THEOSIS: The Deification of Man
In Eastern Orthodoxy deification (theosis) is a transformative process whose goal is likeness to or union with God. As a process of transformation, theosis is brought about by the effects of katharsis (purification of mind and body) and theoria ('illumination' with the 'vision' of God).
This Theosis or deification, divinization of man is Church Father's teaching. This is scriptural in as much as St Paul taught the same that by becoming Christians, Christian will be Christ like until such time that there is not the person but Christ.
Only ignorant people who does not know the power and grace of God working in every baptized person will argue about this great truth of Catholic religion. This is the reason and meaning of the incarnation of the Word.
The Word made flesh and by making Himself flesh and bread for His people His very essence transmute that of the man to His. As the wine and the bread transubstantiated to His very flesh and blood so thus man by eating His flesh and blood may become Him until the man no longer lives but Him - the former is not the new man has come.
Turning to Mary, mother of Yeshua, would there be anyone or any Christian or Jews or Apostles who made it ahead of Mary in this great process of deification?
If through her the Word became man, she never deny the offer of the Angel and with her very flesh and blood CARO JESU CARO EST MARIA - He became man and by becoming man through the same flesh and blood paid the price of heaven for mankind WHY THEN Yeshua, Son and Lord of Mary and within all His power to grant make Mary the first fruit of deification?
Truly, then Mary our mother is not only FULL OF GRACE but rather SHE IS OVERFLOWING WITH GRACE because the grace from God unceasingly fills her since then.
Go turn the pages of your scriptures and read, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and help you understand - the whole point of the Bible is the elevation of man from being the beast of the field to a life that is higher than it by the use of reason; climbing above the ladder, sanctify himself and receive the initiation of water, the fire and spirit thus the man became human, the human became saintly, the saint became angelic, and angelic became divine. Such is the ladder to union with God, such is the mystery of incarnation.
It is not against the teachings of the Catholic or Orthodox Church or say the Christendom - it is its core.
Mystical Union of man and his God
Mysticism is at the root and heart of the church, hence it is its life. Remove mysticism and what is left is corrupted matter without any hope of salvation. What is mysticism then? The unwavering belief in the influence of discarnate spirit to the living, be them good or not-good, for good or for bad is one. The belief and witnessing of possession of both good and not-good spirit.
The doctrine of the union of those in heaven to those on earth thru the power of the Holy Spirit in Yeshua is one great theme of mystical union.
The teaching of the deification of man, from being a beast becoming man, from being a man becoming an angel, from being an angel becoming God as this is one of the greatest teachings and lessons of the Incarnation of the Son of God. That, in as much as God takes the form, flesh and blood of man, man in turn taking by taking the flesh and blood of God partaking the life of God by growing to be like God, leaving behind the old man, taking up the new one - until such time that he no longer lives in him but Christ lives in him.
Remove mysticism and what is left is the maintenance of a lifeless corpse of ritual and discipline attaining to nothing.
The Example of Mary, the Mother of Christ
The Blessed Virgin Mary is god
Allow me to enlighten you about the divinity of the Virgin Mary. Yes, her divinity, she is divine above all the angels and saints, above all the human being from her time to the end of time, none will be like her in honor and glory.
She is god lower than her Son but definitely higher than all the women and men of all times.
The scripture attest to her divinity that indeed she is god. The book of Psalm confirmed that the children of the Most High are gods and the Virgin Mary is the daughter of the Father, the mother of the Son and the Spouse of the Holy Spirit - does that never made her god as well and divine?
The master and savior Yeshua directly and boldly spoke to the Jews of his time, if those who heard and followed the words of the Lord were considered, called by the scripture as gods, then why they are angry if He, Yeshua, is doing the will of the Father and fulfilling the scripture?
In the same sense, that Mary, heard and obeyed the words of God spoken by the Angel Gabriel, the scripture rightly say She is god. She is god with the small letter g and not the CAPITAL LETTER G which is reserved for the One God. As she is god, and those who listened the words of God are gods, so there are many gods.
But among those gods for sure, the Virgin Mary is having a singular and exclusive honor, dignity and grace high above all the other saints and divinities.
