Sunday, August 18, 2019

Responding to Christina Darlington on Early Christians and Deification

In an attempt to downplay the LDS appeal to early patristic writings supporting a more “robust” understanding of deification than that of the mere “glorification” model of reward within much of Protestantism, we find this classic example of shifting the goalpost from Christina Darlington in her recent book:

[I]f the Mormon belief in men becoming gods was taught by the first and second century Christians, why is this belief completely absent from all creedal confessions of the early Christian Church? Again, historic Christianity clearly does not support the LDS belief in the “eternal progression” (i.e., godhood) of mankind. (Christina R. Darlington, Misguided by Mormonism But Redeemed by God’s Grace: Leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for Biblical Christianity [2d ed.; 2019], 46)


Did you notice the shift in goalposts? Darlington moves from wanting evidence from the writings of first and second century Christian writings to confessions (or “symbols”)—there are very few creedal confessions in early Christianity, and often they were drawn up in response to perceived heresy (both “orthodox” and “heretic,” in both the east and west, accepted a doctrine of theosis [informed, as was Athanasius’ theology thereof, by a transformative understanding of justification, contra Darlington’s soteriology!]). Notwithstanding, for an overview of early Christian writings that teach a view of theosis much closer to the Latter-day Saint model than one finds within, not just Protestantism, but even Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, see:

Jordan Vajda, "Partakers of the Divine Nature": A Comparative Analysis of the Patristic and Mormon Doctrines of Divinization (this is a work based on Vajda's MA dissertation: at the time of writing, he was a Roman Catholic priest. Based on his studies, he would later convert to the LDS Church).

My friend Errol Amey has shared this list on facebook a few times on the topic of early Chrisitan belief in the doctrine of deification/theosis from the Ante-Nicene (i.e., pre 325) Christian writers:


"And we have learned that those only are deified who have lived near to God in holiness and virtue"
(Justin Martyr, ca. 160, First Apology 21, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 1:170)

"all men are deemed worthy of becoming 'gods,' and of having power to become sons of the Highest"
(Justin Martyr, ca. 160, Dialogue With Trypho 124, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 1:262)

"Neither, then, immortal nor yet mortal did He make him, but, as we have said above, capable of both; so that if he should incline to the things of immortality, keeping the commandment of God, he should receive as reward from Him immortality, and should become God"
(Theophilus, ca. 180, To Autolycus 2:27, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 2:105)

"And again: 'God stood in the congregation of the gods, He judges among the gods.' [Psalms 82:1] He [here] refers to the Father and the Son, and those who have received the adoption"
(Irenaeus, ca. 180, Against Heresies 3:6:1, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 1:419)

"Therefore, as I have already said, He caused man (human nature) to cleave to and to become, one with God. . . . And unless man had been joined to God, he could never have become a partaker of incorruptibility."
(Irenaeus, ca. 180, Against Heresies 3:18:7, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 1:448)

"It is not possible to live apart from life, and the means of life is found in fellowship with God; but fellowship with God is to know God, and to enjoy His goodness. Men therefore shall see God, that they may live, being made immortal by that sight, and attaining even unto God"
(Irenaeus, ca. 180, Against Heresies 4:20:5-6, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 1:489)

"Or how shall man pass into God, unless God has [first] passed into man?"
(Irenaeus, ca. 180, Against Heresies 4:33:4, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 1:507, brackets in original)

“we have not been made gods from the beginning, but at first merely men, then at length gods”
(Irenaeus, ca. 180, Against Heresies 4:38:4, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 1:522)

"For it must be that thou, at the outset, shouldest hold the rank of a man, and then afterwards partake of the glory of God."
(Irenaeus, ca. 180, Against Heresies 4:39:2, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 1:523)

"our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself."
(Irenaeus, ca. 180, Against Heresies 5: Preface, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 1:526)

"Since the Lord thus has redeemed us through His own blood, giving His soul for our souls, and His flesh for our flesh, and has also poured out the Spirit of the Father for the union and communion of God and man, imparting indeed God to men by means of the Spirit, and, on the other hand, attaching man to God by His own incarnation, and bestowing upon us at His coming immortality durably and truly, by means of communion with God"
(Irenaeus, ca. 180, Against Heresies 5:1:1, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 1:527)

