we are gods?

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love-bias:
I don’t really know what to think about this idea… I noticed in the Catechism that St. Thomas Aquinas said “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.” (460)
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Of course we are gods. Not only did Thomas Aquinas say it, but Jesus said it in quoting the Scripture.

Jn 10:34 Jesus answered them, "Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I SAID, YOU ARE GODS’?
35 "If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken),

The correct understanding of this has been touched on in previous posts about our sharing in the Divine life. To the ancients gods were immortal. If you believe that you have an immortal soul you automatically have some godlike qualities. There is only one God, but many gods.
 
[Edit: I wrote this a while ago, and after I got around to posting it, realized that someone had touched on this first point. Oops. Great minds think alike, eh? 😉 ] I may have missed it, but I haven’t seen anyone point out that the Old Testament, the New Testament, and Church fathers all use the terminology of “gods” to describe mere humans… so let’s not blame Acquinas and the Catechism. 🙂

In John 10:34-36 Jesus says:

“Is it not written in your law, ‘I have said, You are gods’? If it calls those men gods to whom God’s word was addressed–and Scripture cannot lose its force–do you claim that I blasphemed when, as he whome the Father consecrated and sent into the world, I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?”

I think that is a reference to Psalm 82:6, “I said: 'You are gods, all of you sons of the Most High.” Similar is 82:1, “God arises in the divine assembly; he judges in the midst of the gods.” A footnote in my NAB says: “The gods: human judges, who are ‘godlike’ in their prerogative of establishing justice on earth. cf Ps 58, 2.”

Also see Augustine’s first homily on the Gospel of John, paragraph 4 (ewtn.com/library/PATRISTC/PNI7-1.TXT), where he relates the terminology of ‘gods’ to a similar usage of ‘angels’, which he applied to St. John and all the saints in that they are ‘messengers’ of God. God speaks and works through them. Augustine says this is what God wishes to make us–agents of His will (which implies unity with His will). In this sense, it is very like the concept of being part of the Body of Christ, by which we are ‘members’ of that body, and serve a function within it, in obedience to it. Saying we are called to be ‘gods’ does not mean we are on the same level as God, or our own little deities, but rather participators in God’s divinity through our little shares in His inheritance, authority (depending on our role in the Church), or activity.
 
Steven: Yes, like it has already been said on this thread, the ‘born again’ (or born from above, if you prefer that translation) in John 3 refers to baptism…so it IS on earth, but not of earth. It is through baptism that we are made children of God and heirs of the divine promise. It might be helpful to brush-up on the baptism section in the Catechism. (See Gal. 4:5-7 for example, Gal. 3:26, Rom. 8:14, and Romans 6 and Titus 3:4-8, in particular for the effects of baptism).
 
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twf:
Steven: Yes, like it has already been said on this thread, the ‘born again’ (or born from above, if you prefer that translation) in John 3 refers to baptism…so it IS on earth, but not of earth. It is through baptism that we are made children of God and heirs of the divine promise. It might be helpful to brush-up on the baptism section in the Catechism. (See Gal. 4:5-7 for example, Gal. 3:26, Rom. 8:14, and Romans 6 and Titus 3:4-8, in particular for the effects of baptism).
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Hello twf,

I quoted you recently on a different thread and really respect you as a poster on this web site. Keep up the awesome work!

Actually the term “begotten of God” is realated to Christ’s ressurection and not His baptism.

When scripture speaks of the Father “begetting” Jesus, scripture tells us this happened at Christ’s resurrection rather than at his baptism where “God anointed him with the Holy Spirit”.

**NAB MAT **3:16

**After Jesus was baptized, he came directly out of the water. Suddenly the sky opened and he saw the Spirit of God decend like a dove and hover over him. **

NAB ACT 10:37
(Peter is speaking.)

“…beginning in Galilee with the baptism John preached; of the way God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good works and healing all who were in the grip of the devil, and God was with him.”

NAB PSA 2:4

"I myself have **set up my king on **Zion, my holy mountain. I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: The LORD said to me, 'You are my son; this day I have begotten you.

NAB ACT 13:32

“We ourselves announce to you the good news that what God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, in raising up Jesus, according to what is written in the second psalm, You are my son; this day I have begotten you.”

**NAB 1PE **3:18
He was put to death insofar as fleshly existence goes, but was given life in the realm of the spirit.

NAB HEB 1:5 Messianic Enthronement.
To which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my son; today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be his father, and he shall be my son”? And again, when he leads his first-born into the world, he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him.”

Peace in Christ,
Steven Merten
ILOVEYOUGOD.com
 
This is heresy and the meaning is taken out of context.

We can never become God. Not even the Virgin Mary can become God. No created being can become God. God always was, is and will be. **There was a time we did not exist. **So no matter how much God may fill our souls or how God-like we may become, we will never be Him. God is God and we will always be creatures of God.👋
 
I think in order to fully activate our faith so that we can heal and do other things like the apostles, we need to have the courage to believe that we truly act in the name of Jesus as if we indeed are Him by His grace. In one sense this seems blasphemous in another sense it is exactly this courage we need in order to be truly holy. It’s our own fear of accepting what it means to have the Holy Spirit that limits us.

I think we all have some fear that keeps us from being the saints we can be. We think the Church has to give us permission to claim that we are like Jesus by His grace, when in fact the Church has already given us permission and has encouraged us.

Greg
 
I agree with Greg, but at the same time, the literal meaning of becoming gods (remember with a small g) can be misleading. A New Ager will take it literally. (as some Catholics do too:o )

God cannot become God, because God is already God. We are not, so we would have to become God. This is an oxymoron. .:bowdown:
Is there a spell check on this thing? (English not being my first language… my spelling is simply atrocious)
 
To partake in the divine nature does not mean we become gods. The finite and limited does not become the infinite and perfect being - can’t happen. This is the error the Mormons make - they thinks humans can become god and that God the Father was a finite human before he became God. This of course is absurd theology. What participation in the divine nature means is becoming like god in some ways because we are simply in His true presence, sharing in the beatific vision. The best analogy to describe it is the moonlight compared to sunlight. The light is enveloping us so much that we are getting a real sense of the divine presence and are even giving off some light ourselves but we are not the Source of light - only God is the Source.
 
I’d be cautious about watering down so central an element of Sacred Tradition. It’s better, I think, to explain carefully what “becoming gods” does not mean–it does not mean that we become objects of worship, it does not mean that we have existed from eternity, and it does not mean that we are “droplets” of God who lose our identity in Him. It means that by grace and adoption we become the same kind of beings God is, so that the divine life shines through us and is our life. Let’s not lose sight of the glorious paradox (yes, it is an oxymoron–what’s wrong with that?) of this. Let’s not over-rationalize it. We become by grace what God is by nature. There’s no backing away from that if we are to be orthodox Christians.

In Christ,

Edwin
 
Riley: that is a beautiful analogy!

Edwin: This not so much as watering down, but it needs to be clarified. You would be surprised how many Catholics believe this literally and erroneously.
 
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