[InChristAlone]

Awareness, thank you for your kind and sincere reply. It’s nice to have a conversation with you. You have knowledge and experience that I am lack of. If I am not mistaken, it was you who mentioned Theosis in one of the threads a couple of months ago. I had to google it because I had no idea what you were talking about.

You are outspoken, which I consider a good thing. But you are not stupid. At least not any more than me. I often copy and paste someone else's wise thoughts and ideas. While you always speak for yourself. Besides, stupidity is a lack of good judgment. It’s when one has a choice between a right and wrong decision. It’s easy to decide what to have for breakfast when you have to choose between an oat meal and a bowl of pebbles. But when you have a choice between two or several alternatives that look more or less equal, that’s a different thing. It may take the whole life and maybe beyond it so that to make sure if your choice was right or wrong.

We are all sinners, fallen and unworthy. But it's only one side. That's not a foundation of our spiritual life. It's important to remember our corrupted nature because this remembrance is a base for repentance which may lead us to salvation. However, it's not the whole truth. The main thing is that we are Christians. We are members of the Body of Christ, who came and died for our sins. And now He is with us and in us. That's why we repent and fight our passions and sins. We want to acquire God's grace. We want to be with the Lord in eternity, be saved, and restore our communion with God. Acknowledgment of our corrupted nature, repentance, and prayer are not the goals of our spiritual life. They are functions, means, and tools. The goal is communion with God. It's true when the Lord says, "For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14) But we can't put our sinful nature above some other considerations. First of all, we are members of the Church, the Body of Christ. That's the main thing. Our weaknesses, passions, and sins are considered of secondary importance. The center and focus of our spiritual life is Christ, not "I and my transgressions".

But if we feel we are already holy, that's another mistake. A saint doesn't need a savior. The Lord came to save us, sinners.

I think I also was carried away. Ok, let me try to explain why I buy the idea of theosis. But let’s recall what it’s all about:

1. “In Eastern Orthodoxy deification (theosis) is both a transformative process as well as the goal of that process. The goal is the attainment of likeness to or union with God. Naturally, the crucial Christian assertion, that God is One, sets an absolute limit on the meaning of theosis: as it is not possible for any created being to become God ontologically, or even a necessary part of God (of the three existences of God called hypostasis). As a created being cannot become Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit nor the Father of the Trinity. Most specifically creatures, i.e. created beings, can not become God in His transcendent essence, or ousia. Such a concept would be the henosis, or absorption and fusion into God of Greek pagan philosophy. However, every being and reality itself is considered as composed of the immanent energy, or Energeia, of God. As energy is the actuality of God, i.e. His immanence, from God's being, it is also the Energeia or activity of God.

Theosis has three stages: first, the purgative way, purification, or katharsis; second, illumination, the illuminative way, the vision of God, or theoria; and third, sainthood, the unitive way, or theosis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosis...hodox_theology)

2. 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 salvation. Théōsis assumes that humans from the beginning are made to share in the Life or Nature of the all-Holy Trinity.

The journey towards theosis includes many forms of praxis. Living in the community of the church and partaking regularly of the sacraments, and especially the Eucharist, is taken for granted. Also important is cultivating "prayer of the heart", and prayer that never ceases, as Paul exhorts the Thessalonians (1 and 2). This unceasing prayer of the heart is a dominant theme in the writings of the Fathers, especially in those collected in the Philokalia.

http://orthodoxwiki.org/Theosis

3 Theosis is the understanding that human beings can have real union with God, and so become like God to such a degree that we participate in the divine nature.

The human person does not merge with some sort of impersonal divine force, losing individual identity or consciousness. Intrinsic divinity is never ascribed to humankind or any part of the creation, and no created thing is confused with the being of God. Most certainly, humans are not accorded ontological equality with God, nor are they considered to merge or co-mingle with the being of God as He is in His essence.

In fact, to safeguard against any sort of misunderstanding of this kind, Orthodox theologians have been careful to distinguish between God’s essence and His energies. God is incomprehensible in His essence. But God, who is love, allows us to know Him through His divine energies, those actions whereby He reveals Himself to us in creation, providence, and redemption. It is through the divine energies, therefore, that we achieve union with God. We become united with God by grace in the Person of Christ, who is God come in the flesh. The means of becoming “like God” is through perfection in holiness, the continuous process of acquiring the Holy Spirit by grace through ascetic devotion.

