Paterology: The Fatherhood of God

Paterology is the study of God the Father. Pater, or pathr, is the Greek word for father. The fatherhood of God as creator is true for all men, but the New Testament develops a richer and deeper relationship with God as Father for the believer in Jesus Christ. The word for Father is used fifteen times in the Old Testament but 245 times in the New Testament. This concept was clarified by Jesus in his reference to God as his Father concerning his own relationship with God (see Matthew 11:25-27). The Aramaic term Abba, a term originally used by young children for their fathers, indicating an intimate and familiar relationship, was used by Jesus to address God (Mark 14:36).

The identification of God as Father goes even beyond Jesus’ own relationship with God when he teaches his disciples to also pray by saying “Our Father” (Matthew 6:9). It should be noted in passing that Jesus’ teaching concerning God’s fatherly relationship to them, and their familiarity and intimacy with God as Father, should not detract from their understanding of his awesome holiness and flawless righteousness because in the Lord’s Prayer Jesus followed “Our Father in heaven” with “hallowed be your name.” The Father/Son relationship of man with God is based on the redemptive work of God through Jesus. John says, “To all who received him (Jesus), to those who believed in his name, he (God the Father) gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12, 13). Jesus and the apostles taught that God our Father demonstrated his Fatherly care and relationship with each believer in these ways:

Cares for daily needs (Matthew 6:32)
Individual concern and attention (Matthew 6:26)
Source of our spiritual life (John 1:12, 13)
His Love has been lavished on us (1 John 3:1)
Gives us grace and peace (Ephesians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1)
Concerned with our welfare (Romans 8:15-28)
Gives us good gifts (James 1:17)
Oversees our discipline and growth (Hebrews 12:5-13)
Provides us with commands and directions for living life (2 John 4)
Makes us in the image of his own Son (1 John 3:2)

Paul begins all his epistles by identifying God as the Father (Rm.1:7; 1Co.1:3; 2Co.1:2; Gal.1:1; etc.). All human fathers receive the concept of fatherhood from God himself (Ephesians 3:14,15). God is the Father of glory (Eph.1:17), the Father of spirits (Heb.12:9) and the Father of lights (James 1:17). After his resurrection Jesus told Mary that he was “ascending to my Father and your Father” (John 20:17).

Galyn Wiemers
http://www.generationword.com

Confusion is Not an Excuse

I am a teacher, and I coach the boys’ track team at our school. Track practice takes place every weekday after school throughout the season. It’s always been that way, and probably always will be. One week I learned that a school dance was scheduled for Friday afternoon right after class ended. Because the dance was going to go well into the night, I told the boys we’d have track practice after school like usual, and they could head over to the dance when they were finished. I told them I was well aware of the dance, but practice was still on. I thought I’d made everything clear as the boys headed to their locker room after Thursday’s track practice.

On Friday, about five minutes before the last bell rang, I noticed a DJ setting up his sound equipment for the dance in the school gym. Since our track team practices right outside the gym, I knew the boys were going to be frustrated when they heard the music and saw fellow classmates dancing. I wondered if some boys might still be tempted to skip practice, so, for good measure, I decided to make one final announcement over the intercom as a reminder. Over the loud speaker came the words, “There will be track practice as usual immediately after school today for the entire boys track team.”

Right as the announcement ended, eight boys from the track team walked into my classroom dizzy with confusion. One boy conjured up his best look of bewilderment and asked, “Coach, do we have practice tonight? We were wondering because nobody really knows.” When I again confirmed that we did, another boy quickly asked, “What happens if we don’t come?” My reply was simple: “You’ll be punished.”

Confusion was not limited to this group of boys. Many members of the track team lingered in the hallway—debating about whether or not there was track practice. One boy approached a team manager and inquired about it. The manager supposedly told him, “I think there’s practice…but it might be optional.” That was all that the boy needed. Now armed with words straight from the mouth of the team manager, he could claim ignorance and later justify the reason he followed his desires and went to the dance.

As I left my classroom to head to the track, another boy stopped me to ask about practice. I looked right at him and said, “Yes, we have practice.” He went to the dance.

The track boys who chose to go to the dance could actually see their teammates running warm up laps on the track outside as they walked into the gym. Yet these boys remained “confused” as to whether or not there was track practice.

Confirmations about track practice that had taken place:
1) I had announced there would be practice on Friday and even warned the boys that there might be some confusion because of the dance, but that shouldn’t change anything. 2) An announcement was made over the loud speaker moments before the boys had to make the decision whether to go to track practice or the dance. 3) Some of the boys had approached me even after hearing the announcement, and I told them face-to-face, “Yes we have track practice.” 4) The fifty-eight boys who showed up for track practice were running right outside the gym, and the boys who were dancing could actually see their teammates—thus confirming that practice was indeed taking place.

