About our Father E-Book

Hildegard und Heinrich Becker

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 280

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

It is all about God the Father. God the Father named Abba by Jesus disappeared widely from churches preaching. We want to take the reader on the journey to get to know the loving Father of Jesus. Talking about our experience getting to know His great love for all mankind we encourage to trust in being His beloved children.

Leseprobe

When we speak about God in this book, we are referring to God the Father, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, Jesus' Father, "Abba", as he called him.

When we speak about Jesus, we are referring to Jesus Christ, the son of God who became man.

When we speak about the Holy Spirit, we are referring to the Spirit whom Jesus sent to us as our Helper, who assists us at all times.

All scriptures literally quoted from the Old and New Testament, if not otherwise noted, are taken from the New International Version.

Contents

Part 1: About Abba,

1. Introduction

2. Preface

3. God as Father

4. Jesus' Father disappears

5. God the Father and I

6. Jesus tells about his Father

Part 2: ... his children ...

7. Being a Child with my Father

8. No more an Orphan

9. Adoption

10. About Man

11. About Woman

Part 3:... and his relationship to them

12. The fourth Word

13. About Responsibility

14. The Lord's Prayer

15. About Eternal Life

16. Epilogue

Appendices

Introduction

“The Theology Jesus taught was completely Father-centred.”

Quote from Prof. Dr. Knut Backhaus, German member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.

Let us begin looking at a difficult theme with a joke:

Moses, an old man, and Jesus are playing golf together. Moses hits the ball first. He does a pretty good job - but it looks like the ball is going to fall in a pond. Suddenly he raises his golf club in the air, the water in the pond divides, the ball falls on the dry bottom of the pond and rolls out onto the Green. "Great Shot!", calls Jesus approvingly.

Jesus hits the ball with absolute perfection! The ball flies beautifully through the air - and lands on the Green, just a few centimetres from the hole. "Great Shot!" exclaims the old man.

The old man hits his ball again, but this time he is trembling, which makes the ball land next to a tree on the other side of the Green. Suddenly a squirrel appears, grabs the ball very quickly and runs away. Just at that second, out of nowhere, a big eagle flies down, snatches the squirrel with the ball and flies away. While being held by the eagle during his flight, the squirrel is able to let the ball fall - exactly into the golf hole! Jesus turns to the old man, pats him with admiration on his shoulder and says: " Great Shot, Papa!"

Many of us carry a similar picture of God around with us: Because we see him as an old feeble man, we don't trust him to carry the burdens of the world and ourselves in his hand nor positively influence our lives. Even worse, we think he has no idea of what is going on in the world. And if he does exist, he is far away from us, somewhere in heaven, far away from the dust of this world.

Or perhaps he is an unmerciful despot, who is not interested in helping us. Or we think he is a barbarian, who allows all the suffering in the world to continue.

This book is our attempt to explain how such a picture of God could develop and what Jesus really said about his Father. And which consequences this can have on his children.

It has been my, Heinrich, hearts wish for a long time to write about this. Many passages of this book are written as a dialogue, which we think is the best way to express God's wish to have a personal and very close relationship with each of us.

Hildegard and Heinrich Becker

Part 1: About Abba,

Preface

Father

What happens inside of you when you hear this word?

Father

Do positive feelings and thoughts well up in you?

Thoughts and memories of being protected and feeling secure?

Of loving experiences?

He took care of me, defended me, gave me gifts?

I could trust him, he appreciated me?

We did a lot with each other?

Father

Nothing happens inside me when I hear the word “Father”.

I feel no connection to this word.

I never knew my father.

He was physically present, but otherwise not there.

He doesn't know me.

He left when my mother was pregnant with me.

He left us for another woman.

Father

I feel fear well up inside of me.

He was strict and not fair.

He didn't want any (more) children, I felt superfluous.

I had to protect my siblings and my mother.

He rejected me because I am of the wrong gender.

He rejected me because I didn't live up to his expectations.

Father

Rage develops in me.

He beat me.

He was often drunk.

He misused me.

He completely ruined my life.

In our book we want to show how to find the way to God, to point out who Jesus' Father was, how Jesus spoke of him in the New Testament. Jesus declares himself to be the only way to God the Father. And, in spite of this, the Father has disappeared from the realms of proclamation of the Gospel. Incorrect understanding has slyly found a way into proclamations, which have been corrected by different men and women in the last several years. Besides that, our biological father has a big influence upon our understanding of God, Jesus' Father. In many cases the own father stands in the way of a correct relationship to Abba, how Jesus named his Father.

That is the purpose of this book. And we share what we have personally experienced with our Father Abba.

God as Father?

God as Father!

How can God, who made heaven and earth, speak of himself as a Father?

No religion speaks about that! We only find these statements in the Bible. Gods are to be feared, one has to bribe them with offerings to please them or, at least, to avoid their wrath.

