Our Father
Introduction
You may remember the days when the most respected member of the family was the father. Movies and television portrayed the father as exemplary. He was the center of and the stability of the American family. Over the years we observed a transition in the portrayal of the family as our society changed into a more female and child-oriented culture.
Television programs went from “Father Knows Best” to “father knows nothing.” Fathers were portrayed as the butt of the jokes in the family. The mother became the mature one of the family, and the children now knew best. It was a Bible prophecy being fulfilled before our eyes. Isaiah 3:11 “As for My people, children are their oppressors, And women rule over them.”
This new society was a backlash to the oppressive and sometimes abusive behavior of men. Men lost the ability to have genuine love for women. Women in the modern society became more independent and sexually active than before. Our society was turned upside down. The family became “nuclear” consisting of father, mother and children. No longer did we have an extended family as people moved freely about the country and the world. Families could now live with no family pressures to conform to the expectations of the extended families of old. All of these and many other factors changed the complexion of the family of today.
What did these changes bring into the modern family life? The father became just a person with whom to reckon when necessary and otherwise ignored. He was no longer the example to be followed. Children had to look somewhere else to find their idols and examples on how to live. Children now had peers to emulate and to go to for answers on how to conduct their lives. We became a generation of the inexperienced leading the inexperienced.
The immature blind were now leading the immature blind. What are the consequences of that for our young people in today’s society? Luke 6:39 “And He spoke a parable to them: ‘Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch?’” Where were the men who could set a strong, loving, masculine example to show young men the right way to deal with life in our society? The father now became an insignificant factor in the conduct of the lives of others.
Return to Chapters
CHAPTER 1: How Does This Affect You?
Why address this factor in a religious publication? Because it has been proven by sociologists that without a father or with a weak father in the family predictable behavior patterns occur. One of these is that young men look to peers for guidance; another is that young boys have no loving example on how to deal with the problems of modern life. Without that vision of how to relate to a father, men are unable to relate to authority figures in general. Gangs now become the stabilizing force in a young man’s life. Young girls have no example on how to deal with young men. The decay of the family has always been a major factor in the collapse of a society.
This brings us to the Bible. The central figure in the Bible is the one who calls Himself Father. If people today have no concept of how to relate to a father-figure in the physical realm, then how can they relate to the spiritual Father of us all as revealed in the pages of the Bible? If one has no vision of a loving, caring and nurturing father, how can one relate to a God who is that way? If a person visualizes his physical father as abusive, uncaring and unloving, how can he visualize the Father with the proper perception?
Our mislead society has destroyed the concept of a loving, all-wise Father in Heaven. That is why most “Christians” see the God of the Old Testament as a cruel God who was replaced by this new Jesus––the loving Son of the New Testament. This Jesus is portrayed as a weak, effeminate character who loves everyone and does not seem to care how improper a life we live. But is that what the Bible really teaches about the powerful Creator God?
CHAPTER 2: We Need To Know The Truth
Most people today do not recognize that the Rock of the Old Testament is the same individual who claims to be the Jesus Christ of the New Testament. This statement is proved by many passages in the Bible. One such place is when God instructed Moses in Exodus 17:5-6 “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.’ And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.” The one standing on the rock, the one called the Lord, is revealed in the New Testament as Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
1 Corinthians 10:4 “and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.”In the Old Testament, who is identified as the Rock of Ages? It is the same Jesus Christ. Psalm 95:1 “Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.” If anyone will do an honest study of the Bible with an open mind, one will find that Jesus Christ is our only Savior and will recognize that He is the God of the Old Testament as well as the Son of the New Testament.
One of the major purposes for which Jesus came to this earth was to reveal the Father: Luke 10:22 “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." Jesus came to expand the understanding of who sent Him and the understanding of who truly is the center of the Gospel sent by God.
The churches today emphasize the Son and virtually ignore the Father. They teach a gospel about Jesus and not the Gospel that Jesus taught. Instead of looking to the Father, they look to men in the congregation and emulate them, ignoring the Father and the example of Jesus Christ. Man has a tendency to take on the characteristics of other physical human beings.
This is inappropriate for an individual who is a Christian because the Bible instructs us to become like the Father. Matthew. 5:48 “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” God requires us to become perfect like Him, not become like a man or an organization. Since God is a perfect, loving and righteous character then we are to become like Him and develop that God-like character.
In the coming Kingdom of God, the Father will be supreme over all things, yet today, He is unknown in many of the organizations that profess Christianity. 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 “Then comes the end, when He -Jesus delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He -Jesus puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He -Jesus must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.
