He was non denominational. The thing that really bothers me is that I didn’t know how to respond to it. I’d never heard that before so how could I argue?
Our non-Denominational brother has several things going on here, foremost of which is a lack of understanding of the context under which Paul was speaking. Another prroblem he as is that he is taking verses 30 and 31 completely out of the context of the surrounding verses.
Now this is an allegory.
These women represent two covenants.
One was from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar. Hagar represents Sinai, a mountain in Arabia; it corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery along with her children. But the Jerusalem above is freeborn, and she is our mother. For it is written: “Rejoice, you barren one who bore no children; break forth and shout, you who were not in labor; for more numerous are the children of the deserted one than of her who has a husband.” Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise. But just as then the child of the flesh persecuted the child of the spirit, it is the same now. But what does the scripture say? “Drive out the slave woman and her son! For the son of the slave woman shall not share the inheritance with the son” of the freeborn. Therefore, brothers, we are children not of the slave woman but of the freeborn woman. (Galatians 4:24-31)
In verse 24, Paul clearly states, “Now this is allegory.” He is in no way referencing a literal maternal god, but instead goes on to explain that Hagar
represents the Jews under slavery to the mosaic law. Under the mosaic law, slaves did not inherit property; one had to be free to be an heir. Paul wrote Galatians to a group of pagan converts to Christianity who were being pressured by Jewish converts to obey the mosaic law in addition to the precepts of their Christian faith. Paul was addressing slavery to the mosaic law and freedom from the law through the grace of Jesus Christ. He uses the Old Testament scriptures, of which he was a scholar, to illustrate to the Galatians how they were to drive out slavery to the mosaic law (allegorically Hagar) and live as free men who are destined to inherit the promises of Christ (allegorically Sarah). Our non-denominational Brother simply does not understand the social context under which Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians, nor the historical context of how slavery, freedom and inheritance worked in the ancient world. He also fails to see that Paul cleary says “This is allegory.” It’s classic.
The “Us” and “We” references go back to the very first book of Genesis. After creating night and day, heavens and earth, the seas and all the animials, God creates man. And the very first thing God tells us about man -
the very first thing God tells us about ourselves in the whole Bible - is that we are created as man and woman, in God’s image.
Then God said: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground." God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)
This message is so profound that God placed it in the 26th and 27th verse of a book with over 35,000 verses. Man and woman, male and female, are made in “Our” image, the image of the Triune God, the Trinity.
God the Father loves God the Son. God the Son loves God the Father. The Father and Son are totally committed to each other, in a permanent and inseperable relationship of complete self-sacrificing love, and the Holy Spirit is the product of that love. Man and woman are created in the image of the Trinity. Husband and wife, totally committed to each other in a permanent and inseperable relationship, holding nothing back, completely sacrificing their own needs and desires for the health, safety, wellbeing and happiness of the other, is a mirror of the way in which God the Father and God the Son love each other within the Trinity. And the way in which the Holy Spirit is a product of the love between God the Father and God the Son is the way in which children are a product of totally commited and self sacrificial love betwen husband and wife.
The nuclear family - husband, wife and children - was designed by God to mirror the innermost workings of the Trinity. That message was so important to God that he told it to us in the first few sentances of the Bible and the whole rest of the Bible depends the first chapter.
Our non-denominationalist is working toward a correct understanding but he falls short and misses the mark. Our earthly spousal relationships are a way in which God reveals to us the nature of love within the Trinity, and more than that, is a way in which God allows us to experience trinitarian love in our every day lives, but that does not refer to a literal God the Father and God the Mother. Our earthly spousal relationships are shadows of the real relationship of pure love within the Trinity, which Paul nails in the closing verse of 2 Corinthians…
The grace of the **Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God **and the fellowship of the **Holy Spirit **be with you all. (1 Corinthians 13:13)
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. That’s it. The role of Mother is filled by Mary but I’ll leave that to someone else or another thread.
-Tim-