"It's perfectly ironic that Protestants and Evangelicals today are now beginning to reach back into their own history...
Posted: April 14th, 2019, 8:17 pm
"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." The makers of protestant anti church literature and trash like "The God Makers" will soon be eating humble pie.
It's very interesting when Evangelical scholars admit "their theology is incomplete" and that they need to change it.
For an Evangelical Theosis: A Historical Theology of Theosis in Athanasius's De Incarnatione Verbi De
"If Protestants truly desire to have fellowship with Catholics and engage in ecumenical dialogue, integrating theosis into our atonement theories is a significant first step(many Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Church members do believe this doctrine).
"The second major area that I believe theosis will benefit modern Evangelical theology is providing a rehabilitation for what may be potentially a flawed soteriological model. I say that it is flawed not so much because the components of the model are incorrect. Rather, it seems to me that they are incomplete."
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.)
Powerful information on the end result of the righteous.
Men becoming gods is a True Ancient Christian Doctrine and the Apostolic and Church Fathers are a witness to this belief.
See some of the evidence here. All quotes above are at this link.http://manbecomegod.blogspot.com/
It's very interesting when Evangelical scholars admit "their theology is incomplete" and that they need to change it.
For an Evangelical Theosis: A Historical Theology of Theosis in Athanasius's De Incarnatione Verbi De
"If Protestants truly desire to have fellowship with Catholics and engage in ecumenical dialogue, integrating theosis into our atonement theories is a significant first step(many Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Church members do believe this doctrine).
"The second major area that I believe theosis will benefit modern Evangelical theology is providing a rehabilitation for what may be potentially a flawed soteriological model. I say that it is flawed not so much because the components of the model are incorrect. Rather, it seems to me that they are incomplete."
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.)
Powerful information on the end result of the righteous.
Men becoming gods is a True Ancient Christian Doctrine and the Apostolic and Church Fathers are a witness to this belief.
See some of the evidence here. All quotes above are at this link.http://manbecomegod.blogspot.com/