Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
—James 1:16-18 (NIV)
The Father gave birth to us, says James; this is strange, striking language, designed to catch the ear and grab our attention. We shouldn’t press it too far, as if we might claim to share God’s DNA; one of the reasons the Bible uses male language for God is to keep Israel and the church from moving in that direction. Goddess worship tends to follow that track to its logical conclusion and assert that we ourselves are divine, gods and goddesses in our own right, and there’s just no room for that here—the Scriptures are careful not to leave any room for that at all.
And yet, it’s quite easy to fall off the way of truth in the opposite direction, into what we might call the equal and opposite heresy of distancing God from his creation. This is the heresy of modern Western rationalism, which might believe there’s a God in some abstract sense but feels free not to give a rip about him on the grounds that he really doesn’t give a rip about us, either. To this, James’ language gives the lie. How we imagine a father giving birth, I’m not sure, but this makes it very clear that God is personally, intimately involved in our creation, both our physical creation and our spiritual re-creation. He isn’t God at a distance; he’s God right here with us.
(Excerpted from “The Poem of Your Life”)
That is an interesting premise as to why God is referred to as male. I don't give it much thought, although I know many people really take it very seriously. I call God Him, though I know that El Shaddai means "many breasted one." There are so many names that mean so many different things, because He is all in all.
But yes, goddess worship does have nasty side effects (urgh look at Ishtar and the origins of Easter sometimes! Fertility paganism at it's worst!). I suppose male diety worship does too tho, from a control and religious violence standpoint — onward Christian Soldiers and all that.
Maybe the problem isn't our figuring we have His DNA, but our figuring that He shares, in any respect, any of ours! LOL 😉
Good thoughts here, got me thinking.
Well, if you know that about the name El Shaddai, then you know more than I do. And no question, paganism of any sort leads to nasty places; the thing is that goddess worship by its nature collapses into paganism.
Anyway, glad you appreciated it. 🙂