The Father's Authority by Dean Gotcher

The Father's Authority

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6 "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." Matthew 12:50 "And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." Matthew 23:9

Karl Marx wrote: "Once the earthly family is discovered to be the secret of the holy family, the former must itself be annihilated [vernichtet] theoretically and practically." (Karl Marx, Theses On Feuerbach #4)

Only by starting with the child's or man's "feelings" and "thoughts," i.e. the child's or man's opinion (circumventing parental/Godly authority, i.e. parental/Godly restraint), can world unity be attained. Only by creating an environment (an "experiential chasm," Warren Bennis) where the child can feel, think, and act and relate with other's in the 'moment,' without having consciousness (fear) of the father's authority—the lid to "Pandora's Box," can the child become himself again, as he was before the father's first command, rule, fact, or truth and threat of chastening for disobedience. 'Liberating' the child's heart from the father's authority, i.e. opening "Pandora's box," i.e. a "box" full of evil, which, once opened, can not be closed, turns the child's heart against the father and his authority. The dialectic formula being used to bring education, the workplace, government, the home, and even the church, under global dominance (S) is making CF = T.

If FA = T then CF = A and S ≠ R.
But if CF = T then FA = A and S = R.

If the father's authority (FA) is
    1) to give commands and rules to be obeyed and facts and truth to be accepted as given (by faith),
    2) to bless or reward those children who obey or do things right,
    3) to chasten those children who disobey or do things wrong, and
    4) to cast out those children who question his commands, rules, facts, and truth and challenge his authority,

and if the child's nature (CF) is
1) to approach pleasure and
2) to avoid pain (to live by sight or perception, i.e. by "sense experience"),

then it is the father's right (responsibility) to bless, reward, chasten, and cast out that keeps the child subject to his authority, the "guilty conscience" (the father's voice in the child's brain, the fear of pain, including the pain of his rejection or disapproval, i.e. the desire for his approval being therefore evident) restraining the child when the father is not present. If you begin with the father's authority system, i.e. his commands, rules, facts, and truth and his right to bless, reward, chasten, and cast out then the child, out of fear of lose of pleasure (which includes the desire for approval) and fear of pain (which includes the fear of disapproval and lose of access to the father's money, i.e. blessings), remains subject to the father's way of thinking and acting.

If the father's authority (FA) is the thesis (T) then the child's feelings (CF) is the antithesis (A), therefore synthesis (S) i.e. the children united as one in consensus (with a "feeling" of "oneness") can not become a reality (R). But if the child's feelings (CF) is the thesis (T), then the father's authority (FA) is the antithesis (A), making synthesis (S), i.e. the children united as one in consensus (with a "feeling" of "oneness") a reality (R), negating, i.e. "annihilated" (vernichtet) the father's/Father's authority (FA) ("the earthly family" and "the holy family") in their feelings, thoughts, and actions, and in their relationship with one another in the process. "Bypassing the traditional channels of top-down decision making [circumventing the father's/Father's authority], our objective centers upon .... transform[ing] public opinion [transforming the children's personal "feelings" and "thoughts" of the 'moment'] into an effective instrument of global politics." "Individual values must be measured by their contribution to common interests and ultimately to world interests [instead of to the father's/Father's authority].... transforming public consensus into one favorable to the emergence of a stable and humanistic world order." "Consensus is both a personal and a political step. It is a precondition of all future steps..." (Ervin Laszlo, A Strategy for the Future: The Systems Approach to World Order)

