As a missionary, I encountered a security guard at a hospital where the missionaries did regular weekly service. As we would walk by his post, he would ask us aloud, "How long does it take?" We thought this was strange; I said nothing. Other missionaries asked him what he meant while I and my companion were absent. His complete question was, "How long does it take to become a god?" At the time, I was uncertain about how to answer that question. Something like this quote came to mind: "When you climb up a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the Gospel—you must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you have passed through the veil before you will have learned them. It is not all to be comprehended in this world; it will be a great work to learn our salvation and exaltation even beyond the grave" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 348).
But my answer today would be significantly different. Not surprisingly, the Pharisees attacked Jesus for claiming divinity: "I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." Jesus then quotes to them from Psalm 82:6: "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?" (John 10:30-36).
Jesus' enemies (eager and ready to shed his blood at the time he was speaking) have the same reaction to the doctrine of man becoming divine that this security guard I met on my mission, though he was more physically genteel and civil towards us. Blasphemy. My response to him today would be the same as Jesus' response: WE ARE ALREADY GODS, technically speaking. Here is Psalm 82:6 in its entirety: "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High." Kittens ARE cats; they are just not fully developed cats. We ARE gods; we are the children of God, and so are poised to inherit with Christ. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together" (Romans 8:16-17).
A quick survey of humanity, rather than a survey of the scriptures, is the quickest way to cast doubt on the possibility of fully becoming like God, and I find it sad and strange to hear Christians unwittingly playing the role of the Devil (literally, "the Accuser") as they seek to break down what they view as a blasphemous assertion. In a video about C. S. Lewis' life, a panel of four LDS scholars, and one Baptist scholar, talked about Lewis' description of becoming like God. There was a subtle smugness in the Baptist scholar's demeanor when he asked the four LDS scholars to comment on how we can become like God through obedience. He seemed certain that he had stumped them. His view seemed to be that the main function of the Holy Spirit is to "convict" us in our hearts; to remind us of our unworthy and fallen state, our need for a Savior. This is a legitimate role of the Holy Ghost, but it is not the only role. It seems to me that many people imagine riding a wave of guilt into heaven. Recognizing our shortcomings and sins is the beginning of repentance, not the end.
Without even realizing it, this man had become a spokesman for Satan, who "accuse[d]...our brethren...before our God day and night" (Rev. 10:12). He, along with many contemporary Christians, revel in their lost and fallen state, happily and mistakenly abdicating the responsibility the scriptures places on the shoulders of those who are essaying to be disciples of Christ. They also mock and criticize any who take the mandate seriously. Jesus preached unceasingly that we should "sin no more" and do good; this scholar seemed glad that such an enterprise was unrealistic, perhaps because it absolved him of the difficult work of even trying to obey, or at least because it allowed him to present these Mormons as deluded.
There are levels of grace, gifts that allow us to accomplish the things the Lord has commanded. First, the Spirit will nudge us, and we feel guilt and sorrow for sin. Then we exercise faith in Christ, and repent—we stop doing the bad stuff, and begin doing good. Our own efforts will only take us so far in this mode; even if we had the willpower to quit cold turkey and "white-knuckle" our way through mortality, successfully resisting all temptations, we would still be unfit for heaven because the inhabitants of heaven are not tempted at all—it is not in their nature. The first shot of grace gives us strength beyond our own to resist the temptations that easily beset us. The longer we go in this state, keeping our behavior above the demarcation line between sin and obedience, the more apt we are at receiving more grace, because the effects of the Atonement are delivered to our hearts, minds, and spirits by the Holy Ghost. The final stage of grace is to have the desire for sin purged out of us. When this happens, our hearts are fit (fitted) to enter heaven.
"...Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters; And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God" (Mosiah 27:25-26).
I was told that artificial diamond makers can turn peanut butter into diamonds. Surveying the foibles and outright evil of humanity makes deification seem improbable, but we do not make ourselves into Gods. Our work is to show up and do what we are told with all our heart and a willing mind. This is a prerequisite to the change described above, but it does not negate the fact that Jesus effects the change; it is beyond human capacity or control. (We cannot even make one hair black or white.)
Eternal life is to know God and His Christ, and if the creeds have done one thing better than anything else, it is to obscure the true nature of God until He is beyond comprehension. Not so with Brother Joseph; he said that the FIRST principle of revealed religion is an accurate understanding of God's attributes. Not only is it possible to know about God, at least in a basic sense; that knowledge is mandatory to even begin a spiritual journey on the right foot, so to speak. The Baptist scholar I mentioned above seemed to revel in the incomprehensibility of God and Christ. In light of Jesus' statement in John 17:3, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent," such glorying in confusion is thoroughly un-Christian. Mercifully, this dispensation began when God and Christ manifested themselves to Joseph Smith in person, corporeal and separate, ending forever the confusion established by men.
