This ancient Christian doctrine is missing from the traditional Protestant and Evangelical Christian Churches.

[kirtland r.m.]

Here, then, is eternal life--to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power. And I want you to know that God, in the last days, while certain individuals are proclaiming his name, is not trifling with you or me. (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith [1974], p.346)

D&C 76
55 They are they into whose hands the Father has given all things--

56 They are they who are priests and kings, who have received of his fulness, and of his glory;

57 And are priests of the Most High, after the order of Melchizedek, which was after the order of Enoch, which was after the order of the Only Begotten Son.

58 Wherefore, as it is written, they are gods, even the sons of God--

59 Wherefore, all things are theirs, whether life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs and they are Christ's, and Christ is God's.


Protestant and Evangelical Christian Churches claim to be repulsed by this ancient Christian doctrine restored again in the latter day true Church.

These quotes speak to this thought that this ancient doctrine is missing from the traditional Protestant and Evangelical Christian Churches.

…the concept of deification has been a popular one from the beginning of the Christian church. And modern writers are in fact beginning to ask why their church is not teaching it as doctrine. Lutheran scholar Robert Jenson, in an article in a Lutheran journal on the very topic of theosis, concludes by asking:“Perhaps the question has at least become a bit more urgent: The patristic church proclaimed deification; why do not we?”(Robert W. Jenson,“Theosis,” in Dialog: A Journal of Theology 32 (St. Paul, Minn: 1993): 108-112, at page 112.)


Robert Rakestraw, writing in the journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, after covering some of the evidence from the Greek fathers, as well as from Luther, and Charles Wesley, then writes:“Perhaps the most obvious deficiency is the terminology itself. To speak of divinization, deification, and human beings ‘becoming God’ seems to violate the historic Christian understanding of the essential qualitative distinction between God and the creation…. The strengths of theosis theology outweigh these weaknesses, however. The most significant benefit is that the concept as a whole, if not the specific terminology, is Biblical.”(Rakestraw, op. cit., 266-7.)

It's perfectly ironic that Protestants and Evangelicals today are now beginning to reach back into their own history to show that they have indeed "had" a past in the belief of theosis in their theological tradition that "man can become god." It's unfortunate that this has been one of the issues anti-Mormons have used to berate the LDS Church as a false gospel. Men becoming gods is a True Ancient Christian Doctrine and the Apostolic and Church Fathers are a witness to this belief. It is also found today in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches to a degree.http://manbecomegod.blogspot.com/

[TheChristian]

The Christian believes thru Christ we become His sons, since Christ is the manifestation of God in the flesh, we Christians are the Sons of God.
Hence cleansed, forgiven of our sins, we can enter his presence, in the ressurection we will be raised up as perfect human beings, given bodies that can never age, nor die, indeed in this glorious ressurection body we are immortal perfect beings, free from all sin, the Sons of God indeed.
And so in this sense some of the early christian fathers did speak of men becoming the Sons of God, even gods, even as the psalmist declared.
And yet the early Christian fathers ensured that we would not think of ourselves as God Himself, having his power, Glory and dominion, that was reserved for Him alone.
We also see these checks and balances in the Bible, sometimes men are called gods in the old testament, in such contexts it simply means they are judges of the people, we see in great clarity in the sayings of Isaiah that there is only One God, that there was none before Him and there shall be none after Him, that he will share His glory with no other.
Yet I believe as the early Christian Father Origen did, that as perfected immortal ressurected beings we will progress from one heavenly society, learning all that we can in that society and when approved we shall move on to a higher heavenly society to progress and when we have progressed all we can in this higher society, we shall yet advance to yet a higher heavenly society and so forth until we arrive in the Highest society of them all were our Lord Himself sits enthroned in all his divine glory.
And there we will become Kings and Priests of the most high, to dwell with Him forever, being granted Authority under His juristiction to rule and govern as He sees fit over His endless creation.
Yes we will have our wives with us there for scripture states when we marry, we are no longer two, but one flesh, and so as one in unity we will be together in that highest of heavens. For what God has put together shall be together for all eternity.

[kirtland r.m.]

What Bible scriptures support deification?

I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. Psalms 82:6

...we are the offspring of God Acts 17:28

Beloved, now are we the sons of God...when he shall appear, we shall be like him...1 John 3:2

...The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ...Romans 8:16-17

[kirtland r.m.]

