From Newsgroup: uk.religion.christian
On 11/06/2026 12:39, Madhu wrote:
One of the teachings at the local church is that man can relate to God
as our father only because God was the Father of Jesus, and through the relationship with Jesus. (is this from Galatians, or also elsewhere?)
Seems a bit odd.
Otherwise God is too majestic and holy (Isaiah 6:1) and unapproachable by anyone, and it would be blasphemy to call God your father. The Pharisees seemed to take this for a fact.
I could agree that it would be blasphemy to call God "Father", were it
not that He has chosen to be known by that title.
In the letters of the apostles it is only Paul that refers to God as Our Father, everybody else refers to The Father (am I missing something)
You are not forgetting the Lord's Prayer, in which Jesus told us to
begin "Our Father".
However I'd like to counter this idea of "distance of the God from man
in OT" because of the gracious relations between God and Man from Adam
to the prophets, I have only Isaiah 64 (verse 8), in the OT (before the
pater noster), and the one psalm 2:7 (quoted in acts 13:33 and hebrews
5:5), anyone remember any other verses in the OT where God as "Father" relationship is mentioned?
God has appealed to several human relationships as illustrations of the relationship He wants with us, including that of husband, king or
governor, parent (of either sex), loving shepherd, and so on.
God bless,
Kendall K. Down
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