A teaching that is rapidly spreading
Have you heard of “mother God”?
A friend out west wrote me that he had recently attended a meeting where a nationally known speaker was promoting the concept that God is both Father and Mother to all of us. A simple Google search reveals that many are teaching this and have taught this for quite some time. Have you heard of this?
There’s a trend to remove any “sexist” references in the Bible. So “Father” becomes “Parent”. Brother becomes sibling. “Son” turns into “child”. Part of this is reflecting the emphasis that really started in this present world – but on a much larger scale. We’re seeing schools and even stores removing “sexist” labels like male and female, boy and girl, etc. We’re being told now there is no such thing as a toy for boys or toys for girls. Remember God created humankind as male and female and HE said that was very good!
I didn’t mind when we were compelled to say “Flight attendant” instead of stewardess, because more and more men were doing this job. And it made sense to say “firefighter” instead of “fireman”, as more and more women were joining the work force in all professions.
But now these same forces have come into the body of Christ and they want to impose their same gender-free language to the Supreme Being – whom we all call our heavenly “Father”.
These religious feminists and their friends want us to feel free to pray to our “Mother God” or “God the Mother”. Have you heard about this? This has been fairly common in the more liberal church groups, but now we’re seeing it preached even in the conservative evangelical groups, sabbath keeping groups and even the Hebrew Roots movement!
In fact, Yeshua said to never call a human being your spiritual “father” as a title (I mean in the religious sense; not in the family arena). So why do Catholics call their priests “Father”? Why is their top leader called Holy Father, a title reserved for Almighty God? The world calls him “Pope” which simply means “Father”. It’s clearer in Spanish and Italian, where he’s called “Papa Francisco” (Pope Francis). Here’s what Yeshua said:
Matthew 23:8-9, quoting Christ:
“But you, do not be called 'Rabbi'; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.”
So two points:
- Don’t refer to priests and ministers as “Father”. In fact, why can’t we just call ministers by their first name, since we’re all family together – brothers and sisters of God’s family, and we’re all children of our Father in heaven. Peter and Paul and James and John were all simply known by their first names. Are ministers and priests today better than they? No need to say “Mr.” this or that – just first names.
- This would have been a golden opportunity for Yeshua to say “Father or Mother” here , but he did not. The word he used was purely “father” (it would have been “Abba” in Aramaic, but in Greek it was “Patera”.) In the New Testament, Yeshua chose to say “Father”, especially in reference to the Almighty, over 400 times! That same word is used also for Abraham their ancestral father, but mostly it’s used in reference to God.
- Does it matter if we start referring to God as our Mother as well?
- Is that new teaching true?
- What does Scripture actually tell us? What did the Son of God teach us about this?
- We read of “him” – not “her” EVERY time we read about God. God is NOT male, nor female. But El Shaddai – God Almighty – always describes himself in masculine terms, as “Father” or in terms like “him” or “he”.
- We NEVER – not once – read of God being described as “Mother” or “her”. God is always in male terms – like king, ruler, Shepherd, Husband. Though we find him described in non-gender terms like Rock, fortress, shield, Banner, Light, etc. – we never find feminine terms or pronouns to describe God directly. Sometimes he is “LIKE” this or that, but never directly called anything in feminine terms.
- NOWHERE does the Holy Word of God call Yahweh our “mother”. Nowhere. He is – especially in the New Testament – called our “Father” – over and over – Matthew 6:9; 23:9; Galatians 1:1; Ephesians 5:20. There is no precedent in the Bible for calling God “Mother”. And likewise Jesus is called our Husband – never our Wife. He is our King, never our Queen. Never. Ever. And don’t get sucked into that heresy of calling God “Mother God” or something similar. That is simply going against what Scripture teaches! I don’t care who is teaching that heresy. If it’s heresy – resist it. Reject it.
- Our King (not Queen) and Savior Yeshua the Messiah, Jesus the Christ – came to reveal Yahweh as his FATHER – and our Father. This was a powerful new teaching. Though there are some Old Testament scriptures that mention God as “Father’, those scriptures were seen more as an analogy, and not as a real fact. Yeshua came telling us to pray to “our Father in heaven…” (Matthew 6:9) He told Mary Magdalene at the resurrection to tell the disciples he was going “to my God and your God, to my FATHER and YOUR Father” (John 20:17). These are the words of Christ, our SAVIOR, directly.
Why did Yeshua say to call no earthly man your spiritual father? Because it is so important that we understand Yahweh El Shaddai, the Eternal Almighty God, is our FATHER, and not our mother or uncle or aunt or any such thing. That title of “Father” is so vitally important to be kept pure and safe from dilution or change by the change-mongers.
This Babylonish confusion – IS worming its way into the body of Christ, into the believers’ meeting halls.
So the questions:
God is neither male nor female. He is God. But as we shall see, Yahweh is ALWAYS called by masculine names and titles and pronouns (he, him). Always.
There are some imagery and “pictures” of God in scripture that show him as a gentle nursing mom, or as concerned for his family as a mother bear is – and so on – but these are exactly that: imagery. Pictures. They’re saying God can be “LIKE” this or that, but NOWHERE is God called our Mother, in scripture. More on this as we go along.
Having said that, I myself have reminded my listeners for several years now that when God created mankind, He created them male and female and both Adam and Eve were created to be like God, to be in His image. I’ve believed for a long time that we understand Elohim’s nature and what He’s like when we understand man and woman. Some of his nature and characteristics he predominantly gave to men and some of his nature he predominantly gave to women. I’ve believed and taught this for a long time. See the scripture below. I can go this far with the concept of God’s nature.
But does that mean we have to believe our God is both our Father and Mother?
Genesis 1:26-28
Then God said, "Let Us make man (meaning mankind) in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
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