St. Maximos the Confessor, as Fr. Hester notes, defined theosis as “total participation in Jesus Christ.” Careful to maintain the ontological safeguard noted above, St. Maximos further stated, “All that God is, except for an identity in being, one becomes when one is deified by grace.”

http://www.antiochian.org/content/th...-divine-nature

4 The Orthodox Church understands theosis as a union with the energies of God and not with the essence of God which always remains hidden and unknown.

http://www.goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith7114

5 In the Orthodox Church of Christ man can achieve daification because, according to the teachings of the Holy Bible and the Fathers of the Church, the Grace of God is uncreated. God is not only essence, as the West thinks; He is also energy. If God was only essence, we could not unite with Him, could not commune with Him, because the essence of God is awesome and unapproachable for man, in accordance with: ‘Never will man see My face and live’ (Exod. 33:20).

The energies of God are divine energies. They too are God, but without being His essence. They are God, and therefore they can deify man. If the energies of God were not divine and uncreated, they would not be God and so they would not be able to deify us, to unite us with God. There would be an unbridgeable distance between God and men. But by virtue of God having divine energies, and by uniting with us by these energies, we are able to commune with Him and to unite with His Grace without becoming identical with God, as would happen if we united with His essence.

So, we unite with God through His uncreated energies, and not through His essence. This is the mystery of our Orthodox faith and life.

http://www.greekorthodoxchurch.org/theosis_how.html’

6 Theosis is man’s union with God, wherein we participate in the uncreated energies of the Trinity. We do not become what God is in his essence, but we are invited to participate in his energies. This is the purpose and goal for which we were created. Theosis can only be attained in Christ, through the working of the Holy Spirit, as we freely cooperate with the Father’s unmerited grace. The path to theosis involves participation in the sacraments, participation in the ascetic struggle, and culminates in the vision of the uncreated light of God.

http://theorthodoxlife.wordpress.com...at-is-theosis/

7 The idea of Theosis will be unfamiliar to the Western mind, although it is not a new concept to Christianity. When Christ said, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” [1] this is a call to a life of Theosis.

Theosis is personal communion with God “face to face.” [2] To the Western mind, this idea may seem incomprehensible, even sacrilegious, but it derives unquestionably from Christ’s teachings. Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the messianic dream of the Jewish race; [3] His mission to connect us with the Kingdom of God [4]—a Kingdom not of this world. [5] When Jesus said, “You are gods,” [6] “be perfect, just as your Father in Heaven is perfect,” [7] or “the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father,” [8] this is to be taken literally. For those who are interested, further Biblical evidence for this can be found in Leviticus 11:44-45; 20:7-8; Deuteronomy 18:13; Psalms 82:1,6; Romans 6:22; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:2-4.

http://orthodoxinfo.com/general/theosis.aspx

Theosis is the heart of the Eastern Orthodox mystical tradition. Protestants don’t know much about it, since they don’t keep spiritual practices and traditions of the ancient church. So I am not sure if you heard anything about Hesychasm and the practice of the Jesus Prayer. (Hesychasm (from Greek word "hesychia" – silence, peace, quietness) – teaching and practice aimed for the acquisition of the Holy Spirit and deification of human soul and body. The ultimate goal of hesychasm is human transfiguration and theosis after the likeness of the risen Christ). People who practice Hesychasm can feel God’s presence as strong as you and I feel toothache. It’s not a visualization. It’s not some kind of self-deception. Why? Because it bears spiritual fruits. It’s a real life practice and experience that transform life and spiritual nature of believers. They became selfless and humble, they never judge anyone, they literally radiate unconditional love and compassion and they see Christ (or Devine nature) in every man and woman. But it’s a rare thing. Not every monk or layman reaches that stage of spiritual transformation. (And it’s also Theosis). Personally, I've never met such kind of people. But I read about them and saw a couple of such monks on youtube.