But if you start with the child's nature, i.e. his natural inclination of approaching pleasure, i.e. to become at-one-with nature in the 'moment,' and of avoiding pain, i.e. to negate whatever or whoever it is that prevents him from fulfilling his natural inclination to approach pleasure, then the father's authority system, i.e. his right to bless, reward, chasten, or cast out is negated. Dialectic 'reasoning' is given birth in the child's "Why?" voiced in response to the fathers demand which inhibits or blocks the child's carnal desire of the 'moment.' The "Why?" not only contains the child's carnal desire, i.e. his "self interest" of the 'moment,' it also contains his hate toward authority which is restraining it. It is in the "Why?" that dialectic 'reasoning' becomes a reality in the child's life (with the child perceiving the father's commands and rules, which restrain his "self interest" of the 'moment,' as being 'irrational,' i.e. unreasonable in his eyes). Because the father refuses to participate in dialogue (compromising his position of authority), i.e. responding to the child's "Why?" with "Because I said so." the child's only recourse (other than attempting to physically overcome the father) is found within himself, i.e. talking to his "self," 'justifying' to his "self" that he is (his "feelings" or "self interest" of the 'moment' are) right and the father (the father's authority) is wrong. Reflection upon and imagination regarding how the world "ought" to be, i.e. according to the child's "self interest" (blocked by the father's authority) now resides within the child, hidden from public sight. Dialectic 'reasoning' is the "ought" (the child dialoguing within himself regarding his "self interest") being 'liberated' from the father's authority, i.e. given public expression through dialogue with others. The "Why?" of "feelings" (the child's "self interest" given the 'light' of day through dialoguing with others of like "self interest") now overrules the father's "Not" and "Because I said so," 'liberating' the child from the father's authority (at least in thought—it will take social action, i.e. praxis, with the child, in his next encounter with the father, responding to the father's commands, rules, facts, and truth, when they stand in the way of his "self interest" of the 'moment,' as being 'irrelevant,' negating the father's authority not only in his thoughts but in his actions as well). The American family has encountered this patterned of behavior (disrespect toward authority), especially from the 50's on, because of the teachers use of "Bloom's Taxonomies" within the classroom, introducing the students to dialectic process, i.e. 'liberating' their affective domain from parental authority, i.e. giving the child's "self interest," i.e. the child's "feelings" center stage (over and therefore against the father's authority), in the thoughts and actions of the children, now united as one upon "self interest," negating the father's authority in the home.

Dialectic 'reasoning' 'justifies' (to the child) the child's nature of approaching the pleasure of the 'moment' over and against the father's authority to block or inhibit it, paving the way for the "new" world order of unrighteousness and abomination, 'creating' a world based upon the impulses and urges of the child's carnal nature, i.e. upon "human nature" Only. If you negate the Father's authority, His demand for righteousness, which no man can fulfill or do, you negate the need of a savior ('redeeming' man from the Father's wrath, 'reconciling' him to the Father), i.e. you negate the gospel message, making it a gospel of men (with men 'redeeming' themselves from the Father's authority, 'reconciling' themselves to the world), instead. Those who place themselves in a position of authority, yet, using the position for their own gain, 'liberate' other's from the Father's authority (from the Word of God) are as Jesus described those who put themselves in "Moses seat," i.e. as overseers of the law of God, liars, i.e. of their "father the devil," who 'liberated' man from God (from the Father) and his law (His commands) so that they could to live according to their own carnal feelings, thoughts, and actions of the 'moment,' i.e. live according to their relationship with the world, not needing a savior to 'redeem' them from the Father's wrath, 'reconciling' them to the Father, 'redeeming' themselves (through dialectic 'reasoning,' i.e. self 'justification') from the Father's authority, 'reconciling' themselves to the world instead, i.e. choosing the pleasures of Caesar over and therefore against the Son of God, i.e. rejecting His obedience to His Heavenly Father authority and eternal life in favor of their own carnal pleasures of the 'moment.' "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6 "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12

