Warning… this is an explicit post!
According to ancient Egyptian mythology, the chief god rose out of the primordial swamps as a male deity. He then masturbated and with his semen he created the other gods and goddesses. The gods and goddesses copulated together, with humans, and even with animals. The sexualization of the gods was understood as a fertility cult. The Pharaoh of Egypt was the son of the great sun god. That’s what happens when we imagine that the gods are like ourselves – creatures with bodies and genitalia. It was the sexualized fertility cults that were strictly forbidden by the God of Israel. Images of Baal (male god) and Asherah (female god) were to be burned.
In the midst of this pagan culture, Yahweh appeared before Moses as a burning bush. Moses saw no divine form, but heard the divine voice. The Hebrew scriptures are adamant that Yahweh is not like the gods of the ancient near east. “There is no one like the LORD our God” (Exodus 8:10). “There is no one like You among the gods, LORD, nor are there any works like Yours” (Psalm 86:8).
Yahweh does not have a form, Yahweh is not gendered, Yahweh is not male or female, Yahweh does not have genitalia. “So be very careful yourselves, since you did not see any form on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, so that you do not act corruptly and make a carved image for yourselves in the form of any figure, a representation of male or female…” (Deuteronomy 4:15-16).
God has eternally existed as Father, Son, and Spirit. That means when the prohibition against making God male or female was issued, God was Father, Son, and Spirit. God does not change. The terms Father and Son are indeed linguistically masculine, but they are not meant to attribute masculine attributes (created attributes) to God. To suggest that God is masculine implies that Yahweh has qualities or appearance traditionally associated with men. But Scripture declares, “God is not a man” (Numbers 23:19). If we insist that the God of the Bible is gendered, that Yahweh is a male deity (or female), we must ask ourselves what does that imply?
Does Yahweh have a male form? Does Yahweh have a penis? Does Yahweh have sex? If so, with whom? Masculinity implies all these things. That’s exactly what the ancient Egyptians believed about their gods. Is Yahweh like the gods of Egypt?
The apostle Paul declared that it is the height of human foolishness to “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible mankind” (Romans 1:23). Human nature is corruptible and mortal. Yahweh is neither – He is perfect, holy, unchanging, and eternal.
Yes, God is Father, Son, and Spirit. But God does not share in the properties of any created being. God’s eternal uncreated substance is not male or female. God is utterly different from humanity. “You are great, Lord GOD; for there is no one like You, and there is no God except You” (2 Samuel 7:22).
Item XX. Usage of the Titles for God forbids “naming God using feminine pronouns or feminine titles.” Does this include feminine analogies? The inspired authors of scripture used masculine and feminine analogies in reference to God because they knew that God is neither male nor female (Deuteronomy 4:16). In forbidding feminine references to God, the implication is that God is a male deity. Here’s the rub… God the Father gives birth to his children; God’s children are born of the Spirit (cf. Deuteronomy 32:18; John 3:5-8; Galatians 4:29). Giving birth is the act of a woman. Therefore, Scripture references to God’s act of giving birth is a female analogy. So, if we insist that God only be referenced as male, and that the male referenced God gives birth, it seems to me that we are embracing language that suggest God is a trans-male deity capable of giving birth. If God’s image gives personal identity (and it does)… to male and female, then that seems to imply that a trans-male God is imaged in a trans-male human. That’s the unintended consequence of Item XX.
Theological constructions have consequences. If we envision God as a male deity (male pronouns only), how are women created in the image of God? How do women derive their identity, dignity and equality from a male deity?
Some ancient theologians sometimes referred to the Holy Spirit as “she” because the Spirit gives birth to God’s people. Those same theologians confessed God as Father, Son, and Spirit. They understood that divine metaphysics cannot be compared to human ways of being. They knew that God is not gendered, and that all male or female references to deity were analogies. Yes, God is three persons – Father, Son, and Spirit. Yes, like a mother God births, nurtures, and protects (Isaiah 42:14; 66:12-13; Hosea 13:8). That’s the Bible!
