Chapter 1. 8
Gender of God
Gender
Benders – Heavenly Mother
Monotheistic
- Polytheistic
First Word
Before
we start the
discussion on GENDER
BENDERS, you must decide what camp you fall into; are
you an;
ATHEIST; you reject the belief that a God or a Deity actually exists
making Gender a moot point since He does not exist.
AGONISTIC; Meaning knowledge; you have NO knowledge of God one way or the other,
let alone if there would even be a gender.
MONOTHEISTIC;
you believe in only ONE God like the Hebrews of the Nation of
Israel and Christians that follow Jesus.
POLYTHEISTIC,
you believe like the majority of the world that there are MANY
gods.
POLYTHEISTIC
RELIGIONS; gods are more likely to have literal sexual genders which would enable them to interact with each
other, and even with humans, in a sexual way.
The
Book at first blush indicates
that there is MORE THAN ONE GOD, it states in the ”plural” let US make human beings in OUR
image, to be like OURSELVES, So God
created human beings in His own image.
In the
image of God He created them; MALE and FEMALE
He created them.[1]
The
Book seems to say in
Genesis the gods are paired male/female just like all of creation. There are many passages in scripture that
paint the picture of god as a FEMALE with gentleness, understanding and
compassion, like a Bride or a Mistress; as a Mother hen protecting
her chicks, as a Mother bear protecting her cubs;
as a Woman
giving birth. Even the
Christian message speaks in the Feminine of being BORN again.[2]
If you use the word Mother instead of Father you will gather the same
contextual meaning using either term.
Replacing the word “HE” with “SHE” is simply reversing the PERCEIVED
“power structure”,
not combatting it. The perceived power structure is what is used to prevent
women’s ordinations, women preachers and women’s leadership within the church.
Mormons; The Latter Day Saints Church, teaches
that God the
Father is an exalted man from
another world who is married to a divine woman,
referred to as the Heavenly Mother. Humans are considered to be spirit children of these heavenly parents. In the Trinitarian language the Father, Son
& Holy Spirit in POLITICAL CORRECTNESS is now referred to as the Mother, Child and Womb.
Image
of God
The
Book records God saying, “Let us make man in our IMAGE,
after our LIKENESS and He
created them; MALE and FEMALE.[3] Some
theologians make a distinction between the Image of God and the Likeness of
God. The image of God and the likeness
are similar, but at the same time they are different.
The
Image refers to the
human's natural resemblance to God, it involves the “natural attributes” of
God; the power of REASON
and WILL.
The
Likeness referred to a
natural, innate resemblance to God and consists of the “spiritual attribute” of
the MORAL QUALITIES of God.
Both man and woman were made in God’s
Image to be able to SEE, HEAR and SPEAK, and to have KNOWLEDGE, and with His COUNSEL
to have understanding of what is GOOD and what is EVIL. To have the moral capacity to receive
communicated truths about “God’s Nature”. We were
made in His likeness to UNDERSTAND, ADMINISTER, RULE and JUDGE concerning
His Commandments
and “The Law
of Life”.[4]
This IMAGE is the unique spiritual relationship with God that humanity alone possesses. The IMAGE of God has nothing to do with humanity’s physical nature, nor with a spiritual nature for us to be a little
god.[5]
In the Book, masculine
pronouns are used over and over again in reference to God. There is somewhere around 170 references
where God relates to us as the “FATHER”.
If He had chosen to reveal Himself in the female form, then the word “MOTHER”
would have occurred rather than the “FATHER.”
By human necessity, one cannot be a father
unless one is a male. While GOD IS NOT A MAN, He has chosen the masculine form in order to reveal Himself to humanity. God chose to be revealed in this form in order
for humanity to more easily grasp who He is.
Since humanity is of a physical nature, we are limited in our
understanding of spiritual things that are outside the physical realm; therefore,
relating with things common to humanity helps us to understand things about God
who is a Spiritual being. We should not, so to speak, try to “FORCE GOD INTO A BOX” by placing limitations on Him that are
not appropriate to His nature; He is neither male nor female, HE IS SPIRIT and
we must worship Him in Spirit.[6]
It’s in the Book
From the Apocrypha, I am
including scripture from the Book of Enoch which
I know you don’t have before you. Even
though it is not in the Bible, it speaks to the very same issue of
using the physical attributes of man to describe God. Every student of the Book
should have a copy of the Apocrypha and other “lost books of the Bible”
in their library.
2 Enoch 65:1-2
– God created the physical and the spiritual
1 And Enoch answered all his people saying:
Hear, my children, before that all creatures were created,
the Lord created the visible (physical) and invisible (spiritual) things.
2 And
as much time as there was and went past, understand that after all that he
created man in the likeness of his own form, and put into him eyes to SEE,
and ears to HEAR, and heart to reflect (THINK), and intellect wherewith to deliberate. (REASON).
