Male and Female

Jewish Lords' Witness

Synopsis

1. The official Lords’ Witnesses position is that God is a neuter spirit and that spirits generally are genderless and that it is only our physical bodies which impart gender to us.

2. In my earlier paper ‘Right Hand of God’, I proposed some time ago that our God is male which proposition therefore runs counter to Understanding U257 on the Lords’ Witnesses web-site.

3. In my personal opinion the new LW understanding U264a proposes, amongst many other key items, that God was male and that He needed to create a female mate for Himself to enable Him to procreate! Since this particular opinion is not shared by my LW brethren it is this which has sparked my renewed effort to demonstrate that all spirits have gender.

4. If the spirits of mankind do indeed have gender then it seems to me that it is the balance between the mind and heart elements of the spirit which determines the male or female spiritual gender. Where the heart is ‘bigger’ than the mind we are dealing with a female spirit and, where the mind is the ‘larger’ spiritual element of the two, then we are dealing with a male spirit.

5. The test of the forbidden fruit was a test on Adam only and not on his ‘helper’. If the spirits of Adam and Eve were equivalent in terms of their both being neuter, then this does not seem a fair test from God if it were only their physical bodies that were different.

6. In OT times the men had ruler-ship over their households in God’s name. Again would it have been reasonable of God to have given this responsibility to the men if their spirits were not stronger in the mind than those of women?

7. Again, in the NT, it does not seem reasonable to the writer for our God to take a view regarding the subservient role in the church of the females of the species without the differentiation between the genders being rather more than merely skin deep. NT scripture even seems to be telling us that women have to work more on their spiritual minds than men.

8. In his epistles Paul goes so far as to compare a man and his wife to a divinity (Christ) and His congregation respectively. This marks a significantly superior placing of men in God’s hierarchy compared with that of women. Once again the writer can only believe such differentiation is due to the proposed gender of the spirit.

9. The LWs understand that 50% of men and 50% of women will be saved into the Kingdom. The only way for that 50:50 gender-based judgement to be just is if it is made on a purely spiritual basis which tells us that each human spirit must be either male or female not just the physical body which it inhabits.

10. In a computer analogy it is the software that determines the hardware required not the other way around. So it should be with the spirit and the physical body that it is destined to inhabit.

11. God comes out strongly against homosexual behaviour in numerous scriptural texts. Would God be at such pains to retain the separate behaviours of the two sexes if it were only a matter of the differences in the physical vehicles which we inhabit?

12. Male homosexuality appears to be condemned by God as a greater sin than lesbianism. Since, in my hypothesis, the male spiritual mind is greater than the heart compared with that in females, greater control by the mind over the emotions of the spiritual heart is expected of men compared with women.

13. The angels Michael and Gabriel are both male and all the humans they are recorded in scripture to have possessed were also male.

14. The angels have the same spiritual bias as mankind’s males and females and, since this world is a spectacle for the angels, they are being shown physically how the gender difference should operate spiritually for them also.

15. We are told twice in the one verse that God created Adam in His own image

16. Both God and Adam had their helpers, the Holy Spirit and Eve respectively. This demonstrates the differentiation between the male and female spirits of God’s children and, ultimately, in divine beings.

17. The repetition of two different male parent titles in Christ’s prayer to God adds further strength to Christ’s father being indeed male.

18. After countless millenia as the archangel Michael I think the spirit of Jesus would be rather disoriented to suddenly become neuter upon His ascension as well as inhabiting a new divine body.

19. God is single-minded as to how he will bring His children to divine adulthood regardless of the pain they (and no doubt He) must suffer in the process. This is surely the most masculine of spirits.

20. So whilst God may well be a male spirit this would not obviate his begetting female spirits.

21. God is described in OT scripture as a man of war.

22. This proposition would allow for female Gods to be created should those female spirits follow in Christ’s path.

Addendum 1 - God's Gender

Well, dear reader here am I, having recently written a new paper on Male Chauvinism in the scriptures when I now find myself, as a direct result of that new piece of research, having to amend my thoughts on God's gender. It now looks like the original LW understanding on the matter (Understanding [257] - The Spirit is the Mind and the Heart together. It is Software which can run on Human, Angelic or Divine Hardware) has stood the test of time as opposed to the element of God's gender in this paper of mine. I now find myself in agreement with the official LW line that God has both male and female genders. I have reached that conclusion by looking into the creation of Adam and Eve in much more detail. Also, if one considers the Old and New Testaments, the former represents the masculine traits of God's Law and His enforcement of it; the latter represents the feminine traits of mercy and forgiveness through God's Son Jesus Christ. The Law is needed before one can enable mercy against its statutes. For the full story on these points, I refer you to the Male Chauvinism paper since there is little point in my merely regurgitating the detail here. Also, I have decided to provide this addendum rather than amend the minutiae of this paper so that the reader can understand the logical path I travelled to reach my former conclusions on the matter and how that has now developed. The learning and research process is a valuable insight in itself, in trying to understand the Word of God. To the interested reader, I have also attached this addendum to my other related Right Hand of God paper.

Date of Original Publication: 6th May 2010

Date of Publication of Addendum 1: 23rd October 2022

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Ancient (Man) of Days

Do The Spirits of The Divine Have Gender?

