Is God a Man?

Question

natrually when you refer to God you say He and His...masculine. But I think instead of 'God creating us in His image', we created Him in our image....and when I say we, I mean men because Christianity was shaped by men. What do you think?

Answer 1

God is spirit. We think of God as male but how can we know for sure? The bible tells us that we are created in his image. We are both male and female. Humankind is referred to as man kind. The government says that all Men are created equal.................Our teacher assured us that meant the girls as well. LOL That was many many years ago!

Answer 2

God is Spirit see Genisis. He relates in a way we can understand and so does so by becoming Jesus in one respect. With regards to motherhood of God see Julian of Norwich's shrewings and slightly bizzare mystical experiances, These seem genuine and give a good counterweight to the masculinity of God.
In answer to God being man shapped I would agree due to the Old Testament audience as the book of Hosea depicts Israel God's chosen nation as a wayward women or prostitue, this message would have gone out to a society that was predominantly male. But God did choose men and women to equally submitt to one another (see Collosians). The New Testament teaching helps to balance the argument.

Answer 3

No he is not a man, He is spirit. I refer to God in the masculine because Jesus did. He called him "Father." The Bible says He created us in His image, male and female. So I assume we somehow resemble God, who is "Father," but both men and women were created in His image. I do not have a problem with this apparent contradiction, because he is not flesh and blood, not subject to our laws of biology. I assume I will understand it all when I die and see him in his glory.

Answer 4

According to the Abramic faiths God made Adam in his own image. God saw man was alone and pulled Eve out of Adam making her body with his rib. If you think about it this has to mean God has the psychological make up of both male and female. As far as reproductive organs go God doesn't need them but I can't tell you for sure. God probably doesn't think alot about sex so mans perception of Him being male and female is invalid or foolish.

In pagan beliefs God is envisioned in male and female deities, gods and goddess. Deities are much like humans in that they can like or dislike. They can be fooled and so on. God is also manifested in animal spirits and such.

You've got a point. The real question is how do we measure things? If your thinking is what is evil is what I don't like and what is good is what I like odds are your judgment is off. The truth is the world around you isn't all about you. The Earth doesn't revolve around the individual but we simply exist within it. It's a scary thing to me to define God rather than God defining Himself. Put it this way. When I pray I do more listening than talking. To me God is a separate entity than myself. It puts things in proper perspective with me...

Answer 5

God is not a man though masculine in nature. No one created God he created us both male and female in his image, which is having both body and spirit. God is Father. Son and Holy Spirit and these are one God. Man is body and spirit and these make up a living soul.

Answer 6

I think you're wrong. God is described as neuter gender: having no genitals or reproductive system, or excratory system, but having the characteristics of a man, such as a Fatherly nature or making His image masculin. "made in His image" refers to our souls, not our personalities. besides, if the Bible was anti-women, don't you think that logically Esther, Deborah, Mariam, Mary, Elizabeth.... all the recognized female figures would be excluded?

Answer 7

For Kaballists (Judaic Mystics) God contains all possibilities, so is both Male and Female. Indeed, they hold that this is born out by Exodus 1:27: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him: male and female created he them". Similarly, the Hebrew word used for God here is Elohim which translates as "He/She/Gods" and the letters JHVH in Hebrew, as prefixes, mean "Me/Her/Him/Her". So for the most vivid Jewish mystics is definitely male and female as well as everything else. Even for the ordinary Jewish believer there is something called the Matronit or Sabbath Bride which the believer invites to enter the house on Friday evenings. This, again, is the Feminine Aspect of God which the Kaballists call the Shekhinah, or "Glory of God/Indwelling Spirit of God... One of the things that gets lost in translation in the Old Testament is that many of the 72 names of God are actually female. All get translated as "God" so we lose all these nuances...

Similarly within Christianity there is a tradition of the Feminine Aspect of God known as the Sophia, or "Wisdom of God". For the Gnostic Christians, the Sophia was the counterpart of Christ, the reunification of the two being part of the process ofn Salvation (literal meaning: Wholeness from the word Soteria). You will find the Sophia in Proverbs Chapters 8 & 9. Belief in the Sophia survives most strongly in the Eastern Churches (ie Greek, Russian, Serb Orthodox and Byzantine, who built the famour Haghia Sophia/St Sophia church in Constantinople) having been largely suppressed in the West, although the Sophia was very important to Hildegard von Bingen, Jakob Boehme and Jane Leade. The Russian Orthodox Mystic and Theologian Sergi Bulgakov wrote a wonderful treatise on the Sophia in which he argued for the Sophia's cosubstantive existence with the Trinity. As the Female Aspect of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit all contain within them the Sophia. Thus, again, the Christian God become both Male and Female.

To extend this, the Holy Spirit was thought of as Feminine until when into Christianity's established existence, when all trace of femininity in the Godhead was deemed heretical. Nonetheless the original Greek words for the Holy Spirit, Aghion Pneuma, which also translate as Holy Breath, linking the term with the Hindu concept of Prana, remains a feminine word...

So we see that the original idea of a God which encompasses all energies of the universe including both male and female, gets "masculinised" as religion becomes organised by men. Ultimately, the result is we all become impoverished because where women are in bondage, so are men...

So yes, God is male and female, as well as everything else...

Answer 8

Depends on the christian you ask, and the question you ask. Most will say no, he is not a man, but if you say that we aren't made in his image many will respond by quickly stating that god was a blood and flesh man.

If you want a rational answer, stay away from religion.

Answer 9

God is not a man, He is God. Old and New Testament always refer to Him as He. Angels are also always referred to as masculine.

Answer 10

God the Father is a Holy Man for we were created in His image. Jesus Christ said, "If ye have seen me ye have seen the Father."

God's body is of immortal, perfected flesh and bone, just as His Son is carrying with it all the normal attributes of man.