Thoughts from an Old Warrior
Gender Issues
Genesis 1:27 NIV 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Genesis 5:2 NIV 2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created.
Galatians 3:28 KJV 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
There's a lot being said about gender now days and not being one who declines an opportunity for my mouth to get me in trouble I decided to jump in. Genesis 5:2 speaks of "mankind" in the plural sense as if the text is referring to a group. A group of what? Cattle? Zebra? "Mankind", One thing, but many,. There are many subdivisions in that group. Yet the whole encompasses the term "mankind." Race is included. Black, white, Indian, Arab, Jew, all "mankind" only subdivided into many groups.....Both genders are included in the racial divisions but when dividing by genders the groups number just two,..male and female. Both "mankind" both the same, yet very different.
Oh, but the male is surely most favored, stronger, richer, more in control....proof positive of the fundamental difference...true, the male portion of the equitation often subjugates the female portion, but that fact reaches all across the group. Strong males dominate and bully females but they do the same to weaker males as women will also mistreat men and other females if given the opportunity...this goes across all races, economic groups and genders...it is just an unhappy fact about "mankind" and evident in all nature..the strong overcome the weak,. The fox makes a breakfast of the hare.
So what and why do we have all this tussle over genders? This is where the avenue of "free choice" comes in...the strong oppressing the weak was not in God's plan. Unfortunately "Mankind" often makes choices more in line with the kingdom of darkness than of light.,
Let us rise to a higher realm. Even with the free choice God made us in his image.."So God created man in his own image, "in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them". Genesis 1:27. Perhaps God is just to big to embody himself in just one creature..so he made two...male and female..two parts of a whole...functioning together better as a team. Like swimming on the "buddy system" perhaps we were suppose to help each other along, to keep each other's "head above water" so to speak.
Gender Issues
Genesis 1:27 NIV 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Genesis 5:2 NIV 2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created.
Galatians 3:28 KJV 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
There's a lot being said about gender now days and not being one who declines an opportunity for my mouth to get me in trouble I decided to jump in. Genesis 5:2 speaks of "mankind" in the plural sense as if the text is referring to a group. A group of what? Cattle? Zebra? "Mankind", One thing, but many,. There are many subdivisions in that group. Yet the whole encompasses the term "mankind." Race is included. Black, white, Indian, Arab, Jew, all "mankind" only subdivided into many groups.....Both genders are included in the racial divisions but when dividing by genders the groups number just two,..male and female. Both "mankind" both the same, yet very different.
Oh, but the male is surely most favored, stronger, richer, more in control....proof positive of the fundamental difference...true, the male portion of the equitation often subjugates the female portion, but that fact reaches all across the group. Strong males dominate and bully females but they do the same to weaker males as women will also mistreat men and other females if given the opportunity...this goes across all races, economic groups and genders...it is just an unhappy fact about "mankind" and evident in all nature..the strong overcome the weak,. The fox makes a breakfast of the hare.
So what and why do we have all this tussle over genders? This is where the avenue of "free choice" comes in...the strong oppressing the weak was not in God's plan. Unfortunately "Mankind" often makes choices more in line with the kingdom of darkness than of light.,
Let us rise to a higher realm. Even with the free choice God made us in his image.."So God created man in his own image, "in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them". Genesis 1:27. Perhaps God is just to big to embody himself in just one creature..so he made two...male and female..two parts of a whole...functioning together better as a team. Like swimming on the "buddy system" perhaps we were suppose to help each other along, to keep each other's "head above water" so to speak.
We are both reflections of our creator..the masculine part portrays the warrior, protector, provider, side of God..while the feminine shows the life-giver, nurturer, caretaker part of His essence. We each reflect different aspects of the one who made us. Okay, here is where many Christians will interject "I thought we were going to be gender-less when we get to Heaven. Doesn't the Bible say that?" I am here to tell you tonight there is no place in the Bible that says we will all become neuter-gender when we get to Heaven..Matthew 22:30, Mark 12:25 and Luke 20:35..simply tell us that we will not get Married "But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage," Luke 20:35. Again people are quick to want to believe that all angels are male, but no where in the Bible is such a designation made..Just because they are usually referred to as male doesn't mean they always are. There is a scripture in Zechariah 5:9 " I looked up and saw two women flying toward me with powerful wings like those of a stork. They picked up the basket and flew off with it". If angels are all men explain this to me.
Gender is more than the act of sex, the word sex makes the mind fly to an event...not necessarily to a state of being. I believe our "male" and "female"ness will continue through eternity, it is part of who we are. Long after the need and joy of pro-creation is passed you will still be you and every moment of this life has had it's purpose. God wastes nothing. Only in eternity will we begin to fully understand just who and what we are and who God is.
C. S. Lewis wrote in his book Perelandra (a good read by the way if you are up to it) that gender is more fundamental than sex. In many languages such as French and Spanish gender is attributed to things like rivers and trees. This is not because the river or tree manifests physical attributes that are male or female..male and female simply ARE...You ARE a man or a woman, nothing really changes that. You are part of "mankind," not separate but part of a whole..God spent your whole lifetime making you just who you are..why would he throw that away to make you neuter-gender for eternity...the Bible says "We see through a glass darkly, but then face to face" there are many things I do not understand..but this I know there are better things ahead..and I believe gender will be part of them. Jireh's girl
Gender is more than the act of sex, the word sex makes the mind fly to an event...not necessarily to a state of being. I believe our "male" and "female"ness will continue through eternity, it is part of who we are. Long after the need and joy of pro-creation is passed you will still be you and every moment of this life has had it's purpose. God wastes nothing. Only in eternity will we begin to fully understand just who and what we are and who God is.
C. S. Lewis wrote in his book Perelandra (a good read by the way if you are up to it) that gender is more fundamental than sex. In many languages such as French and Spanish gender is attributed to things like rivers and trees. This is not because the river or tree manifests physical attributes that are male or female..male and female simply ARE...You ARE a man or a woman, nothing really changes that. You are part of "mankind," not separate but part of a whole..God spent your whole lifetime making you just who you are..why would he throw that away to make you neuter-gender for eternity...the Bible says "We see through a glass darkly, but then face to face" there are many things I do not understand..but this I know there are better things ahead..and I believe gender will be part of them. Jireh's girl
From Perelandra by C.S. Lewis
"Ransom saw in that moment the real meaning of gender…in nearly all tongues certain inanimate objects are masculine or feminine. What is masculine about a mountain or feminine about certain trees? Our ancestors did not make an object masculine or feminine because they project sexual characteristics into them. The process is the reverse.. gender is a reality, and a more fundamental reality than sex. Sex is, in fact merely the adaptation to organic life of a fundamental polarity which divides all created beings. Female sex is simply one of the things that have feminine gender. There are many others, and masculine and feminine meet us on plains of a reality, where male and female would be meaningless. Masculine is not a attenuated male and feminine is not a attenuated female. On the contrary male and female of organic creatures are rather faint and blurred reflections of the masculine and feminine. Their reproductive functions, their differences in strength and size, partly exhibit, but partly also confuse and misrepresent, the real polarity".