Women in the Church today

[Floatingaxe]

Axe, do you believe in submission?

Yes, I submit to my husband as God tells me to, just as he submits to me as God tells him to!

I submit to God as He expects me to, and so does my husband!

[Floatingaxe]

Very interesting reading. I ascribe to neither school of thought, but rather the Bible itself which pronounces God as genderless. Jesus Himself refers to God as "God our Father" rather than "Father God" in order to dispel that influence of the pagan Father-god and Mother-goddess ideas pervasive in the culture into which he came.

Yes, He is my heavenly Father, but He is not a man, nor is He male. Not androgynous either. God does not want us assigning Him gender as mankind had done the cultic gods.

This is simply false. I agree with the article. You should try reading it with a little bit more of an open mind.

Not false. I disagree with the article in many points, even with my open mind! My mind is as open as God allows.

[Ovedya]

Very interesting reading. I ascribe to neither school of thought, but rather the Bible itself which pronounces God as genderless. Jesus Himself refers to God as "God our Father" rather than "Father God" in order to dispel that influence of the pagan Father-god and Mother-goddess ideas pervasive in the culture into which he came.

Yes, He is my heavenly Father, but He is not a man, nor is He male. Not androgynous either. God does not want us assigning Him gender as mankind had done the cultic gods.

This is simply false. I agree with the article. You should try reading it with a little bit more of an open mind.

Not false. I disagree with the article in many points, even with my open mind! My mind is as open as God allows.

Which points do you specifically disagree with, and why? And can you provide Biblical support for your disagreements?

[Floatingaxe]

I choose not to debate your articles, but rather try to explain my view. God, because of His very nature does compare Himself to many things! Female and male has been used. Just because a feminine analogy has been used only a few times doesn't mean that God cannot liken Himself to anything! He does! It is valid! He wants us to know Him fully. It is His CHARACTER that we seek to know, not His gender...that is not important.

Then God said, "Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves. They will be masters over all life--the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the livestock, wild animals, and small animals." So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them. Gen 1:26-27

God is neither male nor female as He is genderless. Yes, we do refer to Him in the masculine form! I don't think in my mind's eye of anything feminine when I think about God. I depict in my mind and heart a mighty spirit, and I quibble not about referring to Him in the masculine. He is a loving Father just the same. He created male and female in His very own image! Yet one!

There is no hierarchy in the Trinity, nor any superior or inferior, and that is the same between spouses...the same unity that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit enjoy. That is God's intention since the beginning.

[Ovedya]

So then: God is neither male nor female. Yet he calls the church His bride, and at the end of the Bible He marries this corporate bride.

I see now.

[Floatingaxe]

So then: God is neither male nor female. Yet he calls the church His bride, and at the end of the Bible He marries this corporate bride.

I see now.

Yes, yes.

[billie]

Yes, I submit to my husband as God tells me to, just as he submits to me as God tells him to!

I submit to God as He expects me to, and so does my husband!

[Floatingaxe]

Yes, I submit to my husband as God tells me to, just as he submits to me as God tells him to!

I submit to God as He expects me to, and so does my husband!

Your husband really submits to you?

[billie]

What happens when you disagree about something? Who decides how it goes?

[Floatingaxe]

What happens when you disagree about something? Who decides how it goes?

We have hardly ever disagreed in 30 yrs! But--if we do, I love him enough to allow him to have the say! The Lord does tell me to respond to my husband the way I would respond to Christ! That is the true sense of the word "submit" in that scripture passage.

Blessings!

PS: I must be honest here, though, and say that there have been times when my husband, after I would accept his way, would turn around and honour me by allowing me my side! He loves me as Christ loves the church, and so I love him right back!