- The object is something that can be thought, like ideas, thoughts, etc. “He thinks deep thoughts” is perfectly fine, but “He thinks a house” is nonsense, because houses are not things that you can think.
- The object is a clause, optionally headed off by the subordinator that: “He thinks [that] it’s going to rain”.
- The object must have an object complement, and the meaning of think is then ‘consider to be’ or ‘regard as’ (in this construction, you can add to be before the object compliment with no change in meaning): “He thinks [= considers] himselfDO [to be] a magicianDO complement”.
As you can see, this doesn’t fulfil any of the requirements above. There is a simple object him. This is neither something that can be considered an ‘idea/thought process’, nor a clause, nor an object with a complement. If we add the clause that comes after, it becomes even worse—there are now two direct objects, which is not possible without a coordinator (like and):
Alternatively, the intended version may have been one with an object complement (as in requirement no. 3 above). Complements are essentially like clauses, but they are not clauses: they are kind of ‘declausified clauses’, and they don’t have subjects. The simplest way to make a complement out of a clause is to replace the subject and finite verb form with a corresponding infinitive. If that infinitive is to be, you can leave it out entirely. Thus, [that] he was divine becomes just [to be] divine (the subordinator can only be present with an actual clause, not with a complement).
