Acts 17:28

"For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring." (Acts 17:28)

 

"The fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man" was a religious cliché promoted for many years, especially by religious liberals in the period between the two world wars. However, continuing hostilities between and inside most nations now make the idea of universal brotherhood in this present world almost farcical.

 

The fact is, however, that God truly is the Father of all men, in the sense that He created them all. "Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?". That was the rhetorical question posed to Israel in the last book of the Old Testament. In the New Testament the apostle Paul confirmed the same great truth to the pagan Gentiles. "|God| hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth," and "we are the offspring of God" .

 

The sad fact is, however, that most men and women have actually become "children of the wicked one"  because of sin. We can only become spiritual children of the heavenly Father by being born again through faith in Christ. But we then truly "become the sons of God," as assured to all those who "believe on his name"