On Pronouns and Priests
Introduction
The God of the Bible is addressed as a “He,” and never a “She.” God the Father is repeatedly called Father and given the pronoun “He” (Dt. 32:6; Ps. 103:13; Is. 64:8; Mal. 2:10; Mt. 6:9; Mt. 7:11; Jn. 5:19-23; Rom. 8:15; 1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 1:3). God the Son is repeatedly called Son and given the pronoun “He,” even becoming a man (Is. 9:6; Mt. 1:21; Lk. 1:32; Jn. 1:1-3, 14; 8:58; Col. 1:15-17; Heb. 1:3; Rev. 1:13-18; Eph. 5:25). God the Spirit is repeatedly given the masculine pronoun, signaling that the Spirit is not an “it” but a person, and signaling that this person should be recognized masculinely (Jn. 14:26; 15:26; 16:7-8, 13-14).
The Transcendent “He”
In the ancient world, “She” symbolized something immanent, something familiar, something motherly. “He” symbolized something transcendent, something other than the world. When God made the world, he made a ‘creaturely other’ outside of God himself. God is something distinct from Mother Earth, something outside the system.
The transcendence of God establishes the Creator/creature distinction. Before there was space, time, or matter, He was. He created space and time; the heavens and the earth; ethereal and human beings. God creates the world and then rules the world with full authority. He (not She) impregnated the created order with life. The Personal created the impersonal, and as an apologetic aside, we should carefully note that the reverse is impossible.
Non-being received life from Being, which means there are two modes of being. The first is that God existed in the beginning. He is eternal. The second is that human beings exist because God created them. They are derivative. God is unmade and man is made. Except for that one man, Jesus Christ, the one divine “He” that incarnated and came to the earth from without.
The Representative “he”
Priests are representatives of their God, which is why Israel had no priestess or goddess. The priest mediates between God and man. The mediator, as a symbol of his God, cannot be a woman for a God who is not a mother.
Women are not excluded from the role of pastor or elder because of prejudice or contempt for women. Jesus had a large following of women (Luke 8:1–3; Matthew 27:55–56; Mark 15:40–41; Luke 23:55–56; John 20:1–18; Acts 9:36). Women prophesied in the Old and New Testaments (Exodus 15:20; Judges 4:4; 2 Kings 22:14; Joel 2:28–29; Luke 2:36–38; Acts 2:17–18; Acts 21:9; 1 Corinthians 11:5), and wrote some of the most beautiful poetry in all of revealed religion (Jdg. 5:1-31; Lk. 1:46-55). The central question isn’t the worth, competence, or talent of women.
A pastor is a representative who represents the church to God and God to the church. He prays to God for the congregation. He preaches to the congregation for God. These tasks, along with the Sacramental ones, require the masculine imaginary. Since God is our Father, the divine He, rather than mother and She, a female pastor would embark on a different religion. The drive to clothe God with female pronouns under the sanctimonious imprimatur of egalitarianism—all bow—is the creation of a new “gospel.”
God has taught us how to speak of him. He has given the church men who are pastors and elders (1 Cor. 14:35; 1 Tim. 2:11-15; Titus 1:6). To change God from He to She, and change his representative from he to she, is not an argument for tolerance. Neither is it a benign theological eccentricity, as if some law of mutuality must clobber every part of life. It is an argument against Christianity as a revealed metaphysical religion. The only female gods in scripture are false gods, such as Ashtoreth, the wife of Baal (Judg. 10:6, 1 Sam 7:4, 12:10). If you can change the biblical concept of God, you have created a false god.
Masculine representation and imaginary mediate the identity of God. Sex and gender can’t be neutered without God himself being neutered. God is teaching the congregation through biological sex, which symbolizes something unchangeable about God, similar to how marriage between one man and one woman for one lifetime expresses something unchangeable about the union of Christ to the church (Eph. 5:22-33). Pastors can’t be female unless absolute reality can shift and change. He and she are not just facts of nature, but the shadows of reality that are designed to teach the world.
