding-day before thee, wouldest thou not
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| − | have disregarded all else, and set about the preparation for the feast? And on the eve of
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| − | consecrating thy soul to the heavenly Bridegroom, wilt thou not cease from carnal things, that
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| − | thou mayest win spiritual?” (St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Prologue to the Catechetical Lectures)
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| − | [[es:Deificación de los Seres Humanos]]
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| − | [[de:Theosis]]
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| − | [[fr:Nature of God/Deification of man]]
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