Quotes and Excerpts from

Christians for Biblical Equality - CBE

Fact Sheet

 Compiled by Dwayna Litz and Christy Cahela

www.ltwinternational.org

 

 

THE GOD OF CBE


“I think that if you want to in your personal devotions address God as ‘Mother’ I don’t have a problem with that.” –T.J. Ostrander, CBE speaker, (quoted verbatim from tape# ACF290: “Sophia Wisdom of God or Goddess of Wisdom”; sold via the CBE web site: www.cbeinternational.org ).

I believe it is important to call God, ‘Mother’ as well as ‘Father’ in public worship.” - Paul R. Smith, CBE author (Source: Smith’s book, Is it Okay to Call God Mother; p.1; offered via www.cbeinternational.org )

 

We sing the words of John W. Peterson in worshipful praise, ‘Shepherd of love you knew I had lost my way…’ Would it be worse or blasphemous, to sing something like ‘Mother of love…’? Both are figures of speech. But because of our fear of taking on the trappings of radical feminism or goddess worship, we dare not sing those words—except perhaps in our closets of prayer.” - Ruth Tucker, CBE author (Source: Tucker’s book, Women in the Maze; 20-21; www.cbeinternational.org ; See: Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth, Wayne Grudem, Multnomah Publishers, 509-513)

…there is a good Biblical reason, then, to speak of God as both Father and Mother, both ‘she’ and ‘he’.” --Richard and Catherine Kroeger, CBE authors; “Women Elders…Called by God?” (Catherine Kroeger is one of the founders of CBE; this particular article where she advocates calling God “mother” can be found at: http://firstpresby.org/womenelders/htm ; See: Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth, Wayne Grudem, Multnomah Publishers, 511)

“God, our Mother, we thank you that you love us so much to want the best for us. Thank you for trusting us enough to let us do things on our own…Stay near to us and help us to become all that we can be. Amen.” -Jann Aldredge-Clanton, CBE author [(source: Clanton’s book: God, A Word for Girls and Boys (p. 23) In the introduction of the book, Jann Aldredge-Clanton writes: Masculine God language hinders many children from establishing relationships of trust with God. In addition, calling God “he” causes boys to commit the sin of arrogance…Calling the Supreme power of the universe “he” causes girls to commit the sin of devaluing themselves. For the sake of “these little ones” we must change the way we talk about God and about human beings. (p.11) offered via the CBE web site: www.cbeinternational.org ]

At Cornerstone, an annual festival of the Christian arts, attended by 27,000 evangelical youth, Mimi Haddad, president of the evangelical organization, Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE), proposed that God could be called “Mother” as well as “Father”. [Source: The Feminine Mistake, Mary Kassian, Crossway Publishers: (p. 287); Source: Julia Bloom, “Biblical Equality Finds a Platform at Rock Festival”, (Mutuality, Fall 2002), p.16. Haddad gave a seminar at festival entitled, “Forgotten People, Overlooked Language: Women Leaders and Feminine Images of God.”]

 

“We must resist the implication that God is masculine or that Scripture sanctions patriarchy.” --Mimi Haddad, CBE president (Source: What Language Shall We Use; www.cbeinternational.org )

“We may speak of God as Father or as Mother.” --Mimi Haddad, CBE president (Source: What Language Shall We Use; www.cbeinternational.org )

 

THE GOD OF THE BIBLE, FIRST PERSON OF THE TRINITY

 

Not once in the Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic, does God refer to Himself as “Mother.” God is Spirit (John 4:24), but God refers to Himself in the masculine, because that is the order of creation. Similes (such as “…like a hen gathers her chicks…” in Matt. 23:37) portray an action to illustrate God’s character. Actions are not names. God does not leave it up to us whether or not to re-name Him or “update” Him more “non-offensively” or “inclusively” for these (pagan) modern times.

 

Jesus teaches us to call God “Father” (and never referred to God as “mother”!): In Matthew 6:9 Jesus prays, “Our Father who art in heaven…” In John 10:30 Jesus says, “I and My Father are one.”