When all seventy track boys showed up on Monday, I asked why twelve of them had missed Friday’s practice. The excuses were varied but all came back to the same claim: they were in a state of ignorance due to so much confusion. Some insisted that I hadn’t made it clear. One blamed the manager for saying practice was optional. Others swore they forgot. And all the boys who went to the dance confirmed each other’s confusion by contending that there was just no way of knowing whether or not we had practice. Their strategy involved insisting on confusion. They figured if enough people said they were confused, I would have to accept it as a legitimate excuse. But I didn’t. The confused boys lost the privilege of running in our first track meet.

As I stood there on Monday afternoon at track practice surrounded by the track team it became very clear to me that in life people choose to be confused. I could not have done anything more to help get them to track practice other than to pick them up and carry them from the school to the track. Even then some of the boys would have slipped away to the dance while I wasn’t looking. With all my effort to communicate a testable and provable obvious truth almost 20% of those I communicated with remained confused. Many of the things in life that we claim to be confused about are as obvious. I will even say many of the things we just can’t “wrap our minds around” are testable and provable. It is not that we can’t “wrap our minds around” them but we don’t want to “wrap our minds around” them.

Today in the United States of America many people have found comfort when faced with moral decisions, personal responsibility and spiritual realities by using the same excuse as these junior high boys. We are looking at a growing cultural pandemic that is more dangerous than any threat the media is covering. Our society is conveniently confused about what is right, what is true, what is moral, who is God, who should be responsible, who should be honored and who should be shunned. America apparently hopes to be able to cry out for mercy because they are just so confused. How can God expect us to be moral, responsible people when there are so many things to be confused about!! Right?

I suppose if I had not announced there would be practice or had failed to realize there was a conflict with the dance the boys would have had an excuse for being confused. Likewise, if there is no way of knowing what is right or moral how could we help but be anything but confused. If God had never communicated with man nor had the concept of God ever crossed man’s mind then man could be excused from having failed to come to grips with his Creator. If that were the case then I suppose mankind could claim to have an excuse.

I have learned that claiming to be confused is not the same thing as being confused. Likewise, searching for a reason to convince yourself you are confused is still not an excuse. Even if you find a whole group of people who all claim like you to be confused, this still does not mean anyone of them has not heard the truth and rejected it only to later claim to be confused.

I suppose that claiming to be confused after rejecting the truth is no different than claiming to be in the dark after you shut off the light.

(This is blog is taken from chapter one of Galyn's book "Hope for America's Last Generation")

Galyn Wiemers
http://www.generationword.com

The Apocrypha

The Apocrypha was accepted in 1546 at the Council of Trent. This decision was an error on the part of this church council for these reasons:

1. Jesus, the apostles and the New Testament never quote from the Apocrypha.
2. The Apocrypha itself never claims to be authoritative, inspired, or the word of God.
3. The internal evidence within the books themselves even disclaims inspiration, stating that there were no prophets that could speak or write under the inspiration of the spirit during the years these books were written (1 Maccabees 4:46; 9:27; 14:41).
4. Some books have major historical errors. For example in the book of Judith, Nebuchadnezzar is said to be the king of Assyria, and in the books of First and Second Maccabees, Antiochus Epiphanies is recorded as dying three different ways in three different places.
5. Some books promote doctrinal error. For example, prayer for the dead (2 Maccabees 12:45-46), attainment of complete sanctification and sinlessness,
6. Some of the books accept practices that the Bible condemns such as suicide, assassination and magical incantation.
7. Josephus, who rejects the Apocrypha and other books outside of the Jewish scriptures says: “From Artaxerxes to our own time the complete history has been written but has not been deemed worthy of equal credit with the earlier records because of the failure of the exact succession of the prophets.” (Against Apion 1:8)
8. The Dead Sea Scrolls do not consider the Apocrypha as inspired.
9. Jerome rejected the inspiration of the Apocrypha and originally refused to translate them as part of his Latin Vulgate – but did include them in the end at the request of the Roman bishop. He warned readers not to “apply them to establish any doctrine” concerning “these portions which exhibit no authority as Holy Scripture.”
10. The Apocrypha lacks any prophetic authorship or content and so there is no possible prophetic fulfillment to confirm their authority.
11. In accepting these writings in 1546, the Council of Trent broke with the traditional views of the Jews, the early Church, and major church councils in the past.
12. The Council of Trent made its decision in reaction against Martin Luther’s criticism of their doctrine of praying and collecting indulgences for the dead.
13. The Council of Trent accepted only 11 of the apocryphal books. They accepted 2 Maccabees because it supported their belief in prayer for the dead, but rejected 2 Esdras because it opposed prayers for the dead.

The New Testament Apocryphal Books
There are books from the first and second century that have been compiled as the so-called New Testament Apocrypha. These books can be broken down into two groups: books written by known authors that are not considered scripture, and pseudo-writings which are books written by unknown authors claiming to be someone else (For example: an author who wrote a book with his own ideas and doctrine but signed Peter’s name to it to help it gain acceptance).