About Hesychasm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesychasm
http://hesychasm.ru/en/the-heart-of-...chasm-library/

While some of the craziest ideas were born in one man's head, Theosis is not one man's idea or opinion. It is a teaching that is shared by all Church Fathers of the Eastern Church who read the Bible in its original Greek, wrote in Greek, and lived in different countries. Besides, Theosis is supported by the Scripture.

Theosis is both a transformative process as well as the goal of that process. We believe that Christ came to the earth to restore man’s union with God so that we may participate in the uncreated God’s energies. (Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.2 Peter 1:4). How can we participate in the divine nature? Only through Theosis, or changing into a likeness of God. It takes God's grace, our participation in the sacraments and in the ascetic struggle, and it culminates in the vision of the uncreated light of God while living on the earth.

Baptism gives an impulse to our spiritual transformation. Through Christ we start restoring our communion with God. But we don’t stop at baptism. Our goal is participation in the divine nature or divine energies, in other words, salvation, i.e. eternal and full communion with God. It will happen only after the Lord’s second coming, when He transforms and turns our natural body into the resurrection body. As I said before, the process of restoration and transformation has started from our baptism. We are no more slaves of our fallen nature. We can fight and overcome our sins. That’s the stage of purification, which involves participation in the sacraments of the Church and ascetic struggle. If we don’t take part in them, then we can’t be transformed any further. But it's not a mechanical process as we see it in the LRC. (Well, to be frank, it also happens in the EC church when people take rituals and external things for their ultimate aim). Our ultimate goal is communion with God. All our being, heart and mind, must participate. We have to cooperate with God. He saves us by His grace but we must also take our part and work out our salvation and help Him to transform our spiritual condition. And that's why I am lack of diligence.

Anyway, a church is judged by her saints, not by her sinners. "Reveal your saints and you reveal your church". Let's look at the LC first. I think in the LRC they have only two “saints”: WN and WL. We don’t know much about WN. What about WL then? What can we learn from him? Strong faith? Humility? Compassion? Unconditional love to brothers and sisters? His message can be put into one short sentence: "Go to the Local Church, read my books, and you will be transformed." Transformed like who? Like WL? Not a good example for me.

Once I told you about 200 000 Russian priests, monks and nuns who were killed by communists. I believe they could have saved their lives, rejecting Christ but they didn’t do that. Were they just brainwashed by a false teaching or they had a living faith, experiencing the living reality of God? I believe it was the latter. Their death gave meaning to their life. Their faith was proved by their actions. And we have such kind of saints through 2000 years of the church history.

As professor Osipov says, “Tell me who your saints are and I will tell what your church is. Any church calls as saints only those who realized in their life the Christian ideal, as this Church understands it. That is why canonization of a certain saint is not only testimony of the Church about this Christian, who according to her judgment is worthy of the glory and suggested by her as an example to follow. It is at the same time a testimony of the Church about herself. By the saints we can best of all judge about the true or imaginary sanctity of the Church”.

We can be good church goers but “going to church doesn't make us a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes us a car”. Theois is an ongoing process and takes lots of personal effort as well as God’s grace. We can hardly see Christians who are transformed their spiritual nature to such extend that we can say about them "He is like an angel", or "She is not of this world". But when you meet such kind of people, you can't be mistaken. You know that they are not of this word. They are in the process of theosis, spiritual transformation.

I want to share a few quotes by the Church Fathers of the East:

"... when the intellect has been perfected, it unites wholly with God and is illumined by divine light, and the most hidden mysteries are revealed to it. Then it truly learns where wisdom and power lie... While it is still fighting against the passions it cannot as yet enjoy these things... But once the battle is over and it is found worthy of spiritual gifts, then it becomes wholly luminous, powerfully energized by grace and rooted in the contemplation of spiritual realities. A person in whom this happens is not attached to the things of this world but has passed from death to life." St. Thalassios, "On Love, Self-control and Life in accordance with the Intellect", Philokalia.

