J. S.’s complaint is actually twofold: (1) Psalm 82:6 and John 10:34 should not be used to support the teaching that man becomes God in God’s salvation, and (2) the teaching itself that man becomes God in God’s salvation is heretical. Unfortunately, both claims fly directly in the face of what was taught in the church especially in its earliest centuries. Let us examine these two claims in light of the writings of the early church, beginning with the less complex one concerning the use of Psalm 82:6 and John 10:34. J. S. claims that to use Psalm 82:6 to teach that we can become gods is “to [pervert] the word of God and to teach the greatest and worst blasphemous heresy” and that it is “altogether nonsense and darkness” to use John 10:34 to teach that men may become God. It is not difficult, however, to find numerous instances in the writings of the early church where these two verses are used to demonstrate the scriptural basis for understanding God’s salvation in this way. Since this is the minor issue of J. S.’s complaint, it is necessary to cite only a few of the more prominent examples.
Justin Martyr, a second-century apologist, is one of the earliest witnesses to explicitly teach that man may become God in God’s salvation. In his Dialogue with Trypho he uses Psalm 82:6 to support his teaching and warns against wrangling anything but that out of the passage:
Let the interpretation of the Psalm be held just as you wish, yet thereby it is demonstrated that all men are deemed worthy of becoming “gods,” and of having power to become sons of the highest.... (Dialogue with Trypho 124)
Shortly after Justin wrote this, the next major teacher of the church, Irenaeus of Lyon, also used Psalm 82:6 to support the same teaching:
For we cast blame upon Him, because we have not been made gods from the beginning, but at first merely men, then at length gods; although God has adopted this course out of His pure benevolence, that no one may impute to Him insidiousness or grudgingness. He declares, “I have said, Ye are gods; and ye are sons of the Highest.” (Against Heresies, Bk. IV, ch. 38, sec. 4)
Elsewhere Irenaeus quotes Psalm 82:6 and claims that the reference to those who are called gods in this verse is ultimately to those who receive the sonship from God:
But of what gods [does he speak]? [Of those] to whom He says, “I have said, Ye are gods, and all sons of the Most High.” To those, no doubt, who have received the grace of the “adoption [Gk. huiothesia, ‘sonship’ as in Rom. 8:15], by which we cry, Abba Father.” (Against Heresies, Bk. III, ch. 6, sec. 1)
In a later section we will show that the first clear formulation of the teaching that man becomes God in God’s salvation was that of Irenaeus. For the issue at hand, these quotes show that Irenaeus used Psalm 82:6 to support the teaching.
In the late second century another influential teacher of the early church, Clement of Alexandria, frequently used Psalm 82:6 as the scriptural basis for teaching that man becomes God in God’s salvation. In his notable trilogy of apologetic writings we find at least one instance of such quotation in each of the three works. In the first of these, the Protreptikos, or Exhortation to the Heathen, he, like Irenaeus before him, uses Psalm 82:6 to show that our sonship in Christ is synonymous with our becoming God:
Accordingly this grace is indicated by the prophet, when he says, “I said that ye are gods, and all sons of the Highest.” For us, yea us, He has adopted and wishes to be called the Father of us alone, not of the unbelieving. (Protreptikos 12)
In the second work of his trilogy, the Paedagogus, or Instructor, Clement identifies man’s receiving immortality with his becoming God, and uses Psalm 82:6 to support the connection:
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.” (Paedagogus, Bk. I, ch. 6)
In the Stromata, or Miscellanies, the third work of his apologetic trilogy, Clement expounds his belief that salvation comes through the assimilation of spiritual gnosis, or knowledge, and borrowing terminology from the heresy he is refuting (Gnosticism), refers frequently to the mature believer as the Gnostic. Using Psalm 82:6, he asserts that even in this life
it is possible for the Gnostic already to have become God. “I said, Ye are gods, and sons of the highest.” (Stromata, Bk. IV, ch. 23)
Some final instances from Athanasius should be sufficient to provide an ample array of evidence that Psalm 82:6 and, by quotation, John 10:34 have long been used in the church to teach that man becomes God in God’s salvation. It should be remembered that it was Athanasius who uttered the classic phrase that most succinctly captures the teaching of the church through his day: “He was made man that we might be made God” (De Incarnatione 54:3). Elsewhere in this same treatise Athanasius speaks of God’s intention in creating man even though man fell short of that intention and uses Psalm 82:6 as evidence of that original intention.
