Expert: George A. Card,sfo, M.I - 4/12/2004

Question
Hi, I am a Catholic and am having a friendly debate with some Momon friends of mine. I don't know how to answer them when they say early church fathers supported the theory of man becoming gods. I know this is not what the father's were implying but I don't know how to explain this to them. I have quoted the CCC below to show you what i am talking about. Thanks for your help.

460 The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature":"For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God." "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God." "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods."

Answer
                       Peace

Dear Michael Vargo,

  Below is part of a mini study, I wrote for an on-line study I did with friends I chat with at yahoo. I will be writting a paper on the quote "partakers of the divine nature" in the near future. Check back with me in a few weeks.
   Since they claim the Father also progressed to have glorifed body, it might be of some use.

                Your servant But His First
                    george card

ps: part of the mini study---

Does the “Word of God” teach a form of anthropomorphism, that is: God the Father has a body of “flesh and bones”? The Catholic says no, the Mormon says yes. The answers to that question will be explored and other questions pertaining to the Heavenly Father in this article.
The following quotes I believe state the Mormon position briefly and clearly:
The Father has body flesh and bones tangible as man's; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us. (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22-23.) 1

    "The Father is a glorified, perfected resurrected, exalted man who worked out his own salvation by obedience to the same laws he has given to us so that we may do the same"2  

The regional Council of Toledo XI in 675 declare the following and asked the bishop of Rome, Pope Adeodatus to confirm its canons of doctrines and disciplines, which he did:

…of these three persons we believe that for the liberation of the human race only the person of the Son became true man without sin from the holy and immaculate Virgin Mary, from whom He is begotten in a new manner and by a new birth; in a new manner, because invisible in divinity, He became visible in flesh; by a new birth, however, is He begotten, because inviolate virginity without the experience of sexual intercourse supplied the material of human flesh made fruitful by the Holy Spirit

Arguments

Mormons (and other Anthropomorphites): argue that man is made in the physical image of God (Gen. 1:26-27) and point to verses that refer to the strong right arm of God, the eyes of God, and so forth.

The Catholic maintains that God the Father didn't begin with or later obtained a body of “flesh and bones” it at a later date.
        Following is a summary of their position:

1.   First, the image of God we bear is an aspect of our rational soul that separates us from animals (the function that the image plays in Genesis 1 is to separate humans from the animals God has just created).

2.   Second, talk in the Bible about God's strong right arm, his eyes, and such is metaphorical language concerning God's power and knowledge. This can be seen by the fact that the Bible also speaks of God as having feathers and wings; yet even the Anthropomorphites would not go this far (cf. Ps. 91:4-"He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge").

3.   Thirdly, Anthropomorphites maintain their doctrine in defiance of verses, such as John 4:24, where Jesus teaches us: "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." This means God has no body, because a spirit is, by nature, an incorporeal being. As Jesus tells us elsewhere, "a spirit has not flesh and bones" (Luke 24:39).

Footnotes
1.   Doctrine and Covenants, is one of the four volumes that form the “Standard Works” which consitutes, the written Word of God for the Mormon Church today. Here after D&C for citition purposes.
2.   (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, pg. 64/ LDS Apostle Bruce Mc Conkie)