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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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− | {{:Questions: Do Latter-day Saints believe that they will one day "supplant God?}}
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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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− | {{:Question: What were the views of early Christians on the deification of man?}}
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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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− | {{:Question: Was the Latter-day Saint concept of deification derived from Greek philosophy?}}
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− | {{:Question: What Biblical scriptures discuss the doctrine of the deification of man?}}
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− | <videoflash>ECtHwKpUD-U</videoflash>
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− | </onlyinclude>
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− | {{CriticalSources}}
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− | {{endnotes sources}}
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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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