The Mother Image Of God?

[Sabolski]

Hello,

I recently got into a debate with a young man from The World Society Mission Church Of God about what he called God The Mother. He said a lot of things that disturbed me, but mainly he claimed that God exists in a male image and a female image, as if there are two Gods. He tried to use Genesis 1:26-27 to illustrate his point.

26Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."

His logic was that since God was speaking in the plural and he then created male and female there must be a male God and a female God. I then told him that God is a Trinity and that He was speaking in terms of The Trinity, but he then claimed the Bible never says God is trinitarian. He then said that if God is a Trinity then there would be 3 types of people on earth, not just 2. I pointed out to him this would only be the case if you first accepted his argument that there is a male God and a female God, which Christianity does not accept.

Anyway, there’s a lot of other stuff that he said that I want to talk about, but I wanted to start here first. I want to see if anyone else has run into these folks, and what everyone’s thoughts on sharing the Truth with these people might be.

God Bless & Keep You,
Sabolski

 

[MrSnaith]

First, note that the Jewish understanding of God is that He is one. The Jews gave us the OT, so their opinion should be worth something here.

Two, God is a pure spirit. He is neither male nor female. That both male and female are created in God’s likeness means that the principles out of which male and female derive (i.e., masculinity and femininity) are both to be found in God.

Three, just because the Bible doesn’t state something in black and white, doesn’t mean that it cannot be found in the text at all.

 

[TomFromMD]

John 1 makes it clear that the God is at least a duality, which would be sufficient to explain “Us” in Genesis. And both of those natures are revealed as male. The gender (if any) of the Holy Spirit is a bit more ambiguous. Speaking of “God the Mother” is simply making stuff up though.

John 1:

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
…
14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth

The Word was with God (so was separate from God in some sense) and the Word was God (so was God in some sense). And the Word was the Son, who came from the Father.

 

[captainrick]

First, note that the Jewish understanding of God is that He is one. The Jews gave us the OT, so their opinion should be worth something here.

Two, God is a pure spirit. He is neither male nor female. That both male and female are created in God’s likeness means that the principles out of which male and female derive (i.e., masculinity and femininity) are both to be found…

Note, though, that some Jews believe that God has a feminine aspect, called the “Shekhinah.” This doesn’t mean two Gods, but the one God with both masculine and feminine attributes.

 

[captainrick]

First, note that the Jewish understanding of God is that He is one. The Jews gave us the OT, so their opinion should be worth something here.

Two, God is a pure spirit. He is neither male nor female. That both male and female are created in God’s likeness means that the principles out of which male and female derive (i.e., masculinity and femininity) are both to be found…

Note, though, that some Jews believe that God has a feminine aspect, called the “Shekhinah.” This doesn’t mean two Gods, but the one God with both masculine and feminine attributes.

 

[Janice4616]

Captainrick, my advice is to not engage with anyone from the World Mission Society to lead you to believe they are credible because they can show you a text or verse in the Bible. Unless you are well versed or can defend your beliefs without combatting wits. Those people are relentless and portray themselves as the only ones who will have salvation for following 4 basic practices that can be found in the Old Testament. They hold onto all OT feasts too, and consider Christmas, Easter as Christian pagan holidays that are forbidden for them to observe. They claim to be Christian, recognize Jesus as the Savior, but his name is replaced by someone else from S Korea ASH , incarnation of the Holy Spirit that fulfills the Second Coming of Christ as stated earlier. ASH started as a Seventh Day Adventist to a new movement. What ASH did not support was the idea of a female version of a mother God. So his group was split and the World Mission Society formed. The members of WMS are famous in approaching young adults, in parking lots, college campuses and for those longing for a purpose, not sure of their own beliefs, needing to find a way to remove undesirable past behaviors or are loners wanting to belong to something. They dress professionally wear smiles that at first you are comfortable in engaging with them. Then invite you to a Bible study where they tear down and discredit anything you thought to be true about your faith. Where am I going with all of this? For 2years, My daughter is trapped by this group happened how I described it. We tried to get help- even joined this forum for answers. Her life’s direction is to serve this - what they refer to themselves as a church, but all indications describes a cult. She lives in dorm and when not at work, attends to WMS matters. She severed friends, boyfriend, sister, and parents. So, my advice to you is to attend as many Bible studies as you can within the Catholic faith community, and I would start with Galatians, to obtain fundamental info in deconflicting the content ant perspectives between the Old and New Testaments… If you have children, hold them close and be observant. We ask for prayers from anyone who reads this post. Thank you and God be with you…

 

[PoorKnight]

My Dad says the same thing… except that God can be just as much “Mother” as “Father”. However the text from Genesis - if they’re relying on it for their support - says, “…male and female HE created them.”

A fuller explanation - principles seen in Scripture, described in the Catechism - is that God does have aspects of both mother and father. But God is shown to BE LIKE a mother, but IS Father.

Just like our dads can be “mothering”, they are not and cannot be “mom”… even with a bunch of surgeries…

 

[Janice4616]

Referring to the point World Mission Society states a father and mother images, as though there are 2 Gods:

Sabolski, what the World Mission Society may, or may not have told you was that the “mother” God is alive and lives in S. Korea. The founder, who died in mid 1980’s was the 2nd coming of Christ, the personification of the Holy Spirit, who they call “Father” . current events are highly sensationalized heightening end times and in recent past they set specific dates that the world was to end. At the end of the world the mother and father unite.

 

[Sabolski]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

Janice 4616, I’m so sorry to hear about your daughter’s trouble with this group, I will definitely pray for her. I just had my first child, a daughter, about a month ago and it is very scary to think of all the pitfalls out there just waiting for us, the kids especially. I absolutely got the sense that this group had a concerted plan of attack to target young people who may be vulnerable in their faith or questioning it. They’re dialog was very scripted, and pretty much followed exactly the format found on their website. They were also very insistent that I join them for a bible study.

I did some research into the group and, while there isn’t much information out there, I did read about their founder who claimed to be the 2nd coming of Christ, and his wife that now claims to be the incarnate Mother God. Of course the group didn’t mention this during our run-in, I imagine that they save this fact until their converts are already invested, much like a group such as Scientology does before they tell you there are little dead aliens living in your body causing all your problems.

They also didn’t mention specifically their refusal to observe Easter and Christmas, but they were very critical of the Catholic Church and started claiming that Jesus never intended to do away with the Jewish form of the passover and replace it with the eucharist. After arguing that for a while I just told them that this is a lot to take in all at once and we’d have to continue discussing it later on. Since Easter and Christmas are Catholic holidays I’m not surprised they don’t observe them, and when I asked how should we celebrate the passover they wouldn’t give a direct answer.

PoorKnight, thanks for mentioning this. I did point this out to them, as well as the fact that neither the OT, Jesus, or anyone else in the bible refers to God as “Mother”, but they do always call out to him or liken Him to a Father. They just kept circling back to their literalist interpretation of the Genesis passage. Here’s the other thing though, the second part of their presentation was to point to where Revelation speaks of The Bride of Christ, which they claim is referring to the female image of God or Mother God. I told them that the Bride of Christ is the sanctified Church, which they denied.

Thanks again everyone, I think it’s really great that we’re discussing this especially since this World Mission Society doesn’t seem to be large enough yet to be on the radar of our professional apologists, as far as I can tell. The laity has to be the front line.

God Bless,
Sabolski