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)
