Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Don Bradley, "Ye Shall Be as Gods" (1991)

  

The Latter-day Saints believe that Jesus Christ makes it possible for men to become what God is. The Bible teaches that the righteous will become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) and become divine themselves (John 10:34-35; 17;22-28; 2 Cor 3:18; Eph 3:19; Rev 3:21, etc.)

 

The concept that men may become divine is usually called “exaltation” by Latter-day Saints, “deification” by Christian scholars, and “blasphemy!” by anti-Mormons. To many this is Mormonism’s most objectionable doctrine. The Saints are constantly excoriated by their opponents for holding this belief. Some anti-Mormon writers go so far as to claim that the LDS doctrine of exaltation is not only un-Christian, but Satanic, founded on “Satan’s promise of godhood” to Eve in Genesis 3:5.

 

“Satan’s Promise”

 

In Genesis 3 the serpent persuaded Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit by telling her “ye shall not surely die,” as a consequence of partaking of the fruit, but rather, “ye shall be as gods.” Ed Decker, director of “Saints Alive in Jesus,” has written the following, attempting to equate the serpent’s “promise” with the LDS doctrine of exaltation:

 

Jesus called Satan “a liar and the father of it”—i.e., the father of the lie. No greater life could be conceived than the humans could become Gods. Eve was deceived by the Serpent’s seductive offer of godhood. . . .

 

It is astonishing how thoroughly Mormonism has embraced Satan’s promise of godhood! . . . [It] comprises the very heart of Mormonism. (The Godmakers, pp. 29 & 30).

 

Decker assumes that the doctrine of deification is an anti-Christian idea which was first formulated in the mind of Satan. It is interesting to contrast the assumption of this anti-Mormon propagandist with the views of competent Christian scholars and theologians.

 

Protestant

 

With reference to a statement by the early Christian writer, Hippolytus (170-236 A.D.), to the effect that through Christ men could be “deified” and “become God,” Cleaveland Coxe, an Anglican scholar and editor of the American edition of The Ante-Nicene Fathers, wrote:

 

This startling expression is justified by such texts as [2] Pet. 1:4 compared with John 17:22, 23, and Rev 3:21. Thus Christ overcomes the Tempter (Genesis 3:5) and gives more than was promised by the “Father of Lies.” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978, 5:153)

 

Dr. Coxe’s meaning here is clear: Satan promised men that they could be as Gods, but Christ made it possible for men to be Gods! Christ really does give more than was promised by Satan. The great advocate, then, of the true deification of men is not Satan, but Christ!

 

Roman Catholic

 

Giovanni Papini, a Catholic scholar, after quoting Ps. 81:6 & John 10:34-35 (“Ye are gods”) writes,

 

We have, therefore, a double testimony that God considers and calls certain men gods. . . . And what else was it that the Serpent said to the first parents, if not something very similar: “You will be as gods.” He was promising, then, what God Himself is ready to sustain.

 

And when Christ teaches the chosen to imitate God—“You are to be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48)—is he not asserting that man . . . can achieve one of the essential attributes of God, that is, perfection? To become perfect, as perfect as God, is that not perhaps like becoming gods?

 

The Christian doctrine of “deification” is, in my opinion, profoundly sublime and true . . . (Giovanni Papini, The Devil, NY: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1954, pp. 44-46)

 

The Desire for Deification

 

Papini attributes the doctrine of deification, not to Satan, but to Christ. Certainly, Satan is jealous of God’s power, and desires to be God himself; but Satan’s desire for “deification” is of an entirely different sort than that of the Christian who seeks to become like God. As Papini explains (p. 46), while the Devil seeks divinity by trying to rival God, the Christian seeks to become divine by imitating Christ, developing a God-like character, and submitting his will to the Father’s. This path to Godhood was advocated and exemplified by Christ Himself.

 

Eastern Orthodox

 

The deification doctrine has survived to some extent in the Eastern Orthodox Churches. Georgios I. Mantazaridis, a Greek Orthodox scholar, writes,

 

Deification . . . from the beginning has constituted the innermost longing of man’s existence. Adam, in attempting to appropriate it by transgressing God’s command, failed, and in place of deification met with corruption and death. The love of God, however, through His Son’s incarnation, restored to men the possibility of deification:

 

“Adam of old was deceived
wanting to be God he failed to be God,
God becomes man,
so that he may made Adam god.”

 

[this latter quote is part of a doxastikon, or hymn of praise, from the Feast of Annunciation. This doxastikon about Adam’s deification is still sung today at this feast, as it is celebrated in Eastern orthodoxy.] The Deification of Man: St. Gregory and Palamas and the Orthodox Tradition, Crestwoood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1984, pp. 12 & 13)

 

Thus, according to a centuries-old Christian formulation, God the Son condescended to become a mortal man, to obtain for men what they had failed to obtain for themselves—Godhood.

 

These quotes are but a sampling of the acknowledgment by scholars of the three main branches of Christianity that the early Christians advocated deification. This poses a dilemma for anti-Mormons: If the LDS concept of exaltation is un-Christian and satanic, must not the same be true of the deification doctrine predominant in early Christianity? Were the early Christians “satanic,” also?

 

Rejecting Christ’s Promise?

 

My study of Biblical and early Christian teachings on deification has led me to disagree strongly with those who denounce it as a Satan-inspired deception. Christ has made it possible for men to be one with Himself, to partake fully of His divine nature, and thereby become Gods themselves. It is astonishing to me how thoroughly mainstream Christianity has rejected Christ’s promise of deification to those who follow Him. But the Latter-day Saints have neither forgotten, nor rejected this promise; so they continue to put their faith in Christ and strive to be perfect, even as He is perfect. (Don Bradley, “’Ye Shall Be as Gods,’” Mormon Issues no. 2 [May 1991]: 3)