Quote:
Originally Posted by zeek
How does theosis differ from Lee's GED? Or does it?
|
I don't know much about Lee's GED but I see that the Eastern Orthodox path to deification is different. I can be mistaken but from what I see, in the LRC you just need to be in the "body" and keep building the "body", reading Lee's books and recruiting new members, and then one day God will transform you because you stayed with the "crowd" till the end.
In the EOC, we don't need to build the "body" to be saved and transformed. It's mainly an inner work of repenting, turning away from sin, and committing ourselves to Christ + God's grace. Christian life is not about building an organization but about becoming a new creation in Christ. In the Orthodox Church, salvation is understood primarily as theosis, the infinite process of becoming more and more like God. Salvation is “faith working through love”, the restoration of the wholeness of God’s image in us, of the possibility of our union with God. It is the restoration of our original essence. Holy Tradition teaches that we will be saved when we become like Christ… Because of our faith in Him and our desire to become God-like, we are not so much saved all at once as slowly changed into the creatures we were created to be. Personal salvation is the restoration of our original communion with God. Through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit, man comes to living communion with God the Father Himself. There is no other meaning and purpose to the Church and to life itself.
http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/46463.htm
Another synonym for theosis is "acquisition of the Holy Spirit." Our task is to acquire the Holy Spirit, so that our bodies become true temples of God, bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit as listed in the fifth chapter of Galatians.
The Holy Spirit dwells in us at baptism. But then we may fall and sin. Nevertheless, God is not a tyrant and does not dishonor our free will. He does not take our life over after baptism and thus we still have choices in faith that can lead to life of darkness, meaning the Holy Spirit can withdraw from us if we act contrary to the will of God for the Spirit comes and goes as it pleases. Therefore, to receive the benefits of the Holy Spirit, that is the Gifts of the Holy Spirit we must act in a proper way in cooperation with God (Synergia).
The acquisition of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are described by St. Innocent of Alaska in "The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven":
"In summary, it is impossible to enter the Kingdom of Heaven or even come close to it without the assistance of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we should implore the Holy Spirit with all earnestness to come dwell in us and help us, just as He helped the Holy Apostles. In order for the Holy Spirit to be kind toward us, to descend and reside within us, it is important to know what draws Him to us and what pushes Him away.
Jesus Christ said that the Holy Spirit blows where it wills and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes (Jn. 3:8). This means that a person cannot force the Holy Spirit to come to him or predict the time when He may decide to do so. You can only feel His touch when this happens. Indeed, the book of Acts states that when the Holy Apostles and other Christians received the gifts of the Holy Spirit, it was always unexpectedly. He seldom descends immediately on those beseeching Him but does so when it suits Him, as God, to do so. No one should attempt to foretell when or what gifts, if any, he will receive or to consider himself worthy of His descent! The Grace of the Holy Spirit is a gift of His endless mercy. And gifts by definition are given when it suits the giver, and only those deemed suitable by the giver.
It is the Holy Spirit Himself Who established within the Church the means of distributing His blessings to the faithful: the Holy Mysteries and other liturgical services.
Anyone who considers asking the Holy Spirit for beneficial gifts must know that these gifts are meant only for those who possess true faith. Indeed, the Lord first of all enlightened the Apostles with the true doctrine and then bestowed upon them the Holy Spirit. Similarly, the Apostles did not bestow beneficial gifts upon newly baptized Christians immediately, but only after a certain period of testing and affirmation in the true faith. That is why the Lord called the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Truth, and His Church, the beatified community of the faithful, is called in Scripture the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15).
Therefore, when a Christian, humbly and obediently, has accepted Christ's faith in all its purity, without any corrections or misinterpretations, then the following are the requirements to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit:
Purity of heart and chastity
Humility
Listening to the voice of God
Prayer
Self-denial
Reading the Holy Scriptures
Sacraments of the Church, especially Holy Communion."
Another Orthodox saint, St Seraphim of Sarov, also said about the acquisition of the Holy Spirit:
"Prayer, fasting, vigil and all other Christian activities, however good they may be in themselves, do not constitute the aim of our Christian life, although they serve as the indispensable means of reaching this end. The true aim of our Christian life consists in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. As for fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christ's sake, they are only means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God."
St. Ignatius Brianchaninov speaks about the very same thing in his book, The Arena, written in 1867. Perhaps he was even inspired by St. Seraphim. But in any case, the teaching is this: the spiritual life doesn’t consist in keeping commandments and going to church and saying prayers and reading the Bible and fasting from certain foods. Those things are essential. They are absolutely important. Without them you just perish. But they are not the end in themselves. They are a means to an end. You do those things to open yourself to the grace of God. You do those things, so to speak, to attain to and to acquire the Holy Spirit. Perhaps even the word attaining might be better than acquiring. Acquiring looks as though it’s all in our power to get it. But to attain to the Spirit of God, to open oneself to it, to receive the gift, that is what all the ascetical practices of the Church are about.
http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts...y_spirit/print
In other words, man must come to be divine by sharing the being and life and action of God Himself. All of the attributes of divinity—as one saint put it—must become ours; eternal life, truth, goodness, holiness, purity, joy… all perfections summed up in the greatest which is Love. For God is Love! This is the meaning of life, and it is certainly possible for men to attain it. At least, once more, according to the Eastern Orthodox Faith.
PS St. Seraphim of Sarov: on the acquisition of the Holy Spirit:
http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/47866.htm