# call no man father



## Scott (Sep 2, 2005)

How would people respond to this Catholic apologetic piece, Call No Man Father?


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## JKLeoPCA (Sep 4, 2005)

Calvin on 1 Corinthians 4:15




> 15. _For though you had ten thousand_. He had called himself _father_, and now he shows that this title belongs to him peculiarly and pecially, inasmuch as he alone has _begotten them in Christ_. In this comparison, however, he has an eye to the false apostles to whom the Corinthians showed all deference, so that Paul was now almost as nothing among them. Accordingly he admonishes them to consider what honor ought to be rendered to a _father_, and what to a pedagogue. "œYou entertain respect for those new teachers. To this I have no objection, provided you bear in mind that I am your _father_, while they are merely pedagogues." Now by claiming for himself authority, he intimates that lie is actuated by a different kind of affection from that of those whom they so highly esteemed. "œThey take pains in instructing you. Be it so. Very different is the love of a _father_, very different his anxiety, very different his attachment from those of a pedagogue. What if he should also make an allusion to that imperfection of faith which he had previously found fault with? For while the Corinthians were giants in pride, they were children in faith, and are, therefore, with propriety, sent to pedagogues. He also reproves the absurd and base system of those teachers in keeping their followers in the mere first rudiments, with the view of keeping them always in bonds under their authority.
> 
> _For in Christ_. Here we have the reason why he alone ought to be esteemed as the _father_ of the Corinthian Church "” because he had _begotten_ it. And truly it is in most appropriate terms that he here describes spiritual generation, when he says that he has _begotten them in Christ_, who alone is the life of the soul, and makes the gospel the formal cause. Let us observe, then, that we are then in the sight of God truly begotten, when we are engrafted into Christ, out of whom there will be found nothing but death, and that this is effected by means of the gospel, because, while we are by nature flesh and hay, the word of God, as Peter (1 Peter 1:24, 25) teaches from Isaiah, (Isaiah 40:6, 7, 8,) is the incorruptible seed by which we are renewed to eternal life. Take away the gospel, and we will all remain accursed and dead in the sight of God. That same word by which we are _begotten_ is afterwards milk to us for nourishing us, and it is also solid food to sustain us for ever.
> 
> ...




Yet, I personally add that when the Pope takes the title to himself as The "Holy Father", and stands with himself and others perscribing upon him divine attributes, they have taken the title beyond perscribed limits. 


Westminser Shorter Catechism


> Q. 47. What is forbidden in the first commandment?
> A. The first commandment forbiddeth the denying, or not worshipping and glorifying the true God as God, and our God; and the giving of that worship and glory to any other, which is due to him alone.
> 
> Q. 54. What is required in the third commandment?
> A. The third commandment requireth the holy and reverent use of God´s names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word and works.


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## Puritanhead (Sep 4, 2005)

Yeah, Jesus always means the opposite of what he really said...


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## crhoades (Sep 4, 2005)

So was Darth Vader wrong to tell Luke that he was his father? Is it a dark side thing?


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## Scott (Sep 6, 2005)

Ryan: What do you mean?


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