Okay, having spent the last several years being steeped in LC doctrine, this in particular is a point I still feel confused about. I need to "get clear" about this.
I talked with a non-LC brother about this a little bit recently but I also did not feel his view adequately satisfied me.
In the LC we were taught that Jesus, as the living bread, wanted us to eat Him (okay, so far we're on-target scripturally) as our food and supply. Then, through continual feeding, we would eventually "become Christ" in the same way that someone who eats a lot of bread... becomes bread? Okay, it's true that we are the Body of Christ, and we are in Christ, but this simplistic view that we were supposed to "become Christ in life and nature... but not the godhead" is pretty weird. Unfortunately I feel like I have been so hammered with this idea that I find it difficult to reconcile with the more orthodox Christian ideas about what being "in the Body" really means, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diviniz...28Christian%29
There's also the matter that these types of ideas are not a new thing, although the way they were presented by Church members in the past was not exactly what was presented by Lee, either. But at any rate, the idea of deification, divinization, theosis, whatever you want to call it... is not new and there is a good deal of scriptural leeway for interpreting it in many different ways. The Protestant approach seems to be largely "ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist/is heretical", while the least eyebrow-raising variety of thinking there is something to it seems to be believing that:
Quote:
The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were "gods" and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him—for we can prevent Him, if we choose—He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said.
- C.S. Lewis
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This actually makes sense to the extent that Jesus both declared that in resurrection we would be like angels, and that in Revelation, John saw an angel and fell down to worship it. Of course the angel immediately told him to knock it off and stop worshiping anything that wasn't God Himself. This seems like maybe the most critical element, at least to me, of this whole messy subject. You do not become like God by wanting to "be God". You become like God by loving Him and beholding Him.
I'm just curious what different interpretations or rebuttals of these kinds of ideas exist here on a board of ex-LC members and the varying stances that others have taken about this line of thinking.
(Edit: Gah, had to adjust this post when I reflected on it and caught myself in a mental trap. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be
like God - there is definitely something questionable about wanting to
be God. Adjusted.)