01.02. PRAYING TO THE FATHER

2. PRAYING TO THE FATHER

This, then, is how you should pray: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:9-10)

If you are not a Christian, then you are not a child of God, but you are a child of the devil. All human beings are God’s creatures, and this much is true. But when we are speaking of the relationship that we have with God, then humanity is divided into the children of God and the children of the devil. And ever since the beginning of human history, the two groups have been in conflict against each other (Genesis 3:15).

Those who think that all human beings are the children of God are ignorant of what the Bible says on the subject. Jesus says that the "father" of his opponents is the devil, and that they make their disciples twice as much the children of hell as they (John 8:44; Matthew 23:15). Paul writes:

If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ....For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. (Romans 8:9; Romans 8:15-16) The passage refers to a specific "Spirit," that is, the Spirit of Christ. If you do not have the Spirit of Christ, you do not belong to Christ, and if you do not belong to Christ, you cannot call God your Father. The Bible contradicts the notion that humanity is "one big family," but insists that the family of God consists only of Christians. If you are not a Christian, you cannot call God your Father, because your father is the devil. It makes no difference whether you belong to a religion that you consider to be very proper, or if you think that you are a very good person ­ - you are a child of the devil if you are not a Christian. When Jesus teaches his disciples to address God as their Father, he immediately excludes all non-Christians from having access to God. Rather, all who approach God the Father must do so through God the Son, Jesus Christ. Christians have the Spirit of Christ in their hearts by which they may legitimately call God their Father. Thus being a Christian is the prerequisite to having any positive relationship with God. This exclusive view is contrary to what many people want to believe. Even some who call themselves Christians hesitate to state the biblical position in such an explicit manner. However, since the above is what the Bible teaches, we must never do anything to obscure the message. If Christians have not been so afraid to offend people, we would not have so many false converts in our churches today. Is what I am saying hard and offensive to you? People complained against what Jesus teaches also: "On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ’This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’ Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, ’Does this offend you?’" (John 6:60-61). How does Jesus handle their discontent? Instead of trying to qualify his teaching so as to soften it, he bluntly applies the doctrine of election to their case: "He went on to say, ’This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him’" (John 6:65). His statement is not well received, for the next verse says, "From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him" (John 6:66).24

If you are offended by the straightforward and no-nonsense presentation of the gospel, then God has not chosen you for salvation, and you have no ability to accept it. Or, it is possible that you are among the elect, but God has decided for you to accept the gospel later. In any case, what many Christians fail to realize is that the non-elect should be offended at the gospel message. We are not supposed to distort it so that it offends no one. The gospel offends people not because it is irrational, for it is rationally invincible. But the non-elect are offended at the true gospel precisely because they are both irrational and sinful, and God has not regenerated them so that they may react to the gospel in a positive way (1 Corinthians 1:18-31).

Maybe you are one of the many false converts in our churches, and no one has made clear to you the gospel message. Do you think that you are a Christian just because you muttered the "sinner’s prayer"? Do you think that you are a Christian, even when you have not explicitly or implicitly renounced all non-Christian religions and philosophies as false? If you have affirmed a "gospel" that does not exclude other religions, then you have not affirmed the true gospel. My suggestion to you is the same one that Paul gives to the Corinthians: "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves" (2 Corinthians 13:5).

Jesus teaches that we should pray to God the Father. Since the Father is a divine mind and not a non-rational object, we are to use intelligible language to express our thoughts, and this excludes all the religions that do not deal with a divine rational person. And since we must pray to the "Father," a definite person, not just any person will do; rather, we must only pray to the divine Father of the Bible. This "Father" is defined by many distinct attributes the sum of which restricts our conception of him to a very specific person, so as to make us realize that prayers made to any other person is misdirected. It also means that we must gain an accurate grasp of how the Bible defines this divine person, so that the conception of God in our minds will correspond to the conception of God as revealed in Scripture. The above leads us to reject the notion that it matters little what you believe about God as long as you are sincere. It is possible to sincerely believe something and be mistaken. To sincerely believe in the Buddha does not make you acceptable to God, since from a Christian perspective, you would just be sincerely sinful. What God requires is that we sincerely affirm the truth; although faith is important, the object of faith is also important. We must believe the right doctrines. We must define "God" ­ - the object of our faith ­ - according to the attributes ascribed to him in the Bible.

Before dealing with some of the central divine attributes in relation to our context, that we must direct our prayers to the Father brings up a point that is particularly relevant to our times, namely, much of feminist theology is contrary to biblical teaching, and thus must be rejected and opposed. For example, although God is without gender, since he reveals himself in the Bible in male roles and with male pronouns, we are to address him as "Father" and not "Mother," with "he" and not "she." I would like to deal with the threat of feminist theology more thoroughly and systematically elsewhere, and I realize that its subversive ideas relate to more than this one issue in our example. For now, we should at least recognize that the central agenda of feminist theology is anti-Christian;25 therefore, let us determine to challenge the unbiblical assertions from its proponents whenever they may come up, and excommunicate the unrepentant. We will now return to discuss the divine attributes.

