Arsenios,
I would hope you actually agree that we cannot know things as God knows things. Hence, a bit of pre-reading is in order:
http://heidelblog.net/2009/02/what-can-we-know-and-how/
AMR
Here is a quote from the article:
To be an image bearer is to be like God, it is not to be (or become) God. If we are or become God, then we’re not image bearers any longer are we? An image bearer is an analogue. It’s like the sacraments. The sacraments are not salvation themselves, they are signs and seals of salvation. The Passover supper was not the actual deliverance out of Egypt, it was a sign and seal of deliverance.
The first sentence is false, because Satan did not destroy Adam, but only enslaved him with death... The fact is that he did not destroy the image of God in man, but he WOUNDED it without destroying it. The result is that we are ALL in the Image of God, but the LIKENESS is darkened and degraded...
And while the author is right, in that we do not become God, we can become GODDED by God, and in this we regain significantly the likeness of the Image in which God created us... Paul calls it an "earnest"... Glorification is the Divinization of man by God.
"And these He also glorified..."
So that the Image was darkened in the loss of the likeness in the fall of Adam, because now death is the shadow in which we walk, and we do both good and evil, which makes us evil in God's eyes...
The "sacraments" are not "signs and seals of salvation" - They are Holy Mysteries that treat the sickness of our souls by the healing presence of God... The Good Samaritan gave Wine and Oil to treat the half-dead man grievously wounded by demons on the road, and then He took him to the Inn, and instructed the Inn-Keeper there to continue the healing from his injuries... The Church is the Hospital of our souls, where the mendicants of Salvation are given to the wounded... And when they heal, they are Justified, and whom God Justifies, these He also Glorifies... But Justification, the healing from the doing of sin, comes first, and the latter is Salvation in this life - "I will drink of the Cup of Salvation, and call on the Name of the Lord..." The two are linked, and those who imagine themselves "saved" because Christ pulled them out of the gutter of sin err, because they have only been called and bandaged, and are now ready for the healing that comes AFTER they enter the Inn [Church]...
And the Passover Meal was not a Sign of their deliverance from the bonds of Egypt - It was PREPARATION for it, for the fasting they would undergo in their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness...
So the bottom line of all this is that in Christianity, and the more-so in Christ, to KNOW is to BE... One knows one's brother by becoming him - Empathy is the TYPOS, and God gives to us the actual becoming, and those to whom He has given it are called God-bearers... Where their very shadow can pass over the sick and heal them... Or an article of clothing... Walking in works fore-ordained unto them from before the world was created...
To know is not to have thoughts about, but to BE...
Knowledge is not an intellectual grasp of, but an ontological entry into, the thing known...
So I guess I could SAY that I am "always angling toward" this great IDEA that I have ABOUT theosis or divinization in my postings here, and it is sort of true I reckon... But western Christianity under the Latins and their scholasticism, and the Reformers under their neo-scholasticism, has devolved into a glut of isms that nobody cares about except the gifted intellectuals who hold themselves above the rabble of the hoi polloi, imagining that the best ideas will eventually prevail...
To these the Orthodox Faithful sing:
Let God arise!
Let His enemies be scattered!
Let them that hate Him flee...
From before His Face!
Thank you for being my friend here...
And please keep me in your prayers...
Arsenios