Call No Man Father
Christ kept the name Holy Father for God alone, and an earthly office that takes that name does what Scripture calls blaspheming His name.
Two other clusters build on this: The Will of the Father Is to Believe and A Witness of His Resurrection.
Scripture shows this in four steps:
- Matthew 23:8-10
- John 17:11
- Ephesians 4:6, backed by 1 Corinthians 8:6
- 1 Corinthians 4:15
It all comes together in Daniel 7:25, 2 Thessalonians 2:4 and Revelation 13:5-6.
“And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven” (Matthew 23:9). Jesus is not telling us to stop calling our dads father. “Honour thy father” still stands (Exodus 20:12). Paul calls Abraham “the father of us all” (Romans 4:16).
What Jesus forbids is something else. It is making a man on earth the source of my life with God. The one I am born from in the spirit. The one through whom my standing before God comes down to me. That Father is in heaven, and there is only one.
Matthew 23:8-10
“But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.”
Matthew 23:8-10
Jesus was speaking about religious leaders who loved to be greeted in the markets and called “Rabbi, Rabbi.” He took three titles away from men on earth: teacher, father and master. Each one names a source: where teaching comes from, where life comes from, where rule comes from. And each time He gives the same reason. There is one, and He is in heaven.
The problem is not the word. It is wanting the word as a title, a place men must honour. That place is already filled.
John 17:11
“And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.”
John 17:11
This is the lock. The night before the cross, Jesus prayed to God. And He called Him “Holy Father.” Those exact words.
The title Jesus took away from men in Matthew 23, He gave to God in John 17. So the question is simple. Who did Jesus say “Holy Father” belongs to? He answered in His own prayer: to God.
Ephesians 4:6
“One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”
Ephesians 4:6
Paul says it again in another letter: “But to us there is but one God, the Father” (1 Corinthians 8:6). Jesus said there is one Father in heaven. Paul names Him: the one God, the Father of all. Every believer’s new life comes from Him and from no one else. He does not hand that title down a ladder of men.
1 Corinthians 4:15
“For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.”
1 Corinthians 4:15
Someone will say: “But Paul called himself a father.” He did. He brought these people to faith by preaching the gospel, and he loved them like a father.
But look which way he points. A chapter earlier he wrote: “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). Paul points away from himself, to God. He never sits in the Father’s place. That is the test. One man points you home to the Father. Another says, “Stop here, at me.”
Daniel 7:25, 2 Thessalonians 2:4, Revelation 13:5-6
“And he shall speak great words against the most High… and think to change times and laws.”
Daniel 7:25
“Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God… so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.”
2 Thessalonians 2:4
“And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies… And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.”
Revelation 13:5-6
Daniel, Paul and John all describe one thing: a power on earth that takes God’s name, God’s seat and God’s rights. Revelation says what the sin is: “to blaspheme his name.” Here that does not mean cursing. It means a man taking God’s name and wearing it.
Now look at the titles of the papacy. “Pope” comes from papa, which means father: the very word Jesus forbade as a spiritual title. “Holy Father” is the exact name Jesus gave to God in His prayer, now given to a man. “Vicar of Christ” means one who stands in Christ’s place.
This office does not say there is no Holy Father. It says, “I am he.” It hands out, as a man, the sonship that comes only from heaven. That is what these passages call blaspheming God’s name.
This is about the office and what it claims, not about Catholic people. Many of them love Christ and have never thought about what these titles say. A brother can live under a false claim and still be a brother.
What this means
Jesus kept the name Holy Father for God alone. Paul said there is one God, the Father of all, and he pointed people to Him and never to himself. An office that puts that name on a man is not making a small mistake in manners. It is doing what Scripture says the little horn, the man of sin and the beast do.
And the question comes back to me. Who fathered me? Not a church office. Not a man. I have one Father, and He is in heaven. My life with God, my place as His child, my inheritance: they all come from Him.
Connected chains
This cluster is built on Authority Given to Men, Christ Carries the Father's Name and The One God Is the Father.