Irenaeus taught that "at the resurrection of the just," men will be "passing beyond the angels, and be made after the image and likeness of God"
(Irenaeus, ca. 180, Against Heresies 5:36:3, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 1:567)

"Being baptized, we are illuminated; illuminated, we become sons; being made sons, we are made perfect; being made perfect, we are made immortal. 'I,' says He, 'have said that ye are gods, and all sons of the Highest.' [Psalms 82:6]"
(Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 1:6, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 2:215)

"It is then, as appears, the greatest of all lessons to know one's self. For if one knows himself, he will know God; and knowing God, he will be made like God . . . But that man with whom the Word dwells does not alter himself, does not get himself up: he has the form which is of the Word; he is made like to God; he is beautiful; he does not ornament himself: his is beauty, the true beauty, for it is God; and that man becomes God, since God so wills. Heraclitus, then, rightly said, 'Men are gods, and gods are men.'"
(Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 3:1, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 2:271)

"On this wise it is possible for the [true] Gnostic already to have become God. 'I said, Ye are gods, and sons of the highest.' [Psalms 82:6]"
(Clement of Alexandria, ca. 195, Stromata 4:23, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 2:437)

"Whence at last . . . it is that knowledge is committed to those fit and selected for it. It leads us to the endless and perfect end, teaching us beforehand the future life that we shall lead, according to God, and with gods; after we are freed from all punishment and penalty which we undergo, in consequence of our sins, for salutary discipline. After which redemption the reward and the honours are assigned to those who have become perfect; when they have got done with purification, and ceased from all service, though it be holy service, and among saints. Then become pure in heart, and near to the Lord, there awaits them restoration to everlasting contemplation; and they are called by the appellation of gods, being destined to sit on thrones with the other gods that have been first put in their places by the Saviour."
(Clement of Alexandria, ca. 195, Stromata 7:10, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 2:539)

"The [true] Gnostic is consequently divine, and already holy, God-bearing, and God-borne."
(Clement of Alexandria, ca. 195, Stromata 7:13, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 2:547)

"it will be impossible that another god should be admitted, when it is permitted to no other being to possess anything of God. Well, then, you say, we ourselves at that rate possess nothing of God. But indeed we do, and shall continue to do—only it is from Him that we receive it, and not from ourselves. For we shall be even gods, if we shall deserve to be among those of whom He declared, 'I have said, Ye are gods,' [Psalms 82:6] and, 'God standeth in the congregation of the gods.' [Psalms 82:1] But this comes of His own grace, not from any property in us, because it is He alone who can make gods."
(Tertullian, ca. 200, Against Hermogenes 5, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 3:480)

"And thou shalt 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 thou hast become God . . . these God has promised to bestow upon thee, because thou hast been deified, and begotten unto immortality."
(Hippolytus, ca. 225, Refutation of All Heresies 10:30, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 5:153)

"I am of opinion that the expression, by which God is said to be 'all in all,' means that He is 'all' in each individual person. Now He will be 'all' in each individual in this way: when all which any rational understanding, cleansed from the dregs of every sort of vice, and with every cloud of wickedness completely swept away, can either feel, or understand, or think, will be wholly God; . . . when God will be the measure and standard of all its movements; and thus God will be 'all,' for there will no longer be any distinction of good and evil, seeing evil nowhere exists;"
(Origen, ca. 225, De Principiis 3:6:3, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 4:345)

“And thus the first-born of all creation, who is the first to be with God, and to attract to Himself divinity, is a being of more exalted rank than the other gods beside Him, of whom God is the God, as it is written, ‘The God of gods, the Lord, hath spoken and called the earth.’ [Psalms 50:1] 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. The true God, then, is ‘The God,’ and those who are formed after Him are gods, images, as it were, of Him the prototype.”
(Origen, Commentary on John 2:2, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 9:323)

