So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. - Genesis 1:27 (NIV)
That verse is the basis of a theology of a church (will remain anonymous):
Man = God The Father
Woman = ?
There must be God The Mother.
This afternoon, my friend was approached by 2 strangers - a Filipino man in his early 20s and a Korean woman in her early 30s. I was just a block away from her when it happened.
My friend saw me looking at her and waived at me to come over. So I did. “Lia, Christian daw. Christian,” my friend in her a hurry-up-rescue-me voice. I asked the strangers, “Why? What is it?” and the man walked closer to me. “Ma’am, survey lang po about kay God,” handing me a notebook and a pen “Okay lang po ba?” he added.
There were 5 questions. I remember only 3 of them (#1, #2, and #5):
1. What is your Religion?
2. What do you think of the Bible?
5. Do you know anything about God The Mother?
“God The Mother? God The Mother?? GOD THE MOTHER??? Whoa! That’s a big chunk,” I thought to myself. I’d never heard of it but I had an idea of what they were trying to say. In my head maybe they were referring to the verse Genesis 1:27 but got it all wrong. Then the man showed me another piece of paper. I was right! They were referring to Genesis 1:27 … and got it all wrong. They were interpreting the verse TOO literally.
“Ate, pagkinunan kita ng litrato, anong lalabas? Babae diba?”
“Yes.”
“Eh pagkinunan mo ako?”
“Lalake”
“Pagtayong dalawa? Diba babae at lalake?”
“Syempre.”
“Ganon lang yon. God’s image - a man and a woman. May God The Father, may God The Mother.”
I just smiled and waited for him to expound what he was saying.
“Meron po kami dito na proof. Eto po yung Hebrew context“
He showed me a piece of paper with Hebrew texts. How was I supposed to know if that was really a proof? I can’t read Hebrew texts.
“Elo = God. Dito po sa Hebrew context, Elohim = Gods (plural) na nagpapatunay na may God the Father at God The Mother. God is in plural form.”
How was I supposed to know if in that context Gods = idols = gods with a lower case letter g? Again, it’s in Hebrew.
I caught myself staring at the Hebrew context trying to comprehend and swallow everything the man said to me. Then I remembered the book Captivating by John and Stasi Eldrege.
In that book, the authors explained Genesis 1:27 briefly - the creation of Adam and Eve. Here are the excerpts:
“For Adam is captured best in motion, doing something. His essence is strength in motion. That is what he speaks to the world. He bears the image of God, who is a warrior.”
Adam (man) was created to bear the image of a warrior God.
“Eve was given to the world as the incarnation of a beautiful, captivating God - a life-offering, life-saving lover, a relational specialist, full of tender mercy and hope.”
“God wanted to reveal something about Himself, so He gave us Eve. What can we learn from her? You’ll discover that God is relational to His core, He longs to share adventure with us, and God has a beauty to unveil - a beauty that is captivating and powerfully redemptive.”
Eve (woman) was created to bear the image of a relational God. She shows the heart of God to the world.
… He created man and woman to show His warrior and relational sides, not to represent male and female gods.
I told them that but they did not respond. Instead, they gave me a what-is-she-talking-about death stare.
“Naniniwala po ba kayo sa Bible?”
“Of course,” I said.
“Ilang percent po?”
HA-HA-HA. What kind of question is that? But he looked so serious so i answered, “110”
“Kapag napatunayan ko po sainyo yung God The Mother using the Bible maniniwala po ba kayo?”
I just smiled. And did I mention they asked me more than 3 times about my religion? Sad.
My discipleship group buddy is right. “If their focus is Christianity, they will talk about Jesus and not the gender of the god they talk about.“ Radical Christians let God use them to make others hear and believe The Good News, not question God’s gender and/or have doubt on how many gods they serve.
* 11/26/11 9:05
God showed a verse to me just now. It’s amazing how clear this is. Be blessed by this too.
“But we know that there is only one God, the Father, who created everything, and we live for Him. And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom God made everything and through whom we have been given life.” - 1 Corinthians 8:6
Loud and clear. No need to interpret.
May God bless us all with discernment.
* 11/26/2011 12:25
“Parang they are confusing it with the Trinity. When God refers to Himself as plural it always means the Trinity.” - my discipler
