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God’s Pronouns
God’s Pronouns
Amongst all the confusion about gender these days, we find a rethinking of the gender of God. Some denominations are now officially adopting gender inclusive language, not only in descriptions of people, but in descriptions of God. For example, liturgies are avoiding “Father” and using “Parent,” avoiding “He” and using the singular “They.”
Really, for a long time it’s been a sign of faddish open-mindedness to refer to God not just as gender-neutral, but as female. Unless you spent the 90’s living under a rock, you probably remember Dishwalla’s 1995 radio hit Counting Blue Cars which features the lyrics, “Tell me all your thoughts on God / Cuz I’d really like to meet Her.” As I Google just now, I see that Ariana Grande has a 2018 hit, “God is a Woman,” but one glance at the lyrics shows me this is no meditation on theology and reminds me why I’ve spent the last decade under my own rock!
Actually, there are some reasons why thinking of God as gender-neutral isn’t automatically sacrilegious.
God does not have a body. God is spirit (John 4:24) and has no material form that would take on male or female characteristics. Our concept of God is analogical by necessity. We must take things in our experience and language and use them to describe the nature of God, even though the earth-bound analogy will always fall short of the unseen reality. For example, we call Jesus the King, but we are only applying the characteristics of a human king to our concept of Jesus. I suspect that when we meet Jesus, we shall grasp that He is more King than we can possibly describe, not just the best King among a bunch of kings, but the very essence of Majesty. And when we meet God, we shall grasp that He is not only the best Father among many fathers, but more purely Father than any human relation can ever portray. In any case, see Matthew 7:11, Hebrews 12:7, and Malachi 1:6, for places where the dependence on analogy is a little more apparent.
Similarly, the “image of God” upon which God based humans is not one defined by gender. When God created human beings, “in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). Men are created in the image of God, and women are created in the image of God.
Many will point out Biblical passages which depict God’s mothering qualities. Isaiah describes God as a comforter to Israel, “You will be nursed, you will be carried on the hip and fondled on the knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you” (66:13, cf. 42:14). Recall, though, that similes and metaphors are figurative language, examples of imagery that use comparison to convey meaning, but which do not really offer comment on physical realities. Yes, Jesus is the door of salvation, but He is not a block of wood with hinges and a handle.
With those things out of the way, we can still firmly say that God reveals Himself to our minds as a Father, not just a Parent.
First, the Holy Spirit uses gendered language to speak of God. Jesus addressed God as “Father,” patros (John 14:2, 17:1,
etc.) not as “Parent” and not as “Mother, matros. It is thus really a mistranslation to render it differently.
Second, most of God’s attributes are those associated with power, a historically masculine concept. Things like God’s wrath, God’s justice, God’s might. For almost all of us, your dad coming into your room to punish means something different than your mom coming into your room to punish. It is likely for this reason that the seed of woman came very specifically as a son not a daughter (Matthew 1:21), as the second Adam (Romans 5:12-17). And why Paul refers to the church as the “bride of Christ” (Ephesians 5:25-27). We might here speculate that it is this very reason that the Catholic Church has had so much success elevating Mary to a quasi-divine role in redemption and intercession; it is a soft mother’s face Catholics see in their mind’s eye when offering certain prayers.
Third, if you think about it, God as Creator can only be depicted in male terms. I’ll be delicate, but in the process of all human reproduction, the male initiates the process of creation, the female receives what is provided and her body begins to change. It’s a delightful, beautiful change, but nevertheless her own body changes during the act of creating. God most emphatically does not change (Hebrews 1:12), whether creating or sustaining or doing anything else. Thus, “Mother Earth” can never serve as an appropriate analogy for God.
In conclusion, we can safely reject gender-neutral language when referring to God the Creator. God is not a man, and God is not a male, but God uses masculine pronouns for good reason. God transcends gender, but He purposefully reveals Himself, without exception, as God our heavenly “Father” (1 Thess. 1:1).
—John Guzzetta
