Address by Walter B. Westcott
It is not the fashion in this present age to denounce sin and warn men of judgment to come and the wrath of God. To a very large extent, the conception of the day is that this was all very well in the days of our Puritan forefathers, but great advance has been made since then, and such a God as they were trained to fear must be cast out of twentieth century theology; instead there is preached a loving All-Father who could not banish men from the joys of heaven and consign them to the woes of Hell; for if an earthly parent shrinks from punishing his child, and often forgives the most wayward when the crucial time for deciding his fate arrives, how can it be supposed that God — “our Heavenly Father” — could skew less mercy than one of His failing creatures?
That this is a very popular conception of God today can be readily proved by quotations from many of the prominent preachers. The following extracts from recent utterances will suffice.
1. “The heart of the Age is panting for brotherhood; but is not this the very core of the gospel of Jesus? Brothers, because God is our common Father.”
2. “In the fullness of time God sent His Son. It is the only way the Father can do, and it is the only way the Father can tell you about His Fatherhood. He sent the Elder Brother... so that He can bring us back... He will be our ideal, He will be our motive power.”
3. “The meanest, most despicable man that ever lived is, after all, a child of God.”
4. “God’s Fatherhood is the main article in Jesus’ message.”
5. “There is only one religion of Humanity, that which centers in a man revealing the love of God, a Son who links us to His Father and our Father, a Brother who binds us to Himself and to one another as brothers, that is the religion of mankind.”
Are these statements true? Let us test them by the New Testament Scriptures. We must have authority, for the mind of man is so constituted that unless it is held in by authority there is no limit to its speculations, and if it is merely a matter of opinion, one opinion is as good as another, and nobody can say what is true, and what is not true. Therefore I propose to take the New Testament Scriptures as my authority. In them we read:
“God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us;
For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring.
Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device “ (Acts 17:24-2924God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 25Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 26And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; 27That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: 28For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. 29Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. (Acts 17:24‑29))
This scripture states very plainly that in one sense we are the handiwork of God and so constituted that we are entirely dependent upon Him, and to use Paul’s words “IN HIM WE LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING” that is to say in the sense of creatures in relation to a Creator, we are dependent upon God. We are members of one family that owes its origin to God. One sweeping statement that God has made of one blood all the nations of the earth does away with all race distinctions.
There are those who look down upon the colored races. Granted that they live in degradation, in sin, (that which we avoid, largely by reason of what others would say of us), yet their very the Bible, thus proving the value of the Word of God. It is perfectly clear that God has made all nations, whether they be black or white, as in Malachi: “HAVE WE NOT ALL ONE FATHER?” We all trace our origin back to Adam. We all derive our existence from, and are sustained by, a Creator God. In that sense we may speak of God’s parental interest in us, but in that sense alone is there any ground for the current conception of the Fatherhood of God. Men have abused that passage of Scripture. Their argument is that we stand by our natural birth in relation to God who has the keenest interest in all His children, and will suffer no harm to come to them.
That God is a Creator who has indeed the keenest interest in the welfare of all His creatures is a very comforting thought, and it is true that He has been working behind the scenes for the blessing of the man He placed upon the earth, but it does not follow that all are His “children”; for as we shall see on looking into Scripture, the expression, “children of God” covers a great deal more than the thought of origin in the sense of being the creation of His hand.
That “the meanest man that ever lived is, after all, a child of God,” is a statement without support in the Scriptures. If we are all children of God by nature, there are some conclusions that must result from these premises. For instance, there is no room for the old-fashioned doctrine of the fall, for if the fall means anything it means that man, placed in innocence in the garden of Eden, fell from his estate and was placed at an infinite distance by sin from God. So great was that distance that a barrier was placed at once to prevent man getting back into the garden of innocence and delight by a flaming sword turning every way at the entrance of it. If we be all the children of God, then the doctrine of the fall must be abandoned.
