OPEN LETTER TO THE INDEPENDENT
BELIEVERS
To
my brothers and sisters, to all of you who, like me, believe in
the Book of Revelation opened by Jesus, I address these few
enlightening topics:
God is Father
I am sending you a
text following a discussion I had with a Muslim friend. He insisted
that we could not consider ourselves sons of God without offending God
and deserving his Anger. He insisted that to be agreeable to God one
has to consider oneself a slave.
This wide spread
mentality in the Muslim world is based on a misunderstood quranic
verse: “God begot none, nor was He begotten” (Quran
CXII; Oneness, 1-4) but to be understood “as have done the
gods of the polytheist mythology” at the time when the Quran
was inspired. Thus, this verse is an answer to the polytheist mythology
and does not in anyway target the spiritual paternity of God.
Whereas
the Christians call God their Father but most often behave like
frightened slaves and not trusting sons. Their pompous cults, their
timid and calculated attitudes are given proof. However, St John says
“ In love there is no room for fear, but perfect love drives
out fear, because fear implies punishment and no one who is afraid has
come to perfection in love” (1 John 4,18).
The
entire Biblical Revelation talks about our adoption in Jesus through
God.
Here are some texts:
1. In the Old
Testament, God had already said through Jeremiah:
- Jr 3,19:
“And I was thinking: How am I to rank you as my
children…..? I thought: You will call me
“Father” and will never cease to follow
you.”
2. Jesus too, asks us to talk to God
as a Father:
- Mt 6,9 / Lk 11,1: “So you should pray
like this: Our Father in heaven…”
3.
St John confirms this truth:
- Jn 1,12: “ To those
who did accept Him (Jesus) he gave power to become children of
God”.
- 1 Jn 3,1-2: “ You must see what
great love the father has lavished on us by letting us be called God`s
children – which is what we are. The reason why the world
does not acknowledge us is that it did not acknowledge Him. My dear
friends we are already God’s children.”
4.
St Paul too forcefully insisted on our divine adoption in Jesus:
-
Ro 8,14-15: “All who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons
of God; for what you received was not the spirit of slavery to bring
you back from fear; you received the Spirit of adoption, enabling us to
cry out, Abba! Father! The Spirit himself joins with our spirit to bear
witness that we are children of God”.
- Ga 4,4-7:
“…God has sent his Son…so we could
receive adoption as sons. As you are sons, God has sent into our hearts
the spirit of his Son crying: Abba! Father! And so you are no longer a
slave, but a son; and if a son, than a heir, by God`s own
act.”
This revelation by Paul teaches us
that through Jesus we are receiving a spirit and a new conception
regarding our relationship with God. We are not slaves but sons. One
must have the Spirit of God to understand that. Those who do not have
the Spirit of God will understand nothing. This is why, in our
discussions with others we do not try to convince. We only want to
inform and testify. We sow the grain and continue our journey without
insisting. Those who have God`s Spirit, those alone will understand.
God
wants sons, not slaves. Jesus came to liberate us, and not enslave us
(Jn 8, 31-36). One is “son of God” or
“slave of the devil”. There are no slaves in
Heaven, only children; there are no children with the devil, they all
are slaves. To refuse God as a Father means to become a slave of the
devil. Such is the teaching of the Divine Revelation.
Furthermore,
the Quran does not incite the believers to reject the divine paternity.
When the Quran incites the believers to “adore”
God, it is within a spirit of liberty and not of slavery. The Quran
invites the believers to do it with love and not with fear knowing that
one is a son and not a stranger. Therefore, some even refuse a
relationship of love with God and prefer a relationship of respect.
Love does not exclude respect; on the contrary it demands it. Some
pretend that it is “shameful” to love God. Nowhere
does the Quran teach that.
On the contrary, many
quranic verses underline love and stress the tender love between God
and the true believers:
- “Yet there are
some who take (for worship) others besides Allah, as equal (with
Allah). They love them as they should love, but those of faith are
overflowing in their love
for Allah (Houb)” (Quran II; The Cow, 165).
-
“Seek forgiveness of your Lord and turn onto Him in
penitence. For my Lord is indeed full
of mercy and loving-kindness (Wadoud)” (Quran
XI; Hud, 90).
-“On those who believe and
work deeds of righteousness, will (Allah) Most gracious bestow Love (Woudd)”
(Quran XIX; Maryam, 96).
It is indeed a matter of
love (Houb), and of tender love (Woudd) and from the One who loves
tenderly (Wadoud). It is very touching to be
“Wadoud”, to love with tenderness. Yes indeed, this
is the way our Father loves us: “I am gentle and humble in
heart (Wadoud)…”, said Jesus (Mt 11, 29).
As
for the Bible, we are encouraged to “love God with all our
heart, with all our strength…” (Dt 6,5 / Lk
10,25-28). St John declares: “Love is from God, everyone who
loves is a child of God and knows God. Whoever fails to love does not
know God, because God is Love” (John 4,7-8).
Those
who think differently are not inspired by God but by the deceiving
satanic spirit that will move them away from the love of God, from the
divine filial adoption and turn them into slaves of the devil. Those,
who in the name of the Quran do not believe in the love relation
between God and man, ignore the Spirit of the Quran, therefore do not
recognize Muhammad as the noble prophet of Islam, who like all
prophets, was emblazed by the Divine Love.
My
beloved, I am writing you so that you realize the excellence of your
vocation in Jesus. Without pride, but with great dignity we are
“already” children of God and God is our marvelous
Father with His limitless love. All men are invited to this filial
adoption. We are responding to this call with love and enormous joy. We
certainly do not have the monopoly of this divine adoption; to the
contrary, we wish that all men respond to this divine call with
simplicity. Jesus came to give such a Father to all men. Happy are
those who accept Him and do not lose themselves in human reasoning
inspired by the devil.
With an infinite gratitude we
dare call God “Abba (Daddy)! Our Father”.