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| − | {{Resource Title|Is the Mormon doctrine of human deification unbiblical, false, and arrogant?}}
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| − | ==Quick Navigation==
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| − | *[[Mormonism and the nature of God/Deification of man/Unbiblical, false, and arrogant#Gospel Topics: "Latter-day Saints see all people as children of God in a full and complete sense"|Gospel Topics: "Latter-day Saints see all people as children of God in a full and complete sense"]]
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| − | *[[Mormonism and the nature of God/Deification of man/Unbiblical, false, and arrogant#Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe that they will one day 'supplant' God?|Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe that they will one day 'supplant' God?]]
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| − | *[[Mormonism and the nature of God/Deification of man/Unbiblical, false, and arrogant#Question: What were the views of early Christians on the deification of man?|Question: What were the views of early Christians on the deification of man?]]
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| − | *[[Mormonism and the nature of God/Deification of man/Unbiblical, false, and arrogant#Question: Was the Latter-day Saint concept of deification derived from Greek philosophy?|Question: Was the Latter-day Saint concept of deification derived from Greek philosophy?]]
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| − | *[[Mormonism and the nature of God/Deification of man/Unbiblical, false, and arrogant#Question: What Biblical scriptures discuss the doctrine of the deification of man?|Question: What Biblical scriptures discuss the doctrine of the deification of man?]]
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| − | *[[Mormonism and the nature of God/Deification of man/Unbiblical, false, and arrogant#Question: If a person faithfully practices Mormonism during this life, do they become a god after they die?|Question: If a person faithfully practices Mormonism during this life, do they become a god after they die?]]
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| − | *[[Mormonism and the nature of God/Deification of man/Unbiblical, false, and arrogant#Question: Do Mormon men believe that they will become "gods of their own planets" and rule over others?|Question: Do Mormon men believe that they will become "gods of their own planets" and rule over others?]]
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| − | <onlyinclude>
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| − | {{:Source:Gospel Topics:Becoming Like God:Latter-day Saints see all people as children of God in a full and complete sense}}
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| − | {{:Source:Webb:BYUS:2011:10:Preexistent Jesus and a divinized humanity}}
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| − | {{:Question: 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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| − | {{:Question: If a person faithfully practices Mormonism during this life, do they become a god after they die?}}
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| − | {{:Question: Do Mormon men believe that they will become "gods of their own planets" and rule over others?}}
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| − | {{:Question: If God was once like us, does that mean that God was once a sinner?}}
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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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| − | 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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| − |
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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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| − |
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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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| − |
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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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| − |
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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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| − |
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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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| − |
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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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| − |
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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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| − |
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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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| − |
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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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| − |
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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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| − |
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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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| − |
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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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| − |
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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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| − | </onlyinclude>
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| − | {{endnotes sources}}
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| − | <!-- PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->
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| − | [[es:Deificación de los Seres Humanos]]
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| − | [[de:Mormonismus und die Natur Gottes/Theosis]]
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