Who is Father or God in Christianity

Question

The following are some lines in which Jesus (Peace be upon him) mentions "Father" or "God".

Is Islam we consider "Father" or "God" to be referring to Allah as Jesus (Peace be upon him) is considered to be a prophet of Allah.

I would like to know what these lines are referring to in Christianity:

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.—John 10:29 (NIV)

"You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.—John 14:28 (NIV)

But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.—Matthew 12:28 (NIV)

About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).—Matthew 27:46 (NIV) (parallel in Mark 15:34)

But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.—Luke 11:20 (NIV)

Also in the next one it is said by Jesus (Peace be upon him) that "he who sent me".

By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me. John 5:30

Answer 1

This is a pretty important question, so it will take some time to address.

Yes, Jesus refers to God as Father, and the Father did, indeed, send Jesus. However, Jesus Himself claimed to be God. This is only reconcilable as we understand the Trinity.

First of all, it should be noted that most Christians do not believe that God (the Father) had sexual relations with God (the Mother) to produce Jesus (the Son). To most Christians, this is as unthinkable as it is for Muslims.

Understanding the Trinity

The image of God is seen not only in mankind, but in all of creation, as every creation reflects the image of its creator. This answer reveals something about me.

• The Physical Universe is itself a trinity, consisting of 1) Time, 2) Space, and 3) Matter. The three coexist, and one cannot exist without the other two.

• Time is a trinity as well, consisting of 1) past, 2) present, and 3) future. The past is not the present; the present is not the future; the future is not the past.

• Space is also a trinity, existing in three dimensions--length, width, and height.

• Matter also consists of three distinct forms--1) solid, 2) liquid, and 3) gas. Water (H20 - 3 molecules/one substance) coexists as ice, water and vapor.

• Mankind is a trinity as well, consisting of 1) body, 2) soul, and 3) spirit. One's soul is not his body; his body is not his spirit; and his spirit is not his body.

So, creation reflects the image of its Creator, as can be seen in many different ways. God is understood by most Christians to be a Trinity--Father, Son, and Spirit.

The relationship of "Son" to "Father" does indicate reproduction or time with God, who is beyond time, space, and matter (since He created those). The Father sends the Son (and the Son sends the Spirit). So, there is a Divine Order, but not Divine generation.

Even in the Old Testament, God says, "Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness." Genesis 1:26 The Koran affirms that God's word cannot be changed, so both the Old and New Testaments can be trusted.

Jesus is God

• John 1:1-14 is fairly explicit. Here, Jesus is introduced to us with the title "The Word", who was 1) in the beginning, 2) was with God, and who 3) was God. The Word became a man. This reveals that it is Jesus who was the Word who became a man and lived among us.

• In John 8:58, Jesus identifies Himself by the name with which He introduced Himself to Moses in Exodus 3--the I AM. The people responded by picking up stones to stone Him, because they knew exactly what He was claiming, and that was not merely that He was 2,000 years old, but that He was God.

• Also, the Jews proclaimed that the very reason they wanted Him crucified was that He claimed to be God. (John 19:7)

• In Revelation 1, Jesus also calls Himself "The Alpha and the Omega, the Almighty".

Conclusion

So, again, Jesus is "The Son"--not that He was conceived by a father and mother, but that this is His relationship to the First Person of the Trinity, the Father.

God eternally exists as a Trinity, just as the physical universe itself, time, space, matter, and we ourselves all exist as trinities, reflecting our Creator.

REFERENCES

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made... 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1-3, 14 ESV

Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” John 8:58 ESV

The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” John 19:7

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8 ESV*

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:26-27 ESV

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever” Genesis 3:22 ESV

Answer 2

The above answer is in a way incomplete which I will try to complete with the following explanation.

To know Jesus one need to have an open mind and read the New Testament without a prejudged mind or else you will never know true Jesus.

