I searched google and discovered Wikipedia’s article entitled Divinization (Christian):The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that “… the Son of God became man so that we might become God. The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity … assumed our nature so that he … might make men gods.” – Catechism of the Catholic Church, quoting St. Athanasius and St. Thomas Aquinas: (The Wanderer Press, 1994), par. 460, p. 116 taken from Occult Invasion by Dave Hunt, pg. 336
According to Jonathan Jacobs, there were many and varied appeals to divinization in the writings of the Church Fathers. As what he asserts is “just a small sample”, he lists the following:
St. Irenaeus of Lyons stated that God “became what we are in order to make us what he is himself.”
St. Clement of Alexandria says that “he who obeys the Lord and follows the prophecy given through him . . . becomes a god while still moving about in the flesh.”
St. Athanasius wrote that “God became man so that men might become gods.”
St. Cyril of Alexandria says that we “are called ‘temples of God’ and indeed ‘gods’, and so we are.”
St. Basil the Great stated that “becoming a god” is the highest goal of all.
St. Gregory of Nazianzus implores us to “become gods for (God’s) sake, since (God) became man for our sake.”
Referring to such declarations by the Fathers, the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church says that the central tenet of deification is that, through the incarnation of his Son, God has called human beings to share God’s own life in the Son. It quotes Athanasius: “The Word became flesh … that we, partaking of his Spirit, might be deified” (De Decretis, 14); and Cyril of Alexandria: “We have all become partakers of Him, and have Him in ourselves through the Spirit. For this reason we have become partakers of the divine nature” (In Ioannem, 9).
Saint Augustine pictured God telling him: “I am the food of grown men, grow, and thou shalt feed upon Me, nor shalt thou convert Me, like the food of thy flesh, into thee, but thou shalt be converted into Me.” “To make human beings gods,” Augustine said, “He was made man who was God” (sermon 192.1.1) This deification, he wrote, is granted by grace, not by making part of the divine essence: “It is clear that he called men gods being deified by his grace and not born of his substance. For he justified, who is just of himself and not from another, and he deifies, who is god of himself and not by participation in another. … If we have been made sons of god, we have been made gods; but this is by grace of adoption and not of the nature of our begetter” (en. Ps. 49.1.2).
The Fathers spoke of the process of deification as begun, at least in foreshadowing, in baptism, and so as already effected in the baptized. Clement of Alexandria wrote: “Being baptized, we are illuminated; illuminated we become sons; being made sons, we are made perfect; being made perfect, we are made immortal. ‘I’, said He, 'have said that ye are gods, and all sons of the Highest.” Hippolytus: “He (man) is made God by water and the Holy Spirit after the regeneration of the laver.”“Thy body shall be immortal and incorruptible as well as thy soul. For thou hast become God.”
Continued…However, full deification was seen as occurring only after death. Augustine said, “Our full adoption as sons will take place in the redemption of our body. We now have the first fruits of the spirit (Rom 8:29), by which we are indeed made sons of God. In other respects, however, since we are not yet finally saved, we are therefore not yet fully made new, not yet sons of God but children of the world.”
The importance of divinization (theosis) in Roman Catholic teaching is evident from what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says of it:
"The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature”: “For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.” “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.” “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.” (The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 460)
Divinization has been taught by Catholic theologians, including the most authoritative: Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote: “The gift of grace surpasses every capability of created nature, since it is nothing short of a partaking of the Divine Nature, which exceeds every other nature. And thus it is impossible that any creature should cause grace. For it is as necessary that God alone should deify, bestowing a partaking of the Divine Nature by a participated likeness, as it is impossible that anything save fire should enkindle.” He also wrote of God’s “special love, whereby He draws the rational creature above the condition of its nature to a participation of the Divine good.” And he quotes with approval the statement by Saint Augustine, “God was made man, that man might be made God”, saying that it was necessary for the restoration of the human race that the Word of God should become incarnate, since it is through Christ’s humanity that full participation of the Divinity is bestowed on us.
I find this a bit confusing as Divinization not a subject of I’ve heard of before. The protestants are implying that the Catholic/Orthodox doctrine of Divinization/Theosis, as well as the teachings of the New Agers and Mormons, have their origins in the lie of the serpent in Genesis that “ye shall be as gods.”The Roman Rite liturgy expresses the doctrine of divinization or theosis in the prayer said by the deacon or priest when preparing the Eucharistic chalice: “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.”
To the saints honour must be paid as friends of Christ, as sons and heirs of God: in the words of John the theologian and evangelist, As many as received Him, to them gave He power to became sons of God. John 1:12 So that they are no longer servants, but sons: and if sons, also heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ : and the Lord in the holy Gospels says to His apostles, You are My friends John 15:14 . Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knows not what his lord does. And further, if the Creator and Lord of all things is called also King of Kings and Lord of Lords Revelation 19:16 and God of Gods, surely also the saints are gods and lords and kings. For of these God is and is called God and Lord and King. For I am the God of Abraham, He said to Moses, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Exodus 3:6 And God made Moses a god to Pharaoh.** Now I mean gods and kings and lords not in nature, but as rulers and masters of their passions, and as preserving a truthful likeness to the divine image according to which they were made (for the image of a king is also called king), and as being united to God of their own free-will and receiving Him as an indweller and becoming by grace through participation with Him what He is Himself by nature.** Surely, then, the worshippers and friends and sons of God are to be held in honour? For the honour shown to the most thoughtful of fellow-servants is a proof of good feeling towards the common Master.
See also Psalm 82 and John 10:31-39.These are made treasuries and pure habitations of God: For I will dwell in them, said God, and walk in them, and I will be their God. The divine Scripture likewise says that the souls of the just are in God’s hand Wisdom 3:1 and death cannot lay hold of them. For death is rather the sleep of the saints than their death. For they travailed in this life and shall to the end , and Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. What then, is more precious than to be in the hand of God? For God is Life and Light, and those who are in God’s hand are in life and light.