Because Mormons testify that Mormonism, or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day SAINTS, is a restoration of Christ's church & teachings, why can't we blame Christians for Mormons' beliefs in being Godmakers?
Like the song about the Prophet Joseph Smith "
mingling with Gods," and even becoming a god in the after life. Historic Christianity is filled with songs, rituals, & art works of SAINTS, being deified, becoming a god or goddess, Enthroned with other gods & goddesses, through temple type liturgical rites, & masses. Defication is the ultimate salvation, the ultimate of being saved! The ultimate martyrs rewards for the early Christian martyrs! The reasons why many were willing to die for the cause of Christ, or others to endure monastic ascents towards "Christian moral perfection."
When Christians get to heaven, are they going to die all over again? If they live forever, are they going to stop learning? If you learn new things forever. Are you going to eventually be taught or learn how the universe was made? If you inherit God's powers, glory, pass through a coronation ceremony, are anointed, invested, crowned, enthroned, & seen sitting next to the Godhead, as the Santa Maria is often depicted, and deified. What will you be doing with your eternal time? Sitting on some throne forever & ever, doing nothing? Not using your powers & godhood, or goddesshood to do new things, be a co-creator with others deified like you? These are questions not only for Christians, but for every religion that has one form of deification, theosis, divinisation doctrines or another. Just like it's restored in Mormonism, as exaltation, perfection, & yes, becoming divine, & enthroned with other
Divine Parents, in an endless universe, where there is plenty of space & materials out there to create new worlds & start on other worlds, what was started on this world. Its an endless cycle, & explains how inhabited worlds came into being & their purposes in being seeded with all types of life forms, including Divine Parents spirits sons & daughters being given a chance to experience & learn new life experiences in a physical body. Another big part of this whole drama is how God our Father & his Son Jesus Christ, & the Holy Ghost, would rather we become like them, than they would that we become like the devil & his fallen angels. So its
Deification v. Demonification. That's the other part of deification that many Christians don't get into, but the early Christians did. It's called the
two extremes, the
two ways, the
left hand path & the
right hand path. Thus,
Righteousness, doing what's
right, being on Christ's
right hand, in judgment settings. Satanists-Devil-worshippers, that
reverse Christians' symbols, color symbolism, rituals, prayers
backwards, they know of Christians' deification because they have
reversed it to demonification. So instead of climbing up the ladder toward "Christian moral perfection," where each rung represents a Christ like trait, & where the crown, or Christ, or the
right hand of God greets those at the top. Plus, with different types of hand & wrist grasping, to lift the enduring ascender up to be with the other gods & goddesses thus having reach "Christian moral perfection." In Satanism it's completely
reversed into an occultic ascent which is actually a descent down further into developing traits of the devil & demons. Just read some of the
satanic lyrics of the songs of satanic music of the 1970s to present. On the complete opposite extreme, Christian sing about doing good, developing love, etc. Plus, in liturgical dramas, mystery plays, masses, those who ascend out of hades, limbo, purgatory, the pit, are "The Grateful Dead," singing praises to Christ for harrowing them from hell, & resurrecting them. In iconography of the
Anastasis, the moment that Adam clasps Christ's hand or wrist, or Christ's grasps Adam's, he being the first to be lifted up by Christ in resurrection; that is the moment of Adam's deification = becoming a god. Many follow afterwards, thus they come forth singing, with up raised hands, as "The Grateful Dead." They are naked when they ascend, for like in rituals, they are to be clothed in ascension robes. The white robes often worn, especially during Easter Sundays, became known as Whitesunday, or Whitsuntide, or Whitsunday. Symbolic of their souls being cleansed & made spotless, pure = whitened, symbolic of having no stains of sins on their garments, because Christ's blood washed away all sins. Symbolic of also that they are resurrected & have
put on Christ, setting aside the filthy rags of their former life. Also meaning that they were clothed in their own glorified ressurrected body, like unto Christ's. The Satanists have reversed this to wearing black robes, & Blacksunday or Black Sabbath. Thus, it's Deification vrs Demonification.
Bibilography:
Alice K. Turner, 1993,
The History of Hell. Anna D. Kartsonis
, Anastasis, The Making of An Image. Carl A. Raschke
, Painted Black. Carol Zaleski
, Otherworld Journeys, Chandler Rathfon Post,
A History of Spanish Painting. Clifford Davidson, Editor
, The Iconography of Heaven, Early Drama, Art, and Music, Monograph Series, 21. Colleen McDannell and Bernhard Lang,
Heaven: A History. David Knowles
, 1969, Christian Monasticism. Dom Hubert Van Zeller
, The Holy Rule. Geoffrey R. King,
The Forty Days. Gilda Berger,
Easter And Other Spring Holidays. Henry Ansgar Kelly
, The Devil at baptism: Ritual, Theology, and Drama, (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1985). Dr. Huge Nibley,
Mormonism and Early Christianity, (1987). J. Eugene Seaich:
Ancient Texts & Mormonism, (Murray, Utah: Sounds of Zion, 1983). Jeanne Villette,
La Resurrection Du Christ, Dans L'Art Chretien Du IIe Au VIIe Siecle. Jeffrey Burton Russell,
Satan, The Early Christian Tradition, (Ithaca, London: Cornell University Press, 1981).
Lucifer, The Devil In the Middle Age, (Ithaca, London: Cornell University Press, 1984).
The Prince of Darkness, Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History, (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1988).
John P. Lundy, Monumental Christianity, Or the Art and Symbolism of the Primitive Church, (New York: J. W. Bouton, 1875 & 1882). John Rupert Martin, The Illustration Of The Heavenly Ladder of John Climacus, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954). Etc.