 

God is King: Malachi 1:14: “’…for I am a King,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘And My name is feared among the nations’”

 

God is Ruler: Daniel 5:21 says, “….the Most High God is ruler over the realm of mankind…”

 

God is Lord: Isaiah 42:8 says, “I am the Lord; that is My name; I will not give My glory to another…”

 

God has ALL AUTHORITY, (WOMEN HAVE NO AUTHORITY OVER THE GOD OF THE BIBLE): Isaiah 45:23-24: “…That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance…and all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.” Isaiah 45:9: “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker, an earthenware vessel among the vessels of the earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’”  Isaiah 64:4 says, “For from of old they have not heard nor perceived by ear, neither has the eye seen a God besides Thee, who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.” Romans 9: 15-16: “For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy…’ so then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”

 

The God of the Bible is not impressed with “learned” people who don’t submit to Him: Isaiah 65:2: “I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts.” Isaiah 2:22: “Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils; for why should he be esteemed?” Isaiah 55: 7-8: “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts…For My thoughts are not your thoughts…”

 

The God of the Bible uses people against the world’s standards: John 7:15: “And the Jews were astonished, saying, ‘How has this Man become learned, having no education.’” 1 Corinthians 1:19: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.”

 

He gives grace to the humble and not the proud: Isaiah 64:6: “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.” James 4:6: “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” In Mark 10:15 Jesus warns, “Truly I say to you whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.”

 

God requires SUBMISSION: James 4:7 commands us to submit to God.

 

The God of the Bible is the “Ancient of Days” and will not be “re-defined.”—In Daniel 7:13 God is called the “Ancient of Days”; See also: Exodus 3:14 and John 8:58; God’s Word does not change: See Deut. 4:2, Proverbs 30:6, John 1:1-3,14, and 2 Peter 1:20-21. Isaiah 46:5,9-10 says, “To whom would you liken Me, and make me equal and compare Me, that we should be alike?...I am God and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done…” The God of the Bible does not change. Malachi 3:6 says, “For I, the Lord, do not change…” Isaiah 46:4 says, “Even to your old age, I shall be the same…”

 


 

THE BIBLICAL ABOMINATION OF “MOTHER-GOD” WORSHIP:

 

The “Mother god” of the Bible is Satan: Revelation 17:5—Satan is the “Mother of harlots”

 

Satan is the father/mother god and can take on both the masculine and the feminine: Satan is the mother (of harlots) in Revelation 17:5 and the father (of lies) in John 8:44.

 

The “Mother god” is at war with the God of the Bible: Jeremiah 7:18 says those who worship the “Queen of heaven” spite God.

 

“Mother god” worship is forbidden by the God of the Bible: Jeremiah 44:15-19, 25

 

It is “detestable” and “evil” to God to transgress His covenant and worship any of the heavenly host He has not commanded. Deut. 17:2-4

 


 

THE JESUS OF CBE:

 

“It was Christ’s humanity, not His gender that made Him humankind’s redeemer.” --Mimi Haddad, CBE president (Source: What Language Shall We Use; www.cbeinternational.org)

 

“It was Jesus’ incarnation as a human being, not as a male, that allowed Him to provide the means of salvation.” --Aida Spencer, CBE author and speaker (Source: Beyond the Curse: Women in Ministry, p. 22; www.cbeinternational.org )

 

“…Jesus Christ, who does well against evil, is our very mother.” --Ruth Tucker, CBE author and speaker (quoting Julian Norwich in Caroline W. Bynum’s book, Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the Middle Ages, p. 131; www.cbeinternational.org )

 

“Jesus, the prophet, challenged the abusive and unjust systems of his day. We aim to do that for our day. Jesus never criticized other religions. Neither do we. Jesus, however, did challenge his own religious tradition. Therefore, we challenge ours. Jesus embraced, ignored, and rejected various parts of his Bible. We do that, too, believing that Jesus, the Word of God, is the criteria by which we interpret our Bible and all other words which claim to be from God. We teach that Jesus did not see  himself as a sacrifice for our sins to appease an angry God. Instead, Jesus spoke out against the oppressive powers of his day, and they crucified him. God forgives us without need for a sacrifice of any kind, just as Jesus taught us that we are to forgive one another. Jesus taught that every person would eventually be drawn into the fullness of God's salvation. You are ultimately destined for heaven. No one will be left behind.” –CBE author, Paul R. Smith’s, “Jesus” and gospel (“Pastor” Smith’s book, Is It Okay to Call God Mother, is offered via the CBE web site at: www.cbeinternational.org . Source of quote comes from CBE author “Pastor” Paul R. Smith’s church, Broadway Church in Kansas City: http://www.broadwaychurch-kc.org/about.php ).