While the earthly father is not perfect (he may be a down right tyrant), his office of authority is perfect—given to him by God that the child might come to recognize the Heavenly Father's authority, coming to accept Him as His Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, His obedient Son, Hebrews 12:5-11. Hegel, Marx, and Freud understood that by negating the earthly father's "top-down," "above-below," "right-wrong" authority system in the thoughts and actions of the child, the Heavenly Father's "top-down," "above-below," "right-wrong" authority system is negated in man's thoughts and actions, 'creating' a "new" world order which is based entirely upon the carnal nature of the child/man, i.e. 'creating' a world based upon the law of the flesh, i.e. "human nature" Only, negating the law of God, i.e. negating God's judgment upon sin (disobedience against the Father's authority) and the "guilty conscience" which ensues, thereby negating mans' need of a savior, Romans 7:14-25. The dialectic error is in the opinion that Jesus came to 'liberate' man from the law of God, i.e. from the Father's authority, when in truth Christ came to fulfill the law, 'redeeming' man from the Father's wrath, 'reconciling' him to the Father instead; the dialectic process, doing the opposite, i.e. by 'reconciling' the child/man to the flesh it 'redeems' him from the father's/Father's authority instead. While the harlot draws the child away from the Father's authority, the beast is the children, emerging as one in their feelings, thoughts, and actions which are purged of the Father's authority, i.e. freed of Godly restraint, i.e. having no "guilty conscience" regarding their praxis of unrighteousness and abomination. Hegel, Marx, and Freud understood this. While Hegel identified the father's/Father's authority as being "the social problem," and Marx set out to purge society of the father's/Father's authority by force, Freud realized that the father's/Father's authority had to be removed from the child's feelings, thoughts, and actions as well if 'change,' i.e. the "new" world order (with man becoming only of and for himself, i.e. of "human nature" only, i.e. 'liberated' from the Father's authority) was to be initiated and sustained, i.e. initiating and sustaining the praxis of Genesis 3:1-6 as the means to creating "worldly peace and socialist harmony." Yet, while Hegel, Marx, and Freud, hating God, attempted to negate the Father's authority in the feelings, thoughts, and actions of men (by negating the father's authority in the feelings, thoughts, and actions of the child), they confirmed God's Word instead.

"No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Luke 16:13 "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John 2: 16, 15 "Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." Ephesians 2:2, 3 "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Romans 8:7 "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?" James 4:1-4

Hegel, Marx, and Freud understood the meaning of the Word of God more than most ministers do today, that the gospel massage (the Son) has no meaning without (apart from) the Father and His authority. "How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?" "And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak." John 5:44, 12:47-50 "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." John 3:30 The gospel message is the Son giving us the same pathway in which to traveled. "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven." Matthew 7:21

Jesus did not come to negate the Father's authority but to instill it in the hearts and souls of men instead. "And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." Matthew 23:9 Our inheritance is not in the father's money or property, i.e. in the things of this world (prosperity), as the prodigal son thought, but in our Father's love, i.e. in the things above (liberty from the power of the flesh and death), as the prodigal son came to understand (after humbling himself, returning home, and submitting himself to the father's authority). We are to set our affection upon our Father's will, as the Son desires, instead of our "self interests" of the 'moment,' as those of the world desire. "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Colossians 3:2 "and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." 1 John 3:1 Leaving out the Son's obedience to His Heavenly Father leaves out the Father's love and grace toward us, i.e. leaves out righteousness imputed by the Father to men of faith in His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who was obedient to His Heavenly Father in all things commanded, that those of faith might partake in His holiness, glory, and eternal life instead of spending eternity in suffering and eternal death. "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." John 3:17-18 "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." Matthew 10:32, 33

The Father's authority is made manifest in the Son's obedience, who we are to follow (denying our "self interest," facing the hate, rejection, and removal by others for exposing their "self interest" as being of the world only, i.e. evil, and following Jesus instead), "taking captive every thought" to His obedience to the Father's will, as well. "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;" 2 Corinthians 10:5 7 It is the Father's authority (and anyone who submits to it) that the flesh and the world hates, hating anyone who exposes their wicked ways, i.e. their "human nature," producing a "guilty conscience" within them for their sins (for their disobedience of the Father's will). "The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil." John 7:7 "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved." Mathew 10:22

But man, loving the flesh, will not see his hate as being hate, but will perceive anyone who exposes his love of this world (who preaches and teaches God's condemnation of and judgment upon it) as being hateful instead. Perceiving spirit as being man's approval of man (as in "team spirit," "community spirit," i.e. with everyone being a "team player," etc.), glorifying his carnal nature (tolerating deviant behavior), he must resist the Spirit of God, removing the knowledge of God from the face of the world, killing those who stand in their way, doing so in the name of "peace and harmony," i.e. unity, glorifying the flesh over and therefore against the Father and His authority. "And when he [the Holy Spirit, i.e. the Comforter] is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." John 16:9, 10