Roman Catholic Claim
Jesus
chose the apostles to be the earthly leaders
of the Church. He gave them his own authority
to teach and to govern—not as dictators,
but as loving pastors and fathers. That is why
Catholics call their spiritual leaders “father.”
In doing so we follow Paul’s example:
"I became your father in Jesus Christ through
the gospel" (1 Cor. 4:15). |
Christian Response
To begin, we note
that Paul does not really say he became the Corinthians’
father. Rather he says he begat them:
“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, KJV).
This is important,
because Paul elsewhere says he travails like a woman
in birth pangs for the sake of the Galatians:
“My little
children, of whom I travail in birth again
until Christ be formed in you” (Galatians
4:19, KJV).
If Roman Catholic priests are to
be addressed as “father” because of 1
Corinthians 4:15, let them also be addressed as “mother”
on account of Galatians 4:19. But if this reasoning
fails for the latter, it must of necessity fail for
the former, and we see that Paul assigned no such
office or title to himself. “To beget”
or “to travail in birth” are metaphors
for his ministry of preaching, which leads to our
next point. Paul apparently only used this metaphor
when he was addressing those to whom he personally
ministered:
“And I, brethren, when
I came to you, came not with excellency of
speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the
testimony of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:1,
KJV.
“Ye know how through infirmity
of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you
at the first.” Galatians 4:13, KJV.
But we note in his letter to the
Roman church, such metaphors are absent, for he did
not personally preach to them. In fact had never even
met them, though he had long desired to:
“Making request, if by any
means now at length I might have a prosperous journey
by the will of God to come unto you... Now I would
not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes
I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,)
that I might have some fruit among you also, even
as among other Gentiles." (Romans 1:10-13,
KJV).
Where in Romans does Paul call them
“his children” and where does he call
himself their mother or father? Nowhere. He simply
was not present when they heard the gospel and believed.
The Roman Catholic use of 1 Corinthians 4:15 is a
classic case of “generalizing the exception.”
It is like the young child who learns that the next
door neighbors are the O'Connors, and concludes confidently
that the rest of the families in the neighborhood
are the O'Joneses, the O'Smiths and the O'Johnsons.
He has taken the exception and made it the rule! So
too, have Roman Catholics with 1 Corinthians 4.
Contrarily, the Roman Catholic priest
at best, could be called “father”
by those to whom he personally preached at their conversion
to Roman Catholicism, and while they are calling him
“father,” let them also call him “mother,”
lest they ignore the plain implications of Galatians
4:19. And if a Roman priest shudder to be called “mother,”
then let the title “father” be withheld
as well.
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