"God is love" (1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16) is frequently recited by people who wish to prove certain points about their conception of God, or of what God would do or would not do. These people make a number of inferences from the proposition, "God is love," that they think should be true if indeed God is love. But what is love? And what does it mean for God to be love? It certainly does not follow that a God who is love will not send anyone to hell, since the same Bible says that he sends many people to hell. It also does not follow that a God who is love will accept non-Christians, since the same Bible says that he rejects non- Christians.

Some people like to emphasize "God is love" because they falsely think that the divine attribute of love will spare them from the judgment promised to those who disobey God. For example, they may say that since "God is love," then he also loves the homosexual and will not judge him. But since this inference contradicts other propositions in the Bible, it is a false inference. The love of God does not contradict the other things that the Bible says about God. We must define love correctly. Further, the same Bible that says, "God is love," also says, "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). How come this verse, which is in the same letter by the apostle John, is so seldom mentioned? Perhaps it has something to do with the next verse, which explains what "God is light" implies: "If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth" (1 John 1:6). Walking with God requires adherence to his standard of right living, and if you do not do this, then you are not walking with God. Thus this very passage about the light of God shines upon those who hides under the darkness of a distorted interpretation of "God is love," and exposes the fact that they are not really walking with God. The same Bible that says, "God is love," also says that, "God is light." And the same Bible that says, "God is light," also says that, "God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29). All three propositions are true, and they are consistent with one another, but the invalid inferences that people make from "God is love" often contradict the other two propositions. That God is a consuming fire does not mean that he will give you a warm and welcome feeling. The writer of Hebrews states this proposition in the context of telling his readers to worship God "with reverence and awe" (Hebrews 12:28). The image of God being a consuming fire is associated with his anger, judgment, and power to destroy.26 The modern man may disapprove of such a God, but what is wrong with such a God? If God comes at you as a consuming fire, it is you who are at fault. Paul tells his readers to recognize both the "kindness and severity" (Romans 11:22, NASB) of God. He says that he is severe against those who disobey him, but he is kind to you, that is, if you continue in his grace.

Many times I have heard preachers say, "God is not mad at anybody." This is false, and provides the non-Christians with false comfort. The Bible says that if you are a non-Christian, God is now very angry with you, and "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31). Jesus says, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him" (John 3:36). Jesus declares that he who is not with him is against him (Matthew 12:30); there is no neutral ground. You need not deliberately align yourself against Christ to be counted as his enemy, since you were born his enemy. 1 John 5:12 says, "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." You may suppress your knowledge of God and your rebellion against him (Romans 1:18), but God is very aware, and you will not get away with anything (Hebrews 4:13).

If you are not a Christian, the great force of divine wrath will be poured out against you, perhaps in a moment you do not expect, and it is as if you will hear God say, "You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" (Luke 12:20). Of course, as I have explained elsewhere, the wrath of God is not an emotion, since God is not a man and has no emotions.27 However, this should not give you any relief, because it remains that God’s wrath is a policy of thought and action against his enemies that will stop at nothing short of effecting their utter destruction and endless suffering.

Today’s preachers tend to obscure the wrath of God, and present him as a harmless and helpless clown. There are some "fire and brimstone" sermons, which the congregations detest, but even most of these sermons are not nearly terrifying enough to describe the horrors of hell, the helpless state of those without Christ, and the greatness of God’s mercy toward his elect.

I urge you to read the sermon, "Sinners in the hands of an angry God" by Jonathan Edwards.28 It provides a much-needed biblical perspective about the sinner’s condition. It is inappropriate to reproduce the sermon in full here, but here are several passages from it: The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose. It is true, that judgment against your evil works has not been executed hitherto; the floods of God’s vengeance have been withheld; but your guilt in the mean time is constantly increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more wrath; the waters are constantly rising, and waxing more and more mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, that holds the waters back, that are unwilling to be stopped, and press hard to go forward. If God should only withdraw his hand from the flood-gate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God, would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten thousand times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it. The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an angry God. However you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them; when they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, "Peace and safety." Now they see, that those things on which they depended for peace and safety, were nothing but thin air and empty shadows. The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked ­ his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night, that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God’s hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell. The terrors of hell is indeed frightening, but surely, you think I will tell you, God has sent Christ to make salvation possible for everyone, even you, so that in the end you will determine your own destiny, that you can save yourself from endless torment. But God has not left even this for the sinner to determine. Jesus says that no one can be saved except the Father has chosen him; unless God first shows you mercy, you will not and cannot choose him. Thus even in this aspect you are powerless, and you are completely at his mercy. As Edwards states in his sermon, "It will be as it was on the great out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Jews in the apostles’ days, the election will obtain, and the rest will be blinded."

Therefore, cry out to God for mercy, and it may be that he has shown kindness toward you and has regenerated you, so that your plea for mercy will indeed come from a sincere heart instead of being done in pretense or in carnal fright, and thus you will obtain salvation through true faith in Jesus Christ. If you think that you are already a Christian, then believe and behave like a Christian. As Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 7:21). Why do you call him "Lord," but refuse to do what he says (Luke 6:46)? Can it be that your profession of faith is false? You cannot cheat your way into heaven. Test yourself! "Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you ­ unless, of course, you fail the test?" (2 Corinthians 13:5).