But being incorruptible he would thenceforth have lived as God, as also somewhere the Divine Scripture declares, saying: “I said that you are gods and all sons of the Highest: but you die like men and fall as one of the princes.” For God did not only create us from nothing, but he also granted us by the grace of the Word to live a divine life. (De Incarnatione 4:6—5:1)
In his letters to Serapion, in which he argued for the equal deity of the Holy Spirit, Athanasius also interpreted Psalm 82 and John 10 to mean that the believers become God in God’s salvation. The passage is especially important because in it he distinguishes between the unique God, who is God by virtue of His own self-possessed nature, and those whom the Scriptures call God by virtue of their participation in the unique Son of God.
But if some have been called gods, they are not so by nature [that is, by what they are in their own nature], but by participation in the Son. Thus he himself [Christ in John 10:35] said, “If he called them gods, unto whom the Word of God came...” Hence, because they are not gods by nature, there comes a time when some of them suffer a change and hear him say: “I said, Ye are gods and sons of the Most High. Nevertheless, ye die like men.” (Ad Serapionem, Epistle 2-3, sec. 4)
J. S. ignores that such a distinction exists and, more outrageously, that such a distinction has been taught by Brother Lee. Instead, he chooses to obscure the distinction and label as heretic even those who carefully, and within the bounds of traditional, orthodox teaching, hold the distinction when they teach that man may become God in God’s salvation.
If J. S. wishes to label as heretic those who use Psalm 82 and John 10 to teach that man becomes God in God’s salvation, he must condemn at least Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Athanasius. And this is only a sampling of the writers of the church who have similarly used these verses to teach this matter. Ironically, J. S.’s attack is leveled at Brother Lee, but Brother Lee nowhere in his ministry appeals to these verses to teach that man becomes God. Thus, J. S.’s comments amount to what is called a straw-man argument, whereby an opponent who does not actually exist is attacked and seemingly refuted. It is always an easy matter to refute a straw man. Unfortunately, J. S.’s refutation is vain because Brother Lee relies not on these verses but on others which J. S. has not addressed at all. At any rate, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Athanasius, and other teachers of the past have used these verses to teach that man becomes God in God’s salvation; why then does J. S. refer to this teaching as “the worst blasphemous words of Witness Lee against God”?
But this use of Psalm 82:6 and John 10:34 is J. S.’s minor complaint. His major complaint is against the teaching itself that man may become God in God’s salvation. This has certainly been taught by Brother Lee, but it was also taught in the church long before Brother Lee taught it. So again, J. S.’s condemnation should not be taken as merely against Brother Lee but even more so as against at least the teachers of the early church. We should therefore demonstrate that the early church believed and taught that the goal of God’s salvation is man’s becoming God and how they understood this to be.
As mentioned above, the first clear expression of this teaching can be found in the second-century writings of Irenaeus of Lyon. We have noted his use of Psalm 82 in AgainstHeresies to show that men may become “at length gods.” But an even clearer statement of his view on man’s becoming God is presented in an explanation of why the Word became flesh.
...but following the only true and steadfast Teacher, the Word of God, 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. (Against Heresies, Bk. V, preface)
Clement of Alexandria (late second century) also offered clear and striking expression to this teaching. In a passage directed to pagan readers, he exhorts them to abandon false gods and choose the true God and the high goal of His ultimate salvation.
But if thou dost not believe the prophets, but supposest both the men and the fire a myth, the Lord Himself shall speak to thee, “who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery, to be equal with God, but humbled Himself,” [Phil. 2:6-7]—He, the merciful God, exerting Himself to save man. And now the Word Himself clearly speaks to thee, shaming thy unbelief; yea, I say, the Word of God became man, that thou mayest learn from a man how man may become God. (Protreptikos 2)
In another work he states emphatically that even in this mortal life the believers can be God.
He who listens to the Lord, and follows the prophecy given by Him, will be formed perfectly in the likeness of the teacher—made a god going about in flesh. (Stromata, Bk. IV, ch. 23)
Clement’s pupil Origen was undoubtedly the most notable writer and teacher of the late second and early third centuries, and he too taught strongly that man may become God in God’s salvation. In a work entitled On Prayer he concludes with his own exhortation to prayer:
Therefore, let us pray “constantly” (1 Thess. 5:17) with a character being divinized [Gk. theopoioumenes, ‘being deified’] by the Word, and let us say to our Father in heaven, “hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.” (On Prayer, ch. XXV, sec. 2)
Elsewhere in the same work Origen commends the Word of God as the practical means of being nourished by God and of thereby being made God.
