Chapter 20: DeificationPartakers of the Divine Nature

In brief

Did the early Christians believe that humans could become gods? Seaich shows that they did. Irenaeus taught that “Christ became what we are, that he might bring us to be even what he himself is.” Clement, Athanasius, Origen, and Hippolytus taught the same, and the idea was later summed up in the saying “God became man so that man could become god.” Seaich explains God’s “fulness” (plērōma), Origen’s distinction between ho theos (“The God”) and theoi (“gods”), and Lorenzo Snow’s couplet. He also shows that deification was part of Mormon belief from 1829 onward and was not invented in the King Follett Discourse.

This page summarizes Chapter 20 of Understanding Mormonism: The Restored Gospel of Christ and Its Biblical Foundations in Latter-day Saint Belief by Eugene Seaich (2026 Annotated Edition, edited by Eric Hendrickson). The summary is quoted from the book’s “In brief” and is editorial material, not the author’s words. The full chapter, with its notes and argument, is in the book.

Independent scholarship by Eugene Seaich. Not an official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.