After studying the New Testament, what I see is what happened is the original New Testament Church is that the word Church in Greek is Ecclesia, which just means an assembly; so there was simply an assembly of "holy ones" (often translated saints in the NT), which meant they were made holy, that is holy beings through beginning a process of becoming deified: as basically persons that received God's divine DNA, as Frank Viola puts it: through God's fluid energy as spirit, which in Greek is the word pneuma (pronounced "nooma"), meaning literally wind or breath. From here on out I will use the word nooma instead of pneuma for ease of reading. This is why Jesus breathes the nooma (a divine fluid energy) into the disciples in John 20:22; and thus they began the process of being fully deified, kind of like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, in that the process was fully finalized at death and resurrection (which Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 15). This is why Paul says Christians will judge angels. I have quoted that scripture to many Protestants over the years and it is shocking how many don't even know about that verse. Or, 2 Peter 1:3-4, that says Christians partake of the divine nature, they seem to often be unaware of that as well. I think this is because Martin Luther had severe anxiety and was worried about living up to the monastic perfectionism in Catholicism, and so his concept of believe the right ideas in your head and you are instantly saved produced relief for him. Then other Protestants preachers made up ideas that are not in the New Testament, which they did to gain converts quicker with basically their manipulative turn or burn method and the altar call. The Christian Frank Viola discusses how all of this altar call stuff happened and how it's all pagan and not in the New Testament in his book, Pagan Christianity.
In the New Testament, what you are being "saved" from (rescued/delivered from) is the lineage of Adam (which makes you human and mortal) by being literally reborn into the lineage of the immortal Elohim/Gods: through Christ implanting his divine DNA into you. The Book of Mormon actually explains this in Mosiah 27: 25-26 (words in brackets my own for explication):
And the Lord said unto me: 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 [mortal] and fallen [Adamic] 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.
Here we see that it's becoming a new creature (a deified holy one/saint) that makes you inherit God's Celestial (Star-like) Kingdom, which is where "redeemed creatures" live with "celestial/starry bodies." So when you read LDS Scripture without the added "traditions" of the Brighamite sect, you learn that basically the "celestial kingdom" is really the realm of celestial/star-like divine beings: who are Jehovah and the Divine Elohim (Divine Beings), which includes angels/messengers and divinized Christians (called Theosis by The Eastern Orthodox Church).
The Holy Spirit as Sacred Breath and Exaltation as Transforming into a In-Breathed Body that Shines Goodness
There have been 300 page books written on this subject but I find the simplest way to have one rethink the word "spirit" and move away from a Platonic framework and more toward thinking about the "spirit" through the eyes of the original Christians, is to read the New Testament in a more literal translation; and for this I recommend The Unvarnished New Testament: A New Translation From The Original Greek by Andy Gaus (Translator).
When you read instead of the Holy Spirit, the more literal words Sacred Breath or Holy Breath, you get a whole different experience and meaning: as it moves you from the conceptual to the experiential, as you get a more sensory experience of the origional Christian experience; rather than it being all about conceptual ideas and beliefs after Greek philosophy entered more and more into the origiinal Christian fold.
There are a lot of scholarly books on how Paul incorporated Stoic philosophy into explaining the process of deification through the "sacred breath" or nooma. But the best source I have come acros, for understanding this quickly and simply is to listen to the YouTube podcast MindMatters, the episode titled That's the Spirit! The Stoic Philosophy of Pneuma.
When you listen to the podcast above on the nooma it makes sense of everything, and the Scriptures come alive; and you understand why the original LDS Doctrine which were The Lectures on Faith talk about the human-born Jesus and then Christians receiving the fullness of God's Spirit or Mind, glory and power, which were all synonyms for the nooma. This is why all LDS Scriptures speak of the nooma being shed forth, and you read about it being poured into people and people are filled with it, etc. This is because just as water fills a cup, they are being literally filled with God's divine fluid energy, his Divine Nooma (i.e. His divine Light, Glory, Intelligence, and D&A); so that we read that the LDS Christian's body is "filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things.” (D&C 88:67). So the nooma as a fluid material substance, carries God's Divine DNA and the Logos (his character and attributes), and overall divine nature, including his divine power: which is why the Book of Mormon speaks of God's infilling nooma also providing power to fight to defend one's loved ones; and fight and win as basically defenders of American democracy, defending one's freedoms and their country as a Christian (see: In the Strength of the Lord by John A. Tvedtnes); and empowers Nephi to shock his defiant siblings with divine power.
So what's really going on in the New Testament is the nooma (again, in Greek the word is "pneuma") is a literal fluid substance that is poured into Christians: that carries within it God's literal immortal divine DNA that begins the process of turning the Christian's mortal body into an immortal, shining, divine body; so that when you die you resurrect into a divine being and join God's Elohim (Divine Council). That is what the New Testament clearly says if you read several translations, especially literal translations and study a lot of books on the subject.
