why the priest is called father in church?

Question

isn't father means God in bible?is the priest pretending to be God and starts to pardon everybody wrong doing,sins in the confessing chamber?is this jesus's ideas,to have a priest posing as God in churches or is it the pope's ideas?if it is not jesus's ideas to have it then isn't it blasphemy?or is it ok just because the priest says it is ok?For info I'm a muslim just curious to know.

Answer 1

Shouldn't...

(Matthew 23:9-10) Moreover, do not call anyone YOUR father on earth, for one is YOUR Father, the heavenly One. 10 Neither be called ‘leaders,’ for YOUR Leader is one, the Christ.

Notice here that not even Jesus is granted the TITLE of FATHER.

Answer 2

As far as i understand, the structure of the catholic church are pattern just like the family. The father is the priest, the mother is the church, and the follower is the flock or the children.As a father, he is the one who gives direction to his children together with the Mother Church ( the principles and the foundations). He teaches his children and let him understand their faith and guide them the Catholic way of life.

Priests are not God but an authorized representation of the church which represents God. As far as i remember, even Jesus ask his disciples, to heal and cast away demons using HIS name, in the same way when priest conducts confessions, it is not the priest who provides forgiveness but it is God, who always forgives with repentant heart THROUGH THE PRIEST.

Jesus says in the bible "Peace unto you; as my Father sent me, so I am sending you"... and other passages i cannot recall, the authority given by Jesus to the apostle is clear and absolute.

Thus you will noticed in every blessing there is always at the end.." in The name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit " because it emphasized that the authority is not of the human being in front of you but from HIGHER BEING.


Furhtermore, I confessed my sins through the priests, but noticed that we have a prayer called ACT OF CONTRITION, recited after we told our sins, and the prayer is not addressed to the priest but directly to GOD, that you are repenting your sins and wants God in your life again.

Then the priest proposes your penance, a prayer which you done privately and gives some advices and then recite the Prayer of Absolution. In this also, you will notice that the priest does not stop in saying I forgive you...because that is blasphemy it always follows,, I forgive you in the NAME OF THE FATHER, and of the SON and of the Holy Spirit.

This is what i understand in the structure of the Catholic Church. Hope it helps.

Answer 3

"The priest is, indeed, another Christ, or in some way, he is himself a continuation of Christ." (Pope Pius XI, Encylical on the Priesthood)

Roman Catholicism does, indeed, teach that the priest functions on earth as another Jesus Christ, as this quote from Pope Pius XI and as this picture, above, shows. This revelation is damning, because the Bible forbids us to follow "another Christ"! Take a close look at this picture. In the very top, we see Jesus Christ in the robes of the Roman Catholic priest, making intercession to God the Father, Who is shown within the Pagan equilateral triangle. Then, through a cloud, we see a real human Roman Catholic priest, receiving the intercession passing through Jesus Christ, which he can then pass through to the parishioners below.
This picture does a lot more than just depict Catholic belief that the priest is working on their behalf, receiving power and authority directly from Jesus; the picture depicts the Catholic teaching that the human priest is "another Christ", as the writing to the left so clearly illustrates. Jesus Himself warned us, in Matthew 24, that, at the End of the Age, people would see many instances where "another Christ" would appear, claiming that he is a Christ. Listen.
" Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." [Matthew 24:4-5] Notice that Jesus immediately stated that such claims would be great deception, and would be successful in deceiving "many". Would you consider the Roman Catholic faithful, one billion strong, to constitute "many"? Further, I would consider the many thousands of Roman Catholic priests as "many" christs. Thus, in both sides of this coin, this Roman Catholic teaching qualifies as fulfillment of Jesus' End Times prophecy.

So how can we say the Catholic church is the true church if what they teach is false and not biblical. They have always persecuted the Christians and did whatever it took to destroy the true Christians but God has always had a true church and so we need to test everything with the bible

Answer 4

So what do you guys call the guy who slept with your mom? Is your father god? You know, I bet this is a catholic drinking game question here it gets asked so often. Bigotry is ugly. Even as an atheist I hate anti-catholic prejudice.

Answer 5

I do not know but you are right it is contrary to Jesus' teaching only God should be called father and only God is holy yet catholics call the pope holy father that is blasphemy as far as I am concerned

Answer 6

It a male rank level in the Catholic church
Alter Boy/Novice
Brother
Father
Bishop
Arch Bishop
Cardinal
Pope

Answer 7

It's so when they ask little boys "Who's your daddy?" they get the right response.

