CoreyZallow said:
While history says otherwise. Show me writings from early church Fathers before 570 A.D. (Thats when the apostasy supposedly happened) that support Mormon Doctrine.
If you can show me examples of the early Catholic church writings talkoing about...
1. becoming gods,
Corey, perhaps you missed the post I did some time back that demonstrated this. The list is very very long. If you would like to send me a PM with an email address I will send you the whole list. For now let me just post a few of them.
1. St. Justin Martyr (100-165):
"And we have learned that
those only are deified who have lived near to God in holiness and virtue; and we believe that those who live wickedly and do not repent are punished in everlasting fire."(Justin Martyr. 1 Apol. 21.)
"Let the interpretation of the Psalm be held just as you wish, yet thereby it is demonstrated
that all men are deemed worthy of becoming 'gods,' and of having power to become sons of the Highest."(Justin Martyr. Dia. 124.)
2. St. Theophilus of Antioch (115-181/188):
"But some one will say to us, Was man made by nature mortal? Certainly not. Was he, then, immortal? Neither do we affirm this. But one will say, Was he, then, nothing? Not even this hits the mark. He was by nature neither mortal nor immortal. For if He had made him immortal from the beginning, He would have made him God. Again, if He had made him mortal, God would seem to be the cause of his death.
Neither, then, immortal nor yet mortal did He make him, but, as we have said above, capable of both; so that if he should incline to the things of immortality, keeping the commandment of God, he should receive as reward from Him immortality,
and should become God; but if, on the other hand, he should turn to the things of death, disobeying God, he should himself be the cause of death to himself. For God made man free, and with power over himself. That, then, which man brought upon himself through carelessness and disobedience, this
God now vouchsafes to him as a gift through His own philanthropy and pity, when men obey Him. For as man, disobeying, drew death upon himself; so, obeying the will of God, he who desires is able to procure for himself life everlasting. For God has given us a law and holy commandments; and every one who keeps these can be saved, and, obtaining the resurrection, can inherit incorruption."(Theophilus of Antioch. Aut. 2:27.)
3. St. Irenaeus (120/140-200/203):
"
Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself."(Iraneaus. Con. Haer. 5. Pref.)
"For as it certainly is in the power of a mother to give strong food to her infant, [but she does not do so], as the child is not yet able to receive more substantial nourishment; so also it was possible for God Himself to have made man perfect from the first, but man could not receive this [perfection], being as yet an infant. And for this cause our Lord in these last times, when He had summed up all things into Himself, came to us, not as He might have come, but as we were capable of beholding Him. He might easily have come to us in His immortal glory, but in that case we could never have endured the greatness of the glory; and therefore it was that He, who was the perfect bread of the Father, offered Himself to us as milk, [because we were] as infants. He did this when He appeared as a man, that we, being nourished, as it were, from the breast of His flesh, and having, by such a course of milk nourishment, become accustomed to eat and drink the Word of God, may be able also to contain in ourselves the Bread of immortality, which is the Spirit of the Father ... It was for this reason that the Son of God, although He was perfect, passed through the state of infancy in common with the rest of mankind, partaking of it thus not for His own benefit, but for that of the infantile stage of man's existence, in order that man might be able to receive Him. There was nothing, therefore, impossible to and deficient in God, [implied in the fact] that man was not an uncreated being; but this merely applied to him who was lately created, [namely] man ... His wisdom [is shown] in His having made created things parts of one harmonious and consistent whole; and those things which, through His super-eminent kindness, receive growth and a long period of existence, do reflect the glory of the uncreated One, of that God who bestows what is good ungrudgingly. For from the very fact of these things having been created, [it follows] that they are not uncreated; but by their continuing in being throughout a long course of ages, they shall receive a faculty of the Uncreated, through the gratuitous bestowal of eternal existence upon them by God. And thus in all things God has the pre-eminence, who alone is uncreated, the first of all things, and the primary cause of the existence of all, while all other things remain under God's subjection. But being in subjection to God is continuance in immortality, and immortality is the glory of the uncreated One. By this arrangement, therefore, and these harmonies, and a sequence of this nature, man, a created and organized being, is rendered after the image and likeness of the uncreated God, -the Father planning everything well and giving His commands, the Son carrying these into execution and performing the work of creating, and the Spirit nourishing and increasing [what is made], but man making progress day by day, and ascending towards the perfect, that is, approximating to the uncreated One. For the Uncreated is perfect, that is, God. Now it was necessary that man should in the first instance be created; and having been created, should receive growth; and having received growth, should be strengthened; and having been strengthened, should abound; and having abounded, should recover [from the disease of sin]; and having recovered, should be glorified; and being glorified, should see his Lord. For God is He who is yet to be seen, and the beholding of God is productive of immortality, but immortality renders one nigh unto God ... For these, [the dumb animals], bring no charge against God for not having made them men; but each one, just as he has been created, gives thanks that he has been created. For we cast blame upon Him,
because we have not been made gods from the beginning, but at first merely men, then at length gods; although God has adopted this course out of His pure benevolence, that no one may impute to Him invidiousness or grudgingness. He declares, 'I have said, Ye are gods; and ye are all sons of the Highest.' But since we could not sustain the power of divinity, He adds, 'But ye shall die like men,' setting forth both truths -- the kindness of His free gift, and our weakness, and also that we were possessed of power over ourselves. For after His great kindness He graciously conferred good [upon us], and made men like to Himself."(Ireneaus. Con. Haer. 4:38:1-4.)
"And again: 'God stood in the congregation of the gods, He judges among the gods.' He [here] refers to the Father and the Son, and those who have received the adoption; but these are the Church. For she is the synagogue of God, which God -- that is, the Son Himself -- has gathered by Himself. Of whom He again speaks: 'The God of gods, the Lord hath spoken, and hath called the earth.' Who is meant by God? He of whom He has said, 'God shall come openly, our God, and shall not keep silence;' that is, the Son, who came manifested to men who said, 'I have openly appeared to those who seek Me not.'
