Possible. But according to the Bible, even untill the end of time, or Jesus' second advent, there will still be people who will remain faithful and obedient to God's will, and therefore, consistent with Biblical teachings, commandments and prohibitions. These people are the ones who will receive the Life that God had promised them.
Im judging no one, Prince. I am reading the Bible. And the Bible is telling me that there will be people (the true followers of Christ, not the Catholics - who are Idolaters... not the Protestants - who refute the importance of the Church) who will approach Him when He comes back... to receive the promise of God.
To remain ON TOPIC, I hereby say that:
The Catholics DISOBEY Jesus when He Himself prohibited His people not to call any man your "Father".
It is a fact, which I presented at the beginning of this thread.
Now refute that fact, Prince, for the sake of argument.
And prove it with much reliable facts - not just a nonsense side-comment.
🙂
Originally posted by Jury
Im judging no one. I am reading the Bible. And the Bible is telling me that there will be people (the true followers of Christ, not the Catholics - who are Idolaters... not the Protestants - who refute the importance of the Church) who will approach Him when He comes back... to receive the promise of God.To remain ON TOPIC, I hereby say that:
The Catholics DISOBEY Jesus when He Himself prohibited His people not to call any man your "Father".
It is a fact, which I presented at the beginning of this thread.
Now refute that fact, for the sake of argumant.
And prove it with much reliable facts - not just a nonsense side-comment.🙂
why don't you remove the blinds that shield your eyes from the truth, and seek the truth from both ends.
“And call no man your Father…”
Matthew 23:9
“Catholics rightly, therefore call the priest ‘father’, not to the exclusion of their Father in heaven, but as a manifestation on earth of the supreme Fatherhood of God in the spiritual order, even as an earthly parent is a similar manifestation of that same Fatherhood in the natural order.”
- Rev. Leslie Rumble
Another Thousand Radio Replies
p. 75
Catholic priests are called “Fathers” although they are forbidden to marry and are thus theologically forbidden to have children. They are called fathers in spite of the biblical prohibition which we can read in Matthew 23:9. Catholic authorities assert that a priest is a spiritual father like God who is the Father of spirits.
1. What does the term “father” mean? When is a man called “father”?
2. How is God a “Father”?
3. What fatherhood did Jesus mean when He prohibited the use of the term “father” as a reference to any man?
Let’s answer those questions one at a time.
1. What does the term “father” mean?
When is a man called “father”?
father (n):
(a) he who begets a child, the nearest male ancestor, a male parent
(b) a forefather or forebear, a lineal male ancestor, the progenitor of a race or family
(c) oldest member of any profession or body, a leader or head of the community
(d) one who creates, invents, makes, originates, or composes anything, the author, former, or contriver, a founder, director, or instructor, the first to practice any art
======
Sources: Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, Webster’s Dictionary
=======
By the given sets of meanings above, we can determine which fatherhood did Christ mean when He prohibited the use of the term “father” in reference to any man in Matthew 23:9.
(a) The first set of meanings is not what our Lord Jesus Christ alluded to in Matthew 23:9, because in Matthew 15:4 God commanded, “Honor thy father and mother…” In this verse, the father to be honored is not the same “father,” which is forbidden to be called on any man in Matthew 23:9.
(b) The second set is not referred to in Jesus’ prohibition, because this is where the fatherhood of Abraham belongs. Abraham, as we all know, is called the father of the Israelites.
(c) The third set is apparently not referred to by our Lord Jesus Christ as prohibition since this fatherhood is alluded to the leaders of our communities. The senators of ancient Rome were called by this term. They were called “Conscript Fathers”. The term is also used to mean the legislators of any nation or state (e.g. city dads).
(d) The fourth set of meanings is not what Christ had in mind in Matthew 23:9, since this term is commonly applied to philosophy, science and art; such as father of epic poetry (Homer), father of printing (Gutenberg), the pilgrim fathers, among others.
Some application of the term “father” is used as personification or grammatically figurative like “Fathers of Waters” to refer to the Mississippi River, “Father Time” where time is personified as a very old man carrying a scythe and an hourglass, a phrase “gathered into one’s fathers” which means to die.
These meanings are NOT in the statement of Christ’s prohibition.
2. How is God a “Father”?
In an all-embracing sense, He is the Father because He is the Creator of all things. Isaiah stated:
“But now, O LORD, thou art our Father,
we are the clay, and thou our potter;
and we all are the work of thy hand”
Isaiah 64:8
The Prophet Malachi also said:
“Have we not all one father?
Hath not one God created us?…”
Malachi 2:10
God is also our spiritual Father or “Father of spirits”:
“Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us,
and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be
in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?”
Hebrews 12:9
In a narrower sense, God is Father to His chosen people who are specifically referred to as the children of God. He is “a Father to Israel” (Jeremiah 31:9). We know that Israel was God’s chosen people in the Old Testament of the Bible.
