"The Bible says that God is Father and Lord and King, not Mother and Lady and Queen. Yet nothing in the Bible even hints of a description, as radical feminists have accused, of a chauvinist male God who runs an ol' boys' network of male pastors and husbands and men. In fact, the female imagery that describes God in the Scriptures flies in the face of that. No chauvinist on the planet wants to be described as a woman. And yet the God of the bible reveals himself comparatively as a woman who has lost a silver coin (Luke 15:8-10).
God is Father, not mother. But that doesn't mean he is male and not female, any more than Jesus is 'the door' means that Jesus is wooden and not glass. God is Father and Lord and King, and yet that doesn't mean God is masculine. It means, rather, that God is separate from creation. This is an extremely important point. For whenever it is believed that the world is derived from a female deity, people start confusing the biblical distinction between God the Creator and creation.
Think of what happens if we imagine God pregnant with the world. A pregnant God strongly suggests that the world is part of God. For whenever it is believed that the world is derived from a female deity, people start supposing that the universe emerged from the body of the deity. Within such a framework, all of nature is imagined to have come forth from the womb of a female creator, Mother Nature. It says all of created nature is imagined to exist with her as one. Once that happens, Christianity collapses into pantheistic pagan religion.
According to the Scriptures, God is physically separate from his creation. Every person bears his image. But as Father, he is separate nonetheless. Granted, the biblical metaphors is limited. After all, a father's genes are passed on to the offspring no less than are the mother's. But even so, the physical relationship of a father and child is nonetheless more separate than the physical relationship of the mother of that child, especially when she's pregnant.
God is Father, not mother. But that doesn't mean that God is male. Nor does it mean that God is masculine. The metaphor is masculine, but God is not. Carl. F. H. Henry puts it this way, 'The God of the Bible is a sexless God. When Scripture speaks of God as 'he' the pronoun is primarily personal (generic) rather than masculine (specific); it emphasizes God's personality...in contrast to impersonal entities.' The same thing is true when Scripture speaks of God in feminine terms. For instance, when Moses sings of the God who 'gave [Israel] birth' (Deuteronomy 32:18), metaphorically he proclaims that God is like a mother to Israel. And yet, in that same verse, Moses sings of the Rock who 'begot' them. In other words, Moses suggests that God is like a mother and father.
Someone might argue on the basis of feminine imagery that it is biblical to refer to God as mother. My question then would be, 'Is it biblical to refer to God as "a heavenly bird"?' The Psalms, in particular, are filled with imagery of people hiding beneath 'His wing' and being covered by 'His pinions' (Psalm 91:4). But that doesn't make it proper for anyone to pray, 'Dear Bird.' Instead, it is better to pray as David did, 'Hear my cry, O God....Let me take refuge in the shelter of Thy wings.'
Biblically we can say that God is more motherly than a nursing mother (Isaiah 49:15). But with that, we insist that he is not to be confused with a female mother goddess physically giving birth to the world. The same principle applies whenever we call God Father. The Lord Jesus taught us to pray, 'Our Father' (Matthew 6:9). In fact, everywhere in Scripture that God is named, his name is rendered in masculine form. But again, that doesn't mean that God is masculine. It means, rather, that the metaphorical names for God are masculine.
God is God with a capital 'G.' He is not a male deity as if he were merely a god. God is not a god or a goddess. The Scriptures make it clear--God is God. That means he is inscrutable, above that of being male or female. And yet it was his will to reveal himself in Scripture as Father. For regardless of anyone's culture, the metaphor of father universally reflects the biological fact that fathers on earth are physically more separate from their offspring than are mothers. Moreover, fathers are physically less vulnerable than mothers. Hence, the metaphor of Father implies something different than the metaphor of mother can convey." - pgs 119-122
- Sarah Sumner, P.H. D.
Sumner, Sarah. Men And Women In The Church. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2003.
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