We in the local churches hold that man may become God in God’s salvation. We are persuaded by our study of the Word of God and by our understanding of God’s economy. We are also confirmed by the ancient testimony of the church. But we are not alone today in our convictions, for great portions of the Christian community also believe and teach the same. Both the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church teach that man becomes God through Christian salvation. We offer the following quotations to document this. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, recently published by the Holy See of the Roman Catholic Church, presents the following:
ARTICLE 3
“HE WAS CONCEIVED BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND WAS BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY”
Paragraph 1. The Son of God Became Man
I. WHY DID THE WORD BECOME FLESH?
460 The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4): “For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God” (St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 3, 19, 1). “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God” (St. Athanasius, De inc. 54, 3). “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Opusc. 57:1-4). (Catechism of the Catholic Church, p. 116)
Timothy Ware in his book The Orthodox Church gives the view of the Orthodox Church:
The aim of the Christian life, which Seraphim described as the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God, can equally be defined in terms of deification. Basil described man as a creature who has received the order to become a god [quoted above]; and Athanasius, as we know, said that God became man that man might become god. “In My kingdom, said Christ, I shall be God with you as gods” (Canon for Matins of Holy Thursday, Ode 4, Troparion 3). Such, according to the teaching of the Orthodox Church, is the final goal at which every Christian must aim: to become god, to attain theosis, ‘deification’ or ‘divinization’. For Orthodoxy man’s salvation and redemption mean his deification. (The Orthodox Church, p. 236)
Even evangelical Christianity is not without a positive comment concerning man’s becoming God. Although evangelical Christianity certainly does not emphatically teach that man becomes God in God’s salvation, the following quotation shows that with proper qualification it need not, in their view, be deemed heretical.
First, it should be pointed out that the phrase “little gods” may be unfortunate, but it is not necessarily heretical in and of itself, as long as it is not intended to convey that man is equal with, or a part of, God. The Eastern Orthodox Church, for example, teaches that Christians are deified in the sense that they are adopted as sons of God, indwelt by the Spirit of God, and brought into communion with God which ultimately leads to glorification. (Hank Hanegraaff, Christianity in Crisis, pp. 110-111)
J. S.’s condemnation shows little knowledge of the history of this teaching, of the proper enunciation of this teaching, and of the acceptance of this teaching even today. Unfortunately, we suspect that the motive for the condemnation is laced with malice. If, however, there is a genuine ignorance, we hope that this presentation will serve to enlighten and direct each reader into the full knowledge of the truth. We eagerly await that day when indeed God will be “all in all.”