When I was a boy, it was clear there were two genders: boys and girls. When a boy grew up, almost like magic, he became a man. Likewise, a girl became a woman. Never did a boy become a woman, nor a girl become a man.
Yet, there wasn't much difference between boys and girls in school; boys wore shorts, girls wore skirts, both could wear trousers. Girls who enjoyed boy stuff were tomboys, not so much a slur, more like recognition that this girl enjoyed the same activities.
As I grew up, society increasingly accepted people with a same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria. At school there was name calling, but little more than any ordinary person received at that age: kids are cruel. But it never concerned me, or anyone I knew, that others were different.
By the time I reached university and after having long settled these differences, alarm bells were sounding in the public square. Suddenly, like the country split overnight, there existed a huge divide on gender.
In this new world boys could be girls, men could be women, pink and blue became political - I never engaged the debate. I've never cared if somebody else called themselves a girl or a boy, why should I care what they choose?
But toeing the line between the divide became an act of violence. Both sides resent you. To disagree with somebody else's identity would deny their very existence, to not denounce their view was to endorse it. Overnight my seemingly peaceful and unconcerned worldview became politicized.
It wasn't until I was 26 years old that I became a Christian. Initially quite liberal but not progressive, my view gradually shifted. Reading the Bible transformed my mind. While I still didn't hold political stances,
theological stances in the church is basically the same thing.
I can recall one discussion where somebody asked my opinion on complementarian and egalitarian views. It had never concerned me, in fact, I couldn't even remember which was which. It was so low on my concerns. However, upon being reminded the definitions, I stated that the Bible is clear: men and women are different and complementary. Immediately afterwards I was shouted at by two Christian women in the group - a strong reaction to somebody that cared so little he couldn't remember the differences.
My theological stances often didn't resonate with my laisez faire political worldview. To this day I remain politically relaxed on most topics, Jesus will solve these problems, not a specific ideology or party.
However, in this post, I want to address the reason that God is Father, and why we should use masculine pronouns.
Does God have a gender?
To answer the question of whether God has a gender, we must explore the ways our language is constructed.
Our categories—boy, girl, man, woman—are definitions of human biology and development into adulthood. These terms refer to humanity.
There is an exception whereby we sometimes use boy and girl interchangeably with male or female. For example, you might ask if a puppy is a "boy or girl?" However, we never ask if a dog is a "man or woman"— only humans fit these categories.
Therefore, we cannot apply human categories to God's essence, God is not human.
In the case of Jesus Christ, we preach a doctrine that Christ is fully divine and fully human. All of God's essence and divine arrributes are begotten by the Son (Hebrews 1:3), but he took on the full likeness and flesh of a man (Hebrews 2:14).
We must maintain that Christ's manhood, which is his flesh, is part of his humanity and not his divinity. He is one with God; God is a non-physical spiritual being; the spirit of God is neither a man nor a woman.
Does God have a title?
Aside from gendered noun categories, we also have titles such as mother and father. These titles are tied to gender, but they're not tied to humanity.
A puppy has a mother and father; you have a mother and father; I have a mother and father. We aren't talking about the same mothers and fathers. When used literally, these titles state the familial relationship between beings.
However, there are passages where Moses, a man, asks God whether he [Moses] birthed the people of Israel, or if he [Moses] should nurse them (Numbers 11:12). Likewise, Paul, also a man, writes that he cared for the people of Thessalonica like a nursing mother (1 Thessalonians 2:7). Clearly then, we can use these titles in ways that are figurative.
The title father is applied to God because it states our relationship. In the case of scripture, God is exclusively revealed as Father. A small number of times there are metaphors that imply motherly care, but we must avoid pushing metaphors too far.
Does God have a pronoun?
Lastly, let's tackle the challenge of pronouns. Pronouns are replacements for common and proper nouns. An example of a proper name would be my name, Rowan. You, also a pronoun, refers to the person(s) I am interacting with. Sometimes, though rare, we refer to a possession, such as a car as he or she. We do this despite the object being grammatically gender-less and without any reproductive sex.
These grammar rules are not universal. In fact, many languages include gendered words, but English is mostly gender-less.
To demonstrate, I will compare parts of the German and English language. They are starkly different in grammar, yet remarkably similar in vocabulary.
German vocabulary dictates the word for dog is Hund, and grammatically it is masculine (der Hund). Likewise, the word for cat is Katze, which is grammatically feminine (die Katze). In English this creates confusion; both a female and male dog are called der Hund, likewise, both a female and male cat are called die Katze. In German, sex does not determine the grammatical gender.
Adding to the complexity; plurals in German, like English, change the noun ending, however, unlike English,the grammatical gender becomes feminine. Der Hund becomes die Hunde and die Katze becomes die Katzen. We call these inflections and German is heavily inflected, English is not.
Surprisingly, pronouns are the only inflected part of our language. Even then, most pronouns are gender-less (I, we, you, they, and it). Only a small number of pronouns are dependent on gender (he, him, his, she, her, hers).
Unlike the German grammatical gender which is tied to their vocabulary, we rely on reproductive sex to determine pronouns.
When we don't know the sex, we use "it", but once we know the reproductive sex we always switch to he/him or she/her. It's rude to refer to a person as it. Our inflection of pronouns is comparatively simple and intuitive when compared with German.
Some nouns, such as man and woman or mother and father, imply a reproductive sex. We use these as cues to infer a pronoun. However, most of our nouns are gender-less, such as the case with God.
We've established the God of the bible does not have a reproductive sex. God is spirit, not a man. Also, when we refer to God as father, we've seen that it states a relationship and can be used figuratively. Without a grammatical gender in English, how do we decide if God is a he or she?
While it's true that English doesn't have a strong grammatical gender, Bible authors wrote in languages that were heavily inflected. We lose the grammatical gender in translation, but there is no mistake that the revealed word of God uses masculine gender throughout all of scripture.
So yes, God has a gender and his gender is masculine.
Why does it matter?
Going back to my opening paragraphs, I've never been one to much care about the political side of these debates. Why should I care whether somebody calls God a mother or father, a she or he?
The reason I take a stance is theological: it is my belief that the Bible is inerrant. The words are God's divine breathe (2 Timothy 3:16). God spoke through prophets and they did not speak on their own accord (2 Peter 1:21). Therefore, God's choice to reveal himself in grammar as masculine, in relationship as Father and Groom, and in the personhood of Jesus Christ, a man—it all points to he/him.
Our relationship to God is one where He is a Him. Jesus, Son of God, prayed to the Father and prayed we do His will. We no more control this choice to reveal himself as masculine than we control his wisdom, mercy, justice, or love.
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