For ‘He -God the Father has put all things under His -Jesus’ feet.’ But when He -the Father says ‘all things are put under Him -Jesus,’ it is evident that He-the Father who put all things under Him -Jesus is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him -the Father who put all things under Him -Jesus, that God may be all in all.” This Scripture plainly states that the Father is the Supreme Authority of the Universe. Jesus and the Father are one in mind but are separate in authority.
Satan masks the identity of the Father in today’s “Christianity.” Satan has proclaimed himself as the false Christ of this age. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”If one cannot see the Father, one cannot change to become like Him. That is why the doctrine of the trinity is a perversion. It hides the true nature of the God family––and especially of the Father whom we should be worshipping.
Return to ChaptersCHAPTER 3: Look To The True Father
How do we find the identity of the true Father? If Jesus is the living word of God, then the Bible is the same as Jesus and is the written word that reveals the Father. The Bible reveals the Father, yet few know or worship him. Today’s Christianity ignores the Father. Are you one who has done the same thing? One must know Him because our main relationship is with the Father. This does not mean we make insignificant what Jesus did as our Savior. He is also God.
The Father is the being that we worship as our Supreme Creator––as our God, our Father, and the senior member of the God family with whom we must have a one-on-one relationship. Are you one who has that relationship? Traditional “Christianity” has all but eliminated the Father and then goes on to emphasize the wrong Jesus. The syncretic religion of false churches has spread the lie within the so-called “Christian” community.
Our worship must consist of primarily the Father, and, secondarily, the Son. John 4:21-24 “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’"
Let us examine and really understand why He is our spiritual Father and what that means to our eternal lives as His sons. God our Father is our Creator! He created all things through His Son, Jesus Christ. He created angels so they are considered His sons. Job 1:6 “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.” This passage shows that because angels are His creation they are also considered sons of God. All mankind was created by Him; therefore all physical human beings are His children in the same sense.
Yet man, possessing only carnal nature, does not know or understand that relationship. Malachi 2:10 “Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us?…” However, those who do have His spirit are the only, truly begotten children of God––in a sense, different from all other human beings. Romans 8:9, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His."
But possession of His spirit means there is much more when it comes to being a Christian. Romans 8:14 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. ”When born again at the return of Jesus Christ, we will be fully God’s children. Luke 20:36 “‘nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of god, being sons of the resurrection.” We will be equal to the angels in that His sons are composed of spirit and cannot die, but will live forever.
Return to Chapters
CHAPTER 4: The World Does Not Know The Father
The Father is unknown in this world. In the book of Acts, we see Paul attempting to reveal the true Father to the worshippers of many gods on Mars Hill. Acts 17:22-23 “Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, ‘Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious (or superstitious); for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:to the unknown god. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:’”
Here we see Paul talking to the Greeks as a Greek would answer a question about the identity of this unknown god. Acts 17:24-28 “‘God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘for we are also His offspring.’’”
At this point Paul preaches to the Greeks the Gospel of the coming Kingdom of God and of Jesus Christ the King who will judge the world. Acts 17:29-31 “‘Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained…’”
Now one might be asking the question: “How does all this impact a Christian life?” It is a question of to whose will does one submit––the will of the Father or one’s own self-will. Remember, what is written in the sample prayer that Jesus outlined on how we should pray. Matthew 6:10 “‘…Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’”
The one device that men and woman use to eliminate the Father out of their lives and not have Him telling them how to live is the belief that a person’s will is supreme. It is a matter of how they see the Bible and not an honest investigation of what the will of God is in their lives. They do not take God personally when He explains to mankind how to act and what to do. Many are probably very familiar with the saying, “Well, the way I look at it…”
It makes no difference the way we look at it; it is how does our Father look at it? The Father is the Supreme Being in the God family: 1 Corinthians 15:24 “Then comes the end, when He -Jesus delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He -Jesus puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.”
Jesus voluntarily subjected Himself to the Father’s rule––just as we have to voluntarily subject ourselves to the Father’s will. There is no other superior authority in the Universe. He is the ultimate authority. Luke 8:28 “When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, ‘What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?…’”
Return to ChaptersCHAPTER 5: The True Father
A true Christian recognizes that his relationship is directly with the Father and that His Son, Jesus, is the advocate or intercessor on our behalf with the Father. So many worship the Son but totally ignore the Father. What an affront to the great Creator of the Universe––the Father of us all. Ephesians 3:14-15 “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.”
We are the Family of God. He is our Father. We cannot treat Him as we see fathers treated in our society today. Satan has cause this decadent society to turn our minds from the true ruler of the Universe to a false Jesus who, as is frequently proclaimed, has done away with the law. The law is His way of life that He desires us to emulate.
