Did Jesus Teach that We Can Become Gods?

 

I found the above short video in which Luke Wayne of CARM Ministries finds fault with the Latter-day Saint doctrine of the deification of man in these words:

“In his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, ‘You therefore must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.’ Many Latter-day Saints appeal to this passage, claiming that this teaches that we will be exalted to godhood; that what heavenly father is now, we can become—and in fact that we are commanded to do so, that it is our purpose, to attain to this perfection of God’s nature, to be like him in every way. Is this what Jesus was teaching here? …”

There are several issues with that. Firstly, the Latter-day Saint theology of deification—that men can become gods—is derived primarily from the modern scriptures of the Church, rather than from the Bible. We have additional scripture, apart from the Bible, that supports that theology. That is what sets apart The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from other churches—that it is led by revelation, and is able to add scripture to the Canon as the ancient church was able to do. That is its distinguishing feature. The fact that Luke Wayne doesn’t believe it is irrelevant. Secondly, although Latter-day Saint theology of deification is derived mainly from modern scripture, it also has support from the Bible, and Matthew 5:48 is not the primary biblical text that is used to support it. There are better biblical prooftexts that can be used to support that doctrine, such as the following:

John 17:

20 Neither pray I for these [the disciples] alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

If they are to be made “one” with the Father and the Son in the same way that the Father and the Son are one with each other, and even partake of the same glory that the Father and Son have, “deification” or theosis is the only credible, logical, theological explanation. Another scripture supporting that doctrine is the following:

2 Peter 1:

3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

“Partakers of the divine nature” means what it says. It does not have an ambiguous meaning that it should require clarification. Another scripture that supports that theology is the following:

1 John 3:

2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he [Jesus] shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he [Jesus] is pure.

If they are to become like Jesus (who is divine), even to the point of becoming pure as he is pure, deification or thesis is the most logical, theological explanation. Those are the scriptures on which the Early Church Fathers based their theology of deification, or theosis. All the Early Church Fathers, including the Apostolic Fathers, the Ante-Nicene Fathers, Post-Nicene Fathers, all the way down to Athanasius, Origen, Augustine and beyond believed in and wrote extensively on deification or theosis. Examples can be seen here. Latter-day Saints don’t believe anything that is unusual or unorthodox in the theology of the early Christian church. It is his theology in fact that is deviant, unbiblical, and unorthodox, and deviates from the teachings and beliefs of the early Christian church. 

The theology of the restored gospel does indeed teach that men can become gods; but the meaning of it is not as it is often misrepresented by the critics. In the theology of the restored gospel, deification is an expression of salvation and exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom of God. To be “saved” in the kingdom of heaven is to be “deified”. It doesn’t mean that we become supreme beings independent of God the Father and Jesus Christ. We will continue to worship them for the rest of eternity as our God. We don’t become “gods of our own planet,” as it is sometimes caricatured by the critics. But the doctrine is biblical without a doubt, and is amply testified of in the teachings and writings of the Early Church Fathers.