“Now it is possible that some may dislike what we have said representing the Father as the one true God, but admitting other beings besides the true God, who have become gods by having a share of God. They may fear that the glory of Him who surpasses all creation may be lowered to the level of those other beings called gods. We drew this distinction between Him and them that we showed God the Word to be to all the other gods the minister of their divinity . . . As, then, there are many gods, but to us there is but one God the Father, and many Lords, but to us there is one Lord, Jesus Christ”
(Origen, Commentary on John 2:3, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 9:323)

"What man is, Christ was willing to be, that man also may be what Christ is."
(Cyprian, ca. 250, Treatises 6:11, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 5:468)

"[The chaste man will become] identical in all respects with God"
(Lactantius, ca. 304-313, Divine Institutes 6:23, in The Mystery-Religions 106-107)

"the saints also can enjoy precisely the same kind of fellowship with the Father [as Jesus Christ.]"
(Eusebius, in Early Christian Doctrines 226)

"[God] made man for that purpose, that from men they may become gods."
(Jerome, The Homilies of Saint Jerome 1:106)

"I too might be made God so far as He is made Man."
(Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 29:19, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Series 2, 7:308)

It should also be noted that some Jewish sources also support a form of deification. Here is an ancient Rabbinic quote promising plural worlds to the faithful as part of their eschatological reward that should add food for thought:

The Holy One, blessed be He, will in the future call all of the pious by their names, and give them a cup of elixir of life in their hands so that they should live and endure forever. . . . And the Holy One, blessed be He, will in the future reveal to all the pious in the World to Come the Ineffable Name with which new heavens and a new earth can be created, so that all of them should be able to create new worlds. The Holy One, blessed be He, will give every pious three hundred and forty worlds in inheritance in the World to Come. . . . To all the pious the Holy One, blessed be He, will give a sign and a part in the goodly reward, and everlasting renown, glory and greatness and praise, a crown encompassed in holiness, and royalty, equal to those of all the pious in the World to Come. The sign will be the cup of life which the Holy One, blessed be He, will give to the Messiah and to the pious in the Future to Come. (Midrash Alpha beta diRabbi Akiba BhM 3:32)

Of course, we will never be “independent” of God, as some caricature LDS theology. As we read in the Doctrine and Covenants, for instance:

And saw the holy angels, and then who are sanctified before his throne, worshipping God, and the Lamb, who worship him forever and ever . . . And to God and the Lamb be glory, and honor, and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (D&C 76:21, 119)

And the graves of the saints shall be opened; and they shall come forth and stand on the right hand of the Lamb when he shall stand upon Mount Zion, and upon the holy city, the New Jerusalem; and they shall sing the song of the Lamb, day and night forever and ever. (D&C 133:56)

Boyd K. Packer wrote something explicitly teaching this, too:

The Father is the one true God. This thing is certain: no one will ever ascend above Him; no one will ever replace Him. Nor will anything ever change the relationship that we, His literal offspring, have with Him. He is Elohim, the Father. He is God. Of Him there is only one. We revere our Father and our God; we worship Him. (Boyd K. Packer, "The Pattern of our Parentage," Ensign Nov. 1984 pg. 69)

In light of Isa 43:7, whatever glory we receive, the telos will be the further glorification of God the Father. Interestingly, there is a New Testament/Christological basis for such. Reformed Baptist Tony Costa wrote the following about the Carmen Christi (the Christological hymn in Phil 2:6-11):

[Phil 2:5-11’s depiction of the exalted Jesus] does not replace God or take worship from God. God is worshipped through the worship of the exalted Jesus. The worship which is given to the exalted Jesus does not usurp the worship of God, nor does it rival the worship of God; it rather complements the worship of God and facilitates it. Paul thus includes the exalted Jesus within Christian worship. The eschatological grande finale for Paul is the ultimate and universal glorification of God which God has purposed to be achieved through the worship of the exalted Jesus. The importance and centrality of the risen Jesus in relation to Christian worship, which I have argued from the beginning of this study, is evident here. God cannot be ultimately and maximally glorified according to Paul, without, or apart from, the exalted Jesus. Paul thus sees worship from a teleological perspective as fulfilled in the ultimate expression of honor that is given to God by the entire cosmos, through the agency of the exalted Jesus. (Tony Costa, Worship and the Risen Jesus in the Pauline Letters [Studies in Biblical Literature vol. 157; New York: Peter Lang, 2013], 249)


