“The only way to the FATHER is through ME”
LLS
God was considered masculine long before Christianity.
Why lessen God by considering male or female?
> Kyle Roberts is Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology
Systematic Theology is one of the most consistent threats to Living Faith. Faith is not an intellectual exercise, nor an academic pursuit.
Look, what was Jesus? Male or female?
Is the Holy Spirit referred to as He or She? Forget that the word for spirit is feminine in the Hebrew and neuter in the Greek. Is the pronoun for the Holy Spirit masculine or feminine?
Does not Jesus Himself refer to God the Father?
Who was formed first, Adam or Eve?
This “theologian” should meditate on the words of “Jesus Loves Me”. There’s more accurate theology in that children’s hymn than anything written in the article.
Probably more like...’has the bible really “given Christianity a masculine feel”? Or has Christianity given the bible a masculine feel?’
We should think of God as He has revealed Himself through the Scriptures. In critical ways, this self-revelation is masculine, as Father and Son. However, He has also, at times, chosen to use maternal imagery for Himself, so He clearly has qualities that we consider “feminine.”
The fact that human beings were created in the image and likeness of God, male and female He created them, tells us that both maleness and femaleness are necessary for humans fully to exemplify the image of God. However, God is not bound by our limited conceptions of “male,” “female,” or even “person.”
This "Theologian" has confused the WORD of YHVH andshalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
the heresy created at Nicea by the Roman Pontiff Constantine.
It has been the norm since at least the Cappadocian Fathers for Christians to insist that God transcends all binary distinctions, even the distinction between being and non-being, and surely the distinction between male and female or masculine and feminine.
On the other hand, there is a reason, I think why, for our sakes, God has chosen to “gender” His self-revelation, and it has nothing to do with traditional gender roles or “social construction” of anything: those who conceive of the deity as female, are invariably drawn to thinking of creation as birth-giving, thereby effacing the radical distinction between the Uncreated and the created.
Such questions attempt to bring God down to our level. God is great. He is above all. He made His son to be like us so to save us from ourselves. How can we say God has our traits?
And, frankly, it doesn’t matter one whit. God is God. We are unable to understand all that He is. So be it.
Should we think of God as male or female?
No.
Just think of God——always.
It would seem that an Entity able to create ex nihilo would have little need for a procreative role. Just saying
“But is God actually gendered as male ...”
What a deceptive and stupid thing to say at this turn in the article. We’re talking about masculine, not male; gender, not sex.
Doesn’t the Bible say that G-d is spirit (not a spirit)?
I always say, a world with boogers and flatulence could never have been created by a woman.
Well yes, I would insist was masculine. You know beard, son, man, all that. But how “redefine what it means to be human”? People confused humans with cabbages? or chipmunks?
Spirit is feminine? If not masculine why feminine?
Male and female in the image of triune God? We have three heads?
Professors of Theology must feel the need to crank out babble to justify their pay. Better they mopped the floors or bussed tables in the cafeteria.
In other words, this newchurchgirlyboi clown isn't worthy to tie John Piper's shoes, let alone lecture him about the the Christian "invention" of a masculine God. Yuk.
Any one who has to even wonder about it, much less deny it does not believe in God any way so why even bother with it.
G-d does not have a body so G-d cannot be a male or a female. G-d is unseen. This is spelled out clearly in the Hebrew Scriptures.
G-d is not a MAN that He should lie,nor a mortal that He should change His mind.(Numbers 23:19)
You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens,with black clouds and deep darkness. Then the L-rd spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw NO IMAGE; there was only a voice. (Deut.4:11-12)