She is higher than the kings and queens of the earth because she is the mother of the King of kings so she's higher than all of us and she's lower than her son, her savior.
The right theology must be the deification of man that the man the beast became the man the human, and the human man became the god man. It is the deification of man, the transformation of his inner man to the image of the Son that is the goal of religion and all religious practices and askesis.
In the bible if you will read and understand the passages carefully it describes a hierarchy or level or degree of potentialities or powers. It tells about the gods and the lords. Many gods many lords but there is only ONE GOD and ONE LORD. The problem lies in distinguishing the small letter g and small letter l to the capitals L and G when these words are spoken. We should have no difficulty in differentiating the letters in written text.
See above, " you are gods" and in the other passage it said There is only one God. Notice the change in capitalization.
Going back to hierarchy issue.
Among the living beings, man is higher than the animal kingdom although man himself is an animal but because of the use of his reason and at least certain degree of morality and ethics he is higher than the beast of the field.
Among man there are people who are leaders and that is because of their possession of certain moral, political or financial power. Higher than them is the strongest among them. This is in the level of man.
But in respect to the degree of proximity to the One God and One Lord, higher than sinners are the saints, followed by the angels, then the blessed Virgin Mary then her Son, then the Father.
Anyone who is higher than the others can be considered lords and gods of those who are below them.
So in the bible there are gods, powerful god, most powerful and the all powerful.
In Filipino,
diyos
Diyos
Makapangyarihang Diyos
Makapangyarihan sa lahat na Diyos
The Psalmist says
The Psalmist says Ye are gods -NOT CAPITAL G! Anything wrong with the Psalmist, does not he know the difference between God and gods?
If the children of God or the Most High is called gods what's the issue then? Are you like the Pharisees who cannot accept that Christ the Savior is a son i.e. child of the Most High?
Using the same analogy, if all those who received the words of the Lord and obeyed them are called children of the Most High, then as the scripture and the psalmist says - they are gods.
So, before anyone of you answer objections from the other ask him this things if he knows it or not. Then you are saving yourself time and bandwidth of explanation.
In Eastern Orthodoxy deification (theosis) is a transformative process whose goal is likeness to or union with God. As a process of transformation, theosis is brought about by the effects of katharsis (purification of mind and body) and theoria ('illumination' with the 'vision' of God).
This Theosis or deification, divinization of man is Church Father's teaching. This is scriptural in as much as St Paul taught the same that by becoming Christians, Christian will be Christ like until such time that there is not the person but Christ.
Only ignorant people who does not know the power and grace of God working in every baptized person will argue about this great truth of Catholic religion. This is the reason and meaning of the incarnation of the Word.
The Word made flesh and by making Himself flesh and bread for His people His very essence transmute that of the man to His. As the wine and the bread transubstantiated to His very flesh and blood so thus man by eating His flesh and blood may become Him until the man no longer lives but Him - the former is not the new man has come.
Turning to Mary, mother of Yeshua, would there be anyone or any Christian or Jews or Apostles who made it ahead of Mary in this great process of deification?
If through her the Word became man, she never deny the offer of the Angel and with her very flesh and blood CARO JESU CARO EST MARIA - He became man and by becoming man through the same flesh and blood paid the price of heaven for mankind WHY THEN Yeshua, Son and Lord of Mary and within all His power to grant make Mary the first fruit of deification?
Truly, then Mary our mother is not only FULL OF GRACE but rather SHE IS OVERFLOWING WITH GRACE because the grace from God unceasingly fills her since then.
Go turn the pages of your scriptures and read, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and help you understand - the whole point of the Bible is the elevation of man from being the beast of the field to a life that is higher than it by the use of reason; climbing above the ladder, sanctify himself and receive the initiation of water, the fire and spirit thus the man became human, the human became saintly, the saint became angelic, and angelic became divine. Such is the ladder to union with God, such is the mystery of incarnation.
It is not against the teachings of the Catholic or Orthodox Church or say the Christendom - it is its core.
Mystical Union of man and his God
Mysticism is at the root and heart of the church, hence it is its life. Remove mysticism and what is left is corrupted matter without any hope of salvation. What is mysticism then? The unwavering belief in the influence of discarnate spirit to the living, be them good or not-good, for good or for bad is one. The belief and witnessing of possession of both good and not-good spirit.
The doctrine of the union of those in heaven to those on earth thru the power of the Holy Spirit in Yeshua is one great theme of mystical union.
The teaching of the deification of man, from being a beast becoming man, from being a man becoming an angel, from being an angel becoming God as this is one of the greatest teachings and lessons of the Incarnation of the Son of God. That, in as much as God takes the form, flesh and blood of man, man in turn taking by taking the flesh and blood of God partaking the life of God by growing to be like God, leaving behind the old man, taking up the new one - until such time that he no longer lives in him but Christ lives in him.
Remove mysticism and what is left is the maintenance of a lifeless corpse of ritual and discipline attaining to nothing.
The Example of Mary, the Mother of Christ
The Blessed Virgin Mary is godAllow me to enlighten you about the divinity of the Virgin Mary. Yes, her divinity, she is divine above all the angels and saints, above all the human being from her time to the end of time, none will be like her in honor and glory.
She is god lower than her Son but definitely higher than all the women and men of all times.
The scripture attest to her divinity that indeed she is god. The book of Psalm confirmed that the children of the Most High are gods and the Virgin Mary is the daughter of the Father, the mother of the Son and the Spouse of the Holy Spirit - does that never made her god as well and divine?
The master and savior Yeshua directly and boldly spoke to the Jews of his time, if those who heard and followed the words of the Lord were considered, called by the scripture as gods, then why they are angry if He, Yeshua, is doing the will of the Father and fulfilling the scripture?
In the same sense, that Mary, heard and obeyed the words of God spoken by the Angel Gabriel, the scripture rightly say She is god. She is god with the small letter g and not the CAPITAL LETTER G which is reserved for the One God. As she is god, and those who listened the words of God are gods, so there are many gods.
But among those gods for sure, the Virgin Mary is having a singular and exclusive honor, dignity and grace high above all the other saints and divinities.
She is higher than the kings and queens of the earth because she is the mother of the King of kings so she's higher than all of us and she's lower than her son, her savior.
The right theology must be the deification of man that the man the beast became the man the human, and the human man became the god man. It is the deification of man, the transformation of his inner man to the image of the Son that is the goal of religion and all religious practices and askesis.
In the bible if you will read and understand the passages carefully it describes a hierarchy or level or degree of potentialities or powers. It tells about the gods and the lords. Many gods many lords but there is only ONE GOD and ONE LORD. The problem lies in distinguishing the small letter g and small letter l to the capitals L and G when these words are spoken. We should have no difficulty in differentiating the letters in written text.
See above, " you are gods" and in the other passage it said There is only one God. Notice the change in capitalization.
Going back to hierarchy issue.
Among the living beings, man is higher than the animal kingdom although man himself is an animal but because of the use of his reason and at least certain degree of morality and ethics he is higher than the beast of the field.
Among man there are people who are leaders and that is because of their possession of certain moral, political or financial power. Higher than them is the strongest among them. This is in the level of man.
But in respect to the degree of proximity to the One God and One Lord, higher than sinners are the saints, followed by the angels, then the blessed Virgin Mary then her Son, then the Father.
Anyone who is higher than the others can be considered lords and gods of those who are below them.
So in the bible there are gods, powerful god, most powerful and the all powerful.
In Filipino,
diyos
Diyos
Makapangyarihang Diyos
Makapangyarihan sa lahat na Diyos
The Psalmist says
The Psalmist says Ye are gods -NOT CAPITAL G! Anything wrong with the Psalmist, does not he know the difference between God and gods?
If the children of God or the Most High is called gods what's the issue then? Are you like the Pharisees who cannot accept that Christ the Savior is a son i.e. child of the Most High?
Using the same analogy, if all those who received the words of the Lord and obeyed them are called children of the Most High, then as the scripture and the psalmist says - they are gods.
So, before anyone of you answer objections from the other ask him this things if he knows it or not. Then you are saving yourself time and bandwidth of explanation.
