To refer to God as Mother is to eventually bring about a lesbian tie between worshiper and deity.

In the New Testament, believers are referred to in the feminine context as being "the Bride" of God through Christ. Christ is referred to as the Groom. Therefore, believers are pictured being spiritually married to deity through Christ.

In the Old Testament, God speaks of Himself as being married to the Hebrews. When they disobeyed Him, He spoke of having to divorce them because of their going after other loves.

Since in both Testaments, believers in the God of the Bible are referred to in the feminine sense as being the wife of God, God thereby is referred to in the masculine sense. Logically, then, deity is spoken of by masculine pronouns well as being Father.

By the Bible speaking of the divine as masculine does not conclude in any sense that deity has genitals nor gender. God has need of no sexual relationship for He is above such necessity. God has no gender for He has characteristics which are both masculine and feminine.

Numerous contexts in Scripture reveal His masculine imprint. Less numerous passages speak to His feminine imprint. These include Jesus, being God, pining over Jerusalem not coming to Him for protection as a chicken would desire her chicks to come under her wings.

Also, when Jesus spoke of one being born again, He was obviously referring to the feminine giving birth to a child. Naturally, Jesus was using literal birth as an analogy to spiritual birth; nevertheless, the mothering context is evident. Jesus invites us to be born again by way of the womb of divine grace.

Further, when Genesis records that deity created Adam and Eve in divinity's image, this obviously conveys both masculine and feminine natures in deity Himself. As He imprinted Adam with His masculinity, so God imprinted Eve with His femininity. God is both, yet above both.

However, when it comes to naming God with feminine terms, one then distorts Scripture to a perverse relationship between worshiper and deity. For example, to state Mother God is to thereby bring worshiper as Bride into a tie with a feminine lover. This is spiritual lesbianism.

When the Bible speaks of God as Groom, it speaks of worshipers as Bride. This is the logical workout of the use of terms. It is a proper balance when using analogy and language.

To change God terms from masculine to feminine is to twist the very core of Scripture's message. In doing so, one twists the implication as well. From then on out, it is impossible to gain the real call of God concerning salvation.

God as Groom calls forth His bride. God as Mother cannot call forth her bride. With slight of hand, revisionists corrupt the Word's offer to become spiritually intimate with God--that is, experiencing His indwelling Holy Spirit.

There are those who champion feminine terms for deity who claim that the New testament writers in particular were sexists in their language use. This cannot be further from the truth. What is so obvious is totally ignored. It is that New Testament devotees are called "the Bride."

That means that first century readers were told that they--both MASCULINE and feminine--were going henceforth to be referred to by the feminine term "Bride." Is this sexist? Hardly.

Yet no protest came forth from the Early Church. The Christians accepted the divine truth as making sense.

Only now in the twentieth century will some misinformed zealots "discover" this flaw of terms in Scripture. So they conclude that the New Testament writers were chauvinistic. Such is evidently just the opposite.

The truth is that when one comes to the Bible with a preconceived prejudice--for example, holding that New Testament writers were sexist--he/she cannot see what is obviously the true message.

The Bible has no sexist ax to grind. It simply sets forth revelation which makes sense, that is, God is referred to as masculine for He saves His love, referred to as feminine.

When it works, don't fix it.

J. Grant Swank, Jr.