You are repeating yourself...and can't even do it without saying "God is male."
I'm repeating myself because people aren't listening.
God is
Spirit.
God is also a personal God and wants us to be in a relationship with God. We cannot call a personal God "it", nor can we keep saying "he/she" or "God" - see how clumsy that previous sentence looked when I repeated the word "God" instead of "him". Because of this, we have to say either "he" or "she", and as Scripture uses "he" and refers to God as Father, King and Lord; we do the same.
But God is Spirit - and no one has yet explained to me how Spirit can have a gender. When we point out that the word use for the Holy Spirit is feminine, people are quick to say that that is only a word. It may be used because the Spirit has feminine characteristics, like being responsible for new life, but it does not indicate that the Holy Spirit is female. So why insist that God, who is Spirit, is male?
It's pretty simple. God is defined as male by God...and He has defined what male is.
No. God has described himself using male nouns - "he" "father" and so on.
Where has he defined what male is?
God created Adam with certain body parts, if you'll pardon the expression. That is what God defined as a man. There are other physical differences, like an Adam's apple, testosterone etc, and certain "male" characteristics - I'm sure you've heard it said that men do .... or can't do ..... I know for a fact that if I relied on the men in my family to organise family occasions, I'd never see them or my nephews.
How does any of this describe, reflect or define who God is?
How do you identify that a
Spirit is MALE?
You misunderstand. God did not create humanity male and female because He is both - but because "the two shall become one." ... This is a BIG subject, even a mystery, and you would do well to study it more.
How can I study something that's not Scriptural?
"The two shall become one" is a Scriptural phrase that is used about, and in relation to,
marriage.
Some people don't marry. A woman who is single and remains single all her life - by choice or otherwise - will never be one, physically, with a man. A man who is single, as were the apostle Paul, and Jesus, is not one, physically, with a woman.
Both men and women were created in the image of God.
In essence, the potential for evil (like the wo-men) was taken out of God...and what will return to Him will be without "wo."
?? And Scripture says this - where?
Again, you misunderstand. The idea was not given by me, but is given in the scriptures by the example of Christ.
No it isn't.
You want to follow Christ's example in the treatment of women? Good.
In the male dominated society of his time, where women were not valued, were not allowed to learn and were unreliable witnesses; Christ healed, taught and forgave them, allowed them to sit at his feet and learn from him, and CHOSE a woman to be the first witness to his resurrection. Women could be easily divorced, which would have resulted in loss of home and income, yet Jesus reminded men that women were created by God and marriage was his plan.
Jesus revealed himself as the Messiah while talking to a woman, he commended another for her faith and yet another for her act of selfless devotion; using all her pension to buy perfume and then pour it onto his feet. Jesus allowed women to support him financially. He even allowed himself to be made ceremonially unclean because of a woman - when the woman with the issue of blood touched his clothes. Not only that, he healed her and called her "daughter".
THAT is how Jesus treated women. They were the underdogs, ignored, taken for granted and had less worth than a slave. Jesus listened to, affirmed, healed, restored and taught that women had worth because they were made by God, in the image of God.
But don't further misunderstand (as the Catholics have), the minister is not Jesus...
I know, but some of the posts here seemed to imply that he was; that a Minister has to be male because Christ is male.
but merely portrays Him, not to the body, but to the unsaved,
Unbelievers should see Christ in all of us because of our character, actions and behaviour.
I've never heard any unbeliever say "look, there's a vicar; they represent Jesus". They judge a member of the clergy by their fruit. Ministers/vicars have been known to commit adultery, get divorced, steal or be guilty of child abuse; I doubt that anyone would believe that such men "represented Jesus" because they were men.
And that does not mean all ministry, but merely that of the Head. On the contrary, all the church, are ministers of the gospel of Christ.
Yes.
And Ministers who are the human leaders of local congregations are also part of the church.
