Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Theosis as Being Given the "Holy Ghost, Like Unto Christ"

2 Nephi 31: 12 reads (emphasis added):

… the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the holy ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which you have seen me do.


I read this as the Father gives the fulness of glory (divine nature) through the holy Ruach, like unto ["similar to, resembling" (1828 dictionary)] His glory (the image of Christ), see Lectures on Faith 5 and 7. Compare John 7:38-39 TLV, quoted below:


38 Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture says, ‘out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” [a] 39 Now He said this about the Ruach, whom those who trusted in Him were going to receive; for the Ruach[b] was not yet given, since Yeshua was not yet glorified.


Footnotes: 

[a] cf. Isa. 44:3, 55:1, 58:11; Ezek. 47; Zech. 14:8.

[b]Some mss. read Holy Spirit (Heb. Ruach ha-Kodesh).


Christ is a glorified being with the divine fulness of the Father, as Mosiah 15 and the Fifth Lecture explains; so that for one to receive the sacred Ruach (Breath; Wind) is to receive the same divine fulness like unto (similar to) Christ and His divine nature. This is why in the Gospel of John, Christ breathes on his disciples and says to receive the sacred breath.