What this means for Protestants is that it's not about having the right ideas in your head, it's about a "mystical" experience at baptism and receiving the nooma. Since there's no way to objectively scientifically prove who had the nooma poured into them and who hasn't, it is a matter of faith or trust that when you were baptized it was poured into you. This is another reason why I don't accept the Brigamite sect claiming they can revoke someone's baptism, as if they can extract the nooma from someone like removing their blood by clicking buttons on their computers. I also don't accept the manipulative power plays of the Catholic Church either when they say you have to be a member of their Church to be saved/exalted. If you received the "sacred breath" (nooma) whether it's in the Mormon Church or the Catholic Church or a Baptist Church, that experience (what the Book of Mormon describes as the "baptism of fire"), began a noomatic transformation; and in my view, at that point it's between you and God, not some institution run by fallible men.
What this understanding of the Nooma means for me is it doesn't matter what particular Creed you believe in, whether you believe in the Catholic Trinity or Oneness Pentecostalism, or Catholic transubstantiation or the Protestant Sacrament, etc., the bare minimum or essentials, as I see it, is that you are baptized and took upon you the name of Christ.
I did that at 8 years old and I actually have a good memory and I remember taking it seriously; and so if there is a God, and I choose to believe there is, then the nooma was implanted into me and so I have within me growing a noomatic body; so I choose to believe that I will be a divine immortal being when I die. If the atheists are right on the other hand, and I were to choose to be atheist then I die and nothing happens, meanwhile I lived without meaning in life and had to embrace a life philosophy of unyeilding despair as an atheist; so I prefer to believe as it costs me very little and grants me a lot: as it not only provides meaning in life but I find it empowering and motivating to be a better person, to live up to the imagined Light infused in me; which itself comes back to me through my postive energy likely generating positive social feedback loops. So I can say I am born again, born of God, as the Bible and Book of Mormon puts it; and so I choose to believe that when I die that noomatically seeded body that is growing a new spiritual body in me will be the celestial body discussed in D&C 76 (which I will discuss in another post in this series).
Mormon Scripture (not the Brighamite sect's manuals) fits the New Testament best in my view. The Eastern Orthodox Church, which is a like the Catholic Church, is one of the oldest Christian churches in existence. The Eastern Orthodox Church also talks about deification and God's energy transforming you. See Theosis: Partaking of the Divine Nature image by Mark Shuttleworth. For a Protestant view of deification, see Shine As the Sun: C.S. Lewis and the Doctrine of Deification by Chris Jensen.
If you study the origin of Paul's concept of "saved by grace" what it really means is that in his first century culture there was the patron and the client, a wealthy patron (or benefactor) would be beneficent and provide resources to the client, freely without immediate expectation, but with the understanding in that culture that the client was to willingly reciprocate the favor at some point. So what Paul is saying is that God has donated to you his divine DNA, providing you abundant life, i.e. immortal divine life (see John 10:10), so with this abundant immortal Divine Life donated to you, you were supposed to be so grateful and appreciative that you return the favor willingly by simply loving others as God loved you. In other words, it's the law of reciprocation based on human nature, that we tend to reciprocate the energy given us. A child abandoned and abused is likely going to return that energy with abusive behavior; so what Christianity is doing, whether it's true or not, is embedding the psychology of God loves us and donated his divine nature so we could live forever among the Elohim/gods; and in our appreciation and gratitude the expectation is that we will live like God and imitate his generous character. In brief, it's a Because/Then dynamic, because he loved us we then ideally love others.
You do not earn this noomatic body among the gods because it has already been implanted into you through the nooma. This nooma was understood by the ancients as producing the kind of spiritual body that is just like the stars in the sky; and what do the stars in the sky do? They shine. This is why there are verses like let your light so shine and in Philippians 2:14-16 (NIV) we read that Christians are to "shine among [crooked people] like stars in the sky." Then in the Book of Mormon there is talk of shining bright fruit on a fruit tree. Meanwhile Jesus shows up in 3 Nephi with a smiling shining countenance. This is what is meant by, by their fruit ye shall know them. Meaning those who are truly appreciative and reciprocating the Divine Favor of being gifted a luminous noomatic body will let their light so shine as illuninating bodies of goodness, just like the stars in the sky shine. This is why in Revelation the city of God has no lights and it's just a gathering of noomatic bodies and Jehovah shining bright with their exalted bodies alone.
This is why I think the Book of Mormon is a unique contribution to Christianity; wherein, even if the Catholic and Protestant were to describe the Book of Mormon as non-literal pseudepigrapha, apocrypha, or midrash (or all of the above), The Book of Mormon provides metaphors for understanding this transformation to a noomatic body: through its emphasis on stories like light emitting shining stones in barges and a bright glowing tree that produces white-lighted shining fruit; and Jesus' countenance shining bright as he smiles upon people and heals them while others recieve His radiance and they in turn shine bright. I see it all as metaphors for the divine nooma producing shining bodies as transformed people experiencing the process of theosis: who are growing in goodness and justice/fairness and equitable relationships as a bright and shining prosperous people: the generative People of God (as God's Garden).
Back to blog series Restoring Theosis
