So Parker's contention is that Charlie uses God's preferred pronouns He/Him (despite the fact that God has no gender) but refuses to use Trans pronouns because he (Charlie) is transphobic. This is a strange argument and one VERY easy to debunk regardless of whether or not Parker believes The Bible or not. The answer is very simple. Even if Parker doesn't believe The Bible to be fact and sees it as a fairytale, within The Bible God spoke audibly to many people, and each time they heard God's voice they heard a male voice. If I were speaking to someone I didn't know over the phone and they had a male voice and someone asked me who I was speaking to I'd say "I don't know but it was a man.". Likewise, The Israelites may not have seen a figure but the voice they heard was decidedly and unquestioningly male. And again, you don't have to believe The Bible is actual factual history, EVEN if you believe The Bible is a fairytale you wouldn't be able to deny that within The Bible and whenever God speaks, a male voice is heard. Does this mean God's male? No. But it does lend a credible reason why we use He/Him pronouns when referring to God and that we didn't just arbitrarily decide to.
Likewise, when we use the term God THE FATHER, we are not literally calling God a Father, by definition of the word God is NOT a Father. He doesn't have a wife nor does He have children. When we call God FATHER, we are attributing to Him His relationship with us. God isn't just our God, sure that's a position higher than any position but the goal isn't status it's relational, and God doesn't just want to be our God He wants to relate to us as A FATHER. Something I might add that NO OTHER GOD SEEKS TO DO! Likewise, (and I'm saying "Likewise" a lot) We call God The Father because that is His relationship with Jesus, but God is not Jesus's LITERAL father. Since we're English speakers we have predetermined definitions for these words but The Jews understood the implications of what Jesus was claiming when He claimed to be The "Son of God". Jesus was not claiming demigod status or anything of the sort, Jesus was claiming God's authority. In The Jewish culture, and especially in the aristocracy your father's name carried a lot of weight, hence why in The Bible you'll often see Israelites talking about "The God Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" or "The God of Moses" etc. etc. The purpose of these statements is that if you're an Israelite and you respect these men (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses) those men that you respect likewise respected this God, ergo, in order to respect these men you must in turn respect this God.
So when someone claimed to be a son of whoever, they were claiming that person's authority. So Jesus was claiming to be speaking on God's behalf the same way a son would speak on a father's behalf in Jewish culture. The Jews understood this perfectly and wanted to kill Jesus for doing so;
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” 34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.” 39 “Abraham is our father,” they answered.
The Jews understand Jesus's context so when they answered "Abraham is our father." they were not implying that Abraham was alive and fathered them in addition to Isaac and Ishmael, rather they were making a claim of lineage standing that they were descendants of Abraham and therefore claim his lineage and authority in so far as being a part of the promise given to him. Abraham is a Father, yes but not theirs directly, anyway.
“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. 40 As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41 You are doing the works of your own father.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”
Once again The Jews are claiming God to be their "Father", as in the originator of Abraham. The Jews were not making the claim that Jesus is about to make. The Jews were claiming the status of "sons" of God in terms of obedience, not the close personal relationship Jesus claims to have.
42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47 Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” 48 The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?” 49 “I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. 50 I am not seeking glory for myself, but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.” 52 At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?” 54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” 57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!” 58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
To plagiarize an article I wrote previously that perfectly sums this up;
This is a huge chunk of a chapter but I wanted to post the whole thing in context because I'm going to make some references to this chapter, as you can see Jesus says that Abraham was overjoyed to see his day, The Jewish Leader rightfully point out that Jesus isn't even 50 years old (at this point Abraham is a good 700ish years before them) so Jesus couldn't have possibly met him but Jesus says something VERY critical and then something VERY critical happens afterward; Jesus says;
58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”
That may not seem like a lot but to The Jews it was everything. And the reason being is because Jesus in one sentence managed to not only establish Himself as being superior to Abraham but He established Himself as being superior to Moses and said He was God Himself. How? Let's back up a second; Jesus's first claim is that Abraham saw "his day", Jesus is a man around 30 at the time and is claiming to have met Abraham, this is impossible as once again Abraham is 700ish years removed from them, so Jesus is making a claim of being outside of time or older than they think He is. The Jews understood this as they immediately commented about His age, so they followed each claim to their logical conclusion. The next claim Jesus makes is CRITICAL; He says "BEFORE Abraham was born". Abraham was the mechanism by which The Jewish nation entered the world. Abraham is the start of The Jewish Nation so Jesus is saying "Before The Nation Of Israel was even in existence" then He follows up with "I AM."
That may not seem like much but that "I am" statement is a powerful statement because Jesus envokes Moses. How? Jesus is echoing God's words to Moses in Exodus 3:13-14;
13 Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” 14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
God said "I am" to Moses as the name of the one who sent him, and Jesus is claiming that name for Himself to The Jews. So let's recap, Jesus first makes a claim about His age, and The Jewish Leaders rightfully question Him on His age, then Jesus attributes a name God claimed for Himself to Himself, and then what do The Jews do?
59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and left the temple grounds."
The Jews attempted to murder Him? Why? For blasphemy. They understood that He was claiming to be God Himself. If you read The Bible you'll notice The Jewish Leaders will often talk about "The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" or "The God Of Moses". The Jews lived in a very patriarchal society and therefore if you as a Jewish man respected your forefathers then you as a Jewish man respected their God. So Jesus as a Jewish man is well aware of the implications of claiming to be greater than both Abraham and Moses and making this claim to men who have studied the scriptures for most of their lives. To The Jewish leaders, the chain of command didn't go any higher than Abraham and the only person above Abraham was God Himself and Jesus said "I am".
But Ugo, you might ask yourself, why then does it say "Son of God" still? Why not just call Jesus God? Good question, and once again this is where understanding The Bible as a Jew comes into play. As I've said before The Jews were a very patriarchal society and so fathers meant something (a lot more than they do these days) and being the son of someone meant something. In those days and especially if you were of nobility if you were the "son" of whoever that meant you were acting on their authority. Back then they didn't have Surnames as we do now so people would often be introduced as "Thomas Son of John" as a way to establish lineage, if Jesus were just a prophet The Bible would say Jesus Son Of Joseph. So replace the word "Son of God" with "Authority" and you have your answer as to why they call Jesus "Son of God". Jesus is essentially claiming the lineage of God. Likewise, when The Bible refers to Jesus as "Son of Man" it is also saying the Authority of man, as in He has authority over man.
But you don't have to believe me, Jesus uses this logic Himself;
39 They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus *said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. 40 But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. 41 You are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, “We were not born as a result of sexual immorality; we have one Father: God.” 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I came forth from God and am here; for I have not even come on My own, but He sent Me. 43 Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot listen to My word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
Jesus says to The Jewish Leaders "You are of your father The Devil.". Was Jesus literally saying they were The Devil's children? Of course not! He was merely saying they're acting on The Devil's authority. Likewise, The Jewish Leaders claimed to be children of Abraham, and yes while they're in his lineage, they're not directly his children and it doesn't carry the same chronological weight that Jesus's claim does. Jesus claims to act on God's (ie, The Father's) authority and The Jews understood that Jesus wasn't claiming to be a "child of God" in terms of behavior but rather was claiming a direct and intimate connection with God and taking it a step further and claiming to be God Himself.
So to respond to Parker, YES, all Fathers are in fact MALE, no exceptions. God claims the title Father because that is the relationship HE seeks with us, and like Jesus we seek to be HIS children in terms of our relation to HIM. Parker and the rest of the Jubilee panel thought Parker ate that day but in reality, he starved so badly he ended up eating himself. Till next time!
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