That is what happened with the God of the Bible, as we will see later.

And yet, he is spoken of as the Father in the Old Testament.

Actually we can really see the story of Creation as God's preparation of being a Father for his children, for whom he provides all of their needs.

Genesis 1:26

26 “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness,...”

After our image or appearance. Here, at the time of creation, we are not the same as God, but similar.

And he cares for his children: He comes into the Garden of Paradise every evening and talks with them about the day.1 Also on the day when Adam and Eve sinned against him and brought sin into the world. They were still his children. In spite of their lack of trust and their doubts which were present.

The first time God speaks of himself as Father is in 1. Chronicles 22:10: “He will build a temple for me. He will be my son, and I will be his father. His dynasty will rule Israel forever.“

After God did not allow David to build a temple for him, God spoke to David about his son Salomon. He wanted to be a father for Salomon, who should be God's son. This is connected to his pledging to consolidate the throne of David over Israel. And, as we will later read, God endowed Salomon abundantly with wisdom and worldly riches.

A few chapters later when the building of the temple began, God repeated his Pledge.2

Now let us read about this in the Psalms:

First a statement of God about David:

„He will call out to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior.“3

In this verse the term Father is written before the term God. This order of terms shows that the relationship to our Father has precedence over speaking of him as God the Almighty One.

This description can be found in a Psalm written by David:

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; ”4

David already wrote here about God's mercy: Like a father, he shows mercy to his children.

In Proverbs we can read the following verse, which isn't so easy to understand:

“...the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in. ”5

We prefer the Luther translation from 1984 even more:

“The Lord corrects those he loves, as parents correct a child of whom they are proud.”

Upbringing and appreciation, or, in other words, liking someone, belong together. To love someone does not mean to accept and overlook everything that happens, but to keep one's goal for upbringing always in mind.

In Isaiah there is a verse which predicts Jesus' coming and his unity with his Father:

“ For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting

Father, Prince of Peace. ”6

Here we see God is spoken of as Father for the first time in Isaiah.7

“But you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us; you, Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. .“

And again a few verses later:8

„Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.“

Now in Jeremia:

"Have you not just called to me: ‘My Father, my friend from my youth,...“9

However, rather a reproach of God towards his people who deserted him. Also to be read in a few verses later:

„I myself said, ‘How gladly would I treat you like my children and give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.’ I thought you would call me ‘Father’ and not turn away from following me.„10

In a later chapter of Jeremia we find similar words of God towards his people:

„They will come with weeping; they will pray as I bring them back. I will lead them beside streams of water on a level path where they will not stumble, because I am Israel’s father, and Ephraim is my firstborn son. ”

In Maleachi we found the last verses to this theme:

“Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us?11

Here we see that in the Old Testament God already spoke of himself as the Father of his children.

However, we see a radical change in the way Jesus spoke of his Father in the New Testament. Dr. Knut Backhaus, Professor for Catholic Theology at the Ludwig Maximillian University and German member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission said the following:

“Jesus' theology was completely father-oriented”.

To say it in a simpler way: Jesus' only concern was his Father and the commission his Father gave unto him.

From the multitude of Bible verses to this subject, we have reduced our list of verses found in the book of John:

John 1,14

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1,18

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

John 2,16

To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”

John 3:35

The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.

John 4, 21 + 23

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

John 5,17-23

In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.1 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

John 5, 26

For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.

John 5,30

By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

John 5, 36-37

I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form,

John 5, 43 + 45

I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.

But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set.

John 6,27

Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.

John 6,32

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

John 6:37

All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.

John 6, 40-46

For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’4 Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.

John 6,57

Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.

John 6,65

And he added, "This is the very reason I told you that no people can come to me unless the Father makes it possible for them to do so.

John 8,16-19

But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.” Then they asked him, “Where is your father?” “You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

John 8,27+28

They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father.

So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up1 the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.“

John 8,38

I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.

John 8,41-42

You are doing the works of your own father.

“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me.

John 8,49

„I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me.“

John 8,54

Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me.“

John 10,14 + 15

I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.

John 10,17 + 18

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.

John 10,25

Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me.

John 10, 29 + 30 + 32

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.

But Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”

John 10:36-38

What about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”

John 11, 41

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.

John 12, 26-28

Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’?

No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.

Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

John 12, 49 + 50

For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.

John 13:1 + 3

It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God.

John 14:2

My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?

John 14:6-13

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.“

John 14,16

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.

John 14, 20-28

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.

The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.“

John 14, 31

but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.“Come now; let us leave.“

John 15, 1

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

John 15, 8-10

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

John 15, 15 - 16

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

John 15, 23 - 24

Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.

John 15, 26

When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.

John 16,3

They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.

John 16:10

about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;

John 16, 15

All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

John 16, 17

At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”

John 16, 23

In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

John 16, 25 - 28

Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.

