God of All
61Why do Christians use the personal pronoun “he” to refer to God? Isn’t calling God a man just as heretical as calling God a woman? God is neither man nor woman, for both find their origin in God. So would it be heresy for me to refer to God as “she”? Why? It’s no more incorrect than “he” is it? Is this simply the leftovers of a sexist, patriarchal society, this thinking that calling God “he” somehow makes God better or superior than if we called God “she”? Is it simply to remind us that God is our leader, our head? But what about the soft, gentle, compassionate, caring side of God; have we forgotten that because of our focus on God as a male? Why do I still feel uncomfortable even just thinking about calling God “she” rather than “he”? Is it because the Bible always refers to God as “he”? But then, the Bible also says some sexist stuff that’s clearly just culturally relevant, so is this such a thing? Or perhaps we ought never to refer to God as “he” or “she”, but simply as God. Or maybe we can come up with another pronoun especially for God. Or maybe it’s not really a big deal because God is as much male as female.
But it is a big deal. It has greatly, greatly affected my picture of God. Thinking of God as a soft, gentle, motherly kind of God also seems heretical, like God is weak. But that is so not true! Being able to be soft and compassionate takes its own kind of strength, and men who are unable to show compassion and mercy show their own weakness in their pride, ego, and selfishness. God is not like that, God loves even more than the most loving of women, God is more merciful than the most gracious women, God is more compassionate than the most empathetic women, so why should it be wrong to remember this softer, feminine side of God? Isn’t it more wrong to forget this part of God? That is why I forget God’s great love for me, because I think of God as being like most of the men in my life; more distant than women, less compassionate and forgiving than women, colder and harder than women, more aggressive and less tender. How fair is this to God, creating a picture of God that is based entirely off of broken masculinity!
So when it feels wrong to call God “she”, should it not feel just as wrong to call God “he”? Are we too sensitive to referring to God as “she” or have we merely become desensitized to the incorrect sexist theology involved calling God “he”? Perhaps it doesn’t matter this much, but for me it does. For me it has greatly, greatly disturbed my picture of God causing me to feel angry, distant, alone, confused, abandoned, and ignorant. I think God wants something different for me than this kind of feeling, but I don’t know what. Perhaps to remember that God is feminine and masculine, that God is the source of male and female, and that both are reflections of God’s deep heart. It is still so hard to remember this while still referring to God solely as “he”. Even as I write this it is so hard not to just refer to God as “he” throughout the entire essay. Why? Why can’t things change? Why can’t things be different?
I don’t want God to be “she”. I don’t want a God who is a woman. I want a God who is my father and my mother, my best friend and my lover, my brother, my sister, my everything. And a God who is solely male is not my everything. I need women, for I am a women. I need the kind of compassion and empathy that is uniquely feminine, I need the kind of comfort and restoration that femininity so easily bestows upon others. I need a God with strength that is both masculine and feminine. That is the kind of infinite God worth giving one’s life to, a God worth living, dying, and giving up everything for. And, I do believe that is my God, the God I have fallen in love with and continue to fall deeper and deeper in love with the more I get to know.
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Read John 1-10
PV, you raise some excellent quesitons and in pursuit of the answers you will discover an even deeper revelation of the nature of the Eternal One.
Sciantel,
I might be wrong here (and BD could probably advise me better than most), but didn't Jesus teach that he was NOT God, but that God was his Father??
Plus, let's not forget Jesus wasn't the one sitting there with a pen or pencil writing the Bible, others were, and often numerous years later, so I don't know that we can say for sure what we read in the Bible today is an accurate interpratation of Jesus and who he was, never mind God.
My bet is the Bible was written down by men, and at a time women were considered second class citizens, and therefore it's content is always open to fair doubt, especially with all the translations, versions and alterations over the centuries.
No offence intended, just trying to explain how others might perceive this.
Misty is correct because the Catholic Bible has 4 more books in it then any other Bible and they claim that theirs is the complete works but then the writters of the New Testament aslo tell us tht not all of Jesus works or words are in any of the books, so tht only means that things are missing. God said the WORD, he didn't write the Word and we are the Word. Funny how Christians say they are better than anyone or anything else because guess what! All the creatures and Angels were made way before we were. If you watch nature and animals--they are much smarter than we are.
Hi Misty, the NT is pretty clear that Jesus is God. (In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God ... and the Word became flesh and dwelt among men.) If you believe the bible, it's pretty cut and dry. The book of John makes the strongest case for the divinity of Christ without denying His full humanity.
Though Jesus did not write the Bible, it is maintained by most believers that the Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit (also God) ... and only the Holy Spirit can properly explain it. One of the problems we have is that for varous reasons people try to give an interpretation of scripture without the instruction of the Holy Spirit.
This is the mystery. God is One and God is multiple. Our language does not have the vocuabulary to explain it properly so it ends up sounding contradictory. The Hebrew "Elohim" is the first name God used to reveal Himself. It is plural.
The details of this paritcular subject are such that I don't discuss them too much in public, as these details are easily mis-interpreted.
