[HarleyD]

Try reading +Athanasius the Great On the Incarnation. Its full of scriptural references. In the meantime, look at ...

While I'll have to do a more careful analysis of +Athanasius the Great On the Incarnation, I don't necessarily agree with some of his argument and certainly think the amount of scriptural references are lacking. Most of the references are not used to support his argument but simply references.

As far as your references, with the possible exception of John 10:34-35, I don't believe any of them support us being on the same par as God the Father. I was thinking about this as I was mowing the grass. According to the Orthodox understanding of the fillique of the Nicene Creed, there is God the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from God the Son, who proceeds from God the Father. If I'm not mistaken the Orthodox sees a very pronounce organizational structure in the Godhead. (Personally I agree with this interpretation btw.) Now, which level of the Godhead would you say we are to become like.

That, HD is one of the earliest and most deadly of heresies. All sorts of error stems from it, as Origen, among others found out. The human soul is not at all immortal by nature. Immortality is a gift offered by God which we can accept or reject as rational and free creatures.

Origen believed in the pre-existence of the soul and that those existing souls were imparted to people as they were born. I didn't make that claim. I said the soul was immortal-not eternal. Once a soul is born it does not die. It goes either to heaven or to hell. Immortality is a gift of God whether we want it or not-just like all God's gifts. But a soul is not eternal and has not always existed as Origen mistakenly claimed.

[Kolokotronis]

“According to the Orthodox understanding of the fillique of the Nicene Creed, there is God the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from God the Son, who proceeds from God the Father.”

Nope. The Creed as established by the Council Fathers says that the HS proceeds from the Father; most definitely NOT from the Son though perhaps one can say “through” the Son. In Orthodoxy there is no “filioque”. That is a later Roman innovation imposed on The Church there by the Franks.

“Immortality is a gift of God whether we want it or not-just like all God’s gifts.”

Then in Calvinist theology, the soul is indeed immortal...whether we or the soul wants it to be or not? Do you mean that God imposes immortality on the soul or that the soul is immortal by nature? That’s not at all what The Church taught, though various heretical sects based in Platonism did. Like I have said before, we believe very different things, more different than I would have suspected a few years ago.

[kosta50]

According to the Orthodox understanding of the fillique of the Nicene Creed, there is God the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from God the Son, who proceeds from God the Father

That is not so, HD. The Orthodox doctrine is that the Son is not the source (cause) of the Spirit; also the Son is begotten; He does not "proceed" (the Greek word is mora akin to "well") from the Father. Big difference. The confusion is in the Latin word procedere which does not imply an origin. A perfect example how a bad translation can lead to catastrophic theological errors!

The monarchy of the Father is absolute: He is the only one who is neither begotten nor proceeds from anything; the only one Who IS without a cause.

But before you cry "Mormons" again, remember that the Son is eternally (without beginning) begotten and the Spirit (as regards His existence) eternally proceeds from the Father. The Father is the cause of everything and all, including the divinity.