Paul's prayer for Christians was to be filled with all the fullness of God:
Eph 3:19
19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
In Christ lived the fullness of God,
Col 2:9
For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.
and He was called "God manifest in the flesh" 1 Tim 3:16.
If Christians are also to be filled with the fullness of God, according to Paul's prayer...
Then are we, also "god" manifest in the flesh, or not?
Athanasius said in the 4th century:
"God became man so that man might become a god."
Jesus desires that we be in the Father and the Son, just as closely as the Father and the Son were with each other: John 17:
"As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us"
Jesus desires that we be in the Father and the Son as much as the Father and the Son are in each other.
All Christian denominations accept that God became a man.
But most denominations today deny the teaching of scripture and Orthodox teaching of the early Christian church, that men "become gods".
Is it no wonder that Christians who follow particular teachers today look and behave like mere humans?: 1 Cor 3:4 "For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?"
To be truly spiritual, to be a partaker of the Divine nature, to "become a god", is impossible if we are merely human and divisive.
The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology contains the following definition of what "deification" is for Orthodoxy:
<dl><dd>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 OT and NT (e.g. Ps. 82 (81).6; II Peter 1.4), and it is essentially the teaching both of St Paul, though he tends to use the language of filial adoption (cf. Rom. 8.9—17; Gal. 4.5—7), and the Fourth Gospel (cf. 17.21—23).
</dd></dl> <dl><dd>The language of II 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 the 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.' ...
</dd></dl>
Eph 3:19
19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
In Christ lived the fullness of God,
Col 2:9
For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.
and He was called "God manifest in the flesh" 1 Tim 3:16.
If Christians are also to be filled with the fullness of God, according to Paul's prayer...
Then are we, also "god" manifest in the flesh, or not?
Athanasius said in the 4th century:
"God became man so that man might become a god."
Jesus desires that we be in the Father and the Son, just as closely as the Father and the Son were with each other: John 17:
"As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us"
Jesus desires that we be in the Father and the Son as much as the Father and the Son are in each other.
All Christian denominations accept that God became a man.
But most denominations today deny the teaching of scripture and Orthodox teaching of the early Christian church, that men "become gods".
Is it no wonder that Christians who follow particular teachers today look and behave like mere humans?: 1 Cor 3:4 "For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?"
To be truly spiritual, to be a partaker of the Divine nature, to "become a god", is impossible if we are merely human and divisive.
The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology contains the following definition of what "deification" is for Orthodoxy:
<dl><dd>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 OT and NT (e.g. Ps. 82 (81).6; II Peter 1.4), and it is essentially the teaching both of St Paul, though he tends to use the language of filial adoption (cf. Rom. 8.9—17; Gal. 4.5—7), and the Fourth Gospel (cf. 17.21—23).
</dd></dl> <dl><dd>The language of II 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 the 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.' ...
</dd></dl>
Last edited:
