THEOSIS.
Theosis:
this is linked to another utter blasphemy - they believe "they become a Christ" in Chrismation and triple baptism.
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The doctrine of theosis, that is deification by unity with God, is simply blasphemy. The excuses that Orthodoxy make are precisely that, excuses. The entire doctrine that God is made up of ousia (essence) and energia (energies) is not found in scripture, so the Evangelical and Protestant angle on that is that it is still utter blasphemy to say you become deified with God in his energies "only" as you for a start do not, indeed the entire concept that they can dissect God in this way is nonsense to begin with, and the conclusions they come to are entirely untenable, and some Catholic theologians believe the "ousia and energia" concept is in fact polytheist in itself.
The Orthodox will say things like "Becoming one with God in his essence would indeed defile the Trinity, we deny that, we say you become one with God in his energies, which does not defile the Trinity." Trouble is the entire concept of ousia and energia is wrong, so saying you become one with God remains blasphemy and an attack on the Holy Trinity, uniting millions of other beings into God, and even feminizing God as they say women go through theosis too.
Recognising the Protestant response some embarrassed Orthodox adherents are now trying to rewrite history and claim all sorts of changed, watered down and warped versions of what theosis is, because it is becoming a theological embarrassment to them. Some of them even seem to be suggesting that theosis is just a Christian becoming more like Jesus, which Protestants believe. This trend in Orthodoxy to make their doctrines sound more and more like Evangelical Christianity is a deception process by them to sheep steal converts, prevent their own indoctrinated adherents being saved, and to wriggle out of their dunce level theology by shape shifting their way out of it. You will probably find however there are a quite large hardcore group of Orthodox believers who are not embarrassed by their old time theology and will not go along with trying to make it sound more Protestant.
under construction.....
That God s made up of ousia and energies is heresy, having no foundation in the word of God. Is man made up of ousia and energies - when mankind is made in the image of God?
The doctrine of Theosis is supposed to be part of actual salvation, yet the Catholics do not believe it, proving they were never one church. If on the other hand an Orthodox believer says it was invented as an add-on to salvation after the Great Schism of 1054 that proves Orthodoxy is a fake church too.
CHANGE :
Because evangelical Christians have totally refuted the doctrine of theosis, that is uniting with God, it is now being reconstructed by many Orthodox teachers as "a process of being more like God, that goes on eternally and is therefore never completed" so they can avoid the refutation that it attacks the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. This modification of their belief in many of their teachers represents a victory for Protestants as it is a clear example of Orthodox dogma falling apart, being altered, and will be yet another example where they say different things yet profess they all have one doctrine on it.
DIVINIZATION
Who was the first person in the bible to say he would be like God?
see theoria
Theosis ("deification," "divinization") is the process of a worshiper becoming free of hamartía ("missing the mark"), being united with God, beginning in this life and later consummated in bodily resurrection. For Orthodox Christians, Théōsis (see 2 Pet. 1:4) is part of salvation. Théōsis assumes that humans from the beginning are made to share in the Life or Nature of the all-Holy Trinity. Therefore, an infant or an adult worshipper is saved from the state of unholiness (hamartía — which is not to be confused with hamártēma “sin”) for participation in the Life (zōé, not simply bíos) of the Trinity — which is everlasting.
The Orthodox believe the heresy that God is made up of ousia and energia (some Catholic theologians say that is polytheism in itself as his energies are inferior to his ousia) and that saved believers will become one with God himself in his energies, and this (they fancifully say) is not to be confused with the heretical (apothéōsis) - "Deification in God’s Essence".
My own studies conclude that - if the exact truth of the many Orthodox quotes are put together into one clear concise picture about Theosis, it would be that they have taught
1) they will become one with God in his energies (defiling the Holy Trinity doctrinally)
2) they will on an individual basis in so doing become gods.
I suspect that dressing up as dagon priests went to their heads and they became so totally vain the only place left to go was to say next they are going to become one with God, and gods, just as the Popes described themselves as "God on Earth".
It seems clear that this Orthodox heresy led to the Mormon heresies about becoming Gods eventually on a same level with God himself (a similar but even worse heresy). Modern education and deep theology has now advanced to such an extent the Orthodox are getting very embarrassed about what nonsense the doctrine of Theosis actually is, and are trying to variously reshape it into simply "becoming more Christ-like" amalgamated with sanctification, as not only are they being totally refuted, but they are self refuting their own other lie that they and Catholicism are one church all the way back to Jesus, and they do this by having an entirely different view of salvation by including Theosis.