Jesus said about these people who would try to understand him:

Mathew 13:14-17 NIV

In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’[a] But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

There are utterances of Jesus in New Testament with Human nature as well as with divine nature. To know this requires understanding which only chosen few will have.
It is in these contexts as having a human nature that Jesus said the statements quoted by you. He said similar things when he was suffering on the cross like “My God my God , why have you forsaken me? Here he was saying this in human nature when his human body was suffering on the cross.
**Concerning Divinity of Jesus there numerous citing in New Testament about the divinity of Jesus. It says in

Mathew 1:21-23 NIV

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[a] because he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[b] (which means “God with us”).

Again

John 1:18 NIV

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and[a] is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known

Again in

*John 10:30 NIV * Jesus says

I and the Father are one

Again in John 10:38 NIV it Says

But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father

John 14:7 NIV

If you really know me, you will know[a] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.

John 14:9-11 NIV

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.

To say God the father had a son is as blasphemous to Christians as to Muslims. This Son of God is not to be taken in the literal sense but same as God.
It has to be understood that God became man and that God-made-man is the individual Jesus Christ and is said as Son of God.
The Person of Christ refers to both the human and divine natures of Jesus Christ as they co-exist within one person
Islam claims the bible to be corrupted but in cyclic reasoning again is quoting the same bible. I do not understand the logic in this.

Answer 3

Answering from a Catholic perspective ...

Basic Trinitarian Beliefs

I must assume you have read up on the Holy Trinity and therefore understand a few basic dogmatic statements about the God, the Trinity.

• There exists ONE God
• God is a Blessed Trinity of three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
• Each person of the Trinity is both fully God and fully distinct from the other two Trinitarian persons

The distinction between the persons of the Trinity is, in my opinion, best stated in terms of their eternal relationships to each other.

• The Son is eternally begotten of the Father
• The Holy Spirit is eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son
• The Father eternally neither begotten nor proceeding

Hence the simple answer:

The Father is the one who is eternally neither begotten of another, nor proceeding from another.

A word of caution

You can make analogies, but they necessarily fall short. The Trinity is the mystery of the inner relationship of God. And it is, ultimately and above all, a mystery. It is necessarily a mystery. And it will, for the rest of your life, be a mystery.

It's worth peeking at two brief videos as you delve into the theology:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMI4rA4cuiM
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBqG2hjTVjY

Answer 4

Without getting into controversies, here are some references in the Bible that depict God as father

We are called the sons of God. When Jesus was on earth, he fit that profile

"I said, 'You are "gods"; you are all sons of the Most High.' (Psalm 82:6)

.

Adam was called son of God. Jesus(as man) and we are descendants of God so we are his sons

"...the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God." (Luke 3:38)

.

Angels were called sons of God. Jesus is better than the angels, so what could he have been

GENESIS 6:1-2 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives...

.

Jesus had a special treatment than the angels

For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son” (Heb 1:5)

So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee (Heb 5:5)

.

Jesus makes us God's spiritual sons

John 1:12 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

By these references, God is referred to as Father. Jesus is the First born of Creation (pre-death and after death) [I'll put a reference to this later]

Answer 5

Orthodox perspective:

In one Father (we believe), the beginning, and cause of all: begotten of no one, proceedeth of no one: without cause or generation, alone subsisting: creator of all: but Father of one only by nature, His Only-begotten Son and our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, and proceedethor of the most Holy Spirit. (saint John of Damascus)

We understand Only-begotten as not created. When we read

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1,1)

we understand how the most Holy Spirit teaches us through the fathers of the church, that the Word already existed when the first creation was made. This first creation is the time ("in the begining"). When time was created, the Word of God, which is the Son, participated Himself

He was with God in the beginning. (John 1,2)

Entire creation was made through the Son of God

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1,3)

When we say "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit", we not talk about three gods, but only one. Likewise, when we discuss about the sun and the sunshine (born from the sun), and the heat (proceedething from sun through the sunshine), we not talk about 3 suns, but only one. (saints Cyril and Methodius, explaining Trinity to saracens)

"The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one God" because Son is not separated from Father, and Father and Son are not separated from Holy Spirit

I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me (John 14:10)

When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me (John 15:26)

The Holy Spirit is not son of God, but He proceedeth from Father. In similar way, how Eva is not born from Adam like Set, but Eva is taken from Adam. (saint Gregory the Theologian)

As long as muslims accept that Christ is the Word of God and in the same time as a creation of the God, results that God is without word and without spirit, and mutilate Him. (saint John of Damascus)

When we read:

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. (John 10:29)

we don't understand that Father is greater than Son, because the reason is written in the next verse:

I and the Father are one (John 10:30)

which means that Father is greater than all others, while Son is not inside "all others" since He is not separated by Father.

the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18)

From here we conclude also that the Son of God is greater than all, and the Holy Spirit is greater than all.

