As Catholics do we believe we become gods?

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Dhunt

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Hello,
This is my first post here, but I had a question and didn’t really know who to ask about it. I have a fairly decent background in my faith, but I was recently confronted with someone saying that as Catholics we become ‘gods’. This statement, in itself, seems to be all kinds of wrong. It was clarified that we are adopted children of God and that we can’t be “G” God but “g” gods.

The statement was made in a video from Next Level Catholic Academy … it is kind of the rally speech to get you to sign up … any comments on the statement or the ‘Academy’?
 
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No, that is a belief of the Latter Day Saints. It is not a Christian belief.
 
First of all, I would avoid Next Level Catholic Academy and its ilk like the plague. If you want to be holy, start going to daily Mass, Adoration, reading Scripture, praying daily (Rosary or LOTH recommended) and Confession at least every month. Try to be kind to your fellow man in the meantime and read books by/ about your favorite saints. You don’t need some layman’s academy. I smell a rat just looking at the website.

Second, the idea of men as gods comes from Jesus’ own words in John 10:34-35. See also Psalms 82: 6 . This is Jesus saying it so of course we believe it but we also believe we are “gods” in the sense of being children of THE One God, not little gods on our own. Edited to add, commentators also have explained the scripture as referring to Jewish use of the word “god” to denote one who sits in judgmenr; see the comment on this site with the Haydock Commentary note.


In my experience, the Latin Catholic Church kind of avoids the concept of men becoming as gods. The Eastern Catholic churches are more comfortable with it and teach it. I remember having a discussion like this a few years ago where I stated I was not comfortable as a Roman Catholic thinking of myself as becoming a “god” and an Eastern Catholic saying that they were quite comfortable with the idea and it was a main goal of their spirituality. Perhaps an Eastern Catholic will chime in here and explain this better than I can. I’ll also see if I can find the old thread.
 
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Not a god. As a god. I believe in English the concept is Theosis, but I’m not sure, it might be deification. It’s more or less about becoming one with Christ Jesus, the only God.

Can another Easterner chime in with the correct term?
 
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Of course it is. It’s right there in the Catechism: Catechism of the Catholic Church - Paragraph # 460

It’s in the Mass: “by the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”

It’s in Scripture…St Peter says we have become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4).

Of course, when the Catechism says that men “become gods”, it doesn’t mean that we literally become divine by nature… rather we become gods in that we share in the divine nature through grace. In the incarnation, God and man are united. In Christ, human nature has been raised to the heavenly heights. In baptism, and through the Eucharist, we become like Christ. This is why we honour the saints.
 
I can’t find the thread I was thinking of, but this one will work. As you can see the first poster answers that thinking of yourself as a God is heresy. That is the normal Latin Catholic response.

Vouthon and others explain that as taught by Eastern Catholics, it isn’t heresy, and the teaching of Mormons is different because they see it as men becoming a bunch of independent gods.
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Can someone explain Catholic beleifs about theosis or divinization? Apologetics
I came across some discussion of this on an old thread, but I left thoroughly confused and thought I’d ask myself, what exactly is the Catholic doctrine of Divinization? Is it the same as the Eastern Orthodox(/Catholic?) doctrine of Theosis, and by the way in either case can you explain that? What is the Biblical AND patristic basis for these doctrines and their interpretation? Additionally how does the Catholic/Orthodox doctrine differ from the LDS (Mormon) doctrine of exultation, or the belief…
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Did you read CCC #460 linked in my post? That is the exact language used “men become gods”. It’s not heretical language if properly understood.
 
I bet if I did a google search right now I would find a ton of sites using this very sentence out of context to claim that we believe we would literally become gods. Proper understanding is key.
 
Didn’t Martin Luther have some wrong headed understanding of men “becoming gods” as well?

If so, that would probably explain why the Latin Church avoids those passages.

As LittleLady said, we speak in terms of “sharing in Christ’s divinity” or "partaking in " it, and maybe that we should “become like God”, but clergy and catechists do not use the “become gods” language though it’s in Scripture and the catechism.
 
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Thank you all for your responses. I have looked this up now with the catechism quote and different Biblical verses and understand it better. I think I will avoid the academy. I’m currently in online studies for my theology degree at Franciscan I will be done in the fall. I saw the academy on EWTN and just wanted to check it out. Again thank you all
 
Salibi said:
Not a god. As a god. I believe in English the concept is Theosis, but I’m not sure, it might be deification. It’s more or less about becoming one with Christ Jesus, the only God.

Can another Easterner chime in with the correct term?
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Yes it is Theosis. The translation is “deification” and it’s incomplete to the original sense. The meaning is returning to the original state before the fall and being one with God, that is at peace with Him and in harmony with Him not taking His place (actually Adam and Eve took His place after the fall as a consequence of their fall, they no longer recognized His authority).
God made man and woman a little less than Angels (Psalms). So even in our pure state we were not His equals.
Probably the desire to be a god is a twisted way of trying to reach the original state, but being full of pride and replace God one’s self is not the right way even if the aim may be correct.
 
Dhunt said:
I think I will avoid the academy.
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You are certainly welcome to do that. It looks like the Next Level Catholic Academy is run by Matthew Leonard, who is Vice President of Scott Hahn’s St. Paul Center. So I doubt there is anything wacky or heretical going on there. But that doesn’t mean he will always articulate things in the best way or in ways that make the most sense to everyone.

Without having watched the video myself, my guess is that he’s speaking of that eastern sense of theosis. As St. Athanasius said, “God became man than man might become god.” As others have said, this doesn’t mean we literally become a god in the same way that God is God. I’m sure Leonard knows this and is not trying to say otherwise.
 
I think part of the reason why the Latin Church does so is that unlike in the East, the West had the Reformation to contend with, so you guys had to somewhat “simplify” your theological language( if you would forgive me saying so, for a better term does not come to mind) in order to make it immediately clear to Protestants who would have otherwise not waited for a clarification and immediately assumed that Catholics believe we become gods upon death.

Disclaimer: This is just my opinion.
 
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This is an interesting thread. These parts of the Bible and CCC get easily misunderstood. Like others have said…there is no God but God.

The LDS church has turned some of this scripture on its head.

The LDS has a whole process through which people progress to become gods called exaltation. I am discouraged when Catholics use that word out of context as a process to become holy. Occasionally, I’ve read such things here on CAF, and I’m at a loss as to where these people got those ideas.
 
Once at Mass, a local Dominican priest preached a homily on “you are gods”. It was a daily Mass though, not a Sunday Mass.
 
Except your wrong… and contradicting CCC#460 above. In one sense, yes, the saints are “gods” by grace… as testified to by Scripture, the Fathers, and the Catechism.
 
Dhunt said:
Hello,
This is my first post here, but I had a question and didn’t really know who to ask about it. I have a fairly decent background in my faith, but I was recently confronted with someone saying that as Catholics we become ‘gods’. This statement, in itself, seems to be all kinds of wrong. It was clarified that we are adopted children of God and that we can’t be “G” God but “g” gods.

The statement was made in a video from Next Level Catholic Academy … it is kind of the rally speech to get you to sign up … any comments on the statement or the ‘Academy’?
Click to expand...
We have to convert to Mormonism, first.
 
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