[Evangelical]

Certain individuals would like to make the claim that theosis is a heretical teaching. This is not the case. In fact I can show that even the reformer's Calvin and Luther believed in it.

If we look into the early church teachings, it becomes very clear that deification was a fundamental aspect of the doctrine of salvation.

I will start with a quote from Calvin:

Let us then mark, that the end of the gospel is, to render us eventually conformable to God, and, if we may so speak, to deify us. (Commentary 2 Peter 1:4)

This is taken from "The Institutes of the Christian Religion" by John Calvin.

Now I know that Calvin qualifies the term later, and its meaning is not quite the same as that used in the EOC, but so does Witness Lee. So why is Lee called a heretic and not Calvin?

Using published literature, I can also show that Lee's teachings are more Orthodox about theosis than many evangelicals (who deny theosis).

There are two main ideas found in the early church:
1. Jesus died so that man can become God
2. Even if man did not sin, Jesus still would have died for the purpose of making men God.

These ideas were never declared heretical by anyone. Even the reformers, Luther, Calvin and others did not say they were heretical.

Luther and Calvin both affirm the teaching of Athanasius or something very similar to it.

Gregory of Nazianzus was one of three Cappadocian Fathers who were instrumental in helping define the doctrine of the Trinity against heresies.

He wrote:

While His inferior Nature, the Humanity, became God, because it was united to God, and became One Person because the Higher Nature prevailed in order that I too might be made God so far as He is made Man.