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<\/a><\/p>\nAbsolutely not! That is, if you believe the Bible. I don\u2019t like to disagree with Christian leaders, such as Pope Francis. But Christians should let the Bible teach them both how to believe and how to live, and the Bible never says all people are \u201cchildren of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pope Francis has been saying this throughout his papacy. He said it again today in an interview about homosexuality. The Bible very clearly condemns homosexuality. But Pope Francis seems to have a different viewpoint about it. Today, he said, \u201cbeing homosexual is not a crime.\u201d That depends on definitions and where you live. In over sixty countries in the world, it is still a crime to practice homosexuality, as it used to be in the U.S. Does Pope Francis mean that if a person has attraction to the same sex, that person is a homosexual? Or does he mean a person who engages in sexual acts with people of the same sex? That is what the Bible means by homosexuality, which it condemns (Leviticus 18.22; 20.13; cf. Genesis 19; Romans 1).<\/p>\n
Some people admit that the Old Testament condemns homosexuality, yet they claim Jesus did not. I think that is wrong. Jesus was many things, including a Torah teacher. He began his public ministry by prefacing his teaching in his Sermon on the Mount\u2013as though prescient about accusations that were to come against him and get him killed. He said, \u201cDo not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill\u201d (Matthew 5.17 NASB95). Jesus then further explained concerning the Law of God delivered to Moses, \u201cWhoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches then, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven\u201d (v. 19).<\/p>\n
Jesus later explained, \u201cThat which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries\u201d etc. (Mark 7.20-21). The word in the Greek text here translated \u201cfornications\u201d is porneiai<\/em>. It means simply \u201csexual immorality\u201d and therefore has a wide range of meaning, which most certainly includes homosexuality due to Leviticus 18.22 and 20.13. But that is not the subject of the title of this post.<\/p>\nWhen Pope Francis says all people are \u201cchildren of God\u201d he thereby follows Vatican II (1962-1965). Prior to that, the Roman Catholic Church\u2019s most important doctrine about personal salvation was that \u201cthere is no salvation outside the Catholic Church.\u201d That it, the Church said you must be baptized by it to be a true Christian. The Protestant Reformation began in 1517 by reacted to that. So, Vatican II made a change about it. But in so doing, in my opinion, it went too far by saying that all human beings are \u201cchildren of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bible says from its very beginning and throughout that God created humans beings in his image. But that does not make all human beings \u201cchildren of God,\u201d which refers to a spiritual relationship. Christians must get this straight, since it is important.<\/p>\n
A man and a woman couple, a fetus is conceived, and that person born to them is their \u201cchild.\u201d But that is not the way it is with God. A \u201cchild of God\u201d does not mean God performed some sexual activity and thereby produced his \u201cchild.\u201d No, a \u201cchild of God\u201d means that person is related to God in a spiritual sense. For this reason Jesus regularly called God his \u201cFather.\u201d And Jesus taught his genuine disciples to call God their \u201cFather.\u201d But all of this is spiritual, not physical.<\/p>\n
A human being can only become a child of God by entering into a spiritual relationship with God. The Gospel of John in the New Testament says of Jesus, \u201cAs many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name\u201d (John 1.12). This means that those who believe in Jesus\u2019 name gain \u201cthe right to become children of God.\u201d Thus, a human being cannot rightly be included among those who are \u201cchildren of God\u201d unless that human has believed in the meaning of Jesus\u2019 name.<\/p>\n
What does Jesus\u2019 name mean? The name Jesus is the Aramaic translation of Yeshua, pronounced Ye-SHOO-ah. This word is the translation of the Hebrew word Yehoshua, which is the same as Joshua. Ye<\/em> is the shortened from of Yahweh or Yehvah (from (YHWH or YHVH), which is God\u2019s name (Exodus 3). The Hebrew word hoshua<\/em> means \u201csalvation.\u201d So, putting ye<\/em> and hoshua<\/em> together as Yehoshua means \u201cYahweh is salvation\u201d or Yahweh saves.\u201d For Jesus of Nazareth to have Jesus as his name means Yahweh saves through this man.<\/p>\nSo, according to the Christian Bible, more particularly its New Testament, a person can only rightly be regarded as \u201ca child of God\u201d by believing that God saves through Jesus of Nazareth. How does God do this? Every human being sins. According to the Bible, people need for God to forgive them of their sins to become children of God. That is why God\u2019s plan was for Jesus to die on the cross. The New Testament repeatedly says Jesus died on the cross, bearing the sins of others. So, the New Testament calls people to genuinely believe in Jesus dying for their sins in order for God to forgive them of their sins and thereby become a true child of God, which means a person who belongs to God and Jesus by virtue of a spiritual relationship. This is what it means to believe in Jesus as Savior, that is, savior from sin and its result, which is divine condemnation.<\/p>\n
That is why Jesus told Nicodemus, \u201cunless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God\u201d (John 3.3). Jesus meant that all people need to be spiritually born, that is, renewed in spirit, to become a true child of God and thereby enter spiritually into the kingdom of God. Nicodemus was a Jew, a member of the elite Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, which ruled the religious life of Jews, and most Jews thought they were children of God simply by being born a Jew. Jesus corrected that error in this remark to Nicodemus.<\/p>\n
The apostle Paul explains most succinctly, \u201cThey are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; neither are they all children because they are descended from Abraham\u2019s descendants, but THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED\u201d (Romans 9.6-7; the all caps is a quotation of Gen 21.12). Paul means that God\u2019s promise to Abraham\u2013that he will have children of God even though both Abraham and his wife Sarah were beyond childbearing years\u2013comes through Abraham\u2019s only son, Isaac, with Sarah. Therefore, the promise was not with a previous son which Abraham had with Sarah\u2019s handmaid Hagar, which son was named Ishmael (Genesis 12.7; 15.18; 16.11; 17.9; 18.9-14; 21.1-5).<\/p>\n
The apostle Paul continues, \u201cit is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise regarded as descendants\u201d (Romans 9.8). Paul means that God\u2019s promise to Abraham that he will have \u201cchildren of God\u201d will be through Isaac, thus not through Ishmael. But both Paul and Jesus agree that even these descendants of Abraham and Sarah, who came to be called \u201cJews,\u201d still are not children of God simply by being physically born as Jews, but they need a spiritual birth as do all people in order to become children of God and thereby spiritually enter God\u2019s kingdom.<\/p>\n
In sum, according to the New Testament, \u201cchildren of God\u201d are not all people but only those who have a genuine, spiritual relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Absolutely not! That is, if you believe the Bible. I don\u2019t like to disagree with Christian leaders, such as Pope Francis. But Christians should let the Bible teach them both how to believe and how to live, and the Bible never says all people are \u201cchildren of God.\u201d Pope Francis has been saying this throughout […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1477,"featured_media":17397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,327,551],"tags":[256,4494,380,615,7110],"class_list":["post-17394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-living","category-christianity","category-the-bible","tag-born-again","tag-children-of-god","tag-homosexuality","tag-pope-francis","tag-vatican-ii"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n