Sky Daddy Cult

Let's discuss the view of 'Sky Daddy Theology'. First, what is it? Second, why is it? In other words, what is the Scriptural backing behind Sky Daddy Theology? Third, what negative side effects does Sky Daddy Theology show for people who accept it? In particular, what problems does it present for the world-view of Sky Daddy Theologians, and from a more generalized Christian view, what hindrances does it place on its adherents that might prevent them from obtaining true grace in the eyes of God?Okay, to start our discussion out, let's define Sky Daddy Theology (let's also abbreviate it SDT). From my perspective, SDT is the belief of some Judeo-Christians that God acts not merely as a Father, who protects and provides for His people, but more specifically as a 'Daddy', who tends to every need of ours and is present to hold our hands through all of life. The main difference I see here with reference to a Father versus a Daddy is that whilst a father may provide the essentials of life; his ultimate goal is to help you to grow and develop into a mature, and responsible adult, capable of making your own decisions, and willing to accept the consequences of your actions with the insight that it is you alone who must mend the problems of your life. Conversely, a daddy is someone who also provides the essentials of life, while at the same time sticking around to tend to your scraped knees himself, instead of teaching you how to do it. Whereas a father would allow you to apply your own bandages, a daddy tends to your scraped knee like it is very special. A daddy feels his child as being too incapable of doing certain things him/herself, and so is willing to do the harder work for the child. A father expects his kids to grow up, but a daddy is willing to accept that they will be forever dependent on his care. Now, to apply this to God: In SDT, God is viewed as the Daddy. He does not merely provide us with the essentials of life, but He is also there to help us and back us out of a corner. If we get in debt up to our eyeballs, we can expect our Sky Daddy to come hurtling buckets of money down to us; because that is His purpose”in our minds”to watch over our every detail, and life the responsibility of life off of us and unto Himself. So much for the definition; it should hopefully be clear, though it can be difficult to explain, yet is rather simple to understand; and distinguish Sky Daddy from the more general idea of God.As for Scriptural support; it is difficult for me to find. First, I am no adherent to SDT, so I have trouble deciding what an SDT adherent would find as support for their belief. Second, I don't think any parts of the Bible really support SDT, so I'm only trying to assume what might be used as Scriptural support. So, to start it off”I'd be grateful for other Scripture”I'll give some of the basic, and perhaps more obvious ones:

quote:

---

Matt 6:33 -- But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
.
7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (8) For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

---

Now, that is just a simple start, from in only one book, but I'm sure there is more Scripture that SDTists believe to support their position. I would like for others to add more Scripture that they think SDTists use, and maybe explain why they think it fits. I know, I didn't explain it, but I am just trying to open it up for discussion.Now, the third part, and here's the real kicker. Mainly, for non SDT Christians, what do you see as the biggest problems that SDT causes for its adherents that can move them further from God, so to speak? What do you see as the most dangerous aspect of this delusion, not just of its adherents, though, but for the world in general, in which the SDTists exist living life by their delusional theology.Jon
__________
While I recognize that there may be SDTists from many religions; I feel that SDT as it relates to Judeo-Christianity is probably the more prevalent, and certainly the more relevant form in today's largely Judeo-Christian world. I suppose, though, that any religion could be discussed if we wanted; Islam and such; they are perhaps all relevant.

---

In considering the Origin of Species, it is quite conceivable that a naturalist... might come to the conclusion that each species had not been independently created, but had descended, like varieties, from other species. - Charles Darwin On the Origin of Species
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _En el mundo hay multitud de idiomas, y cada uno tiene su propio significado. - I Corintios 14:10
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _A devout people with its back to the wall can be pushed deeper and deeper into hardening religious nativism, in the end even preferring national suicide to religious compromise. - Colin Wells Sailing from Byzantium

One thing I also want to discuss, is whether the sense of entitlement that some very pious and self-righteous members of Christianity have could be the reason they feel God is looking out for them like an injured child, as though they are special to Him, and them alone.I've noticed that there are many SDTists who think rather highly of themselves.Jon

Some [highlighted] quotes from the Good Book:

quote:

---

Ephesians 4:13-16 -- until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. (14) As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; (15) but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, (16) from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. New American Standard Bible

---

quote:

---

1 Corinthians 13:11 -- When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
...
14:20 -- Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.