The reason we ask forgiveness from the Father is because He is the Lawgiver. Do away with the law, and you do away with the will of God. Therefore, God calls out to us to repent of the transgression of His holy, righteous and perfect law that defines the love of God for man, the love of man toward God and the love of man for all mankind. Many say that they love, but that is not the love as defined by the Father.
It is a human-substituted love based on man’s desires and lusts––not on the eternal basis of the true love of God. The Father is the Lawgiver, He commands us to live the way that brings happiness, joy and the good things of this life. We must repent before the Father for our acts of disobedience to His law. Acts 20:21 “testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Living the way of His law prepares us for the coming Kingdom of God that will exsist on this earth. This will occur once man comes to recognize that there is a God who demands that His family live life as He knows is best for them. The more deeply we understand our relationship with the Father, the more we can see how great, merciful, loving and kind He is towards us. We should remember that God is our real Father and that it is He who has provided for us.
God requires true ministers to teach just how great He is, why He is our Father and how we can and must serve Him. We must honor and obey Him as our Father. The scripture commands us to remind us who we are to honor. Malachi 1:6 “‘A son honors his father and a servant hismaster. If then I am the Father, where is My honor? And if am a Master, where is My reverence?…” The being called the Lord in the Old Testament was a Father to the Israelites. The true Father was not revealed to them. Jesus, the Son of God, came to reveal Him to those who possess and use His spirit.
The ministry of Jesus Christ must continually lift us and remind us of our Father. He is the one we worship. He is the one we emulate. We must become spiritually just like our Father. We must honor the one and only God family. Never forgetting that the Father is God Most High. We worship God the Father and God the Son and not any group, organization, person or philosophy.
Our relationship is a one-on-one relationship with the Father and not with any association or man. Many claim to know the Father but do not fulfill His will in their lives. It is not what one says, it is not what one claims to be, it is not what one professes, and it is not the organization to which one belongs. It is what one does with what one knows. Titus 1:16 “They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.”
Jesus’ death gives us access to the Father. His life in us, by His spirit, and His office as High Priest aids us in maintaining that relationship. 1 John 2:1 “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Christ is our defense attorney in heaven. Our only access to the Father is by coming under the sacrifice of Jesus and by no other method. Yet we need ministers to feed us.
CHAPTER 6: Maintaining That Family Relationship
The ministry should aid us in maintaining that relationship with the Father. They can either lead us to the Father by imitating Jesus Christ or away from the Father by pointing God’s people to themselves. 1 Corinthians 11:1 “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.” Man is the weak link in the chain at this end time.
The Bible warns at the end time to beware of false ministers who lead away from the Father. Revelation 3:11 “‘Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.’” Ministers are parts of organizations which are made up of men. The minister in an organization is called to feed us spiritually in order to strengthen our relationship with the Father. A worldly organization should not take its members away from the Father.
Many of those worldly organizations teach about just one being––a false Jesus––when they should teach about the Father and Jesus, as well as the message Jesus was sent to mankind to teach. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them."
Satan has deceived the world by substituting himself as the Jesus of Christianity. He has marginalized the Father and His role in mankind’s spiritual calling. The churches of this world deemphasize the true Father. The following quote from Modern Religious Beliefs cites Essays on Social Gospels and illustrates the attitude of many of the everyday churches of today:
“The Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man” is how the nineteenth century liberal Protestant theologian Adolph Harnack once summarized the Christian faith. Nowadays, Harnack would find his brand of reductionism religion dismissed as hopelessly sexist and exclusive by many feminist theologians. The “brotherhood of man” might be reworked into “the family of humanity” or its equivalent. But what would they do about the Fatherhood of God? Can we replace the allegedly “sexist” language of Divine Fatherhood with so-called gender-inclusive or gender-neutral terms such as Father/Mother or Heavenly Parent without further ado?
Many people—including some Catholics—say “yes.” “We not only can,” they contend, “we must. God is, after all, beyond gender. Calling God ‘Father’, without adding that God is also Mother, unfairly exalts one image for God above all others and ignores the culturally conditioned nature of all our images of God,” they argue. Of course, not everyone agrees. While most “mainline” Protestant churches have acquiesced, Evangelicals, the Orthodox churches and the Catholic Church have maintained traditional language for God—although even within these communions some people’s sympathies run in the other direction.