The new calendar Orthodox (more chummy with the Pope) will often therefore argue until they are blue in the face that Theosis was and is neither becoming one with God himself nor any form of deification, and also seek to hide a behind the scenes schism with old school Orthodox believers over this (who see that taking back the anathemas placed on past Popes is a contradiction). In other words some Orthodox want to stand their ground on and others want to lie their way out of it.
It destroyed Lucifer.
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." Isaiah 14:12-15
The doctrine of Theosis is pure blasphemy. It is heresy. The fact is the Greeks had a history of false gods, demi gods, and fabulously exaggerated heros in their pre Christian Era, and they were prone to exaggerating the idea of sanctification and the real doctrine of the Sermon on the Mount "be ye therefore perfect (complete) even as your Father in heaven is perfect (complete)" and I think it was probably the Greeks who introduced this herey.
It destroyed Eve.
"For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:5.
It destroyed Herod:
"And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost." Acts 12:21-23
Before I heard of the heresy of theosis, I thought the USA was the only nation enough vain enough to have a pseudo Christian cult in it, the Mormons, who were vain enough to think they will be Gods. Then I discovered the Greeks do the same. The Roman Catholics deny the heresy. So if the big lie was true that the Orthodox religion has preached the same thing right back to Jesus, and the Roman Catholics say they go right back to Jesus, with in the Great Schism was this not mentioned???
It will destroy you:
"For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." Romans 12:3
Theosis - an heretical exaggeration of the biblical process of santification, wherein a believer becomes united with God himself, and they say becomes like God, that is partly passed off as "a mystery" to hide the implications of pride.
Justifications =
Athanasisus quote "God became man so that man might become God."
Peter "partakers of the divine nature."
Every heresy has a scripture to twist. The Mormon fave scripture to twist is "The God with whom we have to do" implying there are other gods. Rebirth to become God's children, a nature the angels do not have, crying Abba Father to God, does not mean we become God himself.
COMMON EVANGELICAL AND PROTESTANT BELIEFS:
The Evangelical Christians (Good News preachers) and Protestant Christians (For a Testimony) both believe in several issues related to each other, namely "sanctification" and "be ye therefore perfect" (the word means complete - do not be spiritually disproportional) that "Christ gave us an example to follow in his steps" and to be Christlike toward each other in attitude and deeds, but they certainly do not believe in the heretical exaggerations that led to the doctrine of Theosis.
In order to maintain the ridiculous view that Orthodoxy and Catholicism are the same, some Orthodox believers try to prove Roman Catholics have the same doctrine, and have always historically agreed with them. Maybe we can hear more about this? so we can add the heresy to the long list of heresies of Catholicism already obtained. Somehow I think the Reformation Protestants would have noticed it, and Luther would have had his 96 Thesis instead of 95. In short they are liars, and will say anything to try to keep their proselytes from converting to true Christianity. Not very "god-like" of them.
Like Keith Green sang, "I want to... I need to... be more like Jesus". That doesnt mean the blasphemy of Theosis. I would compare it to the Pope taking the name "Holy Father" for himself, and then justifying it by saying we should be holy, and some people are fathers, thus I can be "The Holy Father". They exaggerated it to blasphemous proportions.
Theosis brings up some interesting questions:
1) Do women go through theosis and become deified?
2) If not - doesn't that sound sexist
3) If so - how do you reconcile God being definitely masculine?
4) If the Titular Head of Orthodoxy further along the path of deification than other bishops?
5) If a low ranking bishop is further along the path of deification why doesn't he have more authority than the Titular Head?
6) If Mary will not be deified, why do you ascribe to her attributes of God?
7) Have any of the dead achieved theosis yet?
A question that refutes theosis:
If theosis was taught by the early church, at what point do you say Italy "stopped believing it"??? Tell us what the Catholics "departed from the doctrine". That question is proof your claims are bunk.
The doctrine of theosis is such heretical nonsense that more and more you will probably see the Eastern Orthodox try to shape-shift their way out of the embarrassment of it by saying things like "it is just knowledge of God" or "it is just to become more Christlike" which Protestants, Catholics and Evangelicals believe in.