As for the writings of the first-century Christians, let us focus on a source that Darlington accepts, not just as important, but infallible and authoritative: the New Testament itself. We will focus on (1) Col 2:9-15 and (2) Rev 3:9, 21:

Col 2:9-15


For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. (Col 2:9-15 NASB)


Commenting on verse 9 ("For in him dwells the fullness of deity bodily" [NRSV]), as well as vv.10-15, Clinton Arnold wrote:

Participating in Christ’s Fullness Christ has not only delivered his people from the domain of darkness, but he has brought them into his kingdom and bestowed on them his salvation . . . What Paul says about Christ [in Col 2:9] he immediately applies to the church by declaring, “in him you are filled” (εστε εν αυτω πεπληρωμενοι). The “in him” (εν αυτω) marks a major motif of the entire theological section of 2:9-15. Paul is hereby attempting to help these believers understand the full significance of being in Christ, especially as it relates to their concern about supernatural powers and their temptation to follow the solution offered by “the philosophy.” His solution is for them to gain a fuller- appreciation for their resources in Christ and to grasp hold of their leader and supplier (2:19) and to concentrate on the things above where Christ is at the right hand of God (3:1).

The fullness of God—his power and his grace—are bestowed on believers by virtue of their incorporation into Christ. As Lightfoot has said, God’s πληρωμα is “transfused” into them. The perfect periphrastic construction (εστε . . .πεπληρωμενοι) emphasises their share in the divine fullness as part of their present experience. (Clinton Arnold, The Colossian Syncretism [Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1995], 293-95; square brackets added for clarification)

Such mirrors the comments about the “exaltation” of Jesus in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Peter C. Orr, lecturer in New Testament, Moore College, Sydney, Australia, wrote the following:

Although the focus is on Christ’s superiority over the angels following his exaltation (‘having become as much superior’), the author also maintains the exalted status of Christ before creation (1:2; 1:10). The author seems to be using angels as ‘midpoint’ between humanity and God. As such,

[t]hey mark out the cosmic territory. They function, so to speak, as measures of ontological status. To be above the angels is to be God, to be below the angels is to be human. Above the angels is to be human. Above the angels, Jesus transcends all creation, sharing the divine identity as Creator and Ruler even of the angels. Below the angels, Jesus shares the common identity of earthly humans in birth, suffering, and death. (Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel: ‘God Crucified’ and Other Studies in the New Testament’s Christology of Divine Identity [2008],241)

The Son, who was with God from the beginning of creation (1:2; 1:10), is in his incarnation made lower than the angels (2:9). Following his purification of sins, he is exalted and so made higher than them again. In that sense, he becomes again—as a human being—higher than the angels. (Peter Orr, Exalted Above the Heavens: The Risen and Ascended Christ [New Studies in Biblical Theology 47; London: Apollos, 2018], 21, emphasis in bold added)

Such shows that in New Testament theology, there is a positive view of the potential of humans which makes perfect sense if one holds "robust deification," not the weak model one finds in other theologies, including Darlington's.

Rev 3:9, 21

Note one of the glorious promises to those who endure in Rev 3:9, 21 (this is Christ Himself speaking through John):

Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee . . . To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

In 3:21, believers are promised to sit down on Christ’s throne, which is the Father's very own throne! Interestingly, Christ sitting down on the throne of the Father is cited as prima facie evidence of his being numerically identical to the “one God” (see the works of Richard Bauckham on “divine identity” on this issue), and yet, believers are promised the very same thing! This is in agreement with John 17:22 in that we will all share the same glory and be one with Christ and God just as they are one. Sitting in it does not indicate, contra Robert M. Bowman, Richard Bauckham, et al, ontological identification with God (cf. Testament of Job 32:2-9, where Job is promised to sit on God’s throne, something that is common in the literature of Second Temple Judaism and other works within the Jewish pseudepigrapha and elsewhere).

