The Rejected Notion

“Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name…”¹ God our Father, our Savior and Provider; a God who has a multitude of characteristics and attributes, and yet the doubt still lingers in the minds of certain individuals, is He also our Mother? This has been a question looming in the realm of theological discussion for many years and has even made its way into the discourse of the church body. With this question come answers that may seem respectable at face value, but ultimately serve a much more subversive purpose and present us with the possibility of misrepresenting who our God, YHWH, truly is. 

Although this idea of viewing God as our mother may sound appealing to some within Christian circles, we must be cautious as to what we allow into our minds, as Paul warns in Ephesians 4:14, “that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,” (NKJV); or in 2 Timothy 4:3, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;” (NKJV). As Christians, it is our responsibility to worship and respect God to the best of our abilities as He has revealed Himself to us in the Scriptures. This includes what we affirm about His character and the doctrines that we hold to. When approaching this topic we must test our motives and see whether we are actively trying to present the truth about the character of God and what Scripture claims, or if we are simply attempting to conform God to our image. 

There is a stark contrast between seeing the motherly attributes that God possesses and then extending that to the point of claiming God is our mother. For example, God’s maternal characteristics can be seen in passages such as Isaiah 46:3-4, Deuteronomy 32:11-12, and Psalm 131:2. However, these feminine/motherly characteristics can be had without being a female, just as how God has Fatherly attributes without being male; yet, even though He contains both, He still chooses to reveal Himself in a masculine form all throughout Scripture. There is personhood, identity, and purpose wrapped up in the language that is intentionally used. As Jesus constantly states, “I and the Father are one”(John 10:30 [ESV]), “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9 [NKJV]), “he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, ‘I thank you, Father…’”(Luke 10:21-22 [ESV]). These are not simply metaphors. Metaphors and figurative language are made clear and often prefaced before being presented in Scripture, a method that is never used when God is called Father throughout the entire Bible. It is clear through the Scriptures listed above and others throughout the New Testament that these references to God as our Father are not metaphorical and have significant importance and truth to the identity of God even proclaimed by Jesus, God incarnate, Himself.

As stated in the article Discarded Images, “Even the creation of humanity, both male and female in the image of God, points to the idea that God encompasses all human characteristics but transcends both sexes”² This is correct, and the characteristics that may be considered more tenderly and caring are enveloped in the nature of women. When God created man and woman in His image, each one encompassed different characteristics of God. Through marriage, male and female became one flesh, a type and shadow of the love of Jesus to His Bride, the Church. Through God-ordained gender roles, male and female are made to be complementary to one another in marriage; the man to provide for the family and the woman to be his helper, equal in being and value but different in function, intended to bring glory to God through the natural order He established. Humanity did not fall because of Eve, it was Adam’s rejection of his male leadership role within the relationship. This is an idea often rejected by the modern feminist movement which has seeped into churches; a movement that no longer seeks equality with men, but dominance over them, becoming men themselves. The view of God as our mother has come about through the overwhelming push for equal representation in the feminist revolution in an attempt to erode the “patriarchal language” in Christianity, and to reject this association would be absurd.³  

For those who wish to view God as a mother, the desire mainly stems from the lack of a solid father figure to use as an example for the type of fatherly love that God offers us. Although this seems like a valid reason, it is a self-centered motivation, one that is a result of a dwindling number of strong father figures within America due to the erosion of masculinity within the culture and the rejection of responsibility of fathers across the nation; this cannot be the basis for adopting this doctrine. Let us consider this question; what happens if a person’s parents are both abusive and the individual is no longer able to associate love and care with either one, what does God become then? This doctrine of God as mother does not lead us to view God as both Father and mother but instead leads us to pick and choose how we wish to see God. This is represented well in a quote by the author of Is God my Mother, when she states, “Was I not somehow a lesser picture of God?”⁴ Ultimately we should be asking if the mother God doctrine is motivated by the intention to have a well-balanced view of Scripture and the character of God, or is it simply a desire to see female representation within the Divine. 