Conclusion
Jesus refers to God as the heavenly Father (Matthew 6:9; Matthew 6:26; Matthew 7:11; Matthew 11:25–27; Matthew 23:9; Luke 11:2; John 5:17–18; John 20:17), as does Paul (Romans 1:7; Romans 8:15; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 2 Corinthians 1:3; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 1:3; Ephesians 4:6; Philippians 4:20). They saw this in the Old Testament, and they believed it themselves. They believed in one masculine God, not in a pantheon of gods and goddesses like the ancient Greeks or the Hindus.
Christ is the bridegroom and the church is the bride (Matthew 9:15; Matthew 25:1–13; Mark 2:19–20; John 3:29; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25–32; Revelation 19:7–9; Revelation 21:2, 9; Revelation 22:17). God is He and the church is she. This is because of who God is. He is the one and only Absolute Person of the universe, the only self-existent being. God is never the means to our end or the cherry on top of a comfortable life. He is not subordinate to us but us to him. He is not relative to us. He is absolute, and we are in relation to him. He is the great I AM. He asks the questions and He has all the answers. We are not the judge and God the defendant. He is the judge and we must give account. He is the Potter. We are the clay (Rom. 9:19-23). God is not a man that he should lie nor a son of man that he should change his mind. Does he speak and not act? Does he promise and not fulfill (Num. 23:19)?
God’s various names reveal Him, which means the name “Father” reveals Him, as does the pronoun He. God is a He and never a She. It is ontologically who He is. It is metaphysically the grammar of complete and utter sovereign self-existence.
Jason Cherry is an elder at Trinity Reformed Church in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as a teacher and lecturer of literature, history, and economics at Providence Classical School in Huntsville. He graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary with an MA in Religion and is the author of The Culture of Conversionism and the History of the Altar Call and The Making of Evangelical Spirituality.
Bibliography
John M. Frame, The Doctrine of God, A Theology of Lordship (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2002), 383-386.
Peter Kreeft, The Philosophy of Jesus (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine's Press, 2007), 14f, 40ff.
C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, ed. Walter Hooper (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1970), 234-239.
The God of the Bible is addressed as a “He,” and never a “She.” God the Father is repeatedly called Father and given the pronoun “He” (Dt. 32:6; Ps. 103:13; Is. 64:8; Mal. 2:10; Mt. 6:9; Mt. 7:11; Jn. 5:19-23; Rom. 8:15; 1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 1:3). God the Son is repeatedly called Son and given the pronoun “He,” even becoming a man (Is. 9:6; Mt. 1:21; Lk. 1:32; Jn. 1:1-3, 14; 8:58; Col. 1:15-17; Heb. 1:3; Rev. 1:13-18; Eph. 5:25). God the Spirit is repeatedly given the masculine pronoun, signaling that the Spirit is not an “it” but a person, and signaling that this person should be recognized masculinely (Jn. 14:26; 15:26; 16:7-8, 13-14).
The Transcendent “He”
In the ancient world, “She” symbolized something immanent, something familiar, something motherly. “He” symbolized something transcendent, something other than the world. When God made the world, he made a ‘creaturely other’ outside of God himself. God is something distinct from Mother Earth, something outside the system.
The transcendence of God establishes the Creator/creature distinction. Before there was space, time, or matter, He was. He created space and time; the heavens and the earth; ethereal and human beings. God creates the world and then rules the world with full authority. He (not She) impregnated the created order with life. The Personal created the impersonal, and as an apologetic aside, we should carefully note that the reverse is impossible.
Non-being received life from Being, which means there are two modes of being. The first is that God existed in the beginning. He is eternal. The second is that human beings exist because God created them. They are derivative. God is unmade and man is made. Except for that one man, Jesus Christ, the one divine “He” that incarnated and came to the earth from without.
The Representative “he”
Priests are representatives of their God, which is why Israel had no priestess or goddess. The priest mediates between God and man. The mediator, as a symbol of his God, cannot be a woman for a God who is not a mother.