God is Father to the Christians in the New Testament. Christians are those who receive Christ and are given the power to become sons of God:
“But as many as received him,
to them gave the power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on his name”
John 1:12
Catholic priests, on the other hand, who are called “fathers” by their followers, justify this by saying that since Apostle Paul called Timothy “my own son” (I Timothy 1:2) and the Christians of Galatia “my little children” (Galatians 4:19), then he must have been called by them “father’. This is mere assumption, without basis of fact. Nowhere in the New Testament does it say that the apostles were called by the title “father” as that of the Catholic sense. What is evident in the Bible is that their role was likened to that of a father, or of a mother, or of a parent who is taking care of his or her children (I Thessalonians 2:7, 11, TEV).
The fatherhood of the Apostles is considered as “fatherhood in the faith”. And the Gentile converts were considered as “children in the faith”. This fatherhood is not the same as the Fatherhood of God.
3. What fatherhood did Jesus mean when He prohibited the use of the term “father” as a reference to any man?
Matthew 23:9 reads:
“And call no man your father upon the earth:
for one is your Father, which is in heaven.”
This was part of Christ’s discourse to the Jews on their religious functions (Matthew 23). Our Lord Jesus Christ was referring to the Fatherhood of God when He said: “for one is your Father, which is in heaven.” And we all know that God our Father is the only one “Father in spirit”.
The fatherhood of the Catholic priest
Again:
“Catholics rightly, therefore call the priest ‘father’, not to the exclusion of their Father in heaven, but as a manifestation on earth of the supreme Fatherhood of God in the spiritual order, even as an earthly parent is a similar manifestation of that same Fatherhood in the natural order.”
- Rev. Leslie Rumble
Another Thousand Radio Replies
p. 75
The fatherhood of the Catholic priests stipulates the concept that the priests are called:
“parents of Jesus Christ,” and the “words of the priest create Jesus”
- St. Alphonsus De Liguori
Dignity and Duties of the Priests
pp. 32-33
But the Fatherhood of God to Jesus is reserved for God alone for God is the Creator who created Jesus Christ and is the Father of Jesus Christ… not the priests.
The Pope at Rome, on the other hand, is also called “Holy Father”. But the title “Holy Father” was used by Jesus Christ to refer to our God.
“And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I come to thee.
Holy Father, keep through thine own name
those whom thou hast given me,
that they may be one as we are.”
John 17:11
And finally, what is really the fatherhood of the Catholic priests being referred to? At the same book by the Catholic Saint himself, Alphonsus De Liguori, it proclaims:
“St. Clement, then, had reason to say that the priest is,
as it were, a God on earth”
- St. Alphonsus De Liguori
Dignity and Duties of the Priests
pp. 36
The use of the term “father” to refer to any man in the meanings of our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 23;9 is a usurpation of the honors that belong to God alone. The meanings of the term “father” as “Creator of all,” as “Father of spirits,” as “Father of Jesus Christ,” and as “Holy Father” refer to God alone. Using those meanings to refer to a man is what our Lord Jesus Christ prohibited.
The Catholic priests usurp this title. They are the personification of that:
“son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped;
so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God,
showing himself that he is God”
II Thessalonians 2:3-4
Again, as to our Lord Jesus Christ’s prohibition, He said:
“And call no man your father upon the earth:
for one is your Father, which is in heaven.”
Matthew 23:9
Prince, I understand if you cannot refute these facts YOUSELF.
Originally posted by debbiejo
Religion is going to distroy us all I'm afraid. All the rules of I'm right and youre wrong. Everyone pointing their fingers and condemning billions to hell. It's the Muslims too...It's all so wrong...
A life we must learn to live. It is not given to us, we must earn it. A life of acceptance, for when we learn to accept are we accepted. A life of education, for when we become educated can we avoid the ignorant. A life of dedication, for until we repay our debt we will never own anything ourselves. When we learn to love, are we loved. Share, and things will be shared. Hate, and we will be hated. Judge, and so shall we be judged. A life of servitutde, is a life shared among slaves. But a life where bonds are shattered, and people live free, is the life of truth and joy.
Originally posted by Jury
Prince, I understand if you cannot refute these facts YOUSELF.
I guess you cant read, can you? He used hypebole often which is what he meant be "and you shall call no man Father." Just like he didn't intentially mean for you to pluck your eye out when he said, "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell" (Matt. 5:29) But I guess your a hypocrite since you aren't blind, death, or mute.
The Church which Christ has founded destroys no one, deb. 🙂
Nobody can prove what is right without recognizing what is wrong.
For Christians and believers, the basis is the Bible. Only the Bible can tell whether such practice is wrong or not.
When the Bible says it is wrong to call any man your "Father" as the "Fatherhood of God in heaven"... then it is wrong. To say that Catholics prohibited this doesnt mean you judge them. They themselves admitted this (see the facts I have presented).
The facts, which Prince HIMSELF (not the links), should care to refute.
🙂