peace . love . joy

I listen to myself talk to God because that is a glimpse into my own heart which I know little of even though it is my own, but when I talk with God, what my heart holds dearest is revealed. And sometimes, I hear myself praying for myself a lot more than praying for others. Not that there's anything wrong about it, but it shows me that in my eyes, I rule; I am what matters most to myself.

But that is not how God wants it to be.
It's all about me not to me; but to Him.
And for me, it's all about Him and who & what He holds dearest.

I am His beloved. In His eyes, I matter so much I cannot even begin to wrap my head around it.
I am loved and cared about and provided for by the great Jehovah; what more can I ever want?

I am loved that I may love.
I am cared about that I may care about.
I am provided for that I may provide for.

I am shown love that I may know how to love.
I am shown what it means to cared that I may know how to care.
I am shown what it means to provide for that I may know how to provide.

You too, my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.

Isaiah 58 says we are:
- to shout out loud and not hold back declaring rebellion & sin against God
- to loose the chains of injustice
- to untie the cords of the yoke
- to set the oppressed free & break every yoke
- to share food with the hungry
- to provide shelter for the poor wanderer
- to clothe the naked
- to not turn away from our own families
- to keep our feet from breaking the Sabbath
- to not dishonour the LORD's holy day
- to not do as we please
- to not speak idle words
for that is what the heart of God holds.

We are to go & boldly declare the righteousness & holiness of God.
We are to fight & persevere & win victory for the oppressed.
We are to care for others.
And we are to honour God in all we do and say.

But what matters most in your eyes?

(quotations from the WATV appear in ochre)

According to the WATV (World Mission Society Church of God), the "Bible clearly testifies that our heavenly Mother exists, and that only our heavenly Mother can give us eternal life". Various references quoted from the Bible are then provided as evidence to this claim.

It's time to brush up on our own knowledge of the Bible and of God Himself!
Some passages quoted are trickier than others, but regardless the complexity, to be truthfully following God's Word requires of disciples a certain degree of discernment; to know Truth from falsity; to hear God's Voice and follow it from among the noisy and distracting taunts.

Pray for discernment as we embark on this journey of sifting the good grains of Truth out from the worthless chaff.

The above verse states that God has two images: a male image and a female image. Until now, we have only known and called upon the male image of God: “Father.” Then how should we call upon the female image of God? Logically, we should refer to God’s female image as “Mother.” This is why God had said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.”

The word “us” is a plural term. “Elohim,” the Hebrew word used in place of “God” in Genesis 1:26, directly translates to “Gods,” the plural form of the word “God.” Therefore, the references to “us” in the book of Genesis refer to God the Father and God the Mother. Some say that the word “us” in this verse indicates God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. If this argument is correct, there should be three types of people in the world: those who were made in the image of God the Father, those who resemble the image of God the Son, and those created in the image of the Holy Spirit. However, on this earth there are only two types of people: men and women. However, the “Gods” mentioned in Genesis 1:26 are the male image of God and the female image of God: God the Father and God the Mother.

This begs a few preceeding questions, then:
One. Why did God say "let us" and not "let me"?
To whom or what does this "us" refer to?
And of what significance is this choice?
Two. What does it mean to be created in God's own image?
Three. Why is there a numerical discrepancy in v.27 ("... in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.")
Four. Why are two sexes created?

Let us try to make some sense of these.

One. Why did God say "let us" and not "let me"?
There is some debate over this choice of pronoun.

Possibly, it could be linked to the Hebrew word used here for God too, אלהים (ĕlôhîym), which translated, is a plural: "gods". This plurality could simply be an intensification of the singular ĕl. You see, the Hebrew language is the only ancient semantic language that intensifies these nouns and pronouns by using them in their plural forms. Often, these Hebraic Jewish writers of the Old Testament referred to God Almighty as the plural ĕlôhîym as a mark of respect and a title of honour. So though the literal translation may be the plural "gods", when referring to the True God, the meaning of ĕlôhîym is always the singular "God".

Still some others believe that this "us" in v.27 alludes to God addressing an audience of His Heavenly Court, as per Isaiah 6:8.

This "us" could perhaps also be God speaking to Himself as the Trinity: Father, Spirit, Son. While this may be a possibility, it is impossible to conclude the existence of the Trinity based solely on this verse alone. As Kenneth Matthews aptly phrases: "Although the Christian Trinity cannot be derived solely from the use of the plural, a plurality within the unity of the Godhead may be derived from the passage."

Two. What does it mean to be created in God's own image?
צלם (tselem) is the Hebrew to the English "image". It means a shade; a phantom;(figuratively) illusion; resemblance. Draw out this tangent and "image" would include freedom and responsibility, creativity and order, morality and humility, etc.

This deliberate action of God's, choosing to make mankind differently than He did the other wonders of creation, that is, that man made in His likeness, His image, could point to a deliberate causing of a link. A close and intimate and communicative link, a fellowship between Creator God and created humankind.

Some people call God man's "spiritual image". Still some others see man as metaphorically acting and behaving like God, in that man creates, man governs, man judges, etc.

There may be some wondering if this "image" extends to God having a sex in terms of anatomy.
Perhaps not.
Because in other parts of Scripture, God is notably spirit (John 4:24) and omnipresent (1 Kings 8:27).
God as a sexual being... at least for me, is too far of a stretch.
This verse cannot be taken literally, that we are created exactly how as God sees Himself in the mirror, only with the slight alteration of mortality in place of eternity, because if it were so, it will not resonate scripturally nor scientifically: "... our anatomy and physiology is demanded by our terrestrial habitat, and quite inappropriate to the one who inhabits eternity." (R. F. R. Gardener)

Three. Why is there a numerical discrepancy in v.27?
I personally am inclined to think that this discrepancy really is not a discrepancy at all.

