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<p><a href="/recommendedreading/401-music-store-manager.html">Only Jesus</a> (great song by Big Daddy)</p>
<p><a href="http://astore.amazon.com/jwoogm-20?node=1&amp;page=2">What Did Jesus Say?</a> (2012) - 7 topics&nbsp;</p>
<p>None above affiliated with me</p> </div>
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<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;"><strong>Paul's Reference to Abraham as "Father of us All" Is Supposedly Not in Conflict with Christ's Command.&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">In&nbsp;<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%204:16&amp;version=ASV" style="color: #517291;">Romans 4:16&nbsp;</a>, Paul says"Abraham is the&nbsp;<strong>father</strong>&nbsp;of us all."&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">However, Jesus commands:&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px 30px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">And <strong>do not</strong> call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. (<a href="https://biblehub.com/text/matthew/23-9.htm" style="color: #517291;">Matt 23:9 NIV.</a>)</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">In Greek, you had other informal means to address your father. These informal terms are similar to how we use&nbsp;<strong>papa</strong>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<strong>dad</strong>&nbsp;in English. Thus, in Greek, your male parent is informally addressed as&nbsp;<strong>pappa</strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>tatta</strong>. See&nbsp;<a href="https://www.quora.com/Ancient-Greeks-had-three-words-for-father-pat%C3%A9r-father-t%C3%A1ta-daddy-and-p%C3%A1ppa-daddy-Why-do-modern-Greeks-use-the-Turkish-word-Baba-for-father-instead-of-the-aforementioned-Greek-words" style="color: #517291;">link</a>. Thus, it is a violation of Jesus' principle to call priests or anyone else &nbsp;"father" -- the respectful form of address.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">Thus, on its face, Paul's statement violates Jesus's express command.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">Jesus highlights it applies even to calling Abraham father when Jesus speaks of the man in hell in one of Jesus' parables as calling for "mercy"&nbsp; to "Father&nbsp;Abraham" -- not to "Father God."&nbsp; See&nbsp;<a href="https://biblehub.com/luke/16-24.htm" style="color: #517291;">Luke 16:24.</a>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;"><strong>Efforts to Rebut Paul Violated Jesus' Words.</strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">However,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gotquestions.org/father-Matthew-23-9.html" style="color: #517291;">GotQuestions</a>&nbsp;tries to clean up any conflict in Paul's words with Jesus by the following means:</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">[1] making a pointless digression, and [2] twice misidentifying the issues.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">In this manner, the article never directly addressed the issue. The reader, however, may wrongly and easily assume among the host of words that there was a true explanation. Here is GotQuestions attempt at deflection of the contradiction between Jesus and Paul on this point:&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px 60px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt; color: black;">What about the apostle Paul&rsquo;s reference to&nbsp;<strong>&ldquo;our father Abraham&rdquo;</strong>&nbsp;and his implication that he himself is a father to Timothy and Titus? When Paul refers to Abraham as &ldquo;our father&rdquo; in&nbsp;</span><a href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Rom%204.12" style="color: #517291;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial;">Romans 4:12</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt; color: black;">, he is not making the same&nbsp;<strong>mistake as the Pharisees</strong>. Paul is saying that the promise that saves us was&nbsp;<strong>first given to Abraham who in faith believed.</strong>&nbsp;Paul is pointing out that God began His&nbsp;<strong>plan of redemption of all nations</strong>&nbsp;with Abraham and that Abraham is the model of justification by faith, apart from the Law (verse 3). Paul is&nbsp;<strong>not raising Abraham to God&rsquo;s level</strong>&nbsp;or assigning an&nbsp;<strong>official title</strong>&nbsp;to Abraham but merely acknowledging his faith. Abraham is the metaphorical &ldquo;father&rdquo; of all who believe in Christ in the sense that he is the prototype of faith.</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt; color: black;">Let's start at the end where twice the issue is misidentified. The author implies Jesus said do not give someone an "official title" as father. Nope. Jesus instead said:&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px 30px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">And do not&nbsp;<strong>call anyone</strong>&nbsp;on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. (<a href="https://biblehub.com/text/matthew/23-9.htm" style="color: #517291;">Matt 23:9 NIV.</a>)&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">This is thus not about what you do in an organization, as if Jesus only had in mind what the Catholics do in an organization.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">Next, the GotQuestions article implies Jesus expressly said "do not raise anyone to God's level...."</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">Nope. Jesus said do not call anyone "on earth" by the name Father. Jesus did&nbsp;<strong>not say</strong>&nbsp;it mattered what was your intention in doing so. Jesus instead is elevating our concern about something we might not otherwise be concerned about at all. Jesus says that the formal address of father<strong>&nbsp;belongs only to God.</strong>&nbsp;No good intention justifies it. Jesus means it is a name that only should be used to address the "one Father" -- Yahweh in heaven, and it should not be used for anyone else.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">In fact, it appears that Jesus' main objection was using it about Abraham, for why else did Jesus tell the story of a man in hell asking for mercy from "Father Abraham"? Wasn't it to underscore Jews were seeking salvation through the wrong person's favor? See Luke 16:24.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">Finally, the first rebuttal will now be addressed last. The rebuttal begins by making an irrelevant reference to Paul's point in the text is to teach a salvation promise by faith to Abraham.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">(Incidentally, Paul relied upon the Septuagint Greek mistranslation of Gen. 15:6 for that lesson, but that is another issue. See this&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jesuswordsonly.com/topicindex/169-chapter-26-7jwo-genesis-156.html" style="color: #517291;">link</a>.)</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">However, that does not excuse in any way Paul referring to Abraham as "the father of us all."&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">In fact, this final rebuttal point highlights&nbsp; the importance of&nbsp; Jesus' story of the man in hell appealing to "Father Abraham" for "mercy." Could Jesus imply a knock on the exclusively Septuagint-based notion that Abraham was justified by faith? That our salvation and <strong>mercy</strong> is through the Septuagint-based alleged "justification" promise to Abraham? Why was the man in hell in Jesus' story thinking mercy could be obtained through an appeal to Abraham as Father?</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">Regardless of how one resolves those questions, the first rebuttal point was off point entirely.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0px 0px 10px; color: #494a44; background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18pt;">Hence, this GotQuestions article is just another example where mainstream Protestants are as inconsistent with respecting Jesus's words as Catholics. Our mainstream leaders too ignore Jesus' words, adopting a strong preference for Paul's words even when&nbsp; obviously to the contrary of Jesus.</p>
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