Status Updates From The Multilingual God: Stori...

It's not just the meaning of source that God is using when he describes himself as father, it's also indexing authority, decision making power, guidance, teaching. You can't just replace those things with 'uncle', even if a maternal uncle is the one who is closest to a child. If all we are looking for is closeness to a child why not just replace it with 'mother' in cultures where mothers are the only caregivers?!

Why?
Because when God refers to himself as Father, as he does in multiple contexts, he is not doing it solely because he is using the relationship between father and son as a metaphor. He is also including the source of the relationship: a father produces a son. The son cannot be in existence without a father. The Christian cannot make themselves a Christian, it is only through God that they can come to know him.

While reading this book I keep being hit with the problem of when a metaphor is just that, a word picture, to help someone understand and when it is doctrinal.

I see no issue with replacing 'my yoke is easy' to 'my carrying rope is easy' in a culture with no beasts of burden and so no yoke. But to replace 'God the Father' with 'God the Uncle' because in that culture uncles are closer than fathers? No.

This book proves that God is constantly reaching people even without us. The Holy Spirit keeps revealing Himself to the people who are unreachable.