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Originally Posted by InChristAlone
I think it is the terminology. Deification is man’s union with God, wherein we participate in the uncreated energies of the Trinity. We don't participate in God’s essence. Rather we are transformed into the likeness of Christ through participation in His grace, i.e., divine energies. It is a process when we are becoming less earthly and more spiritual, Christ-like.
The footnote commentary in the Orthodox Study Bible for 2 Peter 1:4 reads:
This [Theosis] does not mean we become divine by nature. If we participated in God’s essence, the distinction between God and man would be abolished. What this does mean is that we participate in God’s energy, described by a number of terms in scripture, such as glory, life, love, virtue, and power. We are to become like God by His grace and truly His adopted children, but never becoming God by nature.
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It seems that deification in Orthodox terminology means becoming fully mature sons of God, not becoming God.
Lee said that essentially the Church as the Body of Christ is the Fourth of the Trinity. This opens the way for the church members to be God. I don't think the Orthodox position is that way at all. I'm not sure Nigel Tomes really connects Lee's deification notion with the Orthodox position except tangentially.
I'm not sure there is any profit in wrangling over terminology. No one can prove anything either way. But the real proof is when we love one another.
"When you all arrive at the oneness of the faith, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Does oneness arrive when we all agree to only read one ministry? When we all agree only to play piano and acoustic guitar in meetings, not drums or amplified bass? When we all agree on "sonship" versus "adoption" versus something else? I daresay no. People who think oneness follows such "restrictions" (a new favorite LC word) are deluded. That is the oneness of a prison, of a gulag.
Paul presented a vision of the oneness of the one new man, by receiving all whom God has received in Christ Jesus, regardless of the name on the building, or even if they meet in a designated building at all! Paul went into the Jewish synagogues, and into the Greek market places. Paul preached freedom in Christ Jesus. Don't take this freedom to licence foolishness, and also don't impose restrictions that Paul or Peter or James or Jesus never promoted.
Whether or not deification comes, how it comes, and what it looks like (how many qualifications and amending clauses) is irrelevant to being at peace with my fellows, today. We should focus on the process, and let God rule the outcome. "Love one another" and "be at peace" are the type of commandments that over-ride any other rules, theories or doctrines - the high peak, so-called, is to love one another. And this high peak experience comes when we believe into the Lord Jesus Christ, and receive the Spirit that comes in His Name. Any theologies that distract or cheapen this experience are to be held very carefully.
My two cents.