112. Why does the Bible call God ‘Father’?

The Bible reveals God as a being who wants to have a relationship with His creation. He cares for His creation and made provision for it even before mankind was born. God shows all the attributes of a loving, caring Father of all of his children. His fatherly heart expresses essential pastoral care and provision for all His children. In Genesis 3 verse 8 its states: ‘In the cool of the evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He replied, ‘I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.’ ‘Who told you that you were naked?’ the Lord God asked. ‘Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?’ The man replied, ‘It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.’ Then the Lord God asked the woman, ‘What have you done?’ ‘The serpent deceived me’ she replied. ‘That’s why I ate it.’ Then the Lord said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, grovelling in the dust as long as you live.’ This intimate conversation between the Lord God and the first man and woman is indicative of a God who wants to have a personal relationship with mankind. God has the attributes of a person who cares deeply about what He has created. God was Adam’s father in the sense that He created Him from dust. God is both Transcendent (Above all things) and Immanent (in vital close relationship with all of His creation).

Romans 8 v 15 – 17 we read:

‘The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.’ The Holy Spirit testifies that God is our father. He lovingly cares for us and wants to have an intimate fatherly relationship with each one of us.

In the Qur’an Allâh is the father of Jesus because he spoke the word into Mary’s womb (Surah 19 Maryam ayat 16-34) and caused Him to be born. Why did we come to this conclusion? The Biblical idea of how Mary conceived Jesus does not involve any sexual relationship. The Qur’an confirms this when it states in surah 19 Maryam ayah 35: ‘It is not befitting to (the Majesty of) Allâh that he should beget a son. Glory be to Him! When he determines a matter, He only says to it, ‘Be’ and it is (accomplished).’ Allâh in the Qur’an does not have sexual relations with Mary either. Allâh’s Word is so great and powerful that He only needed to decree the matter and it was created in Mary’s womb. Mary can ask the question who is the father of my son Jesus? She would have to answer that it was God that caused her to have Jesus. Jesus confirmed that he knew that his Father was God when he was asked by his parents why he stayed back in the temple in Luke chapter 2 verses 43-50: ‘Did you not know that I had to be in my Father’s (God’s) house?’(NASB).

According to this reasoning, Allâh is also the Father of Adam? Allâh breathed into the dust of the earth and created a living being called Adam. Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 records this event: ‘Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.’ It could be said that God or Allâh is the father of at least two people in history, Adam and Jesus.