In addition to the fall must be dismissed the necessity for the new birth. If we are all children of God by nature, what need is there for the new birth? What need to be born from above if even the most degraded be children of God? With the new birth must be abandoned the doctrine of the atonement, for if men are children of God by nature, why should they need to be redeemed from sin and all its consequences, for is not God good, kind, loving; would He not be as good to His children an an earthly father? We must banish the thought that Christ died as a sacrifice, and regard His death as an example to show how far a man can go in suffering for his principles, instead of as an atoning death by which propitiation has been made for sin. Further, and finally, must go the truth of eternal punishment. As a matter of fact, usually the first thing given up by a professing Christian who goes astray on these lines, is the doctrine of eternal punishment. It has been given up far and wide, and you may vainly search in Christendom (save here and there) for any reference to it as an article of the Christian faith.
The popular doctrine is that God is a Father, and we are His children; He cares for us. He looks down upon us with pity, sees us surrounded by temptations, and His great heart of compassion goes out to us, and it is impossible to conceive that God would be so cruel as to sentence His creatures to a lost eternity, for He is like unto us, who, as fathers, would be only too glad to overlook the failings of our children. Such are the reasonings of today, and if the Fatherhood of God as a common conception be admitted to be true, we must give up all those doctrines I have named and others too.
Let us turn to Scripture:
“Jesus saith unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love Me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do ye not understand My speech? even because ye cannot hear My Word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:42-4442Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. 43Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. 44Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:42‑44)).
There is a very definite statement made by the Lord Himself: “If God were your Father ye would love Me.”
That is a great test. Do all those who believe in the “Fatherhood of God” love the Son of God? It is a proof of the relationship with the Father, that everyone who can truly call God his Father, loves Jesus, not a person conceived in the imagination of men, but the One whose character and life on earth is recorded for us in the gospels. Put that test to those today who propound the conception of the Fatherhood of God. If God were your Father you would love Him.
“He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”
“Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.”
These statements trace things to their source, and divide the human family into two companies. “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.”
If all were the children of God how can it be said that there are children of God and children of the devil? and how can all men be brothers when the apostle says “Marvel not if the world hate you.” If all men are brethren, who represent the world? “Marvel not if the world hate you,” clearly distinguishing between “the brethren” and “the world.” Who are the brethren? They are all true believers in Christ on the face of the earth, and they have nothing in common with the world, and the world is in opposition to them as they are true to their calling and position.
So you get two companies — the brethren in Christ, and the world that is opposed to the brethren, and has no interest in their welfare. You must get rid of “the world” or “the brethren” entirely if all men form part of one common brotherhood in the ordinary acceptance of the term.
At this point I might refer to the thought that “God sent the elder brother.” That is to say that Christ is looked upon as the elder brother, having come into this world in incarnation and become a man like other men, a member of the human race, to help us out of our difficulty, and to develop what was good in us that we might be made suitable to God. That is utterly unsupported by Scripture. You never find Christ addressed or referred to as the elder brother. It is not until resurrection that He addresses people directly as His brethren. When they pressed round Him on earth and said “Thy mother and Thy brethren” desire “to speak with Thee,” He looked around and said, “Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother, and My sister, and mother.” But He did not actually address any company of people directly as His brethren until He had been raised from the dead, and by His atoning sacrifice had redeemed a company to Himself and to His God, whom He could righteously call His brethren; of a new order altogether, and not connected with Him by nature’s ties, or by a common humanity.
The Lord had said before His death “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone, but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit.” As a result of that death He has those who are linked up with Him forever. In resurrection, not in incarnation, is this new and eternal connection formed. Moreover, the harvest is as the seed cast into the ground; the truth is that those whom the Lord calls “brethren” have a new nature and life, the same nature and life as He possesses; they are linked up with Him in His life and position, and not He with them in their old life and position.
I find that the apostles and early Christians addressed Christ as Lord, and I believe every Christian today who understands the dignity and glory of the Person of Christ will refrain from speaking of Him as the elder brother, but will prostrate himself before Him and call Him Lord. Because He calls us brethren are we to abuse His grace by calling Him brother? If the King of England were to call me by my Christian name, should I turn round and address him in the same familiar manner? There must be respect even with an earthly monarch. How much more, then, should there be reverence toward the King of Kings?
