Over in Official Polls, people have overwhelmingly decided that God should be referred to as a male. Mostly the reasons stated are that (a) Scripture refers to God as Male and (b) Jesus was male and (c) Jesus referred to His 'Father'.
My question is what does it mean to refer to God as male? What is male about God? If God is male, do females have less of a likeness to the very nature of God? Are there theological reasons why we should consider God as male? Does a view of God as male lead us to clearer view of God or does it limit God?
There are a few scriptures which give God female characteristics:
Isaiah 66:13 As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you . . .
Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
Isaiah 42:14 For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant. I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools.
James 1:18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
Genisis 1 says 27 So God created man in his own image,in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
That sounds like God's image is both male and female.
Genisis 2 says 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man."
Upon this story rests the idea that the female is derivative or secondary.
I'd be interested in what purpose the supposed maleness of God serves.
My question is what does it mean to refer to God as male? What is male about God? If God is male, do females have less of a likeness to the very nature of God? Are there theological reasons why we should consider God as male? Does a view of God as male lead us to clearer view of God or does it limit God?
There are a few scriptures which give God female characteristics:
Isaiah 66:13 As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you . . .
Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
Isaiah 42:14 For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant. I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools.
James 1:18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
Genisis 1 says 27 So God created man in his own image,in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
That sounds like God's image is both male and female.
Genisis 2 says 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man."
Upon this story rests the idea that the female is derivative or secondary.
I'd be interested in what purpose the supposed maleness of God serves.
That would be like saying God was haviing a 'female moment' when he created the earth, and a 'male moment' when he obliterated Sodom and Gomorrha.
