Deification of man

It's a pity sonship is hiding from this quote by Witness Lee, despite asking me to find it.

'Ultimately, the church is a group of people who are in union with the Triune God and are mingled with the Triune God. The Triune God and the church are four-in-one. Because the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all one with the Body of Christ, we may say that the Triune God is now the “four-in-one God.” These four are the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and the Body.'

'…In this way the believers become the reproduction, expansion, and physical continuation of the incarnate and incorporate Son of God and indeed the organism of the Triune God Himself.'

Witness Lee, A Deeper Study of the Divine Dispensing p.203-204

@Ghost-of-a-Duke

I don't know why starting a new thread will somehow give more credence to his criticism.

Now what does the New Testament say?

"Truly, truly I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it abides alone; but if it dies it bears much fruit." (John 12:24)

The issue here is that God did not want Christ to "abide alone".
Though He is surely unique God wanted Him to die and rise to multiply Himself.

This passage does not stress Christ's atoning death to shed His blood for forgiveness. That certainly is a vital part of His teaching. But here He is saying in some measure what He is He will re-produce in others. He would not abide ALONE. He would re-produce others LIKE Him.

Jesus was God-man. Jesus died and rose to release the divine life from within Him to produce many God-men as "much fruit".

Witness Lee just made some people angry by teaching what Jesus taught.

Ghost the Atheist who is against the ENTIRE Bible takes a break to cozy up along side some Christians who are shocked to hear that salvation is something other than just "going to heaven."

God's salvation includes His Son dying and resurrecting to re-produce many sons.
The God-man was sent to make many God-men.

@sonship said
@Ghost-of-a-Duke

I don't know why starting a new thread will somehow give more credence to his criticism.

Now what does the New Testament say?

"Truly, truly I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it abides alone; but if it dies it bears much fruit." (John 12:24)

The issue here is that God did not want Christ to [b]"ab ...[text shortened]... His Son dying and resurrecting to re-produce many sons.
The God-man was sent to make many God-men.

@Ghost-of-a-Duke

How is a four-in-one God not a deification of man?

Why are you hiding from this question? Why are you trying to sneak man into the Trinity?

Why are you trying to sneak man into the Trinity?

At any rate this is a matter of the saved being PERFECTED into oneness. God works it out so that by the time of the eternal age it is completed.

"And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one.

I in them, and you in Me, that they may be PERFECTED into one, that the world may know that You have loved them even as You have loved Me." (v.22,23)

The divine "Us" is the Godhead Father and Son. And the church is the dispensing of the Father and the Son through the Spirit into man that "they may be one even as We are one."

"I in them" that is the Son in the believers.
"and You in Me that is the Father in the Son Who is in the believers.
"that they may be one even as We are one" - what a mingling. What a blending. What an incorporation of the Triune God into man and man deified.

Did Witness Lee mean the four-in-one usurps the Trinity becoming now an additional object of worship? Going back to the 1970s a portion of our rebuttal is seen below.

The first hint of the context is the title of the chapter. Chapter Five is entitled, “The Oneness of the Church.” The context of this discussion is not the nature or components of the Godhead, rather the nature of the oneness of the church. What is this oneness? The portion in question is in a section headed, “The Unity of the Spirit.” So one might expect that the oneness of the church is related to the unity of the Spirit. Reading on, we find the third paragraph begins, “The oneness of the church is nothing but the Triune God, the very God in three Persons dispensed into us for the forming of the Body” [Italics supplied for emphasis]. Here you have the triune God in three Persons forming the body. One works on the other – subject and object. Are they four parts of the Godhead? Of course not! They are two distinct things. Immediately following the quote in question, the text says, “How is all of this possible? How can the Triune God be one with the Body? It is only by faith and baptism.” Does it sound like the body is part of the Godhead? Does the Son have to have faith and be baptized to be one with the Father and Spirit? Ridiculous! Obviously, he is speaking of something besides the oneness among the members of the Godhead. The context rules out the Bible Answer Man’s interpretation.

@sonship said
@Ghost-of-a-Duke

How is a four-in-one God not a deification of man?

I didn't say four-in-one was not the deification of the saved.

Why are you hiding from this question? Why are you trying to sneak man into the Trinity?

There is no need to hide from John chapter 17.

For an atheist you sure are worried about it.

@sonship

'…In this way the believers become the reproduction, expansion, and physical continuation of the incarnate and incorporate Son of God and indeed the organism of the Triune God Himself.'


Do you stand by this heretical nonsense? Isn't it because of men like Witness Lee that God scattered mankind over the world?

'“Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves."

Lee described a four-in-one God, where man muscles his way into the Trinity. Do you agree with this non-biblical babble?

3. The error of the wrong interpretation of Witness Lee’s writings. The speaker and his associates claim that it took them hundreds of pages of wading and documentation to come up with the fact that the Holy Spirit is in the process of becoming the church so that the church ends up as God. What was conveyed to the public was that Witness Lee believes in a pantheistic evolution into God. This is a subtle accusation under the guise of having read Witness Lee’s writings. The speaker and his associates have not interpreted Witness Lee in the way these truths were intended. The Christian public has been deceived by the speaker’s false presentation of Witness Lee’s belief in the Triune God and His relationship to the church.

@Ghost-of-a-Duke

'…In this way the believers become the reproduction, expansion, and physical continuation of the incarnate and incorporate Son of God and indeed the organism of the Triune God Himself.'

Do you agree with this non-biblical babble?

@sonship said

Do you agree with this non-biblical babble?

It appears Ghost started this thread hoping to get some backup.
Maybe he is waiting for atheist comrades to encourage him.

No matter.
There is nothing in Christ's salvation which reduces His absolute uniqueness as God become a man, the Second of the Trinity.

But before the foundation of the world, ie. ...[text shortened]... E Son to brothers conformed to His image (Rom. 8:29)
BUT NOT addition to the Godhead.

@sonship

Take some time out. Pray on it.

@Ghost-of-a-Duke

seeking to 'literally' deify himself, squeeze into the Godhead.