The Virgin Mary in Cairo, Egypt.

Calling a Man Father?

According to several Protestants, those who call a man father is a blasphemer and against God. The Protestants believe that only God the Father and Jesus Christ. Like what we Catholics are doing. We call our priests, father. And the pope, Holy Father. Why are we calling a priest father? Why we call the pope Holy Father? Because the priest is the leader of it's parishioners. And we call the pope Holy father because the pope is the head of the whole Roman Catholic Church. Just as like Abraham as the Father in faith and Father of all nations. The Bible says God promise Abraham to have many sons, and this sons will call him father. But, still, the Protestants still consider it wrong. Okay, now let us talk about this more Biblical. I don't think Isaiah committed blasphemy here in this verse...

"our holy and glorious Temple, in which our fathers prayed to you, is burnt to the ground; all that gave us pleasure lies in ruins." - Isaiah 64:10 (The Jerusalem Bible)

I don't even think Daniel is a blasphemer...

"In your kingdom there is a man in whom lives in the spirit of God Most Holy. In your father's day, he was known for having percipience, intelligence and wisdom comparable to that of the gods. King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, made him head of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldaeans and wizards." - Daniel 5:11 (The Jerusalem Bible)

I think we should go back to the 1st book of the Bible...

"For your part, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a ripe old age." - Genesis 15:15 (The Jerusalem Bible)

Protestants, still believing? God Himself is the one who is talking on Genesis 15:15. So, Protestants, do you consider God Himself is a blasphemer? What a shock. God said Abraham that he is going to be the father of a multitude of nations...

"Here is my covenant with you: you shall become the father of a multitude of nations." - Genesis 14:4 (The Jerusalem Bible)

So, God is a blasphemer for Protestants because God called Abraham the father of a multitude of nations? What a shock. Here is God again calling Abraham father of a multitude of nations...

"You shall no longer be called Abram; your name shall be Abraham, for I make you father of a multitude of nations." - Genesis 17:5 (The Jerusalem Bible)

Now, in this verse God call Ishmael father of twelve princes...

"For Ishmael too I grant you your request: I bless him and I will make him fruitful and greatly increased in numbers. He shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation." - Genesis 17:20 (The Jerusalem Bible)

See. Protestants, don't tell me that God is a blasphemer and He disobey himself. Another verses with the word father...

"The elder said to the younger, 'Our father is an old man, and there is not a man in the land to marry us in the way they do the world over. Come let us ply our father with wine an sleep with him. In this way we shall have children by our father.'" - Genesis 19:31-32 (The Jerusalem Bible)

There are lots of verses in the Bible that calls a man father. I can't tell all of them here. If the Bible calls a man father, then why not we call a priest father. A pope Holy Father. That's all and God bless us.

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Why Luther Removed the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books?

The Roman Catholic Apocrypha/Deuterocanon are the books in the Holy Scriptures mostly seen in the Old Testament. According to Wikipedia, the Deuterocanonical books is a term used since the sixteenth century in the Catholic Church and Eastern Christianity to describe certain books and passages of the Christian Old Testament that are not part of the Hebrew Bible. Marin Luther, the founder and leader of Protestantism, removed the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books because the Apocryphal books doesn't support Luther's Protestant Teachings. Example the salvation because of good works. The Protestants really deny it, they believe that only the Word of God (The Bible) will only save them. But the Apocrypha says...

"...Better to practise almsgiving than to hoard up gold. Almsgiving saves from death and purges every kind of sin..." - Tobit 12:8-9 (The Jerusalem Bible)

But even the New Testament agrees with this statement that salvation should be with works...

"There you see it: faith and deeds were working together; his faith became perfect by what he did." - James 2:22 (The Jerusalem Bible)

"A body dies when it is separated from the spirit, and in the same way faith is dead if it is separated from good deeds." - James 2:26 (The Jerusalem Bible)

See. The New Testament even agrees with the Apocryphal passage. The Apocrypha supports the Purgatory doctrine which is against Martin Luther's Doctrine...

"after this he took a collection from them individually, amounting to nearly two thousand drachmae, and sent it to Jerusalem to have a sacrifice for sin offered... so that they might be released from their sin." - 2nd Maccabees 12:43, 45 (The Jerusalem Bible)

That's why the Protestants are not including the Apocryphal Books as part of the Holy Scriptures. The Protestants can't accept that their doctrines are wrong. The Protestants are only picking Bible verses that supports their doctrine and anti-Catholic doctrines. That is why Martin Luther removed the Apocryphal books in his Bible (Luther Bible) and some other Protestant Bibles (New International Version, King James Version, English Standard Version etch.) removed it too. It's really scary.

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