Since most Christians claim God is nothing like a human being and has no gender as we know it, why do you insist on calling God a him? Why not a her? Or to be correct using the English language, God should be an IT.
2007-03-31 11:28:54 · 18 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
J.R. - God doesn't call him/herself anything - people who wrote the Bible did that
2007-03-31 11:55:41 · update #1
volleyball - are you saying if God were a woman, there would be no belief in God because most religions insist that man is better than woman? Is God a man because men wrote the Bible and they wanted God to be in their image?
2007-03-31 11:57:57 · update #2
kat - in a male run world, do you think any males would accept a female Jesus as the messiah? Or would "she" be branded an evil heretic like Joan of Arc?
2007-03-31 12:02:40 · update #3
wahnote - we also call the planet mother earth, yet it doesn't signify an assignment of gender - or for that matter, cars are also referred to as "she" - is that chauvinism because men take care of the cars? But today women have cars as well... are we to infer they are lesbians? If you apply your logic, then these must also be true for the same reason.
2007-04-01 04:29:52 · update #4
Because of male chauvinism
2007-03-31 11:33:39 · answer #1 · answered by Nuwaubian Moor 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Christians use masculine references because of the names associated with the Trinitarian persons-- the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. But strangely enough, these ascriptions do not indicate gender, but a relationship. The names ascribed to the persons of the Trinity serve to help Christians to understand the mystery of the relations within the Godhead.
2007-03-31 18:38:59 · answer #2 · answered by Timaeus 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Actually, I don't know anyone who says God does not have a gender identity. In the original Hebrew (OT) and Greek (NT) it is very plain that God is a Him. The ultimate in what a Father is, and what a father should be. Christ is a Son, definitely masculine. God is a warrior, a lion, a lamb, all of these are masculine references. He doesn't call Himself a heroine, or lioness, or ewe.
Perhaps being in ignorance of the fact, that may be why people state that God is not a Him. However, it does not change the truth, God is masculine.
2007-03-31 18:33:58 · answer #3 · answered by J.R. 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
The answer to the question about why God is referred to with masculine terms in the Bible really has only one answer: This is the way God has chosen to reveal Himself to us. God is never described with sexual characteristics in the Scriptures, but He does consistently describe Himself in the masculine gender. While He contains all the qualities of both male and female genders, He has chosen to present Himself with an emphasis on masculine qualities of fatherhood, protection, direction, strength, etc. Metaphors used to describe Him in the Bible include: King, Father, Judge, Husband, Master, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There are those who would like to blur this emphasis in some of the newer Bible translations, but it is very dangerous to tamper with the way God has chosen to reveal Himself. He most certainly does not intend to minimize women, since men and women are revealed as made in His image and of equal value to Him. But it remains that He is Father, not Mother, and even in the Incarnation chose to come to us as a man, Jesus Christ. One famous Christian scholar, C. S. Lewis, has suggested that gender is far deeper than our human distinctions reveal. He suggests that God is so masculine that we all are feminine in relation to Him. If this is true, it might explain why the church is referred to as the bride of Christ, though it is composed of both men and women.
2007-03-31 19:22:03 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Because in Hebrew, like many other languages, words have different ending depending upon whether or not they are masculine or feminine. The name God, or Elohim in Hebrew, is masculine.
If God was a girl, they would have called her Eloha.
(It's truly amazing how many Christians blindly believe in a God they know absolutely nothing about!)
2007-03-31 18:33:30 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
You are totally right. G-d is not a Him or Her, G-d is like nothing we can understand as humans. However, it is easier for people to refer to G-d as Him/He. I personally call G-d HaShem (it means: the Name). To people who disagree and think that G-s is a man, Let us not forget that G-d told Moses "I am" "Tell them I Am sent you"
Have a good one!
2007-03-31 18:36:51 · answer #6 · answered by Noi 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is just something that has been ingrained into our minds. It may not be PC today, but it was the way it was 2000 years ago. I happen to believe that God is genderless, but I still say "him" out of habit. Plus saying it, she/he, him/her just grammatically doesn't flow right when spoken.
2007-03-31 18:38:53 · answer #7 · answered by Wisdom in Faith 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God very well good be a her. It probably has something to do with out society being sexist. Men in our world wouldn't believe that such a powerful being could possibly be a woman.
2007-03-31 18:32:29 · answer #8 · answered by yellow_ducky 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
well i have thought of that, and i think that its because Jesus was male, so maybe in the second coming it will be a woman, and will change the thought of god as a man...
2007-03-31 18:55:11 · answer #9 · answered by katherine 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
And why do you refer to the earth like 'She'...does the earth have a gender?
God has no name and no gender.
2007-03-31 18:34:56 · answer #10 · answered by gnostic 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