---

quote:

---

Hebrews 5:13-14 -- For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. (14) But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

---

quote:

---

1 Peter 2:2 -- like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,

---

Also, pointing out some things in your passages, primarily, the use of 'child' as a simile instead of a metaphor:

quote:

---

[C]ritics ranging from Aristotle to I. A. Richards have argued that metaphors equate the vehicle with the tenor instead of simply comparing the two.

---

quote:

---

Mark 10:15 -- "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all."

---

quote:

---

Matthew 18:3-4 -- and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. (4) "Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

---

To 'receive...like a child' is not to 'be a child'; it is to have receiving which resembles the receiving that a child has. Children also drool and speak in nonsense syllables; surely Christ was not telling people to be that way, was He?To 'humble [one's self] as [a] child' is not to 'be a child'; it is to have humbleness which resembles the humbleness that a child has. Children also drool and speak in nonsense syllables; surely Christ was not telling people to be that way, was He?I should point out that in those situations 'child' is essentially a modifier referring to the 'reception' or 'humbleness' and is supposed to specify what model of 'reception' or 'humbleness' to take into your own life. It is not a modifier referring to the person; it does not tell you how to be, but rather how to 'humble', rather how to 'receive'.Jon
__________
Ross Murfin and Supryia M. Ray; The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms 2d ed. Edited by Jon, : Modified colours.Edited by Jon, : Participl-ing

You flew after it, despite it being nearly seven years stale. The maturation of a Christian faith does not begin at John 3:16or the likeand progress toward the following of Jesus' teachings. It is completely the opposite: Faith begins with following Jesus' teachings to do what is right; it grows into personal salvation by God's grace.Paul mentions the path at least a couple of times in his letters; he argues that by living and dying like Jesus, he and his followers hope to have a resurrection (= salvation by God's grace) like Jesus.Reading the rest of the Hebrew passage in question, we see that the author is frustrated that he must reiterate to his readers things he feels they should already know. But the basic knowledge they already have is not the 'minimum required to invoke God's grace', it is the knowledge of Jesus' teachings on the treatment of others.To the author of Hebrews it is clear that following the teachings of Jesus is the starting point, not the end:

quote:

---

Hebrews 6:10—11 (KJV):

​

For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:

---

The workthe labor of love, to minister to othersis where the followers are at; it is the basic aspect of their faith. The author pushes them to go even further, to try to understand mentally, emotionally, and spiritually the significance of it all, the 'John 3:16 based relationship' as you put it.Paul preaches, and the author of Hebrews takes as given, that an understanding of God's salvation through Jesus begins with the doing of God's work as taught by Jesus. Neither derision nor disdain was intended. The term is one which, at the time, Phat, jar, and I used regularly as a label for a particular style of Christianity that treats God as an ever-busy repairman, dutifully scurrying from believer to believer fixing his particular problems with his mighty powers; at the same time it captures the 'Jesus take the wheel' mentality of spiritually lazy Christians who tout their helplessness as righteous.Jon

What is your point? I quoted those passages to counter Phat's sentiments of having "never heard of God as being similar to a Father in that He expects His people to 'grow up' and not have need of Him, however." (Message 4).Growth is expected. Spiritually lazy Christians start at John 3:16 and never go anywhere else from there. Their faith is vacuous; they have started at the end and declared themselves well traveled.Jesus states repeatedly that doing good deeds is the start of salvation:

quote:

---

Luke 19:8—9 (NRSV):

​

Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, 'Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.' Then Jesus said to him, 'Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.

---

quote:

---

Luke 18:18—22 (NRSV):

​

A certain ruler asked him, 'Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: "You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honour your father and mother."' He replied, 'I have kept all these since my youth.' When Jesus heard this, he said to him, 'There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.'

---

On the topic of John 3:16, reading the story of Nicodemus in its entirety, we see the relationship of good deeds to salvation to be as described:

quote:

---

John 3:16—21 (NRSV):

​

'For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

​

'Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.'

---

The folks doing good came to the light and were saved, but they were already doing good works when the light came.And then there is Matthew 25:31—46, a passage I have often cited; here salvation is given not before the doing of good deeds but after, long after. I didn't call Christians 'spiritually lazy'; I called some Christians 'spiritually lazy': because they are.Jon