I’m sure the Church takes the scriptures seriously except that important part that says not to add or detract from them. (purgatory, calling priest “father’, confession to a mere man, etc. etc.)
fish hawk:
Except tht quote you are referring to comes from Revelation, which is a reference to itself, i.e. do not detract from this “book”. As for calling no man Father, I see you are one of those Protestants that is falling back to that one.
St. Paul referred to many of his disciples as his children, for example Timothy (cf 1 Cor 4:17; 1 Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:2) and in other places Timothy was referred to by St. Paul as his sone( 1 Tim 1:18; 2 Tim. 2:1). St. Paul claims that Timothy’s worth to him in the missionary work that St. Paul did was like a son to a father: “But Timothy’s worth you know, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel” (Phil. 2:22).
St. Paul referred to others as his children such as Titus (Titus 1:4) and Onesimus where St. Paul writes “whose father I have become in my imprisonment” (Philem. 10)
In all these cases, St. Paul was referring to his disciples as his “spiritual children” and thus he saw himself as their “spiritual father”. This theological concept of “spiritual fatherhood” is most clearly expressed by St. Paul in 1 Cor 14:14-15 where he writes “I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
St. Peter’s writings express the same theologicl concept of spiritual fatherhodd as he refers to Mark as his son as he writes “She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings; and so does my son Mark” (1 Pet. 5:13). In other letters or the New Testament, we see St. Paul referring to entire Churches as his “spiritual children” (Gal 4:19)
The Apostle John’s letters also embrace the theology of “spiritual fatherhood” as he referrs to the Church/Christians he is writing to as “my little children (1. John 2:1; 3 John 4) and he refers to men in these same congregations as “fathers” (1 John 2:13–14).
Christ himself told a rich man and the pharisees that keeping the commandments were necessary to inherit eternal life [with God’s Grace of course] and specifically cited “honor your father and mother” (cf Matt 19:19, Luke 18:20; Mark 7: 10-13). In other places in the NT, Abraham is referred to as “Father” and St. Paul refers to him as such in Romans Chapter 3 in that context at least 3 times.
I could go on and on, but the above post I think makes my point which is your interpretation of Christ “call no man father” is totally wrong, otherwise you make every Apostle a heretic. No, the more plausible interpretation is that Christ’s Father is the God of all history and the First Person of the Holy Trinity and the source of all things and Christ is eternally from the Father and thus can call God “Abba.”
The use of the word “father” in the contexts that Catholics and Orthodox Christians use it does not contradict what Christ is saying [if interpreted the in light of apostolic tradition) and in fact is expressed throughout the New Testament Epistles.