The answer is found in the totality of scritpure, not just a verse or two.
Hmmm, thanks BD, I shall go away and dig out my Bible and read that section. I suppose I still don't quite get all the references to "God sending his only Son", and "In my Father's House there are many mansions" etc etc, if Jesus and God are supposed to be one and the same thing.
Golly BD, I so wish I could sit down in a room with you for several hours or more and us talk about this stuff, as you are one of the only people I reckon could discuss this whole subject with me, and it not end up with us ending up in a full fledged argument. The conversation could be truly productive AND non-aggressive. :)
My conservative friends might get upset with me if I said Jesus was the Father's Avatar. That's not accurate either, but it may be a helpful way of looking at it. When Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I AM" he was claiming to be I AM.
I once heard the Trinity explained as being like water. In one state it is liquid, in another it is solid, and in another it is vapor. It is still water, but it has different properties. So, if God is "liquid" perhaps Jesus is "solid" and the Holy Spirit is "vapor", still they are all H20.
Interesting analogy BD. Like the H2O comparison as an easy way of explaining things.
People also say God is like a circle, he has no beginning and no end. I find this quite hard to grasp as surely everything has some kind of beginning. Have you any clearer ways of explaining this too ???
BD is very easy to get along with, and so are you Misty. I tend to lean towards Patience and wonder aloud whether or not the pronouns in the Hebrew or Greek are truly masculine, of course I have a ton of friends who are fluent in bot that would say it is masculine. You also have the Adam argument, and where woman was sort of made from man and all that...hard to believe women come from men due to all the massive differences :P
That one is harder. Time is actually more of a matter of perception than "reality". Since we live inside time, anything not inside time is hard to imagine.
And of course when the Bible talks about "Man" does it not really mean "Mankind" which would, of course, be unisex???? Such an interesting debate, and why should a God have a 'Sex' anyway. as surely that is an earthly concept??
Wow! I'm off a couple days and I miss a lot!
I do believe what the Bible says, I do know that Jesus was both man and God, I understand that Jesus as the revelation of God on earth came in the form of a man not a woman, but to say that this means God is a man is, I think, missing the point.
If God is man, not woman, then women are not of God and not made in the image of God; since I am unwilling to accept this conclusion, I am rather determined to believe that GOD contains all good and true masculine and feminine characteristics. The heart of God is both.
I do still wonder why the entire Bible uses only masculine pronouns (and I found your email to be quite interesting and thought-provoking, BD; I really enjoyed it!). But I know the heart of God for me, and I suppose that is quite enough.
And I don't think "sex" or "gender" is entirely an earthly concept, at least not if one believes that God created humans the way they are. God as the creator makes it a divine concept. And God did say that it was not good for man to be alone without woman. To think that things were incomplete and not good without women is an encouraging thought to me as a woman.
I read this just after it was first published. At the time I wasn't sure what to say about it.
God is Spirit and there is no gender in the spirit. I believe the reason God is called he and Father, is because He sired us. He is the One who gives life and takes life.
This is a well thought out hub provoking lots of thought.
Thanks. I like your thoughts on it, SirDent.
Well, this is a question that is there any god? One thing we must admit that everything we see or not see is created by someone mightiest, wisest, a nicest planner. The nature is not created by itself automatically because without any plan the nature can’t be created. Behind the plan we must agree with this that there is a planner who first planned for everything. So, we must say there is god. God should not be a worldly person. God should not be a masculine or feminine. He doesn’t need a child because he doesn’t need any wife. If he has no wife why he calls a man his child? If he has a boy child where is his daughter? If he has a one child where are his other children? So, how Jesus is god’s child?
If we find reason behind a reason and go past we must stop at one point and that point is the god. Moses said that there will come a messenger like me who will tell you everything. (In Bible unpublished) Jesus said who is coming next I’m not eligible to untie his shoe’s lace. So, I’m not telling you all, he will do this. Also said in john: I’m going. My departure is good for you because if I go that spirit of truth will come I’ll send him. You should wait for him. People waited for him and found him. The man is Mohammad. Muslims follow him. Please read Bible, old testament and as well as Quran the holy book ok Islam.
When Jesus was brought before the high counsel they asked him straight out. ARE YOU THE SON OF THE MOST HIGH God? He answered them, yes. John 1:18 also states it plainly, God's only Son. Meaning the Son of God. If you do not believe this, you cannot be saved. 1 John 2:23 states that too. Whoever denies Him and that means that whoever denies He is the Son of God, which you are doing.
Sciantel says:
12 months ago
God was a Man! He came in flesh and blood just as us. Was just as human as you. His name is Jesus the Christ. He died for your sins as well as mine. I advise you to read the Bible to find out all you need to know about God's promise to send to us a Savior. He was a man and he suffered just like us. He even was tempted. We are not alone in our trials for He had them too. The only thing different is He was without sin cause He was God sent in human form but a lot of people do not believe Jesus was God's Son, meaning the only One of the Trinity God, to come in human form, ecceptable by the Father to die for sins.