232 WHERE IS EVANGELICAL FEMINISM TAKING US?
like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field” (2 Sam. 17:8). Paul could write
to the Galatians and say, “my little children, for whom I am again in the
anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” (Gal. 4:19). Paul can
say to the Thessalonians, “But we were gentle among you, like a nursing
mother taking care of her own children” (1 Thess. 2:7).^14
Does this mean that we should think that David and his mighty men
and Paul were women? Certainly not. Does it mean that we can refer to
David as “she”? Or can we call David “the Queen of Israel”? Certainly
not. Can we call Paul, “Mother Paul, the founder of many churches”?
No, because the similes saying that David acted like a she-bear or that
Paul acted like a nursing mother do not imply at all that David was a
woman or that Paul was a woman. They are just figures of speech. But
if we call these men “she” or “mother” then we are implying that they
are women!
And if we call God “Mother” then we are implying that he is a
female person. That is contrary to the Bible’s descriptions of him as
Father and King and Lord and “he.”^15 The Bible gives no justification
for calling God “Mother,” and in fact it is contrary to the consistent
description of God as “Our Father in heaven” (Matt. 6:9). The names
that God assigns to people in the Bible are very important (think of
changing Abram’s name to Abraham, Sarai’s name to Sarah, or Jacob’s
name to Israel). So the names that God assigns to himself must be
supremely important: his name affects how we think of who he is.
Calling God “Mother” is changing God’s own description of himself in
the Bible. It is calling God by a name that he has not taken for himself.
Therefore it is changing the way the Bible teaches us to think of God. It
is thus changing our doctrine of God.
Calling God “Mother” is the next step on the path to liberalism, and
Christians for Biblical Equality and several evangelical feminist leaders
are now promoting that step toward liberalism.
(^14) Here is another example: Jesus cries out to Jerusalem, “How often would I have gathered
your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings... !” (Matt. 23:37). Does
that mean that Jesus is a mother hen, or that we can pray to Jesus as “Our mother hen in
heaven”? Certainly not! It is just a figure of speech, saying that his longing was like something
commonly known to an agricultural community. It described a certain longing of Jesus the
man. But he is still a man.
(^15) I am not saying that God is a man (for God is not a human being at all, though God the Son
did become a human being in the person of Jesus). But I am saying that the pattern of the Bible’s
naming of God is masculine, not feminine.