When Joseph asked them which church to join, he was told, "...that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: 'they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof'" (JSH, 1:19). Not only did the "professors" have no clue about who Jesus and His Father were, but they denied their power. Professors still deny God's power to make us like Him. It is convenient to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in one sense—we have no fixed creed; everything is subject to whatever the Lord wants to tell us next. Building a fortress of sandbags to defend shoddy creeds has not only kept missiles of truth from properly demolishing them; it has also kept the builders trapped inside their bulwarks, unable to find an exit.
I wonder if the Lord allowed circumstances in C. S. Lewis' life to deteriorate to the point that he became an atheist for the purpose of divesting him of his Anglican creed, or any other creed. When Lewis experienced conversion back to Christianity, he was unencumbered by the temptation to defend a position. He brought a keen mind, as well as a blank slate, to his study of the Bible, and here is a sample of one conclusion he reached:
"...On the one hand we must never imagine that our own unaided efforts can be relied on to carry us through the next twenty-four hours as 'decent people.' If He does not support us, not one of us is safe from some gross sin. On the other hand, no possible degree of holiness or heroism which has ever been recorded of the greatest saints is beyond what He is determined to produce in every one of us in the end. The job will not be completed in this life; but He means to get us as far as possible before death...
"I find I must borrow . . . [a] parable from George MacDonald. Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way the hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.
"The command 'Be ye perfect' is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were 'gods' and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him—for we can prevent Him, if we choose—He well make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said" (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, pp. 173-74; quoted in Robert Millet, By Grace Are We Saved, pp. 87-8).
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Update, 29 August 2012
A recent anti-Mormon ad campaign on this very subject prompts this update. The gist of the campaign is that Jesus' command to be perfect like our Father in Heaven is designed to induce despair in us, and that it is a sin to try and keep the command. I take this as evidence that they have not experienced the great blessing of being strengthened beyond their own abilities to keep a commandment, nor have they experienced a change of heart, in which the desire for sin is "rooted out" of the heart.
As C. S. Lewis indicates, life itself contradicts the philosophy that all God wants from us is a declaration of faith in Him. Wrenching, testing, trials, problems, sickness, estrangement from friends, all continue to a lesser or greater degree after conversion. All but one of Jesus' twelve apostles was brutally killed. A Baptist minister, a neighbor of mine, suffered a stroke that left him unable to speak articulately, and my mother told me that his friends and congregation have largely shunned him. His problems are a contradiction of the idea that God stops making demands of us after we declare faith in Christ and accept Him as our Savior. Either God is sadistic, or pain is serving a purpose, and we are being prepared for more than arm-chair discipleship here, and drowsy drifting and harp-strumming in the afterlife.
The recommendation that we stop trying because Jesus has set the bar too high is reminiscent of the attitudes of various wayward and stubborn servants whom Jesus brings to life in His parables. Jesus cursed the fig tree for not producing any fruit; is this similar to what we can expect? If we bury our talent, will we receive a happy reception by Jesus when we stand before Him?
The Greek word for "perfect" found in Matt. 5:48 is teleios. Strong's Concordance gives us the following explanation:
"...(an adjective, derived from t̩los, "consummated goal") Рmature (consummated) from going through the necessary stages to reach the end-goal, i.e. developed into a consummating completion by fulfilling the necessary process (spiritual journey).
[This root (tel-) means "reaching the end (aim)." It is well-illustrated with the old pirate's telescope, unfolding (extending out) one stage at a time to function at full-strength (capacity effectiveness).]"
Notice the deeper meaning implied—goal, mature, consummated, process, spiritual journey. One of the assertions made by the ad campaign is that we are commanded to be perfect immediately. Our relationship with God as our Father, rather than our pet-owner or worm-cultivator, can shed light on the meaning of the command from Jesus in Matt. 5:48. Children are born with the innate, yet undeveloped, capacities and attributes of their parents. When an infant first attempts to walk, parents are overjoyed. Of course the child will fall. But the parents are delighted by the attempt to walk. Each successive attempt brings the child closer to being able to walk effortlessly.
Applying the logic employed by the ad campaign's author[s], parents would recommend that their children give up on walking, and lie in bed like jello while mother and father do everything for them because they are not yet able to walk. Jesus gave us a command because He intended us to become like our Father. The purpose of His Atonement was not to make our efforts unnecessary; it was (among many things) to keep our failing in the midst of our efforts from damning us. Damage done, laws broken, in the process of growth, are compensated for by Jesus. He will "sit as a refiner of silver." A refiner of silver heats the ore in the crucible until dross is burnt and He can see His own reflection in the molten metal. Life is similar—it is hard specifically because it is for our benefit, a first-class education away from our heavenly Parents.
The assertions made in the ad campaign can be harmonized with parts of the Bible, but not with the demands and rigors of life. A religion's teachings must be able to straddle both the intricate inner world of the scriptures, yet find practical application in the rough-and-tumble arena of life.
