Gender of God
Wednesday, October 11, 2023
11:24 AM
How do we understand Gender driven terms like Father & Son in reference to God?
I wonder about referring to Father and Son as "names," but rather roles and titles of the 1 God. I am a father myself, but my name is not Father…
As for the word Father, Hebrew 'āḇ. It has a wider set of meanings... Strong's Concordance first 3 entries are (1) any ancestor, (2) the founder, first ancestor, (3) author, maker, creator.
[link] to an external site.
In this sense, God as Father is essential to the Bible and it's teaching about one God who created us and is a Father to us.
Deut 32:6 Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?
Malachi 2:10 Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us?
Ephesians 4:6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
1 Cor 8:6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father
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COF thoughts
43 - Father & Son imagery characterizes the relationship between the Lord and the people of God.
COF points this out with Israel in Deut 32:6.
56 The New Testament extends this to all people... Adam is the son of God (Luke 3:38). God is called the Father of all Eph 4:6 - a message not just to Israelites but Gentiles as well.
54 extends to believers.
53 also relationship with the unique son - Jesus.
44 Abba Father - a personal father who is known through a personal savior, Jesus. (John 14:9)
45 & 55 We are adopted by the Spirit of the 1 God where we can call God Abba, just like Jesus did.
46 Almighty (Pantokrator) Father - Our Father wields almighty power.
47 & 56 the Alpha and Omega - sovereign
48 God enters into his own creation by the incarnation - fathering a human son. Through humanity wins full victory - so that God may be all in all 1 Corinthians 15:28.
49 Source of all divinity. 
50 Father and Son reveals relationship
51 Not a sexuality/gender/masculinity
62 Father and Almighty qualify each other. Not just relationship... not just power... but both.
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Father does stand out above all other images and is not optional.
There is only one God... this one God created all things... this one God calls to us as Father.
That said... the term Father is not about gender but about God's role as creator.
Confessing the One Faith: An Ecumenical Explication of the Apostolic Faith as It Is Confessed in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (381). Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2010. 