Now if this is so and there is such a difference between foods, there is one that stands out above all the others mentioned, “the daily bread for our being” about which we must pray that we may be made worthy of it, and being nourished by God the Word, who was in the beginning with God (cf. John 1:1), we may be made divine [Gk. theopoiethomen, ‘we may be made god’ as later in Athanasius]. (On Prayer, ch. XXVII, sec. 13)
In the first quarter of the third century Hippolytus of Rome defended the Christian faith against heretical teaching within the church, showing the relationship between numerous heresies and pagan religion. This he did most notably in a work called the Philosophumena, or Refutation of All Heresies. He concludes this work with an exhortation to his readers not to be deceived by the fallacies of pagan thought and not to be led to eternal destruction through them. Instead, they should receive the salvation ordained by God.
And thou shalt possess an immortal body, even one placed beyond the possibility of corruption, just like the soul. And thou shalt receive the kingdom of heaven, thou who, whilst thou didst sojourn in this life, didst know the Celestial King. 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....And provided thou obeyest His solemn injunctions, and becomest a faithful follower of Him Who is good, thou shalt resemble Him, inasmuch as thou shalt have honour conferred upon thee by Him. For the Deity, (by condescension,) does not diminish aught of the dignity of His divine perfection; having made thee even God unto His glory! (Refutation of All Heresies, Bk. X, ch. 30)
The writers of the church up through the third century certainly believed and taught that man becomes God in God’s salvation, but it was during the fourth century that this teaching so flourished that it found use as an unassailable argument against heresy, particularly in the writings of Athanasius. The fourth century was the time of the great theological debates concerning the Triune God, which in turn led to the debates concerning the Person of Christ. The Council at Nicea in A.D. 325 was actually only the beginning of the final solution, for the debates raged throughout the remainder of the fourth century and well into the fifth. In the years following Nicea, Athanasius was the major figure in defense of what was to become the accepted teaching concerning the Trinity, teaching that we ourselves hold to this day. Regarding man becoming God, Athanasius forged the classic phrase that summed up the utterances of his predecessors in this teaching and has served as the succinct formula for it since then: “For He was made man that we might be made God” (De Incarnatione 54:3). But this is only one of a multitude of similar declarations made by Athanasius concerning the truth that in God’s salvation man becomes God. So strong was this a component of his teaching that he employed it as a major rationale for proving that Christ is truly God in the very same sense that the Father is truly God.
For man had not been deified [Gk. etheopoiethe, ‘had been made god’] if joined to a creature, or unless the Son were very God. (Four Discourses against the Arians, Discourse II, sec. 70)
Jaroslav Pelikan, a modern historian whose five-volume work The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine chronicles the progress of Christian teaching throughout the ages, confirms Athanasius’s use of this teaching as a argument for the full deity of Christ.
Athanasius was the spokesman for the Eastern tradition that God the Logos had become man in order that men might become God; but if this was to be the gift of his incarnation and if man was to be rescued from the corruption that so easily beset him, it was indispensable that “the Logos not belong to things that had an origin, but be their framer himself.” (Volume 1, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition—100-600, p. 207; Pelikan’s quote from Athanasius precedes our previous quote above.)
In other words, Athanasius challenged his Arian opponents with this question: If Christ were not truly God, how could He make us God? And this argument was difficult to refute because the common view in the fourth century was that man becomes God in God’s salvation (see Pelikan, vol. 1, pp. 155, 216, 233-234, 259, 265-266, 344-345). J. N. D. Kelly refers to another passage in Athanasius’s writings where he repeats the same argument with even greater precision of language:
As he put the matter, “the Word could never have divinized [Gk. etheopoiese ‘deified’ or ‘made god’] us if He were merely divine by participation and were not Himself the essential Godhead, the Father’s veritable image. (Early Christian Doctrines, 5th ed., p. 243; Athanasius is quoted from De Synodis 51)
Athanasius repeatedly declares, in various forms and with various intents, this same truth. Perhaps it is sufficient here to merely present some of these other declarations without analysis.
