Does God have a gender?

Question

I am only interested in hearing from people who believe there is a higher power. Options include physically male, or physically female. I guess there is the strange chance that there might be someone out there who thinks it possible for God to be hermaphrodite. In spirit the options include, male energy, or female energy, or both. Please limit your answer to one of these six possibilities which I suppose could include a blending of the physical and spiritual possibilities. Remember to support you answers with religious text and or logic/intuition, as well as personal experience.

CalebsMom, I don't buy the “none” answer. Surely you have heard of Yin and Yang? Energies can and do have masculine or feminine qualities to them. God may have both but certainly (s)he has at least one type, don't you think?

Crystal D, The Bible says he's male. Hmmmm, that's strange. I distinctly remember in the New Testament God being likened to a female bird covering her baby chics with her wings for protection. “ I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings…”Matthew 23:37 Look it up for yourself.

If god made man in his own image why then is the female called (wo)man? Sounds an awful lot like woman is also made in God's image to me.

CalebsMom, I was a seriously zealous fundamentalist for two years and I do not recall even then believing that heaven has no gender. It was preached to me that there probably would be no sex in heaven only blissful worship of the almighty. Personally even back then it was hard to conceive that lack of variety as joyful end of ends.

autumnshadz, Amen sister!

emy_is_crazy2, you are right that the bible states God is spirit. That is why I quantified the genders into physical and spiritual energies. You still have time to edit expressing your choice of belief.

emy_is_crazy2, you also stated that God is not physically anything. Are your sure about that that? A statement like that could have gotten you burned at the stake not much more than a couple of hundred years ago. Many Christians claim Jesus is God. Jesus had a male physical form. So at some point, and presuming he still has a body, still is physically male.

People, there is a difference between gender and an energy orientation. I have heard this God doesn’t have a gender argument once too many. Theoretically you could have no gender but your spirit still could have a masculine and or feminine quality to it. This is not two difficult of a concept. This is why I separated the physical options from the spiritual.

xyz l, you said that God refers to himself in the Koran as he we and us. In the Old Testament, God also refers to himself as we. Could the “We” be the balance of feminine and masculine archetypes?

arewethereyet, God may or may not be a physical being but according to some Christians God became physical, so at least for a certain period of time (according to your perspective) God was physical. It is also proclaimed that God is beyond time, and even if you assume this manifestation was temporary for God, it will eternally be with him/her.

arewethereyet, by the way I like the fact you challenged my limits. It shows a feistiness to get outside the box. Good for you.

arewethereyet, yet you still have not answered the question. Even if you can prove God is not in the least bit physical this still does not prove God's energetic orientation is male, female or both. And for the last time people this does not have to do with sex, i.e having a wee wee and you know what.

JackBauer, not really, but thanks for playing ;)

Roxw, the old paradoxical everything and nothing answer. I like it.

global warmi..., I wish people read the details more closely. You can believe that people and God in heaven will not have physical bodies but that does not mean energetically they do not have a slant one way or the other, or both. If Jesus is now spirit and doesn't have a physical wee wee then why did Jesus, according to the bible, reveal himself in the male form? Maybe the spirit of Jesus has more of a masculine energy? I do not know but I do know good argument can be made either way. To simplify this down into a, none of the above answer, is short sighted at best.

Brooklynn, maybe instead of "gender free" it is gender inclusive, whether or not it is in the physical or in spirit.

nacsilver85, good overall answer but I doubt the pantheists would agree with you about the first part.

poetofdarkness, Thank You. Finally a functional answer from a Christian perspective.

elmjunburke, OK, but I did ask only for those who have a belief in a higher power to answer this question. I do not want to assume you don't, but if you do you did not tell me what energy orientation you believe your higher power has.

Answer 1

Since you want one of those six options for an answer, I guess I would go with spririt both, with a little physically male. This is my "Christian" answer. Jesus was a real person, and therefore physical and must have a gender. But God is not limited to just Jesus's being.

In my opinion at least, gender is a physical thing. Some traits may be more stereotypical for one gender or another, but are not limited to it. So to me a spiritual being wouldn't have a gender. If you want to assign gender on behavior and characteristics, God's still both. Birth and forgivness are usually feminine while destruction and judgement are masculine. God did and does all of these.

But I must confess to ususally thinking of God in masculine terms. It is just a little beyond me to completely think genderless of a being so .... awesome. I cannot refer to God as "It" and that is the only pronoun I know that is genderless. I know people who use "He," "She," "His," ect.. interchagibly when talking about God. Growing up in the church that uses the masculine to refer to God makes it hard for me to use feminime pronouns without conscious effort. I believe there are two reasons for the Christian church to use masculine terms. Jesus was male. Second is simply that at the time of it's, and most religions, developement, most cultures were very patriarchical and would not accept a female have so much power. Power = Male

Outside the strictly Christian standpoint: It is incomprehensable for me, that God be only physical. It is just to limiting. The earlier paragraph ("In my opinion at least, ... all of these.") applies to God in general, not just the Christian concept of God.

BTW, your question, when limited to those six anwer choices, should be "WHAT is God's gender?" not DOES.

Answer 2

No, God is a spirit, neither male energy or female energy ( I don't know what that means). God is a spirit, plain and simple, a spirit.

