". . . your Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:45)
"Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name . . . " (opening of the famous Lord's prayer, memorized by many including myself. Found starting at Matt. 6:9)
"Jesus said, 'I thank you Father, Lord of Heaven and earth . . .'" (Matt. 11:25)
"and [Jesus] said, 'Abba, Father, all things are possible for you . . .'" (Mark 14:36)
"And [Jesus] said to them, 'Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?'" (Luke 2:49)
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)
(All quotes are taken from the English Standard version as I was too lazy to crack open my Bible and instead found them on a searchable Internet one).
Here are a few quotes from the Gospels. I am answering the question of "How do you know that God isn't a girl?". This isn't a question just from one person in particular, rather reminded of by a friend. The simple answer is how many times God is referred to as He (with a capital "h"). It is mentioned in the Bible that Man (not woman) was formed as a likeness of God (women were taken from Adam, the first man,'s ribcage). And, most importantly, Jesus referred to God as his heavenly Father repeatedly as did others, as I showed up above.
Women's Libbers are forever going to be asking this question, trying to make the Supreme Being a woman in way of making women more powerful. The only advice I have for dealing with these people is smiling and being polite. After all, they are fighting for a worthy cause. And for you women's libbers, remember that in the ancient times, powers were passed down through the females, that England is ruled by a Queen (as a Canadian citizen, I see her picture on every coin), and that it was two women who first found Jesus' empty tomb.
~God spede
I have it on high authority that when the Lord's Prayer is translated from Aramaic, the closest translation is not "father" but "Oh Birther".
ReplyDeleteWatch out for those pronouns. Translation is a funny thing--we translate prejudices of our own culture into words when there is not a good translation. In many cultures there are no masculine verses feminine pronouns.