I heard a theme at a few recent outreaches lately; this theme was of them serving both a God and a goddess. Of course, I find this disturbing, but more and more common as people make up their own religions. Why do you suppose this is?
I wonder if it’s because of poor teaching. One thought is that perhaps the things of scripture and God have been presented as a men’s club.
God is spirit. There are both masculine and feminine attributes of God described through scripture.
It was this way from the beginning:
Genesis 1:27
God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
In the trinity, we obviously have the Father and the Son presented as masculine. The Holy Spirit, however, forms distinctly feminine attributes. The Holy Spirit is our comforter, our encourager, and our helper.
Wisdom in the book of Proverbs is described as a “she.”
Of course, in Christ, we have neither male, nor female. Christ was no respecter of persons.
The other thought I have is how was God portrayed to these people where they can’t accept His love and His kindness?
Perhaps they never understood the Aaronic blessing? The book of Hebrews indicates that Jesus became our High Priest.
Numbers 6:24-26
The LORD bless you, and keep you;
The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you;
The LORD lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.
A countenance lifted up is a smile. Perhaps they never knew about the smile of God. Perhaps they never knew His pleasure over them, His desire to bless them and give them joy.
Psalm 149:4
For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.
If people knew that they could bring a smile to God’s heart, would that make a difference? If they knew the love of God, the kindness of God, the nurture that comes from God, does gender really matter anymore?
adonainissi 