Monotheism
Monotheistic religions;
one cannot apply a gender to God in the usual sense, as God's
attributes cannot be compared to those of any other being. God is not a biological being, He is a spirit.[7] He is neither male nor female therefore He
does not have a gender thus, the idea of a "Divine Gender" is
ultimately considered
an analogy used by humans in order to better relate to
the concept of God, with NO sexual connotation implied. Wikipedia
I’ll say it again, the belief in ONLY ONE
GOD[8] was what set Israel apart from all the PAGAN
nations of the world which had little gods for everything.[9]
The multiplicity of gods were given
birth to at the Tower of Babel; look it up, it’s in the Book!
Family
Line Descendants
In the Book, God is always referred to in the
“masculine”; in Biblical culture the male is head of the family and is the one
who represents all of his descendants.
Adam, born a man, represented the authority and headship of the family
of which we all belong. It was the FIRST MAN Adam that was CHARGED with sin[10]
as he was the one ordained with the authority and headship, not Eve even though
she was the first to sin.[11]
Both were paid the SAME WAGES
for sin; DEATH.
Headship Authority is passed down through the male, so it is most REASONABLE, RATIONAL and LOGICAL that we do not relate to God as a Female or a Mother. It’s in the Book
The Take
Away
The
first book of the Bible begins
with God self-revealing Himself in the plural form. The Book says,
“Let US
create humanity in OUR own image”. At
first look you could easily assume that there were many gods present, but He is
speaking of His plurality of persons, not of gods, and is referring to the
three persons of the TRINITY; the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Bible is the revelation of God through the Trinity
Paul’s threefold prayer; “May
the grace of the LORD JESUS
CHRIST, and the love of GOD,
and the fellowship of the HOLY SPIRIT be with you all.” THE
TRINITY [12]
The
Father is
whom revelation proceeds,
The Son incarnates the revelation,
The Holy Spirit applies the revelation to man.
The Father is God, but, the Father is not the Son, nor the Holy
Spirit.
The Son is God, but, the Son is not the Father, nor the Holy
Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is God, but, the Holy Spirit is not the Father, nor the
Son.
One God THREE DISTINCT PERSONS The
Trinity
Let’s Look at Water or perhaps the three distinct stages of water; liquid, ice
and steam. They are all different from each other, but
they all are composed of the same H2O; water. God created both male and
female in his image, He does not PARTICIPATE in one or the other gender, but rather
transcends gender.
Whether masculine or feminine, the images presented in the Book are either;
Anthropomorphisms; the attribution
of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities
or;
Personifications; the attribution
of human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such
as emotions, nations and natural
forces like seasons and the weather, all of WHICH REVEALS GOD TO US IN WAYS WE CAN
UNDERSTAND.
There is a TRINITY of three primary colors; Red, Green, and Blue: All the rest of the colors
are a derivation from them. Pure White is made up of all colors. Darkness is the absence of all colors. God’s word contains all the colors, the more
we read God’s Word, the further from darkness we get and the closer to pure
light we become. SELAH
GOD
IS SPIRIT and must be worshipped in Spirit, He
transcends Gender and has chosen to use the masculine form in order to reveal Himself to humanity.
The language that we use for God must bring to us clarity rather
than confusion. It would be a grave
mistake to sacrifice on the altar of
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS the theological
clarity of the titles for God and of His nature just to be a GENDER
BENDER.
It’s
in the Book
Everyone should do something for the Lord in life.
If you don’t want to fight in the war,
then at least carry the bullets.
[1] Genesis 1:26-27 – The TRINITY
is Male and Female
[2] Revelation 21:2 – God is
Female; the Bride -- Revelation 21:9 – God is
Female; the Bride -- Psalm 123:2 – We look to the lord as our Mistress
-- Luke 15:8-10 – God is like a Woman --
Deuteronomy 32:18 – God gives Birth -- Isaiah 66:13 – God will comfort you
as a Mother -- Isaiah 49:15 – Like a Mother, I will not forget you -- Isaiah 42:14 – Like a
Woman I will cry in labor -- Hosea 13:8 – God is
like a Mother Bear -- Matthew 23:37 – God is
like a Mother Hen -- Luke 13:34 – God is like a Mother Hen
[3] Genesis 1:26 – Man made in the Image and Likeness of God -- John 1:14 -
The Word became human – HE lived among us
-- John 1:1-3 – The Word is God – HE
created everything
[4] Colossians 1:9 – Filled
with knowledge, Wisdom and Understanding
[5] 2
Enoch 65:1-2 – God created the physical and the spiritual
[6] John 4:24 – God is spirit and must be worshiped in Spirit
[7] John 4:24 – God is Spirit not Flesh --
Luke 24:39 – A Spirit does not have flesh
[8] Deuteronomy 6:4 – One God
-- 1 Corinthians 8:4 – There is only one God --
Deuteronomy 32:39 – There is no God but me
[9] 1 Peter 2:9 – A Holy Nation, a chosen race ruled by God
[10] Romans 5:12 – Sin entered into the world through one MAN
[11] 1 Corinthians 15:22 – Adam head of the family
[12] 2 Corinthians 13:14 – God in three persons
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