'Can a man take fire into his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?' (Prov. 6:27) says the wise Solomon. And I say: can he, who has in his heart the Divine fire of the Holy Spirit burning naked, not be set on fire, not shine and glitter and not take on the radiance of the Deity in the degree of his purification and penetration by fire? For penetration by fire follows upon purification of the heart, and again purification of the heart follows upon penetration by fire, that is, inasmuch as the heart is purified, so it receives Divine grace, and again inasmuch as it receives grace, so it is purified. When this is completed (that is, purification of heart and acquisition of grace have attained their fullness and perfection), through grace a man becomes wholly a god." St. Simeon the New Theologian (Practical and Theological Precepts no. 94, Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart; Faber and Faber pgs. 118-199)

He will share in Christ's glory who, through being formed in Christ, has received renewal by the Spirit and has preserved it, and so has attained to ineffable deification. No one, there, will be one with Christ or be a member of Christ, if he has not become even here a receiver of grace and has not, thereby, become 'transformed by the renewal of' his 'mind' (Rom. 12:2). St. Gregory of Sinai

The Son of God has become Son of Man in order to make us...sons of God, raising our race by grace to what He is Himself by nature, granting us birth from above through the grace of the Holy Spirit and leading us straightway to the kingdom of heaven, or rather, granting us this kingdom within us (Luke 17:21), in order that we should not merely be fed by the hope of entering it, but entering into full possession thereof should cry: our 'life is hid with Christ in God.' (Col. 3:3)." St. Simeon the New Theologian

The grace of deification thus transcends nature, virtue and knowledge, and (as St. Maximus says) `all these things are inferior to it.' Every virtue and imitation of God on our part indeed prepares those who practice them for divine union, but the mysterious union itself is effected by grace. It is through grace that `the entire Divinity comes to dwell in fullness in those deemed worth,' and all the saints in their entire being dwell in God, receiving God in His wholeness, and gaining no other reward for their ascent to Him than "God Himself. The Triads, St. Gregory Palamas

The holy mystery of the day of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost, is to be understood in the following manner: the spirit of man must be completed and perfected by the Holy Spirit, that is, it must be sanctified, illuminated, and divinized by the Holy Spirit. This holy mystery is realized continually in the Church of Christ and because of this the Church is really a continuous Pentecost.... From Holy Pentecost, the day of the Holy Spirit, every God-like soul in the Church of Christ is an incombustible bush which continuously burns and is inflamed with God and has a fiery tongue within it. (St.) Fr. Justin Popovich, Orthodox Faith and Life in Christ

Three realities pertain to God: essence, energy, and the triad of divine hypostases. As we have seen, those privileged to be united to God so as to become one spirit with Him - as St. Paul said, 'He who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit with Him' (I Cor. 6:17) - are not united to God with respect to His essence, since all theologians testify that with respect to His essence God suffers no participation.
Moreover, the hypostatic union is fulfilled only in the case of the Logos, the God-man.

Thus those privileged to attain union with God are united to Him with respect to His energy; and the 'spirit', according to which they who cleave to God are one with Him, is and is called the uncreated energy of the Holy Spirit, but not the essence of God... St. Gregory Palamas

We unite ourselves to Him [God], in so far as this is possible, by participating in the godlike virtues and by entering into communion with Him through prayer and praise. Because the virtues are similitudes of God, to participate in them puts us in a fit state to receive the Deity, yet it does not actually unite us to Him. But prayer through its sacral and hieratic power actualizes our ascent to and union with the Deity, for it is a bond between noetic creatures and their Creator. St. Gregory Palamas

Here is one of my favorite stories about St Anthony (251–356), a father of monastic life. The story gives some hints at theosis and why avid church goers can't experience this transformation.

"One day, while St. Antony was sitting with a certain Abba, a virgin came up and said to the Elder: 'Abba, I fast six days of the week and I repeat by heart portions of the Old and New Testament daily.' To which the Elder replied: 'Does poverty mean the same to you as abundance?' 'No', she answered. 'Or dishonor the same as praise?' 'No, Abba.' 'Are your enemies the same for you as your friends?' 'No', she replied. At that the wise Elder said to her: 'Go, get to work, you have accomplished nothing.' "
—St. Peter of Damaskos

PS Looks like I felt really moved.