Calling all E. Orthodox...

[Columba]

If this post is in the wrong place, I will not offended if moderators move it.

To all E.O., please let me know if you are willing to help me with a serious problem re: non-Orthodox relatives. I really will appreciate any response...thanks. I'll explain if I get any responses to this post. It's driving me crazy. Thanks!

[spl_cadet]

FYI, I think that the only E.O. posters here aside from you are George Blaisdell and Tercel.

What's the problem with the non-Orthodox relatives? I might be an evil Latin, but I have a satanist brother, so I could probably help you a bit :tongue:

[Columba]

Hello!!! Thank you so much. LOL@ evil Latins...Yes I can talk to you! I didn't know if there were Latins here....I'm very new here...sorry!

I have LDS relatives that are simply driving me batty. Its becoming serious. Everytime there's a family get together, there is a discussion of how LDS ideas of "deification" are "based" upon the Patristic Fathers....they are always verbally spamming me...I've tried leaving the room. I've tried not engaging. I've tried talking to them and explaining the difference. They will not go away because in a very real sense I am "married" to them thru my spouse. I don't want to be harsh to them. This is not about "internet apologetics"...it's about facing real human beings across the dinner table! Can you help? I"ve told them that neither the RCC nor the Orthodox teach the version of apotheosis that they "claim" is "proof" that LDS teaching is true...I can't seem to get thru to them..
by the way they think I'm the heretic! LOL!
My husband is non-Orthodox...so he's no help! LOL Although he does defend me to them on a personal level, he doesn't know how to answer them either...
He's a Believer tho...Thanks for any input you might have!

[spl_cadet]

First answer: :heretic:

More realistic answer: Try grabbing/printing out the quotes and presenting them in context.

[Columba]

Thank you so much for understanding my problem! LOL! I saw by the little face that you really do understand! :) Thank you so much for that! it's a nightmare!

They just say the "Patristic fathers" and they never give me a name for who we are speaking of...I always ask "Who the hey said that????" And they say " St. so and so..."
It's often Iraeneus and Athanasius. The truth is, I'm not a scholar, like you guys here...I'm just a simple Orthodox Christian! They say, that St. Athanasisus said "As the son of God became Man, so man could become God"...well, yah, but he did not mean that people become "gods" in a separate sense of their own planets with their wives, procreating spirit babies forever...What do I do???

[spl_cadet]

Thank you so much for understanding my problem! LOL! I saw by the little face that you really do understand! :) Thank you so much for that! it's a nightmare!

They just say the "Patristic fathers" and they never give me a name for who we are speaking of...I always ask "Who the hey said that????" And they say " St. so and so..."
It's often Iraeneus and Athanasius. The truth is, I'm not a scholar, like you guys here...I'm just a simple Orthodox Christian! They say, that St. Athanasisus said "As the son of God became Man, so man could become God"...well, yah, but he did not mean that people become "gods" in a separate sense of their own planets with their wives, procreating spirit babies forever...What do I do???

Well, a fun thing I tried was playing philosophical games with them. If God needed to be raised up to become God, who was the first god?

The same section where Athanasius refers to theosis, he also states:
For Creation does not worship a creature.

For He has become Man, that He might deify us in Himself, and He has been born of
a woman, and begotten of a Virgin, in order to transfer to Himself our erring
generation, and that we may become henceforth a holy race, and 'partakers
of the Divine Nature,' as blessed Peter wrote.

It's quite clear that far from making us Gods, we are entered into union with God and so partake of His Divine Nature and are thus god-like in a certain sense.

[Columba]

You are awesome!!!! Thank you so much!!!! You will never know how much I appreciate this....I live with this wierd stuff daily! :)

LOL!