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Why God Is a He

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Is God a man, a woman, or a genderless force that cannot be identified by masculine or feminine traits? Society offers a range of ideas, but what do religious texts have to say about this immutable characteristic of God? Dennis Prager offers some insightful answers.

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Script:

One of the criticisms many people make against the Bible is that it depicts God in male terms. The most obvious example is God is referred to as “He.” Why did the Bible do this?

Well, here’s the answer: Because the Bible is preoccupied with making a kinder, less violent, more just world. If you share these goals—and I suspect you do—then you’ll have to agree the Bible made the right decision.

Before I explain, I need to add an obvious caveat: The God of the Bible is neither male nor female. God transcends gender. What I’m talking about here is why God is depicted in male terms in the Bible.

Gender-wise, the Bible had three choices: masculine—“he”; feminine—“she”; or neuter—“it.”

We can readily rule out neuter. For one thing, neuter nouns don’t exist in Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament—which, after all, first introduced this God to us. For another, the biblical God is a personal God to whom we can—and must—relate. And we cannot relate to, let alone obey or love, an “It.”

Aside from the language issue, the Bible depicts God in masculine terms because:

One: The Hebrew Bible’s primary concern is making a good world.

Two: A good world can only be achieved by making good people.

And three: The people who commit nearly all the world’s violence are males.

Therefore, it is in both men’s and women’s interests to depict God in the masculine.

Here’s why:

Without a father or some other male rule-giver, young men are likely to do great harm. If there is no male authority figure to give a growing boy rules, it is very difficult for him to control his wilder impulses.

As President Barack Obama told an audience in 2008, “Children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime, nine times more likely to drop out of school, and twenty times more likely to end up in prison.” Commenting on that speech, Dr. Alvin Poussaint, a psychiatrist with Harvard Medical School, confirmed these statistics: “The absence of fathers corresponds with a host of social ills, including dropping out of school and serving time in jail.”

In other words, if one’s primary goal is a good world—specifically, a world with far less murder, child abuse, theft, and rape—a God depicted in masculine terms (a Father in Heaven), not a goddess (a Mother in Heaven), must be the source of moral commands such as “Do not murder” and “Do not steal.”

If the father figure/rule-giver that boys need is not on Earth, a morally authoritative masculine God can serve as an effective substitute. Any discomfort you might feel with a masculine depiction of God is not comparable to the pain we will all feel if boys are not civilized into good men.

For the complete script, visit https://www.prageru.com/video/why-god-is-a-he

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50 Comments

  2. What is a “good man” in your eyes when people are fighting for the US Army but still sinning.. doing shit behind closed doors… literally killing people just because they’re an opposition and they have to “protect” the country. I thought violence only leads to more violence .. ?

  7. I think the Bible is clear there was no female until God created Eve. God is he because all the angels are he. All demons are he. The sinful angels came to earth to be with women and thus created Nephilim. Any women depicted as a demon is a male demon. Lilith is a male demon who appears female. There are no female angels. The female gender was created by God after Adam was created and found to need a companion.

  12. It's real funny when people try to justify what people did thousands of years ago by modern standards. Im pretty sure the writers of the bible didn't have in mind what Prager says as the reasons for him being a he. Pretty sure god being a godess was not even considered because men truly did rule the world back then (yes ik there are exceptions).

  15. The attributes of God we see in the Bible are almost always male attributes. It is often stated that God is a God of love. Social psychologist will tell you that men and women love differently. Men love sacrificially, while women love transactionally. It is a function of our biology. Christianity is based on God sacrificing his only Son to redeem mankind. That kind of sacrifice is a male attribute. If God were a woman, there would be no sacrifice like that. There would be a transactional relationship between God and man.