When we read

You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. (John 14:28)

we do not understand any precedence in time or superiority in nature of the Father over the Son (for through His agency He made the ages), or superiority in any other respect save causation. And we mean by this, that the Son is begotten of the Father and not the Father of the Son, and that the Father naturally is the cause of the Son just as we say in the same way not that fire proceedeth from light, but rather light from fire. So then, whenever we hear it said that the Father is the origin of the Son and greater than the Son, we understand it to mean in respect of causation. (saint John of Damascus)

When we read:

But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. (Matthew 12:28)

we deduce that to cast out devils is a work of the greatest power, and not of any ordinary grace. And He means indeed that from these things we infer and say, If this be so (and it is), then the Son of God has come (saint John Chrysostom)

When we read:

About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,[a] lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) (Matthew 27:46)

we not understand that He felt these sufferings departed from God, or the divine nature abandoned the human nature on the Cross in order for Christ to feel the pain, the suffering from this abandonment. We understand how father John Chrysostom (temple and mouth of Holy Spirit) says:

... after this He speaks, that they might learn that He was still alive, and that He Himself did this, and that they might become by this also more gentle, and He says, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? Matthew 27:46 that unto His last breath they might see that He honors His Father, and is no adversary of God. Wherefore also He uttered a certain cry from the prophet, even to His last hour bearing witness to the Old Testament, and not simply a cry from the prophet, but also in Hebrew, so as to be plain and intelligible to them, and by all things He shows how He is of one mind with Him that begot Him.

Because the rabbi told before:

He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.' (Matthew 27:43)

The Hebrew words of the Lord on the Cross, were supposed to remember about fulfiling the profetic words from David's psalm 22, which depicts His passion, crucifixion and triumph:

1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
5 They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8 He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.
10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.
11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
19 But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.
20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.
21 Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
23 Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.
25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
28 For the kingdom is the LORD'S: and he is the governor among the nations.
29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.

This cry of Christ, says that Christ was not abandoned either by His Father or by His own divinity, as if fearing the Passion and shrinking from the suffering of Christ. So what happened? By this cry Christ "stamps on Himself what is ours". In other words, at that moment Christ is speaking in our place. For we were those abandoned and overlooked and then assumed and saved by the Passion of the impassible One. (saint Gregory the Theologian)

Orthodoxy, by its tradition, conserves everything that God revealed to humanity in all times, through all His saints.

Answer 6

The god of Christianity is the God of Israel. He is referred to by many names in the course of the Bible, but most Christians (at least in the United States, where I live) usually refer to Him simply as "God."

The Hebrew word for the name of God which is found in the Bible is יהוה, usually simplified into the English alphabet as "Yahweh" (pronounced YAH-way).

Probably the best direct answer to your question, from scripture, is Exodus 3:13-15, where Moses asks God who He is:

13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

You may have heard Christians refer to God as "The Great I Am" before.

In summary, the Christian God doesn't really have a name in the sense that most humans have names, like my name is Andrew. God is his name.

Answer 7

It helps me to think in terms of nature vs. person like this:

7 The person
The person is not a nature. God is one nature in three persons. The nature of God is common to the three persons. Each of the three persons, however, is unique.The fact that God created man "in the image of God" implies, among other things, that in man, as in God, the same distinction exists between nature and persons. And like God, man is one in his nature, but many in persons. What makes us all human is our nature which is common to all of us. What makes each of us a unique and unrepeatable being is our person. We have seen what our nature comes from and how it was created. Our person, however, is a mystery. Although it is something we experience daily in ourselves and in the people around us, it is a totally intangible mystery.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/75080212/The-Six-Dawns-by-Dr-Alexander-Kalomiros