Should We Refer to Others (or Ourselves) as Father, Pastor, etc?
Should We Refer to Others (or Ourselves) as Father, Pastor, etc? To answer this question, you must interpret Matthew 23:1-12 for yourself. I will give my own opinion on the passage, but before that, let's take it a step further. In the Roman Catholic tradition, the pope is to be referred to as "his holiness". This is at best, extremely inaccurate. According to Jesus Himself in Mark 10:19 and paralleled in Luke 18:19, no one is good except God. We should not refer to another human (with the exception of Jesus who became a Human for 33 years) as "holiness". This blog post is addressing a problem in nearly all denominations (and non-denominations). The issue is perhaps a little less obvious that what we see with the pope's title, but I believe it is in error no less. Should a man (or woman) be referred to as Pastor ____, Father ____, etc? Let's look at the Word: Matthew 23 1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his discipl...