Some books written by known authors from the early church that are authentic but not considered scripture are Clement’s letter to the Corinthians, Ignatius’ seven letters written on his way to martyrdom in Rome, and others. A few books written by unknown authors who ascribed the writings to apostles or other famous Christians are the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter, and the Apocalypse of Peter.

These books are rejected because they do not meet the requirements of canonicity listed above. In addition:

1. They were never recognized by a major church council.
2. If they were ever listed in the same document with the canonical books they were always placed on a separate list.
3. None of these books ever received universal acceptance by the churches. At best they experienced local acceptance (or consideration), and then only for a limited time. Once they were tested and carefully considered they were universally removed from acceptance in the canon
4. Some of these books are clearly fables, deceptions, or products of some early unorthodox group trying to gain acceptance into Christendom.
   

Galyn Wiemers
http://www.generationword.com/

The Chain of Prophetic Continuity in the Old Testament

There is a clear scriptural chain of prophetic continuity through the complete Old Testament revelation. Luke referred to this chain when he wrote of Jesus talking with the disciples on the road to Emmaus:

• "Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” Luke 24:27
  

This same chain of prophets was referred to by the Jewish historian Josephus when he wrote:

• “From Artaxerxes to our own time the complete history has been written but has not been deemed worthy of equal credit with the earlier records because of the failure of the exact succession of the prophets.” Against Apion 1:8

This concept eliminates the possibility of canonicity and the inspiration for the Apocrypha. The word Apocrypha comes from the Greek word apokryphos which is built on the Greek word krypto which means “secret or hidden”. They were given this name by Jerome around 400 AD because they are books that are rarely seen. They were written between 400-200 BC after the inspired Old Testament canon was closed.

Old Testament revelation can be traced through a series of prophets who form a prophetic chain through the Old Testament beginning with Moses (1440 BC) and ending with Nehemiah who compiled the final books after Malachi closed Old Testament Revelation around 432 BC. Scripture identifies these prophets as Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Nathan, Ahijah, Iddo, Jehu, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Ezra and Nehemiah.

1. Moses -Genesis, Exodus, Revelation, Leviticus, Deuteronomy (Nehemiah 9:14Luke 24:27
2. Joshua - End of Deuteronomy, book of Joshua
3. Samuel - Samuel wrote an early history of Samuel and David (1 Chron. 29:29)
4. Nathan & Gad - Nathan and Gad recorded events in the reign of David (1 Chron. 29:292 Chron. 12:15)
5. Nathan, Ahijah, Iddo - Nathan, Ahijah and Iddo wrote of the events during the reign of Solomon (2 Chron. 9:29-31)
6. Shemaiah, Iddo - Shemaiah and Iddo chronicled the events in the reign of Rehoboam (2 Chron. 12:15)
7. Iddo - Iddo wrote of the events of the reign of Abijah (2 Chron. 13:22)
8. Jehu - Jehu wrote of the events of the reign of Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. 20:34)
9. Isaiah - Isaiah wrote of the events of the reign of Hezekiah (2 Chron. 32:32
10. (Hozai?) - An unknown prophet (possibly Hozai) wrote of Manasseh’s reign (2 Chron. 33:19)
11. Jeremiah - Jeremiah prophesied and recorded the final days of Judah during the reigns beginning with Josiah through Jehoiakim through Zedekiah (Jeremiah 1:1-3)
12. Ezekiel - Ezekiel prophecied and recorded events from July 5, 593 until April 28, 573 BC during the Babylonian captivity (Ezek. 1:2; 40:1)
13. Daniel - Daniel prophesied and recorded events from 605-536 B.C. This included the time of Jehoiakim of Judah, and Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon until Cyrus and Darius of the Medo-Persians (Daniel 1:1; 10:1)
14. Ezra - Ezra returns to Jerusalem with the exiles with the written revelation and teaches the people. Ezra taught the word of God and recorded events (Ezra 6:18; 7:11; 9:4
15. Zechariah - Zechariah prophesied to the Jews who returned from Babylon and recorded events in 520 BC (Zechariah 1:1)
16. Malachi - Malachi closed the time of revelation around 432 BC – until the coming of “the prophet Elijah”, or, John the Baptist (Malachi 4:5)
17. Nehemiah - Nehemiah was governor in Jerusalem for two terms (445-432 and a second term somewhere between the years 430-407). Nehemiah compiled the final prophetic books with all the previous revelation into an organized collection of written revelation known to Christians today as the Old Testament (Nehemiah 1:1; 5:14;13:6)

On Thursday or Friday we will take a look at the Apocrypha. I believe we should be familar with the Apocrypha. One of the greatest stories is recorded in the book of Maccabees concerning the Maccabean revolt.

Galyn Wiemers
http://www.generationword.com/