What Is God's Name? (Part 6)

The Bible names God as three Persons:  Father, Son and Holy Spirit; yet some scholars and
lay people feel those names are inadequate or wrong.  I hope this series of questions on this topic has been helpful to you!  Here's one more question:  doesn't the Bible talk about God in terms of feminine or motherly actions?  If so, why can't we call him Mother instead of Father, or Father/Mother?  There are good reasons to delight in the motherly traits described of God, yet still to call him Father.  (In this post I'm indebted to Peter Toon's work Our Triune God: A Biblical Portrayal of the Trinity.)

Let's look at one example, and then the principles involved.  Isaiah 66:13 says "I will comfort you...as a mother comforts her child."  Does this say God is a mother?  The word-picture here is a simile, where one thing is said to be "like" or "as" something else, for illustration, but the language is always of comparison, not literal statement, and nowhere is God named as Mother.  There are others scriptures, such as Deut. 32:11 and Isa. 31:5 where God is described like a bird hovering over a nest, caring for and protecting its young (Jesus uses a similar picture in Mat. 23:37), but nowhere does the Bible say God is a bird. 

God is described as Father in three ways.  First, in simile, as in Psa. 103:13, where God is said to have compassion for his children like a physical father.  Second, as a metaphor in the Old Testament, where he is described as the Father of a nation (Jer. 31:9) or a king (Psa. 2:7).  Third, Jesus reveals God as his own Father (John 3:16) of whom he has full knowledge (John 1:18 etc.) and reveals the Father to us (John 12:49-50).  "Father" then is not something we decided on and projected upward to God, but "this is God's self-revealed name and what it means is revealed by the One who is his 'Son' and by the One who is his 'Holy Spirit'" (Toon's words here).  This is no longer a metaphor but a revelation of the very name of God in Jesus' own words to us.  

Isn't God described as our Father also?  Yes, because we are brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father; but not through a separate relationship.  Jesus calls us his brothers and sisters (Romans 8:29, Heb. 2:11), and because he said so -- not because we became so on our own -- we are also the children of the Father.  

To conclude the series, then, we see that if we trust the Bible's words as accurate, we see God calling himself Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and we are not free to name him otherwise.  If we are uncomfortable with those ideas, or a masculine-sounding context (never to be identified with gender in the human sense!), then it is we who need to examine our hearts and open them to God, as he is already open to us through Jesus.  Solo Dei Gloria -- to God alone be the glory!