Churchwork
04-16-2006, 05:22 AM
See question 3 in the Profile. I have added a component because of those who believe in theosis which is false (http://biblocality.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2027&postcount=1). Theosis is this phrase that some people use as follows: they say they are "God in life, nature or grace but not in the Godhead". This is like mormonism on steroids, trying to be couth and cunning. We are not God in anything. We have God's life, which is eternal life, but this does not give us the right to call ourself God ever in any way!
All they do is write scores of rationalizations why they say they are God. This problem exists in Eastern Orthodox also besides several cults.
http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/needtoagree.htm
Definition of Theosis: literally, the condition or the state of deity; also, the deification of man
"...while God's inner essence is forever beyond our comprehension, His energies, grace, life and power fill the whole universe, and are directly accessible to us...When Orthodox [non-Christians] speak of the divine energies, they do not mean by this an emanation from God, an intermediary between God and man, or a thing or gift that God bestows. On the contrary, the energies are God Himself in His activity and self-manifestation. When a man knows or participates in the divine energies, he truly knows or particpates in God Himself, so far as this is possible for a created being...we are able to affirm the possibility of a direct or mystical union betweeen man and God - what the Greek Fathers term the theosis of man, his deification...There is union, but not fusion or confusion. Although oned with the divine, man still remains man; he is not swallowed up or annihilated, but between him and God there continues to exist an I-Thou relationship of person to person." - Bishop Kallistos Ware from The Orthodox Way (1995-St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood, New York)
The truth of this mistaken assumption is that man will never become a deity since there is only One, though having God's life, that is, eternal life. To have God's nature and overcome the sin nature, is to walk with God in life, nature and grace, but it is never to be God in life, nature and grace. The Bible says to be "not doubletongued" (1 Tim. 3.8). Don't say there are Gods, this is polytheism.
All they do is write scores of rationalizations why they say they are God. This problem exists in Eastern Orthodox also besides several cults.
http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/needtoagree.htm
Definition of Theosis: literally, the condition or the state of deity; also, the deification of man
"...while God's inner essence is forever beyond our comprehension, His energies, grace, life and power fill the whole universe, and are directly accessible to us...When Orthodox [non-Christians] speak of the divine energies, they do not mean by this an emanation from God, an intermediary between God and man, or a thing or gift that God bestows. On the contrary, the energies are God Himself in His activity and self-manifestation. When a man knows or participates in the divine energies, he truly knows or particpates in God Himself, so far as this is possible for a created being...we are able to affirm the possibility of a direct or mystical union betweeen man and God - what the Greek Fathers term the theosis of man, his deification...There is union, but not fusion or confusion. Although oned with the divine, man still remains man; he is not swallowed up or annihilated, but between him and God there continues to exist an I-Thou relationship of person to person." - Bishop Kallistos Ware from The Orthodox Way (1995-St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood, New York)
The truth of this mistaken assumption is that man will never become a deity since there is only One, though having God's life, that is, eternal life. To have God's nature and overcome the sin nature, is to walk with God in life, nature and grace, but it is never to be God in life, nature and grace. The Bible says to be "not doubletongued" (1 Tim. 3.8). Don't say there are Gods, this is polytheism.