Then We Can No Longer Refer to You as Christians

It seems that the Episcopal diocese of Washington D.C. has passed a resolution to no longer refer to God with masculine language. Their reasoning is the typical boilerplate for theological liberals:

“Over the centuries our language and our understanding of God has continued to change and adapt,” the drafters of the resolution stated. The drafters said that referring to God using masculine pronouns is to “limit our understanding of God.”

“By expanding our language for God, we will expand our image of God and the nature of God,” they stated.

Unfortunately, this expansion of their “image” of God expands it away from the Trinity and therefore away from Christianity. As I’ve written in the past, the Father is not a metaphor. Neither is He an “understanding.” Jesus Christ didn’t laze about in a coffee shop trying to make sense of his God-experience before coming to the conclusion that God is very much like a human father and deciding to use that metaphor to help others understand. No, Christ proclaimed that God IS his Father—the Father. Human fathers are metaphorically like Him. Just as Jesus taught that he himself is God and that the Spirit is God, he also taught that the Father is God. Christ’s Apostles likewise proclaimed God the Father and explicitly referred to him with masculine language—this despite the fact that Greek, unlike English, actually has personal gender-neutral pronouns available for use. Like their Lord, they did not teach that God is understood as a father or is metaphorically like a father, but that God IS the Father and that the Father is God.

In contrast, theological liberals do not teach that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are God, but rather that they are metaphors for God. This is why they’re so comfortable replacing them with “mother,” “daughter,” and any number of other metaphors. It’s why they’re comfortable with universalism—because Allah, Vishnu, etc are just additional ways (or modes) of understanding god rather than God Himself. They teach that the true god is behind these temporary masks which are only there to help limited humans get a tiny little grasp on an infinite and unknowable deity. This is straight-up modalism and has been recognized as a heresy for nearly the entire existence of the Church.

When people change their theology to move away from the Father and the Son, they are not simply adjusting their language and understanding, but are changing their object of worship. They are creating an idol.  If their understanding of God prevents them from referring to Him as Christ did, then they cannot be referred to as Christian.

Theological liberals might keep some of the trappings of Christianity—pews, vestments, crosses (sometimes), and so forth—but they are a different religion that worships a false god and teaches a false gospel. Orthodox Christians have a responsibility to look past appearances and call a spade a spade:  These are not Christian denominations, and they are not part of Christ’s Church.  They are pagans who need to hear the Gospel and repent.

About Matt

Software engineer by trade; lay theologian by nature; Lutheran by grace.
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3 Responses to Then We Can No Longer Refer to You as Christians

  1. ArchAn6el89 says:

    Excellent points.. Honestly, most of comes out of liberal group think makes me want to vomit.. If there was ever a question about man’s ability to rationalize God’s Word to do what is right in their own sight, these folks settle that debate. They are the poster children for St. John’s admonishment in the last chapter of Revelation.. and, in my understanding, are damned for it. I pray for the Holy Spirit to bend their stiff necks.

  2. Malcolm Smith says:

    Could we get on to a more serious issue: the way Satan is always referred to as a “he”? This, I am sure, puts as many men off Christianity as the use of the masculine pronoun for God discourages women. Surely no-one can seriously argue that the principle of evil is masculine.
    In other words, if we are going to play around with theological terminology, I would suggest we start by giving the Devil her due.

    • Matt says:

      Ha! Next time someone tells me to switch up God’s gender, I’ll be sure to suggest that.

      But as for me, the Bible uses masculine terminology for Satan, so that’s what I’m going to stick with.

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