Thought I had heard it all

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Myqyl

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Well, I thought I had heard it all, but 2 women stopped by my house this Sunday with Bibles (well, NIV) in hand. I greeted them and asked them what I could do for them and they informed me they wanted to tell me about God the Mother…

At first I assumed they were just radical feminists that wanted to call God Mother instead of Father. Since I’m fairly certain God is genderless (not needing to reproduce) I was going to explain to them that insisting that God is female is as wrong as insisting God is male. God the Father has no need of gender… That’s when they completely blindsided me by saying that God the Mother is a “fourth person” of the Trinity…

They “justified” this with :

Gen 1 :26 - Then God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” … 1:27 - God created man in His image: in the divine image He created him: male and female He created them."

They had nice red lines under the portions I Bolded

Before I could recover completely, they turned to The Book of Revelation, 21:9 … “Come here. I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” implying that the “bride” was God the Mother. I held back all my remarks about incest since I felt it would be counterproductive and instead said, “Yeah, the bride is the Church”… I’m fairly certain I remembered that from many decades ago from Catholic school… My problem is I couldn’t find the Scripture I’m almost positive I had seen before referring to the Church as the bride of Christ…

So, anyway…

Did I have that part wrong about the Church being the bride and if not where can I point to enlighten them? They asked to come back and talk more and I’d really like to help them see the Truth, so I asked them to come back after Christmas and I’ll be glad to sit down with them and discuss it more. Does anyone have any arguments backed by Scripture you think I should present to them? I already have a few notes, but you all are a great resource and I’d love any advice…

Thanks! and God bless!

Mike
 
No, you are correct. Saint Paul describes the Church as the Bride of Christ in Ephesians 5:22-33.
 
Myqyl said:
… 2 women stopped by my house this Sunday with Bibles (well, NIV) in hand…and they informed me they wanted to tell me about God the Mother…a “fourth person” of the Trinity…
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WOW!

What a treasure we have in our Apostolic Church led by the Magisterium!

They probably come from a church that doesn’t recite a Creed.
 
Myqyl said:
Well, I thought I had heard it all, but 2 women stopped by my house this Sunday with Bibles (well, NIV) in hand. I greeted them and asked them what I could do for them and they informed me they wanted to tell me about God the Mother…

At first I assumed they were just radical feminists that wanted to call God Mother instead of Father. Since I’m fairly certain God is genderless (not needing to reproduce) I was going to explain to them that insisting that God is female is as wrong as insisting God is male. God the Father has no need of gender… That’s when they completely blindsided me by saying that God the Mother is a “fourth person” of the Trinity…

They “justified” this with :

Gen 1 :26 - Then God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” … 1:27 - God created man in His image: in the divine image He created him: male and female He created them."

They had nice red lines under the portions I Bolded

Before I could recover completely, they turned to The Book of Revelation, 21:9 … “Come here. I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” implying that the “bride” was God the Mother. I held back all my remarks about incest since I felt it would be counterproductive and instead said, “Yeah, the bride is the Church”… I’m fairly certain I remembered that from many decades ago from Catholic school… My problem is I couldn’t find the Scripture I’m almost positive I had seen before referring to the Church as the bride of Christ…

So, anyway…

Did I have that part wrong about the Church being the bride and if not where can I point to enlighten them? They asked to come back and talk more and I’d really like to help them see the Truth, so I asked them to come back after Christmas and I’ll be glad to sit down with them and discuss it more. Does anyone have any arguments backed by Scripture you think I should present to them? I already have a few notes, but you all are a great resource and I’d love any advice…

Thanks! and God bless!

Mike
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Sound morom
 
Saying God the Father and judging people for saying God the Mother is complete hypocrisy.
 
