Is God our Father?

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FightingFat

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In the Gospels, Jesus refers to God as Abba and admonishes us to be like children in order to enter his fathers house.

Are we literally children of God? By what process do we discern this? Is it at odds with anything in Fundamentalist teachings?
 
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FightingFat:
In the Gospels, Jesus refers to God as Abba and admonishes us to be like children in order to enter his fathers house.

Are we literally children of God? By what process do we discern this? Is it at odds with anything in Fundamentalist teachings?
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if we are not children of God then to whom do we attribute the fact of our existence? who created us, if not God?
 
Yes, we are literally children of God. Through the Eucharist His blood flows in our veins (just heard this yesterday in the sermon).
 
Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. We become adopted children of God through Baptism. (see Romans 8:23; Galatians 4:5)
 
Todd Easton:
Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. We become adopted children of God through Baptism. (see Romans 8:23; Galatians 4:5)
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Precisely, Todd. 👍 It is only in our adoption through baptism that we become God’s children. Through our incorporation into Christ we are now His children having being made by grace into images of Himself so that we are worthy objects of His Father’s Love. This highlights the Father’s singular love. God Loves His Son; when we are transformed in and conformed to Christ, then are we loved with the Divine and Fatherly Love. First we are loved as creatures created through the Son (He through whom all things were made): fallen creatures that have yet to be made fully loveable of ourselves. NOW we are sons and daughters in the Son and loveable because of our identity in Him.
 
We are indeed God’s children by way of adoption and creation. The fall destroyed our relationship with God, while Jesus restored it. The following passage speaks beautifully to our adoption:

1 John 3:1-2
SEE WHAT love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Our adoption is one of a covenant relationship paid for in the blood of Jesus. We are brothers and sisters in Christ…we are members of his body. Jesus is the son of God and he is not ashamed to call us brothers. The Book of Hebrews says it this way:

Hebrews 2:10
“For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified have all one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brethren,”

The idea of covenant sonship in scripture is deep and powerful and is worth exploring over and over again.
 
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FightingFat:
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Are we literally children of God? By what process do we discern this? Is it at odds with anything in Fundamentalist teachings?
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Fundamentalists will teach as we do that we are sons and daughters by adoption. In this we all lock arms and share a grand “Amen.” We will part company, however, when it comes to what it means to be part of God’s covenant family. As sons and daughters in the household we have certain responsibilities and requirements of behavior. Fundamentalists, on the other hand, would say that once you are a member of the household your position is secure. They believe that you are justified and therefore saved, and nothing you do will have any bearing on your salvation. Catholics believe that as members of God’s household we share in God’s enabling grace and therefore must be holy as He is holy[1Peter 1:15]. We must pick up our cross daily and follow Jesus[Luke 9:23]. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them”[Eph 2:10]. This gets us into the whole dispute over justification, salvation, and the back and forth of faith alone etc.

So although we may agree as Catholics and Fundamentalists, we will also disagree on what it means to be children of God.

I hope this helps.
 
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Pax:
We are indeed God’s children by way of adoption and creation.
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👍 Excellent posts. Please allow me to add some comments to what you have posted.
The fall destroyed our relationship with God, while Jesus restored it.
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Jesus did more than just restore a relationship that Adam and Eve had with God before the Fall.

Adam and Eve lived in friendship with God before the Fall. But they were predestined to an even greater glory – the glory of becoming fully divinized children of God that would partake of the divine nature of God.**Catechism of the Catholic Church

MAN IN PARADISE

384** Revelation makes known to us the state of original holiness and justice of man and woman before sin: from their friendship with God flowed the happiness of their existence in paradise.

374 The first man was not only created good, but was also established in friendship with his Creator and in harmony with himself and with the creation around him, in a state that would be surpassed only by the glory of the new creation in Christ.

**398 ** … Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be **fully “divinized” ** by God in glory.

**381 ** Man is predestined to reproduce the image of God’s Son made man, the “image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15), so that Christ shall be the first-born of a multitude of brothers and sisters (cf. Eph 1:3-6; Rom 8:29).
The following passage speaks beautifully to our adoption:
Click to expand...
1 John 3:1-2
SEE WHAT love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now …
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👍

A Catholic in a state of sanctifying grace is in a higher state of grace than that possessed by Adam and Eve before the Fall - “we are God’s children now”.**Catechism of the Catholic Church

Risen with Christ

1002** Christ will raise us up “on the last day”; but it is also true that, in a certain way, we have already risen with Christ. For, by virtue of the Holy Spirit, Christian life is already now on earth a participation in the death and Resurrection of Christ …

1003 United with Christ by Baptism, believers already truly participate in the heavenly life of the risen Christ, but this life remains “hidden with Christ in God.” The Father has already “raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Nourished with his body in the Eucharist, we already belong to the Body of Christ. When we rise on the last day we “also will appear with him in glory.”
 
According to Sr. Joan Chittister OSB…we should be calling God “Mother”:

"How can we possibly minister to women and agree that God can be called rock, tree, key, wind, door and dove in centuries of litanies without bringing the church to perdition, but we can never, ever call the God who is endless being, eternal womb. mother. "
 
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Desert_82:
According to Sr. Joan Chittister OSB…we should be calling God “Mother”:

"How can we possibly minister to women and agree that God can be called rock, tree, key, wind, door and dove in centuries of litanies without bringing the church to perdition, but we can never, ever call the God who is endless being, eternal womb. mother. "
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Golly gee whiz, who to follow? Joan Chittister, or Jesus??
 
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