Clearly, it is not understood by those everyday churches that it is not about gender; it is an analogy of the family relationship: Ephesians 5:32 “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” It is an analogy of a family made up of God the Father, Jesus the Son and us––the family. Satan attempts to make us think that the Father is insignificant in our religious life. Substituting a false Jesus is a deception of Satan, and it conceals the Father. The Wholeworld Church of God is required to turn people to the Father, as well as the Son.
We are called to maintain that close connection to the Father and follow His commands because the Father knows what is best for us: Hebrews 11:9-10 “Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid themrespect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed bestto them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.”
The real Jesus teaches the Father’s doctrines. John 14:10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.” The true minister of Jesus Christ does also.
True happiness comes from following the way of God as revealed by the Spokesman: Deuteronomy 10:11-13 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good?”
We must follow the Bible, the word of God that produces true happiness––not just some doctrines, not just minor doctrines, but every doctrine that God has given in proper balance which produces love. Matthew 4:4 “But He answered and said, ‘It is written, ‘man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’’”
CHAPTER 7: The Father Leads His Family
It is not just what one knows; it is what one lives. It is not just knowing doctrine; it is how one lives by the doctrine one knows. It is emphasizing the way of God. Sadly, politics and lust for money and power have entered the churches. God’s way is not about who has power, who has the numbers of people, who has the most money or who has the biggest buildings. It is about the Father, the Son and the family of God.
Regrettably, this is a politics-centered world. The Bible tells us that God says will be missing at the end time, and He appears to have virtually disappeared from most aspects of our daily lives. He is not honored, and His ways are not visible in the world. Matthew 24:11-11 “Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” But that love is more than a doctrine; it is the essence of the Father. It is who He is.
Loving is the way He lives; it is our way of life. God epitomizes love. Love is not an emotion; it is keeping God’s laws, although it does have an emotional content. True ministers of God must teach Godly love. A true minister must live it and show it.
1 John 4:11 “No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.”and 16 “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.”The love of God encompasses all of the doctrines with emphasis on the balance of what is most important to the Father. It is covered in one chapter of the Bible. It reveals the Father’s most important doctrine. Because it describes the Father, it shows the balance of all of God’s doctrines. It explains the way to God.
It is the spiritual application of the law. It tells us the most important spiritual principle that we should consider in all our dealings with others. It is the overriding principle of our relationship with the Father, with the Son, and our fellow man: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love (in a social or moral sense), I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy (They know the exact events of the end time and know the date of the time of the return of Christ and get upset if you do not believe them), and understand all mysteries (They can see more in the Bible that is in it, can read between the lines and can tie scripture together that have absolutely nothing to do with anything.) and all knowledge.
They know more than anybody–– maybe even Jesus. "and though I have all faith (They are able to do anything because of their faith; they are even able to command God to do something because of faith.), so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (The main emphasis of our lives is God’s love.) And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor (They take care of those less fortunate so they can feel good about self.), and though I give my body to be burned (They allow themselves to be martyred.), but have not love, it profits me nothing.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail (Everyone has one, and, most of the time, if not based on the Bible, it fails.); whether there are tongues, they will cease (The major belief in tongues is that they are the most important indicator of the spirit.); whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
Their attitude is “Just ask me; I know everything!”. For we know in part (We are so ignorant of the true way of God.) and we prophesy in part. (We have little idea of what the future holds.). But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
We think we are so smart, and we are nothing, just as a teenager who knows better than the parents." For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. (That is when we really see the Father) Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
God uses a Greek word that is unique to the Bible. The Greek word is agape. It is a logical love, not just emotional love. Agape love is logical love from the mind plus an emotional love from the heart. It is a love that originates from the Father who is the center of our lives. And our lives are centered on the Family of God. It is centered on the Son of God. It is centered on what God has done for us because He loves us. He requires us to love Him and our fellow man in return using the gift of love that comes from His Holy Spirit. It is not the “Love you, Jesus” of this world but true, Godly love as commanded by the Father because without God’s love we are not truly Christians.
Love is summarized in the principle of give versus get. It is applying the Laws of God with the mind of the Father and Jesus Christ. Just as a worldly father would guide his child the proper way in which he should grow and show his love with firm, but loving, teaching, so are we loved by our Father. Love could be called the principal of the overriding principle: If what you do does not have love included in it; it is not God’s way.
Return to Chapters
Return to Library
2009 Edition, Ronald Laughland, Free Library Copy
In accordance with Sec 107 of Chapter 1 of Title 17 of US Copyright Law, this material is distributed without
charge or other commercial interest for the purposes of comment, teaching, scholarship and review.
U.S. British Future, P.O. Box 4877, Oceanside, Ca. 92052. U.S.A.
AmericaAndBritainsFuture.com also US-BritishFuture.com