John Barrus

I shared a post last week on the early church fathers aligning with LDS belief of exaltation. As I have been reading “The Missing Ministry of The Risen Christ” my mind was blown at how Christian we truly are. Joseph Smith is more Christian than any of his critics. I now more than ever understand and agree with the distinction of Biblical Christian vs Creedal Christian and we are definitely the former. In case you don’t believe the doctrine that we can become like God let me list some of the scriptures that teach it and the early church fathers who believed it. Romans 8:17 says we're joint-heirs with Christ. 1 John 3:2 says we shall be like Him. 2 Peter 1:4 says we can partake of the divine nature. Revelation 3:21 says Christ will grant the faithful to sit with Him on His throne. (Thank you Lego for this great list) 1. Justin Martyr c. 100–165 AD “Men were made like God” and men are “deemed worthy of becoming gods and of having power to become sons of the highest.” 2. Tertullian c. 160–220 AD “We shall be even gods, if we shall deserve to be.” 3. Theophilus of Antioch c. 120–190 AD “If man should incline to the things of immortality, keeping the commandment of God, he should receive as reward from Him immortality, and should become God.” 4. Irenaeus of Lyons c. 130–200 AD “He became what we are, that He might make us what He Himself is.” The page also quotes him asking: “Do we cast blame on him [God] because we were not made gods from the beginning, but were at first created merely as men, and then later as gods?” 5. Clement of Alexandria c. 150–215 AD “The Word of God became a man so that you might learn from a man how to become a god.” Two additional quotations on the page: “If one knows himself, he will know God, and knowing God will become like God … and that man becomes a god, since God wills it.” “He who listens to the Lord, and follows the prophecy given by Him, will be formed perfectly in the likeness of the teacher made a god going about in flesh.” 6. Hippolytus of Rome c. 170–235 AD “And you shall be a companion of the Deity, and a co-heir with Christ, no longer enslaved by lusts or passions, and never again wasted by disease. For you have become God.” “If, therefore, man has become immortal, he will also be God. And if he is made God by water and the Holy Spirit after the regeneration of the laver he is found to be also joint-heir with Christ after the resurrection from the dead.” 7. Origen Adamantius c. 182–254 AD “The human, by communion with the divine, might rise to be divine.” The page also quotes him: “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.” 8. Athanasius of Alexandria c. 296–373 AD “The Word was made flesh in order that we might 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.” The page also quotes: “Men are deified by the Word.” And: “[Christ] was God, and then became man, and that he might deify us.” 9. Gregory of Nazianzus c. 320–390 AD “Let us become gods for (God’s) sake, since (God) became man for our sake.” Another quotation on the following page reads: “Man and God blended. They became a single whole, the stronger side predominating, in order that I might be made God to the same extent that he was made man.” The preceding page also attributes this statement to Gregory: “[Christ] continues to wear the Body which He assumed, until He make me God.” 10. Cyprian of Carthage c. 200–258 AD “What man is, Christ was willing to be, that man may be what Christ is.”