THEOLOGICALLY JOLTING QUESTION

 “...Why do you call God ‘Father’.......?”

Last Saturday Muskogee (not his real name) went and met with Jordge (not his real name) at Yeo Kee Kpoitiam in keeping-up with their occasional mid-morning fellowshipping over “kopi-o-kaw” with toasted ‘butter-kaya’ bread. He (Muskogee) was accompanied by his colleague known as Benyamin (not his real name - who was a foreign student studying in a local institution of higher learning downtown). It was the first time Jordge and Benyamin met one another. When the conversation touched the recent televised religious situations in Egypt and Europe, Benyamin politely posed one question: “Why do you call God Father.......?” The question was most unexpected. It was theologically jolting.

Both Muskogee and Jordge were aware there was no mention in the Bible to say that God married and biologically fathered a child. Both gentlemen understood Benyamin’s misunderstanding about Christians’ concept of “God as Father”. By Benyamin, it was incomprehensible (or “memeng tidak masuk akal”) according to his religious beliefs. In their attempts to explain the matter, both Muskogee and Jordge saw it was deemed necessary to make few theological cross-references of comparative values.

THE EXPLANATIONS

Muskogee: In Christianity God was not known and called  as “Father” until Jesus came to earth and revealed Him as such. In Matthew 6:9 Jesus taught His disciples and believers how to pray by calling God as “Our Father who art in heaven...” “Our Father” is one topic or subject by itself about the fatherly nature or characters of God toward mankind. Jesus introduced God as “Our Father” to us. In His prayer to His Father, Jesus also said, “And I have declared to them Your Name (Father God in heaven), and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:26).

Jordge: "Father" is a metaphor used to describe the divine nature or character of God as ‘Spiritual Father’ (the “First God-head”) in Christians’ Trinitarian Concept of God.  WHY called ‘God Father’? Because God is the Creator, Life-giver, Authority, Law-giver, and powerful Protector.  In Torah (Law of Moses or Taurat Musa) in the book of Deuteronomy 32:6, it is written: “Is this the way you repay the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?" 

In the New Testament, God is being called Father 245 times because of the Father-Son relationship revealed through Jesus Christ for the same reasons already mentioned above. There is no other designation would do what this metaphor does to reveal God as the Sovereign Creator.   To call God "Father" is to use the Abrahamic covenant language when Moses spoke to Pharoah to let God’s sons (Israelites) go out of Egypt (Exodus 4.22-23)

Muskogee: “God is being addressed as Father by Christians because of God’s active interests in human affairs and welfare, in the same manner as a human father takes keen interests in the affairs and welfare of in his children - who depend on him as their father and who acts in the best interests of the children.... To call God Father is to speak of Him as the absolutely sovereign God of creation.

At times, God also punishes or disciplines wrongdoers (sinners) like earthly father punishes his children for wrongdoings for good purposes as explained in the New Testament (Hebrew 12:8)..... In the Hebrew Scriptures (or Old Testament) Isaiah 63:16 says: "Thou, O Jehovah, art our Father; our Redeemer from everlasting is thy name." This verse speaks of God’s fatherly roles and His attribute as protector. God is called the Father of the poor, of the orphan and the widow, their guarantor of justice.

Jordge: “In al-Kitab, Abraham was called or was given the title of ‘Father of all nations” although he fathered only his own children biologically..... The New Testament also teaches believers about the very concept or idea of family of believers or spiritual  ‘Family of God” with God as Father. (Eph 3:15). Within the concept, there is a deeper meaning of ‘God as Father’ by which Christians believe they are made co-participants in the “Family of God” as adopted children of God through the eternal Father-and-Son Relationship, through Jesus Christ. Galatians 4:4-7 says:  “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts crying out, "Abba, Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ”.

Muskogee: “Intimacy is one of the hallmarks of using the title “Father” for God by Jesus and by the early and modern day church.  For us (Christians) to call God “our heavenly Father”, it is an expression of our deepest and highest individual and inner-most “spiritual reverence” for God as sovereign and holy Elohim other than revering Him  as God of love...; most merciful; most forgiving (Father of Compassion - 2 Corinthians 1:3); "Father of glory" (Eph. 1:17); and “Holy Father” (John 17:11).

If I may for example refer to your (Benyamin’s) belief whereby God is known by 99 names in Arabic starting with: (1) Ar-Rahmaan which means ‘The Exceedingly Compassionate, The Exceedingly Beneficent, The Exceedingly Gracious’; (2) Ar-Rahim or ‘The Exceedingly Merciful’;..................(11)Al-Khaliq which means  ‘The creator’.....lastly (99) As-Sabur or "The Timeless, The Patient'.....”.

CONCLUSION

As and when we pray and truly believe that God is “Our Father in heaven..,” the metaphoric-key-word automatically opens the door for us to enter God’s spiritual family and kingdom. We know good deeds or works by our own alone without Christ including reliance on religious traditions and legalisms do not and cannot “save” us. We are saved by our faith (Christ in us) and by the grace of God (Eph. 2:8). For us (Christians) to call God ‘Our Father’ is to fully affirm our close personal and direct relationship with God in His love. It is also an affirmation that we have been born and adopted into the ‘Family of God’. We are joint heirs with Christ in the Family and Kingdom of God (Galatians 4:4-7). By this, we belong to God as sons  and daughters being loved by Father God with assurance that we will have our dwelling places with "Our Father in heaven". AMEN !