God is sexist.

Once again, thank you for your patience; This is a thought-provoking, serious topic, and I want to address it as such. Again, please take everything I say as if it were said with the utmost respect and grace. I will offer another line of reasoning against the topic of God is sexist, and then I will respond to your verses. Note: All of my Bible verses will be KJV or ESV. First, we must understand that God"s character can only be judged by his will. God"s will determines his character, and thus if we want to determine whether God is sexist, we must determine whether his will for mankind is sexist. In my first round, I argued that God"s view of women throughout scripture, from the Old Testament through Jesus to the Gospel, is that women are equal to men. Now I will contend that God"s original and prevailing will is that man and woman be in perfect communion with one another, in perfect equality. I will support my claim with 3 points: 1. Communion at Creation I once again turn to creation because it is the only place in history where God looked at everything and called it good (Genesis 1:31). Thus, it is an ideal place to look when determining what God approves of and what his will is. His will for mankind is revealed in Genesis 1:27: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Both man AND woman were necessary to bear the image of God; it was NOT just the man. This shows equality and perfect communion. 2. Hierarchy because of Sin Genesis 3:16: "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." This statement came right after the Fall, when man brought sin into the world (Romans 5:12). Before sin, there was perfect communion - perfect equality. Now, there could no longer be communion, because of sin. Sin creates disorder (James 3:16: "For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice."). He did this for 3 reasons: -1. God is a God of order. (1 Corinthians 14:33) -2. Sin creates disorder. -3. Hierarchy restores order. These last two points can be seen simply by examination of the military, government, or business. Where there is no hierarchy, no authority structure, there is chaos. God created hierarchy to prevent anarchy. So why did God put man on top? 2 reasons: -1. Man created first (1 Timothy 2:13) -2. Competing priorities: woman already had job of motherhood and childbearing. History has shown that when leadership is taken on, child-raising is put in second place. Thus, God gave to the husband the job of leading the family, and to the woman the job of raising the children. NOTES: Hierarchy is NOT God"s ultimate will for mankind; it was put in place for order. Women are NOT subject to just any man; that would be treating them as inferior to males. They are subject only to their husbands (Ephesians 5:22); This creates order. Husbands are not allowed to rule their wives with an iron fist; that would be sexist and male-superiority. Instead, God wills that men should love their wives "As Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;" they should love their wives to such a degree that they sacrifice their own lives for the sake of their wives. Self-sacrifice. 3. The Law because of Sin Much of your arguments have come from the Law, God"s law to the Israelites, given in Exodus through Deuteronomy. However, the Law does not show us God"s will for mankind; it was put in place for two reasons: to create order and to drive men to the Gospel. Jesus shows us this point in Matthew 19:3-9 in the following scenario: The pharisees come to Jesus with the question of whether divorce is lawful. Jesus responds by pointing them to Creation. They pushed further. Why, then, did Moses allow them (through the Law) to divorce? Jesus responds with the purpose of the law: "Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so." Thus, the Law is first of all given because of sin; and is not God"s will for mankind, or else Jesus would not have disagreed with the pharisees. God"s will is found in Creation. Secondly, its purpose is to bring men to the Gospel. Galatians 3:24-25: "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." The Law"s ultimate purpose was to bring us to the Gospel by showing us our sin. These three points show us that God"s will, which determines his character, can be judged neither by looking at hierarchy in the family nor by examining the Mosaic Law. God"s will is contained in three places: Creation, the Gospel, and the End. Let"s take a quick summary of each and its view of women: -Creation: Genesis 1:27-28: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Communion and equality, from bearing the image of God to their job and command. -Gospel: Galatians 3:28: "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." Communion and equality. -End: Mark 12:25: (Jesus speaking): "For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven." Communion and equality, even more so than could ever be on this imperfect earth. And thus we see that the ultimate will of God, revealed through Creation, the Gospel, and the End, is communion and equality between male and female, and no distinction between the two. As one"s will is, so is the one, and thus God is not sexist in any degree. This is supported by my arguments in the previous round, which contend that even within the sinful, fallen earth upon which we live, God still views women as equal to men in value and worth. Any subjection is made for the purpose of order, which does not connote devaluation. Therefore, God is not sexist. Response to verses: Genesis 2:20-23 (Adam possessed Eve) I believe I addressed this in my argument about Creation; Adam did not view Eve as his possession but as his equal. There is absolutely no way to draw, looking at the original Hebrew words for man and woman, any kind of distinction between the two other than sex. Ish and Ishshah simply mean "male individual" and "female individual". There is no distinction as to worth or value or possession. And remember, both of them bore the image of God. (Information about Hebrew words from www.biblehub.com) Numbers 1:1-2, 3:15-28, Exodus 23:17, 38:8, Leviticus 6:14-18, 21:9 Forgive me for lumping all of these passages into one response, but I would point out that these verses are all directly taken from the Mosaic Law, which I addressed in my third major point in this round. The Law is not God"s ultimate will, and so cannot be used to accuse God"s character. It must be kept in mind that the Law was given for the purpose of maintaining order and showing God"s disdain for sin in order to drive men to the Cross. There are a couple of verses that warrant individual treatment, however. Where only the men were numbered, it was for the purpose of counting how many potential soldiers there were. And as to your claim that men were not punished for prostitution, that is simply not true. Read Leviticus 18 and 20:10-20. God clearly condemns sexual immorality, for both sexes. Genesis 17:9-14 (God"s covenant with Abraham) I respond to this on 3 points: -1. God also made a covenant with Sarah (verses 15-16 read: And God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her." God clearly was not sexist with his covenant. -2. God also made a covenant with Hagar, who was technically property under that culture"s view. This shows he viewed and honored her as he would a man. (Genesis 16:10: "The angel of the Lord also said to her, "I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for the multitude.") -3. Circumcision was simply the sign that the man was under the covenant. What was the woman"s sign, then? Childbearing! God caused Sarah to have a son, and that was the sign that she was under the covenant. Throughout Old Testament history, God used miraculous ways to cause women to have children that showed that they were part of the covenant. Genesis 6:1-2: This is actually one of the most confusing verses in the Bible. There are a couple of interpretations of these verses: -1. The children of God are angels, and the daughters of men are human women. -2. The children of God are the righteous line of Seth, and the daughters of men are the immoral, sinful line of Cain. What it most certainly does not mean, however, is that God only viewed men as his children. This would contradict the weight of the evidence as it now stands, and his revealed will towards mankind. God is not sexist. This is a claim that could perhaps be levied against certain of his servants, human as they were, and could certainly be directed at the cultures and peoples he speaks to, but the firm weight of scripture is dead-set against any such accusation towards God. He loves all men and women the same, and he is, as stated in 2 Peter 3:9, "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."