Women are not excluded from the role of pastor or elder because of prejudice or contempt for women. Jesus had a large following of women (Luke 8:1–3; Matthew 27:55–56; Mark 15:40–41; Luke 23:55–56; John 20:1–18; Acts 9:36). Women prophesied in the Old and New Testaments (Exodus 15:20; Judges 4:4; 2 Kings 22:14; Joel 2:28–29; Luke 2:36–38; Acts 2:17–18; Acts 21:9; 1 Corinthians 11:5), and wrote some of the most beautiful poetry in all of revealed religion (Jdg. 5:1-31; Lk. 1:46-55). The central question isn’t the worth, competence, or talent of women.
A pastor is a representative who represents the church to God and God to the church. He prays to God for the congregation. He preaches to the congregation for God. These tasks, along with the Sacramental ones, require the masculine imaginary. Since God is our Father, the divine He, rather than mother and She, a female pastor would embark on a different religion. The drive to clothe God with female pronouns under the sanctimonious imprimatur of egalitarianism—all bow—is the creation of a new “gospel.”
God has taught us how to speak of him. He has given the church men who are pastors and elders (1 Cor. 14:35; 1 Tim. 2:11-15; Titus 1:6). To change God from He to She, and change his representative from he to she, is not an argument for tolerance. Neither is it a benign theological eccentricity, as if some law of mutuality must clobber every part of life. It is an argument against Christianity as a revealed metaphysical religion. The only female gods in scripture are false gods, such as Ashtoreth, the wife of Baal (Judg. 10:6, 1 Sam 7:4, 12:10). If you can change the biblical concept of God, you have created a false god.
Masculine representation and imaginary mediate the identity of God. Sex and gender can’t be neutered without God himself being neutered. God is teaching the congregation through biological sex, which symbolizes something unchangeable about God, similar to how marriage between one man and one woman for one lifetime expresses something unchangeable about the union of Christ to the church (Eph. 5:22-33). Pastors can’t be female unless absolute reality can shift and change. He and she are not just facts of nature, but the shadows of reality that are designed to teach the world.
Conclusion
Jesus refers to God as the heavenly Father (Matthew 6:9; Matthew 6:26; Matthew 7:11; Matthew 11:25–27; Matthew 23:9; Luke 11:2; John 5:17–18; John 20:17), as does Paul (Romans 1:7; Romans 8:15; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 2 Corinthians 1:3; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 1:3; Ephesians 4:6; Philippians 4:20). They saw this in the Old Testament, and they believed it themselves. They believed in one masculine God, not in a pantheon of gods and goddesses like the ancient Greeks or the Hindus.
Christ is the bridegroom and the church is the bride (Matthew 9:15; Matthew 25:1–13; Mark 2:19–20; John 3:29; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25–32; Revelation 19:7–9; Revelation 21:2, 9; Revelation 22:17). God is He and the church is she. This is because of who God is. He is the one and only Absolute Person of the universe, the only self-existent being. God is never the means to our end or the cherry on top of a comfortable life. He is not subordinate to us but us to him. He is not relative to us. He is absolute, and we are in relation to him. He is the great I AM. He asks the questions and He has all the answers. We are not the judge and God the defendant. He is the judge and we must give account. He is the Potter. We are the clay (Rom. 9:19-23). God is not a man that he should lie nor a son of man that he should change his mind. Does he speak and not act? Does he promise and not fulfill (Num. 23:19)?
God’s various names reveal Him, which means the name “Father” reveals Him, as does the pronoun He. God is a He and never a She. It is ontologically who He is. It is metaphysically the grammar of complete and utter sovereign self-existence.
Jason Cherry is an elder at Trinity Reformed Church in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as a teacher and lecturer of literature, history, and economics at Providence Classical School in Huntsville. He graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary with an MA in Religion and is the author of The Culture of Conversionism and the History of the Altar Call and The Making of Evangelical Spirituality.
Bibliography
John M. Frame, The Doctrine of God, A Theology of Lordship (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2002), 383-386.
Peter Kreeft, The Philosophy of Jesus (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine's Press, 2007), 14f, 40ff.
C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, ed. Walter Hooper (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1970), 234-239.
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