The doctrine of deification or theosis has been gaining interest among scholars for some time. Yet most publications on the topic have focused on Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions and have subsumed the discussion under the category of soteriology. If "being transformed into the same image" (2 Corinthians 3:18) is truly essential to the Christian life, a fuller understanding of this biblical concept is needed for Christians of all traditions.In this vo...

Christians confess that Christ came to save us from sin and death. But what did he save us for? One beautiful and compelling answer to this question is that God saved us for union with him so that we might become “partakers of the divine nature” (1 Pet 2:4), what the Christian tradition has called “deification.” This term refers to a particular vision of salvation which claims that God wants to share his own divine life with us, uniting us to himself and transforming us into his l...

Current facts about Mormonism:Over 11 million members.Over 60,000 full-time missionaries—more than any other single missionary-sending organization in the world.More than 310,000 converts annually.As many as eighty percent of converts come from Protestant backgrounds. (In Mormon circles, the saying is, “We baptize a Baptist church every week.”)Within fifteen years, the numbers of missionaries and converts will roughly double.W...

In recent years, the disciplines of biblical studies and systematic theology have grown apart and largely lost the means of effective communication with one another. Unfortunately, this relational disconnect affects more than just these particular fields of study; it impacts the life of the church as a whole. The first St. Andrews Conference on Scripture and Theology brought leading biblical scholars and systematic theologians together in conversation, seeking to bridge the gap between the...