The Word was made flesh in order to offer up this body for all, and that we, partaking of His Spirit, might be deified, a gift which we could not otherwise have gained than by His clothing Himself in our created body, for hence we derive our name “men of God” and “men in Christ.” (De Decretis, ch. 3, sec. 14)
Therefore He was not man, and then became God, but He was God, and then became man, and that to deify us. (Four Discourses against the Arians, Discourse I, sec. 39)
For therefore the union was of this kind, that He might unite what is man by nature to Him who is in the nature of the Godhead, and his salvation and deification might be sure. (Four Discourses against the Arians, Discourse II, sec. 70)
For as, although there be one Son by nature, True and Only-begotten, we too become sons, not as He is in nature and truth, but according to the grace of Him that calleth, and though we are men from the earth, are yet called gods, not as the True God or His Word, but as has pleased God who has given us that grace;... (Four Discourses against the Arians, Discourse III, sec. 19)
[Paraphrasing Christ’s prayer in John 17:] “And the work is perfected [v. 4], because men, redeemed from sin, no longer remain dead; but being deified, have in each other, by looking at Me, the bond of charity.” (Four Discourses against the Arians, Discourse III, sec. 23)
Again, the collection is not exhaustive. In fact, a whole “theology” of man becoming God can be surmised in Athanasius’s repeated affirmations of this great truth. For this reason, the teaching that man becomes God became a basic view of salvation in the centuries immediately subsequent to the fourth.
But Athanasius was not the only fourth-century writer to maintain and proclaim this view. The Cappadocians—Basil the Great, his brother Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus—who championed further refinements in the doctrine of the Trinity accepted as orthodox today, heralded the same truth. Pelikan provides us a clear example from Basil:
Enumerating the gifts of the Spirit, Basil affirmed that from him “comes foreknowledge of the future, understanding of mysteries, apprehension of what is hidden, distribution of good gifts, the heavenly citizenship, a place in the chorus of angels, joy without end, abiding in God, the being made like to God—and highest of all, the being made God.” (Vol. 1, p. 216; Basil is quoted from On the Holy Spirit 9:23)
When Basil died, a story was recounted of how he had once confronted the prefect Modestus, sent by the Roman emperor Valens, with the truth of man’s becoming God. When Modestus asked why he did not honor his sovereign the emperor by accepting the Arian Christianity of the emperor, Basil answered,
“Because,” said he, “this is not the will of my real Sovereign; nor can I, who am the creature of God, and bidden myself to be God, submit to worship any creature [referring to the Arian belief that Christ was merely a creature].” (Gregory of Nazianzus, Catechetical Orations, Oration 43, “On the Panegyric of St. Basil” 48)
Basil’s brother Gregory of Nyssa also taught strongly that man becomes God in God’s salvation.
...the God who was manifested infused Himself into perishable humanity for this purpose, viz. that by this communion with Deity mankind might at the same time be deified... (The Great Catechism, ch. 37)
And the third Cappadocian, Gregory of Nazianzus, concurs with his counterparts on this matter and even broadens the use of this teaching to assert the deity of the Spirit.
If He [the Holy Spirit] is in the same rank with myself, how can He make me God, or join me with Godhead? (Catechetical Orations, Oration 31, “On the Holy Spirit” 4)
For if He [the Holy Spirit] is not to be worshipped, how can He deify me by Baptism? (Catechetical Orations, Oration 31, “On the Holy Spirit” 28)
Suffice it to say, based on what has been presented thus far, the teaching that man becomes God in God’s salvation was a prevailing one in the church of the first four centuries. We have presented only the more striking and most clear examples of these centuries, but would time and space allow, we could present the writings of Tatian, Athenagorus, Theophilus of Antioch, Methodius of Olympus, Didymus the Blind, John Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Cyril of Alexandria, Pseudo-Dionysius, Maximus the Confessor, John of Damascus, Symeon the Theologian, and Gregory Palamas as further attestation of this teaching’s acceptability by the ancient church. And these are the Greek writers alone. Were we to open up the tomes of Latin writers, we could present Leo the Great, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and hosts of other writers, spanning well into the Middle Ages and up to the Reformation, all from various Christian perspectives. To say that this is heresy is to be sadly ignorant of the great history of this teaching in the long annals of the church.