Now let us turn to John 1:10-1410He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:10‑14).
“He was in the world, and the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not.
He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.
But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: Which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.’
Now it is impossible, if we accept the truth of the New Testament Scriptures, to overlook a statement so distinct as that “He came unto His own and His own received Him not. But as many as received HIM, to them gave He power to become the sons of God,” and to none others. These people were not born after the natural order (of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man), as people would have us to believe who speak of the brotherhood of man and the Fatherhood of God; but they were born of God.
Have you received Christ? Have you believed on His name? If so, you are in the family of God; you are one of the children of God. If you have not received Christ, if you have not believed, you have neither part nor lot in this matter, But you may enter into the family by believing. If you have not believed Christ you are not one of the children of God.
“For ye are all the children of God” — shall we stop there? Men of degraded life, men who despise the Word of God and reject the Savior, it matters not, ye are all the children of God That seems a wonderful toleration. People plead for toleration. They say we must consider other people’s opinions, and make allowance for others. There is a false toleration abroad today against which we must protest. It behooves us to stand by the truth and to refuse that false toleration that will embrace error and say, “Ye are all the children of God.” But the Word of God guards it very clearly. “Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” That settles it once for all. The children of God we are if we have faith in Christ Jesus, and no others have any right to take the title.
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:1, 21Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 2Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:1‑2)).
Now we come to the part one delights in. Behold the manner of love — not the idea of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, a degradation of the truth — but the true Fatherhood of God. The love of the Father that He has bestowed upon all those who have received His Son into their hearts, “that we should be called the children of God.” There is a wonderful charm in this blessed truth, that we, as we live here, are truly, if we believe in Christ, the children of God. The world around does not understand us in this character. Men meet us in business; they know us in that character, but as the children of God we are a mystery to them. They do not understand the One who came from God. When He was here amongst men He was completely misunderstood in all His words and ways.
There is a gulf fixed by the death of Christ between those who trust in Christ and those who reject His claims; and that gulf will widen until it becomes impassable, and the world will wonder when they see those whom they have disregarded down here conformed to the image of God’s own Son. We are going on to that day of splendor, of glory, and even down here we are basking in the sunshine of a Father’s love, in the very family of God, led by the Spirit of God. The Father looks down upon us and there is nothing He will not do for us, because we have trusted in Christ and are part of that great family that is linked with Christ.
We need to see what the truth really is, and it is patent on the face of Scripture, that only those who are born of God and have trusted in Christ, are really and truly entitled to call themselves children of God. And it is the privilege and responsibility of such, not by magnifying their differences, but by magnifying all that they have in common, to make the bonds of love which bind them in this true brotherhood stronger and more manifest.
It is argued that the idea of the Fatherhood of God is contained in the parable of the prodigal (Luke 15). Luke’s Gospel presents man as having sprung from God’s creative hand (3:38), as we have seen from Acts 17:24-2924God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 25Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 26And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; 27That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: 28For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. 29Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. (Acts 17:24‑29); but by his sin and rebellion he had become dead and lost to God; and it is thus he is viewed in this Scripture.
It is blessedly true, as the parable teaches, that any poor prodigal sinner who comes back to God in true repentance will be welcomed with all the love that beats for him in the heart of God, and the delight of the prodigal will be eclipsed by the deep, deep joy that the Father finds in his return. But the whole truth cannot be taught in any single parable: for instance, there is no mention of atonement, or of many things that are essential if you want to get an idea of the truth as a whole. The parable perfectly presents the one part of the truth intended to be illustrated, namely, the joy of God in the sinner’s return, but does not in any way sanction the popular error we are considering.
One does not want to be argumentative about these matters, but I think we should face the general trend of things today. I am persuaded that behind a great deal of the giving up of the truth of God, is based this false conception of the Fatherhood of God. But there are those who know what it is, having received Christ, to be in the family of God, to embrace all those who are in the family of God, and their destiny is to be conformed ‘to the image of God’s Son; having this hope they are purified from the world, its attractions and snares, and are daily being conformed to the One whose likeness they will bear in the coming day of glory.