    The Bible also makes it clear that God is a God of justice. Again, justice is a male attribute. Social psychologist will tell you that men and women have two different moralities. Men have a justice-based morality, while women have a care-based morality. Where men will normally seek justice, women place feeling in front of justice. For men, if you are caught stealing, you're a thief. For women, they want to know why a person is stealing which creates grey areas where justice ends up not being served. Feelings and emotions are a terrible way to make laws and run a society, as the West is finding out.

  16. God is not a he or she. God is a spirit. God is not any gender and all genders at once. The god of the bible is a singular THEY. The god of the bible is jesus Christ. Just my two cents as a christian. This Prager u video is foolishness.

  20. So children without fathers have problems therefore God is masculine (in depiction)? What about children raised without mothers? I bet they are messed up as well. this argument holds no water.

  27. When on earth, to describe the Reality behind and within existence, Jesus deliberately coined the term the "Father" when referring to God. This was done for two reasons.

    Firstly, when Jesus received enlightenment in the desert, Jesus was enabled to see that the concepts describing the Creator of the universe as "revealed" by the Jewish Prophets are completely wrong.

    Secondly, Jesus was given to perceive clearly – and fully understand – the true nature of the Creator and Jesus realized that it was a nature of parenting – of fulfilling the needs of creation in clear-cut, specific ways which were synonymous with those of a father-mother. Indeed, Jesus saw that the parenting impulses present in all living creatures had been drawn directly from the Creator, and that the origin of all love and parenting drives was also the origin of life and existence itself.

    Jesus also "saw" that creation was a visible manifestation of the Universal Creative Impulses of Being, and therefore humankind can be termed the offspring of the Creator.

    For this reason, it was quite natural for Jesus to speak of the "Father" when referring to the Creator, since, to Jesus, this is what the Creator truly is in every way – more especially "Father-Mother," but having regard to the Jewish insistence on the woman occupying a subordinate position in their daily lives, Jesus referred only to the "Father" to avoid Jewish resistance and to gain their acceptance of the new terminology.

    Jesus also coined the term the "Father" to help the Jews realize that their concept of God and the rigidity of Jewish laws are totally erroneous. Also, by using a new terminology – the "Father" – to describe the Creator – the Creative Impulse – behind and within existence, Jesus made it clear he has brought an altogether new teaching in opposition to the accepted belief in God which rejected certain people and sent disasters upon them as retribution.

  29. I think the true answer you believe is "how else is he supposed to rape women like all prophets did to their slaves?" He only gave children to prophets by inpregnating their wives without bearing children for prophets.

  30. This video is basically saying masculine means badass, women can't be that badass, and god has to be badass enough to manage the world. As for the purpose of making a kinder, less violent and more just world, I do agree with Bible. Defining evil as good is the easiest way to achieve goodness. Abraham committed human trafficking, raping, adultery, murder and other crimes but ended up in heaven.

  34. Yahweh started out as a god of storms and war, worshipped by tribal warlords. If you want to make the world kinder and more peaceful, then maybe stop worshipping a lord who is a man of war.

  39. I don't receive some of the points which Prager makes.

    God did not give us the Bible to make the world better.

    He gave us the Bible so that we could see His Son, Jesus Christ.

    I also find some of his reasons without any validation or basis. Where is the evidence in Scripture for the reasons why God presents Himself as male.

  42. Hey Dennis both Zeus and Yahweh(your Hebraic desert Tribal God) are both white bearded sky dudes! The Goddess is NOT Jehovah in drag and an Abrahamic God in a skirt. Btw, your depictions of them are artistically inaccurate as they were not originally depicted realistically, but nonrealistically in being elongated and flat like those ancient vases or sculptures. Many were not white, but olive skinned as well.

  45. I think that God, or preferably the Creator, simply cannot be described in individual or personal terms. It is a Power, the Guide to Reality, an impersonal and all-powerful essence. The Creator is neither a He nor a She, nor can even be described as an individual, but an all-encompassing, eternally all-powerful and knowing essence that was the Creator of all the Worlds and Realities, and Guides these Worlds and Realities through impenetrable means and understandings.