{"id":1007,"date":"2018-02-05T10:12:11","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T14:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/?p=1007"},"modified":"2019-03-24T07:17:13","modified_gmt":"2019-03-24T11:17:13","slug":"then-we-can-no-longer-refer-to-you-as-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/then-we-can-no-longer-refer-to-you-as-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Then We Can No Longer Refer to You as Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cOver the centuries our language and our understanding of God has continued to change and adapt,\u201d the drafters of the resolution stated. The drafters said that referring to God using masculine pronouns is to “limit our understanding of God.”<\/p>\n

“By expanding our language for God, we will expand our image of God and the nature of God,” they stated.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this expansion of their \u201cimage\u201d 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<\/a>. Neither is He an \u201cunderstanding.\u201d 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\u2014the Father. Human fathers are metaphorically like Him<\/em>. 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\u2014this 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> with “mother,” “daughter,” and any number of other metaphors. It’s why they’re comfortable with universalism\u2014because 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<\/a> and has been recognized as a heresy for nearly the entire existence of the Church.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 If their understanding of God prevents them from referring to Him as Christ did, then they cannot be referred to as Christian.<\/p>\n

Theological liberals might keep some of the trappings of Christianity\u2014pews, vestments, crosses (sometimes<\/a>), and so forth\u2014but 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:\u00a0 These are not Christian denominations, and they are not part of Christ’s Church.\u00a0 They are pagans who need to hear the Gospel and repent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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: \u201cOver the centuries our language and our understanding of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThen We Can No Longer Refer to You as Christians - The 96th Thesis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/then-we-can-no-longer-refer-to-you-as-christians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Then We Can No Longer Refer to You as Christians - The 96th Thesis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It seems that the Episcopal diocese of Washington D.C. has passed a resolution to no longer refer to God with masculine language. 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