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V e r s e b y V e r s e
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This Rock
Volume 5, Number 7/8
 July/August 1994 
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AMONG Fundamentalists' most common complaints against
the Catholic faith is this: "You Catholics violate Scripture
when you call your priests `Father.' After all, Scripture says, `Call
no man your father on earth' (Matt. 23:9)."
You might point out to Fundamentalists that not only
are we told not to call any man "father," we're told not
to call any man "rabbi" (Matt. 23:8), which means "teacher"
(John 1:38). This restriction must apply also to the word "doctor,"
which comes from the Latin for "teacher."
Yet your Fundamentalist friends commonly refer to their
pastor as "Dr. Such-and-So." Are they violating the command
they accuse Catholics of violating, or is there a basic confusion
at play?
Note that in some passages a person is referred to as
another's spiritual son, implying the other person is the spiritual
father.
"All those who sat in the Sanhedrin looked
intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
And the high priest said, `Is this so?' And Stephen said, `My brothers
and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham,
when he was in Mesopotamia'" (Acts 6:14, 7:1-2).
"Paul stood on the steps and motioned with
his hand to the people; when all was quiet, he addressed them in Hebrew,
`My brothers and fathers, listen to what I am about to say to you
in my defense'" (Acts 21:40, 22:1).
"It depends on faith, in order that the promise
may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants--not
only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith
of Abraham, for he is the father of us all, as it is written, `I have
made you the father of many nations'" (Rom. 4:16-17).
"I do not write this to make you ashamed,
but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless
guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your
father in Christ Jesus" (1 Cor. 4:14-15).
"You know how, like a father with his children,
we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to
lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and
glory" (1Thess. 2:11-12).
"God is treating you as sons; for what son
is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without
discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate
children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers to
discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject
to the Father of spirits and live?" (Heb. 12:7-9).
"This charge I commit to you, Timothy, my
son" (1 Tim. 1:18).
"You then, my son, be strong in the grace
that is in Jesus Christ" (2 Tim. 2:1).
"I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus,
whose father I have become in my imprisonment" (Philem. 10).
"I am writing to you, fathers, because you
know him who is from the beginning. . . . I write to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning" (1 John 2:13). |
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