peace . love . joy

(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?