[Cal]

Here's another, more basic, issue I have with the whole LC mindset about deification and even our relationship with God in general.

The Greek Orthodox doctrine talks about the essences of God as opposed to the energies of God; or, as I understand it, what LCers would call the nature of God and the attributes of God. LCers are never satisfied with simply obtaining the attributes of God, that is, becoming like him. They feel the need to obtain the nature of God--to in some sense become him. This goes back to Witness Lee's whole emphasis on "life." He took "life" well beyond the biblical meaning and jumped to all kinds of metabolic conclusions about how eating and growth and becoming God fit together. His conclusion: simply being like God was not enough, we must become God in some ontological sense.

But think about what God is. Is he a nature, or a Person? And is it really "better" to become like him by getting his nature than through getting to know him and making conscious, moral decisions to follow him? I would say no.

Suppose I wanted to become a great golfer like Justin Spieth. What would really be more profound and meaningful: Just getting a DNA transplant from Spieth, and basically becoming him in nature, and automatically being like him? Or would it be more meaningful to make decisions and sacrifices to do things the way Spieth did, and by work and practice and discipline to become more like him?

Morally speaking there is no comparison. The latter is much more meaningful. Getting injections of Spieth's DNA, imbibing his nature, really takes little moral fortitude. But the everyday decisions and sacrifices to do what it would take to be like him gives the whole exercise great meaning.

Think about what would please God more. Is he really just all about getting his nature into us? Or is he about us consciously learning, deciding to be like him?

LCers have always been wrongheaded about the process of sanctification. Yes, we have the empowering of the Holy Spirit to help us. He is the wind beneath our wings. But we must still spread our winds and flap them. We must make the moral decisions day after day to follow and obey God. It is those conscious decisions that make what we do worthy of reward, not some "spontaneous, automatic" life process that was taking place unconsciously on our behalf.

The point is not to get injected with God's nature so that we become God. The point is to follow the path of conscious, moral decisions in fellowship with God which by doing so change us into something else--something so much like him that he calls us sons. Yes, in some sense having partaken of his nature, but still always remaining ourselves, otherwise there is no us to follow him anymore.

The point is relationship, not chemical process.

That to me is much more meaningful.