On Spiritual Fatherhood

Dr Isak Burger, the president of the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa warns against wrong emphasis on this subject. He says: The concept of"Fatherhood" is sometimes misunderstood and misused. In my research on this issue, I have  for example come across a teaching proclaimed and accepted by some while in fact it is wrong and biblically unfounded. It is the teaching that your spiritual destiny is wrapped up as "seed" in the loins of your spiritual father in the same as your physical being begins as seed within your natural father.

 

The proponets of this view further add: Anyone who does not find his father, like in the natural realm, is a spiritual orphan. Dr Burger observes further that according to the proponents of this view, one cannot be blessed who does not stand in a relationship with a father. Consequent to this understanding some of these "fathers" even expect their "spiritual children" to pay tithe to them.

 

In repudiating this teaching, Dr Burger notes that this teaching tends to make people dependent on others and further opens them for manipulation. He argues that to be blessed one has to stand in relationship with Christ not with some spiritual father. However this is not said to deny the need for authentic relationships among the people of God