Edit: No I don't think God is one or the other gender. Don't recall seeing Yin and Yang in the Bible anywhere. The Bible does say that in heaven there neither male nor female.

Edit: Do you even know what you believe? It seems to me that you are not satisfied with any answer that you have received so far. And just because you don't recall believing about there being no gender in heaven doesn't make is so, I don't care zealous you were, try reading Galatians 3:28.

Answer 3

The Bible can answer that.

Mat 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven.

Luk 24:39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye behold me having.

Joh 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

God is classified as a "symbolic" "He" because of his rank.

Eph 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, and Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the saviour of the body.

The wife is not inferior to the man; however, she does have a place, and that is the order of the family. God has the authority in the spiritual family - The church is considered a "bride" and must be under the authority of Christ.

Eph 5:24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything.
Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it.

Eph 5:31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.
Eph 5:32 This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.

I'm no Greek scholar, but I do know in many languages, such as Spanish, all words virtually have a gender - Water is Masculine - El Aqua, Las Enchiladas - Enchiladas are Feminine, which doesn't necessarily, literally mean that Enchiladas are girls and you're drinking a boy.

It is indeed hard for us to understand the spiritual realm. We know God IS a spirit, and that we are made in the likeness of God (we do have an eternal part about us). However, when we try to make God human, that is when we will err. The Bible says that God does not have flesh and bones like a human. God is the creator, and does not have to do things that necessitate a gender - He can speak something into existence.

The angels are CREATED spiritual beings, and those that are obedient children of God will be like them, without gender because there will be no need for gender in heaven.

Answer 4

Everywhere in the Bible, God is referred to as He. Jesus referred to Him as the Father. The whole Bible refers to God as male, but God is a spirit and spirits do not have a gender, but for us to be able to understand them at all, they are always referred to as He or Him. Michael the Archangel (Jesus on Earth) and Gabriel are the only two angels spoken of at all in the Bible except for it saying Myriads of angels exist.

The thing is that we are human beings and cannot understand spirits so to make it clear for us, God has Eyes, Ears, Nose, Mouth. No person has ever seen God. Moses only saw HIS back as it says in Exodus when the Jews were in the wilderness for 40 years. Moses was blinded for 3 days just looking at God's back. Jesus is God's son and was born on the earth as a male. When He died and finally returned to heaven, he became Michael the Archangel once again and in charge of all the other angels.

So, really, we haven't seen spirits so we have to take the Bible's word for it throughout the whole Bible that the spirits, including the Head of the spirit beings, God. There is no way of proving the opposite, and the Bible says Let God Be Found True Though Every Man Be Found A Liar.

We must have faith in the Bible is the sum up of my answer.

Answer 5

The Christian Bible and many other religious text says that God is a He. So, according to christians (and other religions), "he" is male.
I personally believe that God is neither male nor female physically. But, I also believe that God is both spiritually.

Answer 6

God does not have a gender. God is a spirit, and to my knowledge, spirits don't have genitalia.

God encompasses both female and male qualities. Everything has to have balance: life and death, hot and cold, joy and pain....it doesn't make sense to have a God that only encompasses one set of qualities.

As far as God being a "He" in the Bible: the Bible was written by men. To most of them, the idea of a deity with remotely female qualities was unorthodox.

Answer 7

Paul said that in heaven there is no female or male. Jesus was obviously a male. But in the Bible, the term Wisdom, which also means God, is called "she." Gender, or so it seems in the grand picture, isn't important.

Answer 8

GOD is a metaphoric representation. Although the element he represents does not have a gender, the representation clearly does (Male). Since a metaphor is literary art, it can be used however the author sees fit. The jews wanted GOD to be a male, so they wrote GOD as a male. Much like Father Time and Old Man Winter.

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Answer 9

No ~ IME God is beyond all gender. But I think when we are relating to God in a personal way it is alright and even beneficial to relate with different aspects of God, which may be leaning toward one gender or the other. I relate with God as Father and Mother and Christ. To me the Holy Spirit of God is feminine in 'feeling.' But I know in doing this that ultimately God is One and this Oneness is gender free.

Aloha ~

Answer 10

God isn't a gender. I hate explaining this because of ways ignorant all of us is. God is each and every thing. not guy not females. God is each and every present particle interior the universe. You smell god, flavor god, listen god, sense god. God isn't a freaking pretzel or cheese burger. yet God provided it from himself. God not a tree, even if the tree is area of God. he's not your nutrition, yet your nutrition is area of him. the reason we are saying "Him" or "He" is because is is the most powerful and masculine What else are you going to call him besides "him, her or God." And it extra acceptable not be taco. he's not an merchandise even if the full residing type of each and every particle interior the universe. he's each and every thing. each and every thing is area of him mutually with you. He created you. The universe created you. he's the universe. He gave you each and every thing mutually with the guidelines of ways the universe works. Hes a spirit. not a flipping ghost. A spirit. that is like yet another note for 'existence." you spot God each and each and every of the time and he see you. on account that each and every thing is him, he's each and every were rapidly. devil is fullyyt one dude, he's not each and every thing so he can purely be some the position rapidly. God advised the human race to have relaxing sex and many little ones. So even as your daddy and Mommy were given mutually and created your body. God become coming up your soul. Your image and skills. So there... beware, God is gazing you from that piece of writer 1st baron verulam your ingesting.