I'm not redefining God, I'm recognizing the Holy Otherness of God rather than projhecting human distinctions and limitation onto God.
You are redefining God. God's "Holy Otherness?" And someone had the nerve to chastise me for using the slippery slope argument? Once again the slippery slope has proven slippery indeed!
First, the idea that "feminine as well as masculine attributes must reflect God’s nature" does not denote the existence of "God the Mother". It is true that the creation of both man and woman in the image of God must manifest a complementarity which represents the being of God (cf. Gen.1:27c). But this is not at all indicative of an actual "Mother God". In fact, the image of God in Scripture is not so much represented by gender but by the attributes of righteousness, holiness and knowledge (Eph.4:24; Col 3:10). To root the image of God in the notion of gender is a "red herring" and has only become vogue because of political correctness and in the interests of feminism. Second, it would seem that to address God as "Mother" is being falsely justified on the basis of certain Scriptures which attribute feminine characteristics to God. The reverend is quite correct to say that God is spirit and therefore cannot possibly be either male or female. He is also correct to say that feminine imagery is used metaphorically in Scripture to describe the character of God (e.g. Isa.66:13; Psa.131; Matt.23:37). But while the use of such imagery is perfectly orthodox - our great God being a nurturing God - it is entirely specious to then make the leap into directly addressing God as Mother.
It is important for us to understand what is being confused here. The fact that feminine imagery is used to denote the character of God does not give us leave to address God as a female person. It is not because God happens to have ‘fatherly attributes’ that we pray to Him as "Father". The reason we pray in this manner is because He IS the Father! It has been said that this matter of the nature of God as the Father is not some nominal issue to be idly debated on a wet afternoon in the ivory towers of a theological seminary. This is part of the very ground on which the faith will stand or fall during the next decade. To take away the use of male pronouns in reference to Deity would do irreparable damage to the doctrine of the Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - upon which a true understanding of the Godhead of Scripture depends.
Above all, we speak specifically of the Father and the Son because the Lord Jesus Christ did so (Jn.6:40; 10:36; 14:13). Even more to the point, we can wholeheartedly pray to God as Father because the Lord Jesus Christ did so (e.g., Matt.11:25; Jn.17:1). Only the most rebellious persons would dare to set themselves against the pattern laid down by the founder of the Christian faith.
Russ <><