As for Rev 3:9, believers are promised that they will be the future recipients of προσκυνέω. While some may try to downplay the significance of this term, in all other instances where it is used in the book of Revelation it denotes religious worship (Rev 4:10; 5:14; 7:11; 9:20; 11:1, 16; 13:4, 8, 12, 15; 14:7, 9, 11; 15:4; 16:2; 19:4, 10, 20; 20:4; 22:8, 9). Only by engaging in special pleading and question-begging can one claim it does not carry religious significance in Rev 3:9 (cf. my discussion on whether Jesus receives λατρευω in the New Testament).


To add to the discussion, here is the exegesis provided by New Testament scholar, Jürgen Roloff, on these important verses:

[3:9] With the same words that are in 2:9, the claim of the Jews to be the assembly (synagōgē) of God and the people of God's is rejected as false. Because they rejected Jesus as bringer of God's salvation, in truth they subordinated themselves to the dominion of God's adversary. Israel's heritage and claim are completely transferred to the Christian community. To it, therefore, also belongs the promise, originally made to Israel, that at the end time of the Gentiles will enter the city of God and subjugate themselves to the people of God (Isa. 60:14 and elsewhere). Indeed, among those who then come will be the unbelieving Jews, who will realize that Jesus loved them and that means he chose them; (cf. Isa. 42:1) and made them into the people of God. When mention is made of "bowing down" before the feet of the church, this assumes full participation of the church in the kingdom of Christ and sitting with him on his throne (v. 21) . . . [3:21] The final word about overcoming in the series of letters has particular importance. It summarizes in conclusion the central promise of salvation, which is the promises heretofore was sounded several times with variations and modifications, by using another Synoptic expression of Jesus (Luke 22:30b; Matt 19:28 [Q?]: to those who overcome is promised here participation in Jesus' heavenly kingdom. Thus, just as Jesus sits on his throne (cf. 5:6) beside God as equal ruler on the basis of his having overcome and thereby shares his dominion, so also will those who have overcome for his sake receive a place in his messianic rule (cf. 20:6) with unlimited communion, and even equality, with him. (Jürgen Roloff, Revelation [Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993], 61, 65-66)

Interestingly, Solomon in 1 Chron 29, the very same chapter he received the same worship as Yahweh, he also sits on the throne of Yahweh. On the topic of people other than Yahweh sitting on the throne of Yahweh, Patrick Navas (author of Divine Truth or Human Tradition? A Reconsideration of the Roman Catholic-Protestant Doctrine of the Trinity in light of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures) wrote the following which serves as another refutation of the “divine identity” argument based Jesus sitting on the throne of Yahweh:

Another text that helps to underscore the fallaciousness of Wallace’s reasoning is found in 1 Chronicles 29:[23] which says:

“Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Jehovah as king in place of David his father. And he prospered, and all Israel obeyed him.”

Here Solomon is portrayed as one who “sat on the throne of Jehovah as king.” Does this text imply that Solomon therefore “shares all the attributes of Jehovah,” or that Solomon is ontologically “Jehovah,” or that he is a member of the “Godhead”? No. It simply means that Solomon occupied a position of supreme/royal authority over the people of Israel as Jehovah’s agent or representative. To sit on Jehovah’s throne does not make one ontologically Jehovah (or one who has all of Jehovah’s attributes as Wallace wrongly implies), but makes one an individual whom Jehovah has invested with kingly authority as his appointed and ruling representative. Solomon sat down on Jehovah’s earthly throne in Jerusalem. Following his resurrection, the supremely exalted Messiah, Jesus, sat down “at the right hand of the majesty on high”—in heaven itself, with all things in subjection to him, with the obvious exception of God himself (Heb. 1:3; 1 Cor. 15:27). (Patrick Navas, Response to Daniel Wallace)

This is yet another area where Latter-day Saint theology and practice is more commensurate with “biblical Christianity” and not the theologies of our Evangelical opponents.


For a book-length treatment of theosis in light of both the Bible and the patristic texts by a Latter-day Saint, see:

D. Charles Pyle, I Have Said Ye are Gods: Concepts Conducive to the Early Christian Doctrine of Deification in Patristic Literature and the Underlying Strata of the Greek New Testament (Revised and Supplemented) (CreateSpace, 2018)

See also the discussion of deificiation in Blake T. Ostler, Exploring Mormon Thought, Volume 3: Of God and Gods (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2008), pp. 321-426