Why do we refer to God as a male?

  • Thread starter Thread starter gladriel
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
First, in revelation God refers to Himself as Father.

Second, it has to do with His nature as creator. The gnostics would use the image of God as mother to advance a semi-pantheistic view. Because God in relation to his creation is completely seperate just as a father does not bear his children. However, the power of God affects creation just as the power (sperm) of a father affects the fertal womb. In other words it helps us keep in balance the reality of Gods emanence and immanence in creation.
 
Because that’s the way God revealed Himself to us through the insipred Scriptures - as a Father, and girls can’t be daddies.

While it is true that God (the Trinity) transcends sex, God has chosen to reveal Himself through masculine expression (not withstanding the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity); it is only fitting to acknowledge Him as He desires.

God Bless,
RyanL
 
In addition to the above, in English it is(was) standard to refer to a person of unknow sex in the masculine - before the recent PC neologism of “he/she”. “It” would not be used in such circumstances in standard English.
 
40.png
gladriel:
Why do we refer to God as being male?
Click to expand...
  • The OT does so
  • Jesus calls God “Father”…
  • …and He does so in the Lord’s Prayer
God, Who is Spirit, is not a body - therefore the category of sexuality, with its biological distinctions which apply to man, is strictly speaking inapplicable: it is applied to God, because it is familar to us: we are sexually differentiated, even though this differentiated is not applicable to God.

God is like
  • a mother
  • a rock
  • a warrior
  • a fire
  • a shield
  • a lion
  • a shepherd
Jesus is like
  • a mother hen
  • a lamb
  • a door
and so on

Yet “God is Spirit”. God cannot be described - only indicated by language, or known by experience: in both cases, incompletely. Jesus knows the Father Face to Face - so His repesentationof Him is a standard, a canon, for our thinking about the God we know so inadequately.

Even to say that “God is Spirit”, is a corrective and a balance to calling God “Father” - there is no way of speaking of God known among men which is entirely free from some objection. So the example of Jesus is the best guide we have. ##
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top