Was Martin Luther a Mormon? Part 5 of…
I have been reading a lot and have just now started to make my rounds on the internet. I was surprised to see that a Mormon commenter on Mormon Coffee made a comment about Martin Luther. I felt compelled to answer and continue with my posts.
Theosis, deification, glorification, divinization are all words used in Christianity to explain the resurrection of the elect and the union with God that is made possible by the grace of God. Simply it is the last step in the ordo salutis (order of Salvation). As with all of Christian theology there is nothing simple about theosis. The term theosis is connected to the Orthodox Churches but the doctrine of deification is part of traditional Christian belief despite the fact that our traditions use different language to express it. Based on 2 Peter 1:4 and other texts it is the doctrine that the elect will be united with God. This union will be consummated in the resurrection and the “divine” nature of our new bodies allowing us to become united with God and to truly reflect the image of god as we were created before the fall, but in a glorified state.
Mr. Tvednes, in his piece “Will the Real Martin Luther Please Stand up” is not the first Mormon to find a connection to the Christian belief in deification to the Mormon belief that men can become gods. Stephen Robinson, Daniel Peterson, and Stephen Ricks have all presented various theories regarding deification and Mormon theology particularly to eternal progression.
In a 1526 sermon Martin Luther preached, “God pours out Christ His dear Son over us and pours Himself into us and draws us into Himself, so that He becomes completely humanified and we become completely deified and everything is altogether one thing, God, Christ, and you.”‘ Clearly Martin Luther sees a connection between the incarnation of Christ, the second person of the Trinity, to the ultimate realization of glorification of the elect. And this is the problem that all of the Mormons have when they try to understand theosis, deification, glorification, divinization etc. Not believing in the Trinity their presuppositions lead them to think that any Christian theologian that refers to a glorified body and union with God must believe in eternal progression of man into God.
A correct understanding of the nature of God and of man is necessary to understanding what Luther or for that matter Athanasius of Alexandria mean when they say something like, “The Son of God became man, that we might become god.” If you understand that man and God are ontologically different then you will not become confused into thinking that man will eventually become ontologically the same as God. It is not possible for man to become a God. Just as the nature of God, His divinity, was not changed or lost when Christ became flesh in the incarnation, our nature as the creature of God will not change when we become glorified.
Concordia Theological Seminary has an excellent article on deification and Luther. This article also provides a review of recent studies coming out of Finland and conversations with the Russian Orthodox Church. It is a long Document so if you are in a rush jump to pages 5-7, this will cover the highpoints. This is the same article quoted by Mr. Tvednes uses in his paper. I quote briefly from pages 5-6,
To avoid any pantheistic misunderstandings, it is necessary to see that “deification” applies first of all to the flesh of the incarnate Son of God Himself. It is simply a traditional way of putting what Lutherans now call the second genus, or the genus maiestaticum [doctrine of the twofold state of Christ] , of the communication of attributes.
Mr. Tvednes must have missed this when he quoted from the article. I do recommend that you read the entire article because it does go to show how much different denominations actually have in common, and how we miss it with our language barriers.
Clearly, if it is his intent, to prove that Martin Luther believed anything close to the Mormon doctrine of eternal progression Mr. Tvednes must show more than that Luther believed that man would be resurrected with a new glorified body at the second, coming into a union with God. He should also be able to demonstrate that Luther believed God progressed to His state of Godhood. He should also be able to demonstrate that Luther believed that the gap between the uncreated and eternal God of Christianity and his creature, man, could be bridged.
Irrational, therefore, in every respect, are they who await not the time of increase, but ascribe to God the infirmity of their nature. Such a person know neither God nor themselves, being insatiable and ungrateful, unwilling to be at the outset what they have been created – men subject to passion; but go beyond the law of the human race, and before that they become men, they wish to be even now like God their Creator, and they who are more destitute of reason than dumb animals insist that there is no distinction between the uncreated God and man a creature of today. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 4:38:4)
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