But of what gods [does he speak]? [Of those] to whom He says, 'I have said, Ye are gods, and all sons of the Most High.' To those, no doubt, who have received the grace of the "adoption, by which we cry, Abba Father.'"(Irenaeus. Con. Haer. 3:6:1.)
4. St. Clement of Alexandria (150-215):
"And now the Word Himself clearly speaks to thee, Shaming thy unbelief; yea, I say,
the Word of God became man, that thou mayest learn from man how man may become God. Is it not then monstrous, my friends, that while God is ceaselessly exhorting us to virtue, we should spurn His kindness and reject salvation?"(Clement of Alexandria. Prot. 1)
"
[Jesus] bestowed on us the truly great, divine, and inalienable inheritance of the Father, deifying man by heavenly teaching, putting His laws into our minds, and writing them on our hearts."(Clement of Alexandria. Prot. 11.)
"The view I take is, that He Himself formed man of the dust, and regenerated him by water; and made him grow by his Spirit; and trained him by His word to adoption and salvation, directing him by sacred precepts; in order that,
transforming earth-born man into a holy and heavenly being by His advent, He might fulfill to the utmost that divine utterance, 'Let Us make man in Our own image and likeness.' And, in truth, Christ became the perfect realization of what God spake; and the rest of humanity is conceived as being created merely in His image. But let us, O children of the good Father -- nurslings of the good Instructor -- fulfill the Father's will, listen to the Word, and take on the impress of the truly saving life of our Savior; and
meditating on the heavenly mode of life according to which we have been deified, let us anoint ourselves with the perennial immortal bloom of gladness -- that ointment of sweet fragrance -- having a clear example of immortality in the walk and conversation of the Lord; and following the footsteps of God, to whom alone it belongs to consider, and whose care it is to see to, the way and manner in which the life of men may be made more healthy."(Clement of Alexandria. Pae. 1:12.)
"
Practical wisdom is divine knowledge, and exists in those who are deified."(Clement of Alexandria. Strom. 6:15.)
"
Being baptized, we are illuminated; illuminated, we become sons; being made sons, we are made perfect; being made perfect, we are made immortal. 'I,' says He, 'have said that ye are gods, and all sons of the Highest.' This work is variously called grace, and illumination, and perfection, and washing: washing, by which we cleanse away our sins; grace, by which the penalties accruing to transgressions are remitted; and illumination, by which that holy light of salvation is beheld, that is, by which we see God clearly. Now we call that perfect which wants nothing. For what is yet wanting to him who knows God? For it were truly monstrous that that which is not complete should be called a gift (or act) of God's grace. Being perfect, He consequently bestows perfect gifts."(Clement of Alexandria. Pae. 1:6.)
"But that man with whom the Word dwells does not alter himself, does not get himself up: he has the form which is of the Word;
he is made like to God; he is beautiful; he does not ornament himself: his is beauty, the true beauty, for it is God; and that
man becomes God, since God so wills. Heraclitus, then, rightly said, 'Men are gods, and gods are men.' For the Word Himself is the manifest mystery: God in man, and man God. And the Mediator executes the Father's will; for the Mediator is the Word, who is common to both -- the Son of God, the Savior of men; His Servant, our Teacher."(Clement of Alexandria. Pae. 3:1.)
"Now the fifth in order is the command on the honor of father and mother. And it clearly announces God as Father and Lord.
Wherefore also it calls those who know Him sons and gods."(Clement of Alexandria. Strom. 6:16.)
"And this takes place, whenever one hangs on the Lord by faith, by knowledge, by love, and ascends along with Him to where the God and guard of our faith and love is. Whence at last (on account of the necessity for very great preparation and previous training in order both to hear what is said, and for the composure of life, and for advancing intelligently to a point beyond the righteousness of the law) it is that knowledge is committed to those fit and selected for it. It leads us to the endless and perfect end, teaching us beforehand the future life that we shall lead, according to God, and with gods; after we are freed from all punishment and penalty which we undergo, in consequence of our sins, for salutary discipline. After which redemption the reward and the honors are assigned to those who have become perfect; when they have got done with purification, and ceased from all service, though it be holy service, and among saints. They become pure in heart, and near to the Lord, there awaits their restoration to everlasting contemplation; and they are called by the appellation of gods,
being destined to sit on thrones with the other gods that have been first put in their places by the Savior."(Clement of Alexandria. Strom. 7:10.)
"The divine apostle writes accordingly respecting us: 'For now we see as through a glass;' knowing ourselves in it by reflection, and simultaneously contemplating, as we can, the efficient cause, from that, which, in us, is divine."(Clement of Alexandria. Strom. 1:19.)
5. Tertullian (155/160-220):
"Well, then, you say, we ourselves at that rate possess nothing of God. But indeed we do, and shall continue to do -- only it is from Him that we receive it, and not from ourselves.
For we shall be even gods, if we, shall deserve to be among those of whom He declared, 'I have said, Ye are gods,' and, 'God standeth in the congregation of the gods.' But this comes of His own grace, not from any property in us, because it is He alone who can make gods."(Tertullian. Ad. Herm. 5.)
"(I ask you) call to mind along with them the passage where it is written, 'I have said, Ye are gods, and ye are children of the Most High;' and again, 'God standeth in the congregation of gods;' in order that,
if the Scripture has not been afraid to designate as gods human beings, who have become sons of God by faith, you may be sure that the same Scripture has with greater propriety conferred the name of the Lord on the true and one-only Son of God."(Tertullian. Ad. Prax. 13.)
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