Isnt Creating an Image of God Blasphemy?

Question

When you teach your children that God is "our Father" dont you pave the way for blasphemy by allowing the child to imagine a man in heaven?

Since Gods image is not a human one, and cannot be limited to human looks, isnt it wrong to assume that God is Father?

Even if the word "father" is not literal, because if it was it was portray God as a person who has sex, how can you expect a child to understand the spiritual meaning behind that?

This is the biggest problem I have with Christianity after the Trinity.

If someone could give me a proper logical answer I would appreciate it very much.

So if youve spent your entire life imagining God as man, what are you gonna do when you wake up one day and realize youve blasphemed all your life?

So wouldnt it be more appropriate if you said He is likened to a Father..rather than He is the Father?

He can also be likened to a mother. But that would never put the image of a woman in heaven in our minds.

Answer 1

There is no god, there is no blasphemy.

Answer 2

God Himself portrays to us the image of a Father, it's used almost constantly throughout the Bible and it is an appropriate one. Oh, and yes, there are a few references to the mother/child relationship and God as well ... there's one I can remember about how God's protection is compared to an eagle covering her eggs with her feathers or something like that.

You are right, God is not human, but this is the most simple and easiest way for us to understand, after all everyone has a father lol. I think the problem for some with God is that their earthly father was not a good person, so they don't like the comparison.

And why would children understand or care about their fathers sex life? They don't know a thing about that anyway ... what does the relationship between father and child have to do with sex? I think perhaps you may have had one of the "bad" fathers and this is why it even occurs to you.

Oh, and btw, you said this was a big problem you have with Christianity, but the reference to father goes all the way back, thousands of years before Christianity ever occurred. Just thought you might like to know this :)

Answer 3

It says directly in the Bible that man was created in the image of God. In my religion, God is the literal father of our spirits, and our physical and spiritual bodies are created after his likeness. I believe there is a mother as well, but not spoken of in most modern belief systems. The only blasphemy in creating an image of God is when you worship not God himself but a 'graven image'. There is nothing wrong with imagining what God might look like.

Answer 4

Jesus told the apostles to address God as 'Abba" ie, Father.
We pass on what Jesus taught the Apostles.
Since Jesus was God He was also Man. I would say that is the way He wanted it. God is a Spirit of course,but He is and said what he said and no feminist theories are going to change that after 2000 years of history and tradition.

Children have a deeper faith in God because they are closer to the source they have no reasons to doubt.
Adults are the ones who want to sit down with pencil and pen and make mathamatical theories and devote hours of trying to reason out God.
There is an old story about St Thomas Aquinas, walking along the beach, watching a child running with water in a shell and filling a hole in the sand with sea water.
He asked the child what he was doing. The child told him he was going to put the sea inside the hole he had dug.
When the saint told him that was impossible. The child, who was an angel, looked at him and said, 'easier for me to put the whole sea into this hole in the sand than for you to understand the Trinity'.
That pretty much says it all right there.
If you want to reason things out try reading C.S.Lewis or G.K. Chesterton they are about as reasonable as you can come to the Truth of faith.

Answer 5

As Christians we follow Christ. Christ refered to God as "Our Father in the Heavens". We should do like wise. Unlike a human father, like people have a tendency to think of God, he is more powerful and can show us more love and can do more for us than an other being in existence. As humans it's hard for us to believe in something we don't see, so we are encouraged to make Jehovah real to us. The more real he is to us, the more faith we can have in him. So if we think of God as being a real person (1000 times better than we are), and also think of him as having the same feelings we have (as he does even more so than us, because we are made in his image), and think of him as our father( he created us, and loves us, and wants the best for us, and teahces us how to walk through life better than our human parents), then we will be able to share a wonderful and fulfilling relationship with him, and by reading the scriptures daily we wil get counsel from his word on how to live a peacable life.

Psalms 89:26 " You are my Father, My God and The Rock of my salvation"

Matt 6:9 "Our Father in the Heavens, let your name be sanctified" Jesus words

Matt 23:9 " Moreover, do not call anyone your father on earth for one is your Father, the heavenly One." Jesus words

2 Cor. 4:18 "while we keep our eyes, not on the things seen, but on the things unseen. For the things seen are temporary, but the things unseen are everlasting."

James 4:8 " Draw close to God, and he will draw close to YOU."

Prov. 3:5 " Trust in Jehovah with all your heart, and do not lean upon Your own understanding."

Have wonderful day!

Answer 6

God said, 'This is My Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Who is to say how a spirit begets a son?
There are not too many things that are a mystery to me, but this is one of them.
That does not mean that I do not believe that Jesus is God's Son, but I just cannot imagine how he came into being. The scriptures tell us He was with God in the beginning. It was through His Son that all things were made.

