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To: Godzilla; All
Something from this I can't leave hanging.

Lurkers and others please note.

The Eastern Orthodox concept of Theosis has nothing to do with becoming a god ones self. There is a reason the Orthodox like all Historic Christian faiths follows the doctine of the Trinity. There is one true God, in three persons, with Jesus being Fully God and Fully Man. This precludes becoming a God yourself. In simple terms(very simple) in Orthodox Theosis is participating in the life of God. It is in the Orthodox viewpoint, and is pretty much in all Christian tradition the point of Salvation.

http://www.antiochian.org/node/16916

These off shoot cults, especially the LDS and to a great extend the JWs as well as some others I am sure, make great hay out of becoming a god. It is a great sales pitch, I mean sure I would love to tinker with my own planet and followers (not really, but I am sane).

However to do so you have to make it possible DESPITE what the Bible clearly says. You have to reduce god down in power, make him and what he is achievable. Make him a man like us. It is easier to dunk the ball when you cut the basketball hoop down to 7 feet from the regulation 10. You also have to have a world where there are already multiple gods. Jesus and the Holy Spirit separate etc.

Of course this introduces polytheism, despite the “no we are not because we only worship one god” arguemnt since it is both the worship of OR belief in more than one god, and you have to kick to the curb some very clear and distinct Bible verses.

Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else — Deuteronomy 4:39

Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. Isaiah 44:6

Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no savior. Isaiah 43:10-11.

That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. Isaiah 45:6

You have to do some pretty interesting verbal gymnastics to get around those.

Anyways, just want to offer up a little insight into these folks and where they coming from. Always look to motivation when one is trying to contradict what is known and good and true. With these folks there are two basic avenues.

For the true believers it is knowing one will be a god, pretty headey stuff.

For most of them though it is the perpetuation of their cult. Many of these, the "fancy ones" as I’’ll call them, the ones with “all the answers” are for lack of a better term, operatives, enablers with a vested interest in the success of the cult, either financially or socially. Don't confuse their arrogance with expertise, they know what they are doing and why they are doing it and feed from the same bag of tricks, something they have rehearsed over and over again.

368 posted on 08/22/2010 5:22:33 AM PDT by ejonesie22 (Christians: Stand for Christ or stand aside...)
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To: ejonesie22
You are correct indeed ejonesie22! Use of a term without defining it is intellectually dishonest to the readers. Here is another good source I've found http://orthodoxwiki.org/Theosis (“deification,” “divinization”) is the process of a worshiper becoming free of hamártía (“missing the mark”), being united with God, beginning in this life and later consummated in bodily resurrection. For Orthodox Christians, Théōsis (see 2 Pet. 1:4) is salvation. Théōsis assumes that humans from the beginning are made to share in the Life or Nature of the all-holy Trinity. Therefore, an infant or an adult worshiper is saved from the state of unholiness (hamartía — which is not to be confused with hamártēma “sin”) for participation in the Life (zōé, not simply bíos) of the Trinity — which is everlasting. This is not to be confused with the heretical (apotheosis) (1) – “Deification in God’s Essence“, which is imparticipable. (1) Apotheosis (from Greek “to deify”), deification or divinization is the glorification of an individual to a divine level.
392 posted on 08/22/2010 7:44:13 AM PDT by Godzilla ( 3-7-77)
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