There is none other called God by the Scriptures except the Father of all, and the Son, and those who possess the adoption....Since, therefore, this is sure and stedfast, that no other God or Lord was announced by the Spirit, except Him who, as God, rules over all, together with His Word, and those who receive the Spirit of adoption. Irenaeus (ca. AD 115-202)

et, Irenaeus—whom it would be perverse to exclude from the ranks of orthodox Christians—believed in theosis in terms which agree with LDS thinking on the matter:

We were not made gods at our beginning, but first we were made men, then, in the end, gods. [4]

Also:

How then will any be a god, if he has not first been made a man? How can any be perfect when he has only lately been made man? How immortal, if he has not in his mortal nature obeyed his maker? For one's duty is first to observe the discipline of man and thereafter to share in the glory of God. [5]

And:

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, of his boundless love, became what we are that he might make us what he himself is.” https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/evi ... ion_Belief

aid one Protestant theologian of Irenaeus:

Participation in God was carried so far by Irenaeus as to amount to deification. 'We were not made gods in the beginning,' he says, 'but at first men, then at length gods.' This is not to be understood as mere rhetorical exaggeration on Irenaeus' part. He meant the statement to be taken literally. [9]

Clement of Alexandria (AD 150-215)

Clement, an early Christian leader in Alexandria, also taught the doctrine of deification:

yea, I say, the Word of God became a man so that you might learn from a man how to become a god. [10]

And:

...if one knows himself, he will know God, and knowing God will become like God...His is beauty, true beauty, for it is God, and that man becomes god, since God wills it. So Heraclitus was right when he said, "Men are gods, and gods are men." [11]

Those who have been perfected are given their reward and their honors. They have done with their purification, they have done with the rest of their service, though it be a holy service, with the holy; now they become pure in heart, and because of their close intimacy with the Lord there awaits them a restoration to eternal contemplation; and they have received the title of "gods" since they are destined to be enthroned with the other "gods" who are ranked next below the savior. [12]

Origen (ca. AD 185-251)

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." 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. [13]

The Father, then, is proclaimed as the one true God; but besides the true God are many who become gods by participating in God. </ref>Origen in Bettensen, Henry. The Early Christian Fathers, 324.</ref>

Origen also defined what it means to "participate" in something:

Every one who participates in anything, is unquestionably of one essence and nature with him who is partaker of the same thing. [14]

Justin Martyr (d. ca. AD 163)

Justin the Martyr said in 150 A.D. that he wishes

to prove to you that the Holy Ghost reproaches men because they were made like God, free from suffering and death, provided that they kept His commandments, and were deemed deserving of the name of His sons... in the beginning men were made like God, free from suffering and death, and that they are thus deemed worthy of becoming gods and of having power to become sons of the highest... [15]

Also,

[By Psalm 82] it is demonstrated that all men are deemed worthy of becoming “gods,” and even of having power to become sons of the Highest. [16]

Hippolytus (AD 170-236)

Now in all these acts He offered up, as the first-fruits, His own manhood, in order that thou, when thou art in tribulation, mayest not be disheartened, but, confessing thyself to be a man (of like nature with the Redeemer,) mayest dwell in expectation of also receiving what the Father has granted unto this Son...The Deity (by condescension) does not diminish anything of the dignity of His divine perfection having made you even God unto his glory. [17]

Athanasius

In 347, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria and participant in the council of Nicea, said:

the Word was made flesh in order that we might be enabled to be made gods....just as the Lord, putting on the body, became a man, so also we men are both deified through His flesh, and henceforth inherit everlasting life...[we are] sons and gods by reason of the word in us. [18]

For as Christ died and was exalted as man, so, as man, is He said to take what, as God, He ever had, that even such a grant of grace might reach to us. For the Word was not impaired in receiving a body, that He should seek to receive a grace, but rather He deified that which He put on, and more than that, gave it graciously to the race of man. [19]

He also states that Christ "became man that we might be made divine." [20]
Augustine (AD 354-430)

Augustine, considered one of the greatest Christian Fathers, said

but He himself that justifies also deifies, for by justifying He makes sons of God. For He has given them power to become the sons of God, (John 1:12). If then we have been made sons of God, we have also been made gods. [21]

Jerome (AD 340-420)

Jerome also described the deification of believers as an act of grace, which matches the LDS understanding precisely:

“I said 'you are gods, all of you sons of the most high.’" let Eunomius hear this, let Arius, who say that the son of God is son in the same way we are. That we are gods is not so by nature, but by grace. “but to as many as receive Him he gave power to becoming sons of God” I made man for that purpose, that from men they may become gods. We are called gods and sons!...[Christ said] "all of you sons of the Most High," it is not possible to be the son of the Most High, unless He Himself is the Most High. I said that all of you would be exalted as I am exalted. [22]

Jerome goes on to say that we should

give thanks to the God of gods. The prophet is referring to those gods of whom it is written: I said ‘you are gods’ and again ‘god arises in the divine assembly’ they who cease to be mere men, abandon the ways of vice an are become perfect, are gods and the sons of the most high... [23]

Modern Christian exegesis

The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology describes "deification" thusly:

Deification (Greek Theosis) is for orthodoxy the goal of every Christian. Man, according to the Bible, is ‘made in the image and likeness of God’...it is possible for man to become like God, to become deified, to become God by grace. This doctrine is based on many passages of both O.T. and N.T. (Psalms 82: (81) .6; 2 Peter 1:4), and it is essentially the teaching both of St. Paul, though he tends to use the language of filial adoption (Romans 8:9-17, Galatians 4:5-7) and the fourth gospel (John 17:21-23). [24]

Joseph Fitzmyer wrote:

The language of 2 Peter is taken up by St. Irenaeus, in his famous phrase, ‘if the Word has been made man, it is so that men may be made gods; (adv. Haer v, pref.), And becomes the standard in Greek theology. In the fourth century St. Athanasius repeats Irenaeus almost word for word, and in the fifth century St. Cyril of Alexandria says that we shall become sons ‘by participation’ (Greek methexis). Deification is the central idea in the spirituality of St. Maximus the confessor, for whom the doctrine is corollary of the incarnation: ‘deification, briefly, is the encompassing and fulfillment of all times and ages’,...and St. Symeon the new theologian at the end of the tenth century writes, ‘he who is God by nature converses with those whom he has made gods by grace, as a friend converses with his friends, face to face...’