Maybe God just said POOF! and He had a Son. (lol)

No, the use of the term Father does not bother me, if God said that Jesus was His Son.

Responding to an earlier post, I think Trichotomy more closely matches the Triune attribute of God. We are made in God's image. As you say, it has been debated by theologians for millenniums.

grace2u

Answer 7

We refer to God as "Our Father" because Jesus TOLD us, that is how we may address Him. I imagine that God Chose that particular form of address because that is as close as our minds can comprehend His relationship with us. A Father loves and cares about His children and takes care of them and always has their best interest in view. (at least that is what a Good Father SHOULD be). I suspect that He knows we are smart enough NOT to take the image literally. Even as a child, I KNEW it wasnt literal. So no, I really cant imagine any harm done. Instead it brings a lot of comfort. ....theBerean

Answer 8

God has form, but His form is eternal and is full of knowledge and pleasure. We cannot compare His form to our form. Our form is neither eternal, full of pleasure, nor full of knowledge; therefore God's form is different.
As soon as we speak of form, we think that form must be like ours, and we therefore conclude that the eternal, all-knowing, and all-blissful God must be without form. This is not knowledge but the result of imperfect speculation. If God is the original father, He must be a person. Otherwise how we are persons? These are common sense, knowledge. There is no need of very great knowledge. A child can understand. Therefore God has form, but He has got a different form. But as soon as we speak of form, we think the form must be like this. Therefore the opposite, no form. That's no knowledge.
God must be the most beautiful person, otherwise how can He be God? Imagine a form of God is wrong, but to know the beautiful form of God, is the goal of human life.

Answer 9

I refer to Father God because of the prayer Jesus gave as an example of how to pray. He refered to His Father and He indicated that we become adopted children of Father God because we believe in Jesus. Consider that as a child, the most trusted and believed person in that childs life used to be the father. Since I never knew my biological male sperm donor, I gravitated to Father God because of my Lord Jesus' prayer. I also found that Father God could be trusted completely.

Answer 10

Creating an image of god IS blasphemy, because (im not sure) in the bible it says that you are not allowed to make a personal image of god, why?...i dont know.

The belief of the christian god is very sexist though.

Answer 11

My dear Lost and Found,

This is a great question and it really comes down to understanding this very confusing issue on God and Man. I myself am writing a book about it. Allow me to share a few ideas with you.

If we are to follow the belief in God, or any god for that matter (and i say this because there are is a myriad of other ideas and beliefs) then we have to assume that this god is a spirit. Some would say God is Spirit! So what then of man? But I am getting ahead of myself a bit. Let us first define God.

What is God? According to the scriptures, and other beliefs, he is defined as infinite Spirit, Life, Truth, Love,Principle, Soul and Mind. He is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. God is not a body. He is not subjected to the human ideas or the myriad concepts of being known to man. He is All-in-all. God knows no sin, no disease, no corruption, no death. Spirit is perfect and indestructable.

So then, who is man?

To answer this let us turn to the bible for a moment. Genesis to be exact. If we read the first two chapters you will be introduced to two very distinct creations of man. I say two creations because in the first chapter it says that God created man in his image and likeness. This likeness is spirit.

Then in chapter two we find that another creation of man happened. "Then there went up a mist, and man was formed from the dust of the earth,..." etc, etc. Man was made flesh here. material; matter. subjected to all the whims of the world. sin, sickness, disease and death.

It would be safe to say that the first creation of man was Idea; Embodied with all the qualities of his maker. But the second creation, I like to call the "dust man," started out with problems. He is made of matter. And we all know how unstable that can be.

We can also see that we are made of this substance. This corruptible tissue that is prone to the laws of flesh; sickness, death and decay. The other creation is perfect, unblemished, upright and pure. This idea of man can not fall sick, will not sin, will never die. Why, because he is idea, held in the image and likeness of God.

With that said, mortals scramble to be more like this idea. They want what idea has, imortality, indestructablility. Having now said this, we have a choice as to what man (in the generic term) we want to be; but this will be more of a mental excercise than anything. As the old saying goes "change your thought and your body will follow." It has to. It is a law, a demonstrable truth.

When you teach your child about God, you must first teach him/her who, or better yet, What God is. Then from there it's up to them on what model they want to follow. Idea or matter.

I must also add, that God is WITHOUT GENDER! It is mortal man (mainly men) who have made God masculin. That, my dear ones, is yet another chapter in my book. When god speaks to us it will come in our own thoughts, in our own voice, and not as Hollywood portrays it in movies.

I hope this helps a bit.