"God the Father...Mother of us all": How liberals are changing the Bible's language for God4/26/2018 (The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.)
Patricia Lull is the bishop of the St. Paul Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In an article called “Not What We Bargained For” she beings with this: "Grace and peace to you from God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Mother of us all. AMEN". Where does Jesus ever call God the "Mother of us all"? Jesus consistently refers to God as "Father." Bishop Lull provides us with another example of how feminism is overriding the authority of Scripture when it comes to God language. If you attend an ELCA church which uses the ELCA's official hymnal "Evangelical Lutheran Worship" perhaps you have noticed such hymns as "Mothering God you gave me birth". The hymnal also desexes all the Psalms to get rid of masculine pronouns for God. Years ago lesbian pastor and popular ELCA speaker Barbara Lundblad proposed to baptize in the name of “the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; Mother, Lover, Friend; Wisdom, Word and Breath of Life." And two ELCA head bishops have used the word "Godself" to avoid saying the words "God Himself." This de-sexing of God language is not just an ELCA aberration but is also happening in the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian Church USA and other liberal denominations. I visited a United Methodist congregation a few months ago and the pastor deleted God the Father from the baptismal formula, instead baptizing "in the name of the One who creates all things." I wrote the pastor a note that we are not free to change the way Jesus taught us to baptize "in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). It has become popular in some liberal churches to close the worship service not "In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit" but "in the name of the Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier", again, to get rid of the Bible's language for God. If you attend a church which is embarrassed to use Jesus' language for God, I recommend you find a Biblical church where the Triune name of God is upheld and where you can best invest your money, time and talents to the glory of God the Father. In the name of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Pastor Tom Brock pastorsstudy.org (See Bishop Lull's article here)
7 Comments
Steve Hedlund
4/27/2018 10:21:32 am
It's not just a matter of "desexing" God. It is worse. It is de-personalizing God. We understand that God is a person and a personal God. But, we humans can't imagine any person without assign sex to that person. The most distinguishing thing about any personality is its sex. The only things that come close are age and race. There is no such thing as a person aside from being either male or female. Take away the sex and you've also taken away the personhood. We can imagine a father. The Son came among us. A love between them that is so strong and pure that he takes on personality is beyond our ken. The Trinity remains a mystery, but it is no secret that he chooses to reveal himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is for us to understand what we can, recognize the limits of our understanding and not to alter what has been revealed or decide we know better than what has been made known among us.
George
4/27/2018 07:31:19 pm
For the most part I firmly agree. But is desexing God a way to describe the deus absconditus (hidden God) with whom Luther does not wish for us to ponder because it is impossible for us to do ala Luther's own Bondage of the WIll? Certainly God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But God as Jesus' Father is unique to Jesus alone. We are not considered his sons or daughters as Jesus was His unique and only begotten Son. Even in Galatians 4 as translated in the NRSV the personhood and relatedness to God gets side-stepped for the innocuous word "child". The relation is lost as the Greek word for son is translated child in that NRSV.
Steve Hedlund
4/28/2018 09:24:20 pm
By losing the difference between sex and gender (we now refer only to gender and most often mean sex) we've also made a mess of the English language into which we translate the original.
John
4/29/2018 10:59:39 pm
Let's not forget that the neutering and trans-sexing heresies are nothing new; they were part of the gnostic heresies from the 2nd century onward. For example, consider Thomas' Secret Sayings #114 (not worthy of reprinting here).
George Rahn
5/1/2018 08:06:25 pm
Good points
Steve Hedlund
5/1/2018 10:25:06 pm
Or, as Fr. Richard John Neuhaus put it:
Jakob
10/20/2021 02:24:49 pm
Jesus never prayed in the “name of the Trinity” either. Surely you know trinity isn’t even used in the Bible and isn’t prayed to the way you did. Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 Dan Skogen
Former ELCA seminary student and former ELCA member who is fed up with the ELCA's consistent mockery of God's Word. If you have been helped and blessed by Exposing the ELCA's ministry, please help us continue to proclaim the truth of God's Word to ELCA members who need to hear it.
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