The next main concern would be the potential of adopting a New Age, Gnostic, and/or pantheistic view of God by viewing Him as both Divine Father and Mother. Within the religion of the New Age, (an amalgamation of Gnostic, Hermetic, Kabbalistic, and Eastern religions and practices) within the pantheistic force that is in all beings there resides the divine masculine and the divine feminine, two parts of one being that create a balance and rids us of a duality mindset which is a result of the evil material world where the mind must transcend the physical, in this case, gender.⁵ Within Gnosticism, Jesus is viewed as the Divine masculine with His equal feminine twin, Sophia, who fell from heaven and helped create the material world;⁶ an interesting comparison can be drawn here to Lucifer falling from heaven (Isaiah 14:12-17), Satan being the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2), along with Sophia’s association to knowledge and wisdom, the very thing offered in the garden of Eden. Keep in mind that Sophia is a feminine figure, not necessarily female; she is an emanation, or Aeon, of the feminine aspects of God while the Gnostic Jesus is an emanation of the masculine, yet He remains androgynous.⁷ 

Sophian literature is heavily promoted in the practice of Kabbalah, occult Jewish mysticism stemming from Babylon and mystery religions, and scholars and practitioners see “In Sophia… finds a partner for the abstract Logos, and she becomes the connecting principle between God and humanity. She is the paradoxical ‘body of God, divine matter’, both subject and object at once. As Solov’ev asserts that humanity is the link between the divine and natural worlds, he calls Sophia ideal’nyi chelovek. The body of God, she is also the soul of the world, the incarnated divine idea,”⁸ If as stated here, the true goal of humanity is to recognize the necessity of the balance between masculine and feminine energy to find the true image of God within themselves, their “true self”, we go back to the ancient Kabbalistic teaching of the Jewish mystics who believed that Adam was androgynous and was assigned no gender, that he encompassed all aspects of the genders just as God did; once Eve was created Adam was rid of his femininity and must be united with Eve to be a full reflection of God and to bring the balance of the divine masculine and the divine feminine back into reality.⁹ This then lends itself to the Hermetic/Gnostic principle of androgyny, “a symbol of immortality, transcendence and totality. It is the triumph over the deceptive duality resulting from the creation of the universe. It also stands for the merging of the selves, the triumph over mind and ego, and the accord between sameness and diversity, particularly duality.”¹⁰ Viewing God as a woman has also been pushed throughout the mainstream secular culture. A prime example would be the singer Ariana Grande with her song, God is a Woman, where she does nothing more than flaunt her sexual knowledge to her partner which will confirm to him that not only God is a woman, but that she is that woman. It is not surprising these doctrines are being spouted in her music given that Grande is an openly practicing Kabbalist.¹¹ The Mormons believe in God the Father and God the Mother¹², the World Mission Society believes Mother God lived in Korea¹³, and even the prophet Jeremiah mentions the “Queen of Heaven”¹⁴ in Jeremiah 7:18, a pagan deity being worshiped by the Israelites and unironically still being worshiped in the Roman Catholic church under the name “Mary, Queen of Heaven”. Believing in God as mother is inherently Gnostic, cultish behavior that promotes the idea of the divine masculine and feminine.  

Scripture is clear that Jesus was a male. Jesus maintained His gender even after His death and resurrection and there is no Biblical support that gender will be lost upon reaching Heaven.¹⁵ Gender is a part of a person’s identity and to associate it with the evil physical world is not only anti-Christian, it is a Gnostic and Hermetic approach to understanding gender within the spiritual realm and negates the importance of gender to identity. The confusion of gender identity and the transgender movement is nothing more than an ancient Hermetic occult ritual that is being played out on the world in the name of Psychology in order to bring society to a state of androgyny. Gender matters, it is a part of identity, it is God-ordained and God-given.

The article Discarded Images states, “Many conservative Christians are nervous about anything feminine when it comes to God language, fearing that they will step onto a slippery slope and fall into goddess worship.”¹⁶ In my opinion, this is an honest concern to have given the potential damage that can result through the doctrine of viewing God as our mother. It is better to rely on the inspiration and sufficiency of Scripture to see who God reveals Himself to be instead of what human conceptions have to offer; I would rather use what I have been given through Scripture to refer to YHWH instead of an emotional, feelings-based, human philosophical creation which helps me feel comfortable when worshiping the all-powerful Creator. Jesus, God incarnate and second Person of the Triune God, referred to the first Person of the Triune God as His Father. What benefit does this God as mother argument provide? What is the intended purpose to reference God as our mother? The answer comes down to viewing your own self-reflection in God, knocking God down to your level of understanding instead of saying I will worship God because He is God. So for me, I will continue, as a child of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to cry out “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6 [NKJV]).

