endofdays
Well-Known Member
Is the holy spirit a man
The bible says he when talking about holy spirit
I know that he is also God
As well as a man.
The bible says he when talking about holy spirit
I know that he is also God
As well as a man.
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The pronoun "He" is how God refers to Himself in regard to all three of His persons. It reflects an aspect of His nature, not that He is a man.
I agree with this!No, brother. Is the Father a man? Because the Bible says "he" when speaking about him. Ditto when speaking of God in general. The pronoun "He" is how God refers to Himself in regard to all three of His persons. It reflects an aspect of His nature, not that He is a man.
Who was the first and only original human? The answer is Adam, who is a male. Eve was created from Adam's rib and was not the first nor original human. While God is not human, he is the first and original of his kind. Thus for our human understanding he would be the male of his kind, meaning the first and original. If he were female that would mean there was something before him.
Those are my thoughts anyway.
I do not wish to get into a disagreement over this topic, but a question has been asked that does need a full response. I could not do it earlier as I was tied up watching the Understanding The Times prophecy conference most of the day.I may be all out to lunch here Adrian but this is what strikes me when thinking about this thread.
One aspect of male vs female gender shows how impossible it is for God to be "female" in any of His three persons.
Simply put, men give, women receive. Men give seed, women receive seed.
Who can give to God?
God is the GIVER of life, the Creator, the one who brings everything into being. That is most ultimately a MALE role. It is a creative, and active role, it is the one who BEGINS everything, who acts in creation to create.
The creation is the one that receives from God. What do we receive? Life, the world, the universe, even Salvation. We receive from God.
That which we give back, our praise our thanksgiving, our worship is in response to his gift. We RESPOND.
But He doesn't need our gifts, He is All Sufficient.
Our gifts are that which is a FRUIT of the gift of life and later Salvation that He gave us FIRST. We love HIm because HE first Loved Us. It's our response back in return for His actions.
Some feminists insist that there is one name of God that has a feminine aspect, I think it's El Shaddai, the God who is more than enough-- who satisfies us. They point to the idea of breasts giving sustenance, and equate God as feminine or having feminine aspects because He NUTURES and SUPPLIES us not unlike a mother nursing a baby. They blasphemously assert that God either has female aspects or that God is female.
But that aspect ignores the male supplier and sustainer role. He is the provider who provides and protects the home so that the woman can endure pregnancy safely, and feed the babies that come into that home.
God is male in gender. He refers to Himself that way. But if I were arguing the case without being able to use the Bible I think I'd use this argument above.
Right on.I do not wish to get into a disagreement over this topic, but a question has been asked that does need a full response. I could not do it earlier as I was tied up watching the Understanding The Times prophecy conference most of the day.
With the greatest of respect for you and your knowledge of God’s Word, Marg, I would respectfully disagree with you over whether God is a male. I agree it is a fact that God has chosen to refer to Himself using masculine nouns and pronouns, but I do not think we should presume from that that God is a male. And even if we disagree on that point, seeing as He is a being of another order and magnitude to His creation, I think it safe to say He is certainly not a man (which was the OP question.) After all, the Bible says God is a spirit (John 4:24).
I am not always in agreement with the answers in Got Questions, but I think they probably deal with this issue as well as anyone.
That all said, there is absolutely no license given to refer to God with feminine nouns and pronouns, as some do, even though He sometimes refers to Himself in motherly terms. After all, just because Paul told the Thessalonians "we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother caring for her children (1 Thessalonians 2:7)” didn’t mean Paul was a woman. As Got Questions says in another article (which I see Andy has posted in its entirety above):
"God is spirit; He is not “male” in the sense that any man in this world is. God has no physical characteristics and no genetics. He transcends gender.
Rocky, I could write an entire academic article on the various likely reasons God uses chiefly masculine terms to refer to Himself, and why Jesus came as a man, but I believe what is important is that what we view as the characteristics of masculinity best represent the characteristics of God that are necessary for us to understand— Protector, Provider, and Potentate. In this I agree with Marg. I just do not believe that that fact means God is male, any more than his feminine characteristics—Nursing Mother and Nourisher—mean He is female. He is (as noted above) spirit. And what is necessary for us to understand of Him and His nature does not have to be deduced from the gender of the nouns and pronouns by which He refers to Himself, but can be plainly seen throughout the Bible— especially encapsulated in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and Galatians 5:22-23. And it is to these things we should look, and for these things we should seek. The ones who increasingly model these characteristics are the ones who will need not be ashamed when Christ comes and who will in the meantime serve Him most effectively.
