Our mother, which may or may not be in a metaphorical heaven, Not so holy be the many pronouns we choose for you…

A mangled version of the Lord’s Prayer that is probably not that far away from being used. 

It has been revealed that the Church of England, breaking with centuries of belief and tradition, have announced the launching of a major project this Spring. This will be a project on gendered language. If approved, no longer will their ministers need to refer to God as ‘He’ or ‘Him’. In fact, dropping ‘our Father’ from what is the possibly the most famous prayer of all time may also become an option. 

This morning, on the way the home from the school, I was listening to BBC Radio 5 Live and Nicky Campbell’s Your Call. It was on this very subject and as I parked up at home, I sent off a short text expressing what I believe is the Biblical answer to all of this. I did not expect the call back but it came, and so I believed it was an opportunity to speak up for the Lord. I wanted to put a few of those thoughts into a blog. 

God is not soup for us to season

The very fact that such a ‘debate’ is taking place indicates an existing problem – a serious one. I am not a medical doctor but many times have been a patient. We all know that symptoms point to a problem or even many problems. So what is the diagnosis in this case? The answer is a departure from the Bible and the belief that it alone is the sole authority for a Christian for faith and practice. 

God is not soup where we add our own seasoning in to satisfy our palate. However, this is the approach of many with regard to God. Let us remember, this is the only true God who is self-existent and who has revealed Himself to us through the inspired Scriptures. With these frenzied efforts to accommodate all cultural whims and fancies, we are now required to question the pronouns God Himself uses! So long as the Bible is refused as the church’s only authority then we live in an ‘anything goes’ society. We have seen this malignant tumour growing and developing over the decades. Today we left in a position where if a person is offended by something they read in the Bible and yet want to still have some association with Christianity, then the answer is to pull out the metaphorical card and say ‘well it can’t possibly mean that’. 

Where does it end?

This cavalier approach to the Bible, where people pick and choose according to taste, always leads to the rejection of truth. In this respect I have more sympathy with an atheist than with someone who claims Christianity and yet pours reproach and doubt over every page of the Bible. At least the atheist openly says ‘there is no God’ – foolish as they are to do this.  The other has either added or taken away so much from revealed truth that they are left with nothing but an idol in hand to ignorantly worship. The sinful cultural changes of any age do not redefine God and they certainly do not redefine how God reveals Himself to this world which He gracious chose to do when giving us His Holy Word. 

God tells us how to address Him

Our Saviour in John 4 had a lot to say on this matter. First of all in verse 24 Christ made clear that God is Spirit i.e. He has no bodily parts or form. There is no issue with us believing this and at the same time going on to address God using male pronouns. In fact, our Lord Jesus went to on to do this very thing: ‘…and they that worship him…’ In the previous verse our Saviour spoke of worshipping the ‘…Father in spirit and in truth’ . This same truth is repeated time and time again in the Bible and no one has the right to suggest that they know better than the Almighty Himself.

In addition to this we must also remember that when God the Son did choose to take our humanity to Himself – He took male form. He manifested Himself as the the last Adam in order to save His people from the condemnation inherited through the first Adam or Man. This must not be lost on us.

In world where people are playing fast and loose with truth, Genesis has the last answer: ‘God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them’ (Genesis 1:27).