Footnotes:

1.  Matt. 6:9-11 (KJV)
2.  Kristina LaCelle-Peterson. “The Discarded Images: Reasserting Biblical Language for God.” Essay. In Liberating Tradition: Women’s Identity and Vocation in Christian Perspective, 210. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008.
3.  Alister E. McGrath, “The Modern Period: Feminism.” Essay. In Christian Theology: An Introduction, 6th ed., 75–78. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016.
4.  Juliann Bullock. “Is God My Mother?” CBE International, October 28, 2020. https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/article/mutuality-blog-magazine/god-my-mother.
5.  “Dualism.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Accessed February 1, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/topic/dualism-religion.
6.  Douglas M. Parrott, trans. “The Nag Hammadi Library: The Sophia of Jesus Christ.” The Gnostic Society Library. Accessed February 1, 2021. http://gnosis.org/naghamm/sjc.html.
7.  “Sophia.” Brooklyn Museum: Sophia. Accessed February 1, 2021. https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/sophia.
8.  Judith Deutsch Kornblatt. “Solov’ev’s Androgynous Sophia and the Jewish Kabbalah.” Slavic Review 50, no. 3 (1991): 487-96. Accessed February 1, 2021. doi:10.2307/2499846.
9.  Avraham Yehoshua Heshel. “The Female Aspect of Adam: Adam Originally Included Both Male and Female.” Adam originally included both male and female. – Gender Issues, August 11, 2003. https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/380616/jewish/The-Female-Aspect-of- Adam.htm.
10.  “Androgyny as a Symbol of Alchemy.” http://www.symbolisms.net, 2019. http://www.symbolisms.net/androgyny.html.
11.  Rachel McRady, “Ariana Grande Turns to Kabbalah After Catholic Church Rejects Brother,” Us Weekly, December 7, 2017, https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/ariana-grande-kabbalah-catholic-c hurch-rejects-brother-frankie-20142110/.
12.  “Mother in Heaven,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, accessed May 13, 2021, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/mother-in-heaven?lang=eng.
13.  Mike Winger, “The Secret History of the Fast Growing ‘Mother God’ Cult (with NEW Info I’ve Never Shared before),” YouTube (Mike Winger, September 16, 2020), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUeNiX-WLoo.
14.  GotQuestions.org, “Who Is the Queen of Heaven?,” GotQuestions.org, October 22, 2009, https://www.gotquestions.org/Queen-of-Heaven.html.
15.  GotQuestions.org. “Will There Be Such a Thing as Gender in Heaven?” GotQuestions.org, October 21, 2005. https://www.gotquestions.org/gender-Heaven.html.
16. Kristina LaCelle-Peterson. “The Discarded Images: Reasserting Biblical Language for God.” Essay. In Liberating Tradition: Women’s Identity and Vocation in Christian Perspective, 205–206. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008.

Bibliography

“Androgyny as a Symbol of Alchemy.” http://www.symbolisms.net, 2019. http://www.symbolisms.net/androgyny.html. 

Bullock, Juliann. “Is God My Mother?” CBE International, October 28, 2020. https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/article/mutuality-blog-magazine/god-my-mother. 

GotQuestions.org. “Who Is the Queen of Heaven?” GotQuestions.org, October 22, 2009. https://www.gotquestions.org/Queen-of-Heaven.html.

GotQuestions.org. “Will There Be Such a Thing as Gender in Heaven?” GotQuestions.org, October 21, 2005. https://www.gotquestions.org/gender-Heaven.html. 

Heshel, Avraham Yehoshua. “The Female Aspect of Adam: Adam Originally Included Both Male and Female.” Adam originally included both male and female. – Gender Issues, August 11, 2003. https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/380616/ jewish/The-Female-Aspect-of- Adam.htm.

LaCelle-Peterson, Kristina. “The Discarded Images: Reasserting Biblical Language for God.” Essay. In Liberating Tradition: Women’s Identity and Vocation in Christian Perspective, 205–27. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008. 

McGrath, Alister E. “The Modern Period: Feminism.” Essay. In Christian Theology: An Introduction, 6th ed., 75–78. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016.

McRady, Rachel. “Ariana Grande Turns to Kabbalah After Catholic Church Rejects Brother.” Us Weekly, December 7, 2017. https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/ariana-grande-kabbalah-catholic-church-rejects-brother-frankie-20142110/.

“Mother in Heaven.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Accessed May 13, 2021. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/mother-in-heaven?lang=eng.

Parrott, Douglas M., trans. “The Nag Hammadi Library: The Sophia of Jesus Christ.” The Gnostic Society Library. Accessed February 1, 2021. http://gnosis.org/naghamm/sjc.html. 

“Sophia.” Brooklyn Museum: Sophia. Accessed February 1, 2021. https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/sophia.

Winger, Mike. “The Secret History of the Fast Growing ‘Mother God’ Cult (with NEW Info I’ve Never Shared before).” YouTube. Mike Winger, September 16, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUeNiX-WLoo.