Answer 8

because out of pride they had to either get rid of church doctorine or the bible

they got rid of Gods word

Answer 9

Pastor Billy says: First off calling priest father is... a old Protestant Christian practice not many non-Catholics realise this see the article posted below. Secondly Jesus (of whom Muslims consider a prophet) used the title father for Abraham

John 8: 53-56 http://www.htmlbible.com/kjv30/B43C008.htm
54Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God:
55Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying.
56Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.

The Apostle Paul also claimed he was a father
1 Cor. 4:15 - Paul writes, "I became your father in Christ Jesus."
Phil. 2:22 - Paul calls Timothy's service to him as a son serves a "father."
Philemon 10 - Paul says he has become the "father" of Onesimus.

Finally forgiveness of sins by priests is by the authority of God or in your case by the authority of his prophet read John20:20-22 in the Christian scriptures.



Are ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ Appropriate Titles for Protestant Clergy? by David L. Holmes

And most Protestants would undoubtedly reject both titles. "A wall goes up whenever I hear clergy addressed as ‘Father’ and ‘Mother,"’ a Protestant churchwoman recently told me.

Such opposition, however, is ironic in the context of church history. For American Protestants regularly called their clergy "Father" 200 and 300 years ago, and some continued to do so a century ago. And during the same years, Protestants addressed venerated women in their churches as "Mother."

The title "Father" was used in four ways in addressing clergy (see my article, "Fathers and Brethren," Church History [September 1968], pp. 298-318). In early America "Father" was a title of respect for elderly men. Although, for example, "Mister" (the designation of a gentleman and a college graduate) was the normal title for Puritan clergy in colonial New England, Congregationalists. Baptists, Methodists and German Reformed commonly addressed older ministers as "Father" well into the 19th century.

Furthermore, Protestants also employed the title for younger ministers who influenced Christian commitment and served as spiritual fathers. This usage is evident in the correspondence between early American ministers and their theological students. The journals of Methodist circuit riders as well as the records of Protestant missions to Indians and seamen also indicate this usage. Herman Melville, for example, based his character Father Mapple -- the whaleman-chaplain in Moby **** -- on Father Edward Thompson Taylor, the Methodist pastor of Boston’s Seamen’s Bethel.

Protestants of earlier centuries also addressed founders of denominations and religious communities as "Father." American Methodists, for example, referred to John Wesley not only as "Mr. Wesley" but also as "Father Wesley." Following the custom in both genders, the Shakers called their matriarch ‘‘Mother’’ and their male leaders "Father."

Closely related was the custom of calling missionary pioneers "Father." In the 19th century, Presbyterian, Baptist, Congregationalist, German Reformed, Methodist and Universalist missionaries were given the title throughout the New South and West. And American Lutherans used "Father" for their pioneer pastors, their first missionary to India, and their patriarch, Father Henry Melchior Muhlenberg.

Few in Protestant churches of earlier generations would have seen a theological problem in addressing spiritual fathers, founders or missionary pioneers as ‘Father." Just as the author of I John addressed as "fathers" the elderly who were advanced in the knowledge of Christ (I John 2:13-14), so Protestant churches applied the title to experienced ministers who had been long in the service of the church. "Fathers and Brethren" sat in ecclesiastical assemblies, and in the New Testament "Father" denoted the difference between generations.

Moreover, if calling clergy "Father" had violated biblical norms, the Christian Church and Disciples of Christ surely would have opposed it, for these groups were formed in an attempt to restore not only the doctrine and practice of primitive Christianity, but also its very nomenclature. Warren Stone’s motto was "Bible names for Bible things." And Thomas and Alexander Campbell stood on the phrase, "Where the Bible speaks, we speak: where it is silent, we are silent." Ridiculing "Reverend" and "Doctor" as "unscriptural," Alexander Campbell even employed the words of Jesus in Matthew 23:8-10 as a motto for his magazine, the Christian Baptist.

Yet church history clearly indicates that members of the Restoration Movement commonly addressed both the Campbells and Stone as "Father." Furthermore, the three founders used the term for their own clergy as well as for each other. And none of the movement’s opponents ever seemed to exploit a contradiction in the movement’s use of "Father" as a clerical title. They apparently saw no contradiction.

Answer 10

Because he wants to make you his daddy.


Atheist.