As these verses reveal: God is love. As such He is patient, kind, doesn’t envy, doesn’t boast, isn’t proud, isn’t rude, isn’t self centered, isn’t quickly angered, keeps no account of wrongs suffered, takes no pleasure in evil, rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and displays a love that never ever diminishes. The Holy Spirit will produce those same characteristics in the ones who are His and who seek His will in their lives. Therefore, they will reflect love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Therefore, we can see the characteristics of God as He reveals Himself in our lives in this dispensation. And when we get to Heaven, we shall see the fearsome and awesome and absolutely holy God in all His kingly majesty … yet without fear because of Jesus Christ—our eternal sacrifice, our eternal advocate, and our eternal bridegroom and husband.
Glory to God!
Andy,
I do not wish to get into a disagreement over this topic, but a question has been asked that does need a full response. I could not do it earlier as I was tied up watching the Understanding The Times prophecy conference most of the day.
With the greatest of respect for you and your knowledge of God’s Word, Marg, I would respectfully disagree with you over whether God is a male. I agree it is a fact that God has chosen to refer to Himself using masculine nouns and pronouns, but I do not think we should presume from that that God is a male. And even if we disagree on that point, seeing as He is a being of another order and magnitude to His creation, I think it safe to say He is certainly not a man (which was the OP question.) After all, the Bible says God is a spirit (John 4:24).
I am not always in agreement with the answers in Got Questions, but I think they probably deal with this issue as well as anyone.
That all said, there is absolutely no license given to refer to God with feminine nouns and pronouns, as some do, even though He sometimes refers to Himself in motherly terms. After all, just because Paul told the Thessalonians "we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother caring for her children (1 Thessalonians 2:7)” didn’t mean Paul was a woman. As Got Questions says in another article (which I see Andy has posted in its entirety above):
"God is spirit; He is not “male” in the sense that any man in this world is. God has no physical characteristics and no genetics. He transcends gender.
Rocky, I could write an entire academic article on the various likely reasons God uses chiefly masculine terms to refer to Himself, and why Jesus came as a man, but I believe what is important is that what we view as the characteristics of masculinity best represent the characteristics of God that are necessary for us to understand— Protector, Provider, and Potentate. In this I agree with Marg. I just do not believe that that fact means God is male, any more than his feminine characteristics—Nursing Mother and Nourisher—mean He is female. He is (as noted above) spirit. And what is necessary for us to understand of Him and His nature does not have to be deduced from the gender of the nouns and pronouns by which He refers to Himself, but can be plainly seen throughout the Bible— especially encapsulated in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and Galatians 5:22-23. And it is to these things we should look, and for these things we should seek. The ones who increasingly model these characteristics are the ones who will need not be ashamed when Christ comes and who will in the meantime serve Him most effectively.
As these verses reveal: God is love. As such He is patient, kind, doesn’t envy, doesn’t boast, isn’t proud, isn’t rude, isn’t self centered, isn’t quickly angered, keeps no account of wrongs suffered, takes no pleasure in evil, rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and displays a love that never ever diminishes. The Holy Spirit will produce those same characteristics in the ones who are His and who seek His will in their lives. Thus, they will reflect love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Therefore, we can see the characteristics of God as He reveals Himself in our lives in this dispensation. And when we get to Heaven, we shall see the fearsome and awesome and absolutely holy God in all His kingly majesty … yet without fear because of Jesus Christ—our eternal sacrifice, our eternal advocate, and our eternal bridegroom and husband.
Glory to God!
Again, God is spirit; He is not “male” in the sense that any man in this world is. God has no physical characteristics and no genetics. He transcends gender. At the same time, God has purposefully revealed Himself to us using masculine language. God is always a “He” in the Bible. Since God uses masculine pronouns to refer to Himself, we should continue using masculine pronouns to refer to God as well.
Amen sister, good postThe feminists have really attacked the masculine pronouns everywhere. And feminist theology is particularly corrosive and blasphemous.
Since they don't actually seem to consider the Bible as authoritative, I wanted to make the point from philosophical grounds as well.
But that isn't always the best way to go in an argument because it moves off the solid ground of the Bible.
Going forward I'll stay with the Bible and let them fight with the Word as God uses it to convict them.