Topic: The Identity of God
Question: Is there a mother god?
Answer: Outside of Christianity, female deities are quite common. Almost every pagan religion has a goddess of some kind. Some people attempt to shoehorn the concept of a mother god into Christianity, as well, despite the fact that the Bible in no way supports the idea of a female counterpart to God the Father.Some point to Asherah as an example of a mother god that was accepted by the ancient Israelites. Not only was Asherah a goddess, they say, but she was the consort of Yahweh. Such a view is a simplistic recasting of Baal-worship, based on an assumption that the Israelites built their Yahweh-focused religion from the raw materials of Baal-worship. In Canaanite mythology, Asherah was the consort of Baal, but the Mosaic Law unequivocally forbade the worship of Asherah (Deuteronomy 16:21). Israel’s forays into Asherah-worship were viewed as rebellion and judged as sin (see 1 Kings 15:13; 2 Chronicles 15:13).Some look to Sophia as a mother god because Wisdom is personified as a woman in Proverbs 8. In verses 27–31, Wisdom speaks in a way that seems to indicate she is companion to the God of creation. However, the book of Proverbs is poetic and highly symbolic. Wisdom is clearly a personification, not an actual person. “Sophia” is not an actual person, much less a female companion or counterpart to God the Father.Similarly, the World Mission Society Church of God, by conflating Galatians 4:26 with some concepts about the New Jerusalem, teach that God has a bride, the heavenly mother. In the New Testament, the church as a redeemed group is called the bride of Christ, but we are not a mother god.Some view Mary as the Queen of Heaven and almost deify her. However, those who do so do not get their views from the Bible. Mary herself puts to rest any notion that she is a mother god, recognizing in Luke 1:47 that God is her Savior. Mary was a mortal human being, a sinner in need of salvation just like every other human being.In addition to the above attempts to find a “mother goddess” in Scripture are many pagan religions that are rife with female deities. Jeremiah 7:18 and 44:17–25 mention worship of the “Queen of Heaven,” a pagan deity. Jeremiah was not endorsing pagan theology; rather, he condemned the observance of rituals associated with the Queen of Heaven, referring to her by her common title.Another goddess that is gaining in popularity as people become more environmentally conscious is Gaia (or Gaea), the goddess of the earth. Gaia is simply a remnant of Greek mythology who in some cases has been conflated with the evolutionary concept of Mother Earth. In Greek mythology Gaia may have been considered an actual person, but the more modern evolutionary concept views her as a personification of the substance from which we and the universe all sprang.Some who promote the idea of a mother god allege a contradiction in Scripture: in some places the Bible says there is only one God, yet in other places it speaks about other gods. Paul puts it in perspective in 1 Corinthians 8:4–6, “We know that ‘An idol is nothing at all in the world’ and that ‘There is no God but one.’ For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.” God is the One True God, but there are many other “gods,” that is, many other things that people worship. Many of these so-called gods are female deities.Regardless of the gender assigned to any deity, God has made it clear that He is the only True God, Creator of Heaven and Earth. “There is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:6). There is no mother god.