Finally, it should be noted that deification does not mean absorption into God, since the deified creature remains itself and distinct. It is the whole human being, body and soul, who is transfigured in the spirit into the likeness of the divine nature, and deification is the goal of every Christian. [25]

According to Christian scholar G.L. Prestige, the ancient Christians “taught that the destiny of man was to become like God, and even to become deified.” [26]

William R. Inge, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote:

"God became man, that we might become God" was a commonplace of doctrinal theology at least until the time of Augustine, and that "deification holds a very large place in the writings of the fathers...We find it in Irenaeus as well as in Clement, in Athanasius as well in Gregory of Nysee. St. Augustine was no more afraid of deificari in Latin than Origen of apotheosis in Greek...To modern ears the word deification sounds not only strange but arrogant and shocking. [27]

Eastern Orthodoxy

The Eastern Orthodox Church broke off and became their own sect over the doctrine of deification or "theosis", and believe the same today.
Summary

Yes, these "arrogant and shocking" doctrines were clearly held by early Christians!

This view of the early Christians' doctrines is not unique to the Latter-day Saints. Many modern Christian writers have recognized the same doctrines. If some modern Christians do not wish to embrace these ancient doctrines, that is their privilege, but they cannot logically claim that such doctrines are not "Christian." One might fairly ask why modern Christians do not believe that which the ancient Christians insisted upon?https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/evi ... ion_Belief

Early latter day saints had little to no access to the above material. Where did they get this doctrine, and many others? A prophet and a seer, Joseph Smith. As Ammon's experience taught, a seer has the power to translate ancient records, and “a seer is greater than a prophet.” But, said Ammon, “a seer is a … prophet also” (see Mosiah 8:11–16). Thus called, Joseph has become “a great benefit to his fellow beings” (Mosiah 8:18).

[TheDuke]

I believe the JS statements are true. I don't believe the ancients believed they (Jews) were literally god's children. Jesus also said some people were children of the devil.

I'm not saying these things aren't true. But, I'm not convinced this is what he taught. It seems a stretch. And if it was true, he would have said the same thing in the BoM. but he didn't. Neither did the BoM prophets. So, I feel it is a doctrine that was vague, like a parable.

BTW the entire concept of "god" or definition of such is also not clear in the NT. The concept of anyone but the 3 in the godhead seems unsupported.

[TheDuke]

The Christian believes thru Christ we become His sons, since Christ is the manifestation of God in the flesh, we Christians are the Sons of God.
Hence cleansed, forgiven of our sins, we can enter his presence, in the ressurection we will be raised up as perfect human beings, given bodies that can never age, nor die, indeed in this glorious ressurection body we are immortal perfect beings, free from all sin, the Sons of God indeed.
And so in this sense some of the early christian fathers did speak of men becoming the Sons of God, even gods, even as the psalmist declared.
And yet the early Christian fathers ensured that we would not think of ourselves as God Himself, having his power, Glory and dominion, that was reserved for Him alone.
We also see these checks and balances in the Bible, sometimes men are called gods in the old testament, in such contexts it simply means they are judges of the people, we see in great clarity in the sayings of Isaiah that there is only One God, that there was none before Him and there shall be none after Him, that he will share His glory with no other.
Yet I believe as the early Christian Father Origen did, that as perfected immortal ressurected beings we will progress from one heavenly society, learning all that we can in that society and when approved we shall move on to a higher heavenly society to progress and when we have progressed all we can in this higher society, we shall yet advance to yet a higher heavenly society and so forth until we arrive in the Highest society of them all were our Lord Himself sits enthroned in all his divine glory.
And there we will become Kings and Priests of the most high, to dwell with Him forever, being granted Authority under His juristiction to rule and govern as He sees fit over His endless creation.
Yes we will have our wives with us there for scripture states when we marry, we are no longer two, but one flesh, and so as one in unity we will be together in that highest of heavens. For what God has put together shall be together for all eternity.

This clearly shows the understanding of being "figurative" children of god. You must accept Christ to be his son, ok, but then all others are not and not even those that do, until after they are purified. I'm not against this teaching BTW, but it IS NOT what JS was teaching in the OP. He was talking about literally becoming gods. Not his heirs, or some lower lifeform, like adopted children, or servants or heavenly choir members. I believe only a few people actually believe what Joseph said, just a small smattering of LDS, most follow the current LDS teachings that we are adopted to be like god, not his offspring.