"Man" in v.27 is the Hebrew אדם ('âdâm), meaning human being; mankind. There is no discrepancy, perhaps: plural begets plural.

But if one were not to share my view, perhaps this may help: God created one mankind. Within mankind, there are two (ie. male and female). Mankind is both the plural and singular of man and woman.

Four. Why are two sexes created?
This is of great significance.

Two sexes are created: male and female. They were not asexual, nor were they bisexual (ie. one living organism with both male and female sexual organs), nor were they androgynous. No, they were distinctly male and female.

Female was created from male. More specifically, female was created from one of male's ribs, a position close to the heart, an organ famously tied with sentiment and passion, signifying a closeness, an intimacy, a unity, a oneness between them.
This oneness between male and female, husband and wife reflects that same oneness between God and His Heavenly Court, between the members of the Godhead Three.

All this is precisely why to conclude that there exists a Heavenly Mother, God the Female, based on these two verses alone is insufficient.

Based on Genesis 1:26-27,
To be fashioned in the likeness of God is not a literal but more of a metaphorical meaning; to be like God in character, in deed, in saying, in behavior.
To be fashioned in the likeness of God is to be part of His glorious scheme of things: to be part of a pre-ordained intimate and possible fellowship, relationship with Him.
To be fashioned in the likeness of God is to partake of a unity with the rest of humanity, just as He is one with His Heavenly Court.

Through the creation of male and female God teaches us what closeness, intimacy, unity, oneness means in every sense of those words.

What could be a better teaching tool, eh?

Last week's been a really busy week for me!

I've just started work at my first post after informally (since the formal university convocation ceremony is not until July) graduating from 16 years of formal education. I absolutely love my job as a music teacher at an established and rather prestigeous childcare centre, although I must admit, it's not as simple than I anticipated! I'm something of a pushover when it comes to kids, so having fun in my class is not too much of a problem, but appropriate and sufficient discipline's the new kid in my town that I must familiarise myself with. Lots of new ropes to learn, new jargon, new methods of doing things.. But all I shall meet with a smile! No grimaces; only grins!

Anyway, last Sunday, I was headed home from Plaza Singapura, crossing the road to the bus stop at the middle section just between PS and Park Mall when I noticed two women with clipboards trying to get people's attention. Knowing I'm a sucker for people with sob stories to tell and merchandises to tout, I attempted to steer clear of them. I was rushing home, in any case, because of an engagement I must keep later in the afternoon. Because the other pedestrians wouldn't give way, I had to settle with walking on the grass just to avoid one of the two women.

She walked up to me and stood right smack in my path, effectively cutting off my escape routes because she wouldn't budge and would match my sliding to the right or to the left.

Asking politely for me to fill in a survey for her, I tried to be nice and accomodating since my bus had not yet arrived anyway, so I did. The survey was short enough (just one side of half an A4-sized piece of paper) and the questions simple enough to answer with just one glance.

But the last question was what really caught me off guard. It went something along the lines of:

The birds of the air have both fathers and mothers,
the beasts of the field have both fathers and mothers..
All creatures have a mother figure. There is not a single creature that can come into existence without a mother.
Our physical life is given to us through our physical mother.
Do you believe that there exists a "Heavenly Mother"?

Once the lady learnt that I am a Christian, she asked me if I have ever heard of a "Heavenly Mother". I said I had because my sister too met with a similar experience on the streets. Then she asked me about my thoughts on the matter. Now, it was quite a hot and sunny Sunday afternoon right in the middle of two busy roads teeming with noisy and smelly vehicles zooming by. Not what you'd call a very conducive environment to begin and entertain a theological debate, would you say?

She then took out her Bible and proceeded to show me Revelation 22:17. It reads:
"The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come."
And let the one who hears say, "Come."
And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price."
She told me (in a rather annoying and belittling manner) that the Bride in the verse was not the church nor Christians, but the "Mother God" because the church and Christians cannot offer Salvation; only God can, and therefore, the Bride is "Mother God".

I told her that that interpretation was not what I have learnt and understood. In fact, it sounds nothing at all like what I read the verse as, and I told them the context within which the verse must be read has been ignored. She just said "no" and re-read the verse much slower as if I didn't understood her (or maybe even English, for that matter!)

After that verse came Revelation 21:9,22
"Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying,
"Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb."
"And I saw no temple in the city,
for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb."
Her offerance for these verses were as such: John was told he would be shown the Bride, the wife of the Lamb, and that was the New Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven. She said that he was not shown a person, but a city with no temple, and because the Bride was not the temple, she therefore was not the church, but the "Heavenly Mother".

I'm sorry, what?!

She didn't go very far because, as much of a pushover I pathetically am, I don't take theology very lightly. We were basically stuck on those verses with her repeating her same logic and not understanding what I was getting at until my bus came and I made a hurried and grateful escape.

Though I literally had "reach out to them" in the forefront of my mind all the while, I probably could have handled it all better than I did.

At night, as I re-read Revelation 21 and 22 again and again, I sensed a great sadness in God towards these people who believed this doctrine.

I must admit I don't know the Bible as well as I can, and I am greatly disturbed that one text so holy and perfect as the Bible can be read so grossly inaccurately! There truly can be no other word to describe my feelings than disturbed, disturbed at how a book in the Bible, the one that is to be guarded most carefully can be interpreted so wrongly!

These people come from from the World Mission Society Church of God.

I really don't know what to do, but the idea of coming up with something like a "guide" to dealing with these incorrectly quoted Scripture came to mind the minute I sat safely down in the bus. So in the following posts, I shall pick up several of their teachings and provide some answers to their quotes.

How well do you know the Bible
How well do you know the LORD
that your knowledge and experience can withstand such stumbling pebbles of misquoted texts?