MariaTSAngel said:
Saying God the Father and judging people for saying God the Mother is complete hypocrisy.
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While it is true that God is a spirit (in the form of the Father and the Spirit, while fully God/spirit and fully HUMAN MALE in God the Son). . .we know from Scripture and Tradition that God Himself referred to Himself as Father. Christ referred to Him as “Father”, the Father referred to Christ as the beloved Son. Nowhere did Christ referred to God as "mom’ (and as we all know in these liberated days, a ‘stay at home’ dad is often referred to offering a ‘mother’s care’ to his children while a single working mom is said to be pulling ‘dad duty’. . .so Bible references to God caring for children ‘like a mother over her child’ is not calling God’ Mother.’

So where’s the hypocrisy? Frankly, I can’t see it. Furthermore, it is not ‘judgment’ to comment that reference to God as "God the Mother’ or a ‘fourth person’ of the Trinity (a totally crazy nomenclature as one doesn’t have a fourth of a THREE-sided figure anyway) is not accurate Catholic Christian teaching. It’s a statement of fact.
 
I’ve never heard of a quasi-christian sect that worships God the Mother, but I have to say that radical feminists don’t go door-to-door!
 
MariaTSAngel said:
Saying God the Father and judging people for saying God the Mother is complete hypocrisy.
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There is no god the mother and Jesus called God the Father ( this does not mean male in the physical since that we know) So a person is correct to correct someone that says god the mother. It hs nothing to do with gender and everything to do with relationship.
 
Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding day of the Lamb has come, his bride has made herself ready. She was allowed to wear a bright, clean linen garment." (The linen represents the righteous deeds of the holy ones.) Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These words are true; they come from God.” (Rev 19:7-9)

The Church is dressed in a bridal gown sewn by a life of purity and righteousness. Christ and the Church are forever united in a covenant of marital love. In one sense, this is a present reality for the Church, who is joined to Jesus by the grace of Baptism.

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Eph 5:25-27)

But it is also a future hope that the union will reach perfection in the glory of heaven.

"Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them, but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps. Since the bridegroom was long delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight, there was a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise ones replied, ‘No, for there may not be enough for us and you. Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.’ While they went off to buy it, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him. Then the door was locked. Afterwards the other virgins came and said, ‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us!’ But he said in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour. (Mt 25:1-13)

In the example your guests gave in (Rev 21:9-21) the Church is described as the heavenly Jerusalem. The marriage of the bridal city recalls when the Lord joined himself in wedlock to ancient Jerusalem, having cleansed her in water and clothed her in gold, jewelry, and fine linen (Ezekiel 16:8-14). Similair images are found in (Isaiah 61:10 and 62:5).
 
oneGODoneCHURCH said:
Sound morom
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Nope, sorry. We do indeed teach that there is a “Heavenly Mother” who is a companion to our God, but we definitely do not go door-to-door proselytizing about it. In fact, we are discouraged from even really discussing the topic in depth.

I would be very curious to discover what denom. those folks were from.

Sariah, inactive LDS
 
First of all, Father is a relationship, not necessarily a biological fact. Think about it, a Catholic or Episcopal priest is not the biological sire of those who call him father. As for the relationship of mother, it is one of the characteristics attributed to El Shaddai, if I remember correctly.

Sariah, would Mormons use the NIV translation? Is there a standard translation that Mormons prefer?
 
The only sanctioned version of the Bible is the KJV, with partial re-translations done by Joseph Smith. Keep in mind, though, that they teach that the Bible is imperfect and much more significance and stress is placed on the Book of Mormon.

Sariah, inactive LDS.
 
SisterSariah said:
Nope, sorry. We do indeed teach that there is a “Heavenly Mother” who is a companion to our God, but we definitely do not go door-to-door proselytizing about it. In fact, we are discouraged from even really discussing the topic in depth.

I would be very curious to discover what denom. those folks were from.

Sariah, inactive LDS
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I’ll try to find out when they come back next Sunday. They were both Asian women with heavy accents (although very good English grammer) so I “think” they are from China (if I were to guess, North Eastern China). So it could be a demonination not often seen in the US.

Thank you all for all your help. I’m fairly certain I can point to where I believe they are misguided and hopefully will be able to give them something to think and pray about. They didn’t seem to be very open minded, but with the help of the Holy Spirit, who knows…

I’d be grateful for any prayers you can spare

God bless

Mike
 
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