What Gender is God?

Last Sunday, May 23, 2010, my pastor was preaching on the topic of 'God' and said, “God is neither male nor female” and I didn’t think anything of it. So, a friend of mine said to me, “Where does the pastor get that God is neither male nor female?” I replied with great insight, “I don’t know”. We figured he must have got it from another pastor and not from scripture.

I had been told once by a pastor that almost had his Doctorate of Theology, “Scholars don’t know for sure whether or not God has testicles so referring to Him in the masculine is just a figure of speech.” My instinct was to not discuss theology with a person so ignorant so I stopped speaking with him and never went back to that church.

Not wanting to stop attending where I now attend church, I decided to challenge the pastor on the topic of God’s gender. Last Wednesday I asked him where he got the information that God was neither male nor female and I gave him a full page of 28 Bible references showing that God is masculine. He went to his office but could not find his sermon. When he came back he said, “I have your phone number I’ll call you.” This is now next Sunday and I didn’t hear from him until I saw him in Sunday school.

At church the pastor said he had found the passage which was Deuteronomy 4:14-18 and tried to put it on my voicemail but it was full. When God spoke to Israel out of the fire they saw no manner of form and were not supposed to make anything resembling a male or female person. This, the pastor took to mean that God was neither male nor female; and he had taken the information from another pastor off the internet. After explaining my argument to him he agreed I was correct. From the pulpit the pastor said he had been in error last Sunday and that even though God is spirit he is still masculine and explained. On Mount Sinai, God showed His backside to Moses when He passed by in front of him.

How about you? Are you smarter that a scholar? Does God have testicles? The answer is, of course He does. He even acts like it. He created the universe from nothing. He rained on the earth 40 days and nights destroying all life except for one family. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. He will judge everyone. He allowed Jesus to be crucified. God sired a Son. Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Col.1:15) and was circumcised (Luke 2:21). Jesus was considered a male at birth (Luke 2:23) and males have testicles.

Jesus said to Philip, “Have I been such a long time with you, and still you have not known me. Philip, he that has seen me has seen the Father; so how do you say, show us the Father?” (John 14:9)