Creation, Satanification, Regeneration, Deification Part 3: Regeneration for Deification, Regeneration as Deification by Ron Kangas s a book concerned with Christ as the center of first step in God’s organic salvation (followed by sanctifi- AGod’s administration according to His economy (1:1; cation, renewing, transformation, conformation, and 5:6), John’s Revelation refers frequently to the throne of glorification). Thus, we have three terms of crucial signif- God and to God as the One sitting on the throne. icance—creation, regeneration, and deification. “Immediately I was in spirit; and behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and upon the throne there was One Regrettably, God has an enemy, Satan the devil, who sitting; and He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and defies Him, opposes His purpose, and contradicts His a sardius in appearance” (4:2-3). Here we see the throne will (Isa. 14:12-14). The satanic will is set against the of divine authority, the throne on which the redeeming divine will, and the devilish counterplot, against the eter- God is sitting (22:1) to carry out His administration by nal plan and purpose of God. As a result, there exists in exercising His sovereignty over everyone and everything. the universe a conflict of wills, the conflict between the God’s throne is not only for God to reign but also for will of God and the will of Satan. Spiritual warfare has its God to accomplish His eternal purpose (Eph. 1:9, 11; source in this conflict between the divine will and the 3:11; Rom. 8:28), which is intrinsically related to His satanic will. In his perverse attempt to thwart God’s will will. Speaking of the will of God and conjoining God’s and to counteract God’s purpose in creating humankind, will to God’s creation, Revelation 4:11 says, “You are Satan, at the time of the fall of humanity, injected him- worthy, our Lord and God, to receive the glory and the self as sin into man’s tripartite being, corrupting the body, honor and the power, for You have created all things, and transmuting the soul, and deadening the spirit. In this because of Your will they were, and were created.” As a way the devil, an evil father (John 8:44), engendered a God of purpose with a will according to His good pleas- race of his own children, serpents sired by the ancient ure (Eph. 1:5, 9, 11), God created all things for His will serpent and the same as their devilish father in life and that He might accomplish and fulfill His purpose. The nature. The process by which the creatures of God universe with all things therein was created because God became children of the devil is denoted by the expression has a will. God’s will, as unveiled in Ephesians and satanification. Now there are four matters requiring our Romans, is to have a corporate expression of Himself in attention—creation, satanification, regeneration, and Christ as the firstborn Son of God with the believers as deification—matters that we began to consider in the the many sons of God. Whereas we all are God’s crea- first two articles in this three-part series—“Creation for tures by creation, the believers in Christ, God’s chosen Regeneration” and “Satanification and Its Nullification.” and redeemed people, become sons of God through regeneration. If God’s purpose is to be carried out, cre- n the first article we pointed out that the Triune God ation must be followed by regeneration, through which Icreated humankind in His image and according to His creatures of God become children of God. As we shall likeness for His corporate expression. In Genesis 1 there attempt to point out in this article, regeneration is for is the potential for the corporate expression of God, and deification—the process by which the believers in Christ in Revelation 21 and 22 there is the reality of this expres- become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead sion. The only way a human being created by God can and not as objects of worship. Not only is regeneration for express God is to receive the life of God through regen- deification—regeneration is deification, at least as the eration by God and then continue to become God Volume VII No. 2 October 2002 71 through deification. This great Misunderstandings concerning divine endeavor is opposed and Regeneration attacked by God’s enemy, whose evil objective is to make human Before God’s purpose In order to see that regeneration is beings the same as he is in his sin- for deification and that regenera- ful life and nature. Satanification in creation can be tion actually is the beginning of specifies the process of Satan’s deification, we must have an accu- making the man created by God realized through rate understanding of regenera- for His divine expression a consti- regeneration tion. Sadly, even tragically, there is tution of Satan for his devilish widespread misunderstanding con- expression. Before God’s purpose and deification, there cerning the meaning and signifi- in creation can be realized through cance of regeneration. Some regeneration and deification, there must be a nullification examples of erroneous or inaccu- must be a nullification of satanifi- of satanification. rate teaching concerning regenera- cation. This took place through the tion require attention. death of Christ on the cross as the This took place One who, fulfilling the type of the through the death of An Inner Re-creating of Fallen bronze serpent (John 3:14), came Human Nature in the likeness of the flesh of sin Christ on the cross. and was made sin on our behalf Regeneration or, new birth, is an (Rom. 8:3; 2 Cor. 5:21) so that sin inner re-creating of fallen human might be condemned and the devil nature by the gracious sovereign might be destroyed (Heb. 2:14). action of the Holy Spirit. (Jn. 3:5- The Son of God has been mani- 8) Regeneration in Christ changes fested to destroy the works of the the disposition from the lawless, devil (1 John 3:8). Now with His God-less, self seeking, (Rom. 3:9- accomplished, judicial redemption 18; 8:7) which dominates man in as the righteous basis, God can dis- Adam, into one of trust and love, of pense Himself into His chosen and redeemed people as repentance for past rebelliousness and unbelief, and lov- their life for their regeneration and deification, leading to ing compliance with God’s law henceforth. (Modern a glorious consummation—the New Jerusalem, the ful- Reformation 28) fillment of God’s will, as His eternal habitation for His satisfaction and expression. As a testimony of the victory his definition of regeneration is a natural human con- of God and the defeat of His enemy, at the end of T cept, one contrary to the divine revelation. This Revelation the devil is hurled into the lake of fire, and the erroneous thought takes fallen human nature, not God’s New Jerusalem comes down “out of heaven from God, eternal purpose, as the point of departure and then having the glory of God” (21:10-11). In this way, Satan’s defines regeneration as the mere re-creation of our fallen plot is foiled, and God’s purpose is fulfilled. Taken as a nature. In this view, regeneration is nothing more than a unit, this paragraph summarizes the thesis of this three- restoration of human nature to its original created condi- part series of articles. tion; nothing is said concerning the receiving of the divine life, the most crucial element in the new birth. Another ach part has its own subthesis, its basic and controlling mistake is connecting regeneration to compliance with Ethought. The thesis of Part 1 is that the creation of God’s law, thus making the law of God rather than the humanity in the image of God was for regeneration by the life of God the main criterion. Accordingly, regeneration life of God for the corporate expression of God. The the- is defined as reformation and not as a new birth in which sis of Part 2 is that Satan, in his craftiness, devised a one becomes a new species, a child of God. This kind of strategy to ruin humankind by injecting his evil life and understanding distracts believers from God’s economy to nature into humanity, thereby satanifying everyone. But self-improvement or moral development, thus frustrating through the incarnation and redemptive death of Christ, the growth of God within the members of the Body of God in Christ has defeated Satan and nullified his agenda Christ. of satanification. The thesis of Part 3 is that, with redemp- tion as the solid, unshakable foundation, God is now free, Mere Analogy according to His righteousness, to regenerate and thereby begin to deify His redeemed, justified, reconciled elect. “Spiritual birth cannot be strictly and literally the same in This regeneration for deification and regeneration as deifi- nature and mode with natural birth. It must be a mere cation will fulfill God’s purpose in creation. analogy” (Webb 184-185). “Mere analogy,” not a divine 72 Affirmation & Critique reality: what a grievous departure from the Word of God! would have been mentioned and the new principle and Claiming that spiritual birth, regeneration, does not dynamic defined in relation to it. involve an actual birth through which the life and nature of God are imparted to those who believe into Christ, this egeneration is not restoration—regeneration is a new statement denies the biblical truth that the believers have Rcreation in which one receives the divine life and actually been born of God to become children of God pos- becomes a person different from the humanity both in sessing the life and nature of God.