Do you believe that you are a child of God?
If so, on what basis do you hold that belief?

The Bible does not teach the commonly held view that we are all children of God regardless of our beliefs, nor that we are all thereby brothers (or sisters) of each other. To believe otherwise is to be mistaken.

What the Bible does say is that, until we are redeemed by Christ, we are the “children of wrath” (Ezekiel 20:21; Ephesians 2:3).

Romans 9:8 puts it very clearly: “In other words, it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.”

In Romans 8:14-17 it is written “…because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs— heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”

Likewise, the Apostle John in his first epistle writes to the “children of God” (meaning believers in Christ) to assure them of this very special relationship conferred on them through the grace of God, the Holy Spirit, in their obedience and faith in Christ.

And the words near the beginning of the New Testament also put it very plainly: “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1: 11-13)

Sacred scripture teaches that God has only one son, Jesus, who is begotten from the the very beginning of all eternity, plus sons and daughters who are adopted through their redemption in Christ. The rest, although His creatures and made in His image, are not His children.

The error in referring to all mankind as “children of God” is found in the idea of the universal fatherhood of God based on the fact that He created us all, that we are all His creatures and His image-bearers. Then the argument for the universal brotherhood of man naturally proceeds from that idea. A wrong assumption is made. Our creation and image-bearing is not the basis for this special relationship.

Although not Biblically supported (as I have shown above) this idea based on a wrong assumption has been given popularity as the world became a global village through the greater accessibilty of travel and communication, the need to foster peace among dissimilar cultures, and a sudden interest in comparative religion with universities offering indepth studies on such. These are secular considerations that have affected the interpretation of Scripture. The well-meaning and often uncritically thinking, or the thinking ones who subscribe to more liberal theologies, including those who belong to secular organizations that foster such an ethos, are happy to let this idea go unchallenged.

I raise this point because I hear Christians including non-Christians as “children of God” but even more especially, implying brotherhood on that mistaken basis. We may certainly be brothers and sisters if born to, or adopted by, the same natural parents, and depending on the anthropological system of kinship in a given culture, but some care needs to be taken not to give the wrong impression to non-believers that we have the same relationship with them, and they with God, as we do with those who are “in Christ” and are the truly adopted sons and daughters of God. To do so is to teach something other than what is written in sacred Scripture.