 

Paul R. Smith begins chapter three of his book, Is It Okay to Call God Mother, with a cartoon of Moses arriving in heaven telling God, “Gee, I didn’t expect you to be a soprano!” Later on in the book Smith says: “Something is wrong when we cannot conceive of the Messiah coming from a different cultural setting or being of a different race or gender.” He says he has a sculpture of “a female Jesus hanging on the cross” and he admits that some people “have violent reactions” to it. – Paul R. Smith [Is it Okay to Call God Mother, p. 134, 137, 140- 141; www.cbeinternational.org (See: Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth, Grudem, Multnomah Publishers, p. 510)]
 


[Consider these endorsements for Paul R. Smith’s book, Is It Okay to Call God Mother: "This book is a tour de force. It is simply magnificent—witty, scholarly, profoundly persuasive, blunt, prophetic, and convicting this slow-to-believe disciple all over the place." —Brennan Manning, author of The Ragamuffin Gospel; "I'm not sure what to make of it all, but Paul Smith gives the best arguments I have ever come across for calling God Mother. For anyone struggling with how far we should go in using inclusive language, this is "must" reading. —Tony Campolo, professor emeritus, Eastern University, founder of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, Endorser of CBE www.cbeinternational.org; "With tender power and wit, Paul Smith challenges the church to biblical fidelity and justice in its worship language. How encouraging it is to hear an evangelical male voice affirm the necessity of feminine images of God! This outstanding book so clearly and convincingly demonstrates the biblical imperative for inclusive God-language that the Christian community can no longer ignore it." —Jann Aldredge-Clanton, Ph.D., Chaplain, Baylor University Medical Center, CBE author of God and Gender and God: A Word for Girls and Boys www.cbeinternational.org ; "In the often difficult debate over language and God, this is a thoughtful and productive contribution to this important and complex subject." —Dr. Roberta Hestenes, former president of Eastern University, St. Davids, Pennsylvania (1987-1996); Senior Pastor of Solana Beach Presbyterian (USA); Minister with World Vision, visiting faculty member of Fuller & Denver Theological Seminaries, Endorser of CBE www.cbeinternational.org.]

 

Note: Bill Hybels is also an endorser of CBE, along with Brian McLaren, Pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church, author of A New Kind of Christian, as well as Dr. Gregory Boyd, Senior Pastor of Woodland Hills Church, St. Paul, MN, author of Letters from a Skeptic, and Dr. Richard Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline; “Statement on Men, Women, and Biblical Equality” www.cbeinternational.org.

 

Jann Alderedge-Clanton, CBE Author and speaker, is a worshiper of Christ-Sophia. In her book, Praying with Christ-Sophia: Services for Healing and Renewal, she goes so far as displaying a list of hymns that can be sung to Christ-Sophia. ( www.cbeinternational.org ; www.amazon.com  ).

 


THE JESUS OF THE BIBLE:

 

Jesus is Master: Jude 1:4: “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long before marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

 

Isaiah 9:6 says that the Messiah had to be a Son. There was absolutely no chance that the Jesus of the Bible, fulfilling over 300 prophecies from the Old Testament to the New, could have been a female. Absolutely zero chance. (The Jesus, that is, who spoke more about hell than He did heaven).

 

THE JESUS OF THE BIBLE COULD NEVER BE A FEMALE IN HEAVEN TODAY: “…from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come…I am the first and the last” Revelation 1:4, 17. “And when He said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord…but Thomas…said to them, ‘Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.’…Then He said to Thomas, ‘Reach here your finger, and see My hands, and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing.’ Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” (John 20:19-29)  


You can contact Dwayna Litz and Christy Cahela through www.ltwinternational.org

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