John 16, 32

A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

John 17, 5

And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

John 17, 11

I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.

John 17, 21

That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

John 17, 24-25

Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.

John 18, 11

Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?

John 20, 17

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.“

John 20, 21

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.“

It is overwhelming how often Jesus spoke of his Father in the Gospel of John.

More than 110 times! That was Jesus' greatest desire. What an intimate relationship they shared!

It is the same in the other Gospels.

One verse of scripture we have already quoted means so much to us that we want to repeat it again:12

„Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son.“

God surrendered to his son, Jesus Christ, the sovereign power and authority to reign and judge with truth and righteousness in order for himself to be FULLY our Father! Jesus will sit on the Throne of Judgment. God the Father will remain our Father.

And yet, God the Father has disappeared from the proclaimed word.

Why?

That is what the next chapter is about.

Jesus' Father disappears

Let us take a look at the Proclamation of the Bible as it takes place in churches today, not considering the differences in the many confessions. In our opinion, the percentage of how often God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are proclaimed is alarming. Jesus' is mentioned approximately 93% of the time, the Holy Spirit only 5%, but God the Father is mentioned even less - 2% of the time! It is not our purpose to degrade Jesus' proclamations; instead, we are concerned about the following words of Jesus: „ Jesus answered him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except by me.“13 Jesus' intent here was to direct their attention to his Father, who was his main point of interest. More about this later. The big question is WHY did God the Father disappear from the proclamation in churches?

The history of the development in the early churches.

At the end of the first and beginning of the second centuries, the heathen philosophy of the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle influenced the thinking of early Christianity. They described the character of their gods with the Greek word „apotheia“, which is the definition of Greek gods (Apothee). These gods are very distant; there is no way to reach them. They are unable to love or to have compassion because they exist in spheres above our world. They are only involved with themselves and are not interested in human beings. There is one exception: very beautiful young girls.

In the ancient world of the Greeks and Romans no compassion, no love, no humanitarian values existed. Instead, the Greek ideal for all people was worshipped, which was „A healthy spirit in a healthy Body.“ The disabled, the sick, the weak, those who were not capable of taking part in military campaigns, the simple - they were of no value in heathen Greek Philosophy. Again, there was the exception of girls who were young and beautiful.

The heathen concept of God, along with the Greek ideal of humans, made it impossible to understand who Jesus' true Father was, although Jesus' life exemplified to his disciples who God was. Through the influence of Greek thinking upon early Christianity, Jesus' Father was reduced to a distant god who did not suffer with us, did not love us when we were guilty, did not offer his help when we were lost or when others had misused us, who looked at us without any interest when our bodies, minds and spirits were sick nor when we struggled and were plagued. In the Theology of the church he was a God who resided in heaven, unreachable for sinful people who could not see themselves as beloved children of God. And these children are the ones who fear God's anger. This heathen idea influenced the early Christian theology and had great influence on the understanding of who God is, even up to this day.

At the beginning of the 4th century Konstantin lifted Christianity out of its low-class position up to the position of a State Religion in the Roman Empire, which was the beginning of the dependence of the Church upon the state and society. The state, i.e. the Roman Empire, bestowed many privileges upon the Church in order to be able to take advantage of its moral and religious values. For the Empire, which was beginning to fall apart, needed the organizing and unifying power of the church. Bishops became worldly judges. This is when the church of believers became a religion; they were far away from Jesus' love and his Father's love for his children. God's children became subject to the ruling leaders; they were controlled, judged, found guilty and persecuted. The focus of the State Church was upon commandments, laws and teachings, which were to be obeyed. The early church completely lost the teaching about the loving Father. The Church wanted to enjoy some of the privileges and structures of the state also, in order to have power and control during times of false teachings. During the Middle Ages, at the time of the Inquisition, which was actually a good idea in that those accused of heresy were first interrogated instead of being executed, false teachings had reached its peak. Even scientific progress was seen as an attack on the infallibility of the church and was unmercifully persecuted. Nothing was said about a loving Father who, in order to be with his children, came into the world through his son Jesus Christ.

Worldly influences invade the church

At the beginning of the 19th Century the Industrialization took fathers away from their families, since the working world brutally tore families apart. Today many fathers are not am example to their children of how to master the difficulties of life, but have become a person with authority, who is to be feared upon arrival at home and with whom a close relationship is not possible. These children are not able to later identify themselves with their father which causes a feeling of desolation and aloneness. Subsequently, the impression is given of a weak father, who is incapable and upon whom one cannot depend. Philosophers and Theologians have given God this attribute which, because of the no-existent God of the 19. century, the „God is dead“ Ideology of the 20 century began, at cost of millions of people in Russia under Stalin and in Germany under Hitler, their lives.

Along with the destructive influences beginning in the 19th