In my earlier paper (The Right Hand of God) I have already made the case that Jehovah God is male but I have never been comfortable until now that I have fully addressed the opposing LW position to date that Jehovah is neuter as are all spirits.

Let us examine what Genesis tells us on the subject. Firstly we are told twice in the one verse that God created Adam in His own image. The LWs understanding of the Bible Code is that when a statement is repeated this is for emphasis and is therefore both important and beyond any doubt. Consequently God did not create Eve in His image:

27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1)

This is all the evidence that many commentators need to convince themselves of God’s male gender. However those who know this web-site and the works of the Lords’ Witnesses generally will know that we will not rely upon a single piece of evidence on any scriptural matter except when this rarely needs to be the case. So I continue…

Having identified that Adam is in the image of Himself, God then states that Adam needs a helper, Eve:

18  And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. (Genesis 2)

Surely this was not just a statement about Adam but also one in which God’s own needs and desires prefigured those of Adam if he is indeed in God’s own image? So God also had his helper, the Holy Spirit:

26 When the helper arrives that I will send YOU from the Father, the spirit of the truth, which proceeds from the Father, that one will bear witness about me; (John 15)

If, as the LW’s believe, the Holy Spirit is God’s wife ([Introduction 11] The Holy Spirit is God's Wife!), how can Jehovah be other than the supreme male spirit? It is indeed interesting to compare the capabilities of one human woman with that of 144,000 angels; they can both carry out a multitude of different activities at the same time!

Let us now take a different tack on the matter of divine spiritual gender. Jesus (aka the archangel Michael) calls God ‘abba’ in Mark's gospel:

36  And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt. (Mark 14)

Michael was with His Father Jehovah from the beginning of the creation. After working so closely with His Father on all creation over countless millennia I would expect He would at least be aware of any gender that His father might have.

1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2  The same was in the beginning with God.
3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1)

Given this profile of intimate and lengthy knowledge, why would Michael call God in the Hebrew child vernacular ‘daddy’ if he knew his ‘father’ to be neuter. Also the repetition of two different male parent titles would add further strength to Christ’s father being indeed male.

Let us add further to this debate. Jesus/Michael was male. If he were perfect as a male spirit then why would he need to become neuter upon his becoming divine?

13  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Ephesians 4)

8  Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
9  And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; (Hebrews 5)

After countless millenia as the archangel Michael I think the spirit of Jesus would be rather disoriented to suddenly become neuter as well as inhabiting a new divine body. This argument, of course, would apply similarly to all the angels, the sons (and daughters) of God, since they would all have been around for some considerable time.

If God is male, as I contend, then we have the position that God’s mind is ‘bigger’ than his heart. This seems like a hard call to make but can anyone tell me that, whilst it was probably God’s heart that motivated him to create each one of us in the first place, that the whole of spiritual and physical creation was not the product of a focussed and purposeful mind of infinite proportion? Even with all the love and emotion that God has for His children, He still pushes that to one side to enable His eternal purpose to be met. He is determined to save all His children eventually even if this demands temporary death and destruction to His ‘difficult’ children in the process. He is single-minded as to how he will bring His children to divine adulthood regardless of the pain they (and no doubt He) must suffer in the process. This is surely the most masculine of spirits. No female or neuter spirit would likely stay so focussed for so long against so much adversity. This required male drive and focus:

24  The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
25  That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.
26  This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
27  For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? (Isaiah 14)

9  And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
11  According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: (Ephesians 3)

God’s being a male spirit does not lose the concept of like begetting like. We are all individual and unique spirits as created by our ‘daddy’. It does not seem unreasonable that some will have bigger hearts than minds or vice versa. This is not a structural difference but one of balance and proportion. So whilst God may well be a male spirit this would not obviate his begetting female spirits. This seems reasonable since God Himself has determined that the mix of spirits into male and female genders is a good thing from the family perspective of raising newly created spirits. This is the way that God has brought all spiritual life into being according to LW present understandings.

And just in case anyone should doubt Jehovah’s male gender:

3  The LORD is a man of war: Jehovah is his name. (Exodus 15)

Oh yes, and for the politically correct among my readers who have not yet already exited my web-site in sheer pique and, just in case it is not obvious from my train of logic, the views expressed above would allow for female Gods to be created should those female spirits follow in Christ’s path. I am not sure what it means to have gender present in a society of divine beings, but it would certainly maintain that wonderful diversity and uniqueness of each individual that we see in mankind today.

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All the (male and female) morning stars singing

Do The Spirits of Angels Have Gender?

Well since angels and mankind have equivalent spirits, as determined by the divinely directed and frequent possessions of men by angels in scripture (LW Understanding [506] The 5/6 earthly identities of Michael, Gabriel and Melchizedek), then we immediately and without further ado reach the conclusion that angels also must have spirits with gender. In this context it is noteworthy that the angels Michael and Gabriel are both male and that all the humans they are recorded in scripture to have possessed were also male. If angelic spirits were neuter then there would be no reason why they could not have possessed female humans but the LWs are currently unaware of any such possessions.

In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians we have:

7 For a man indeed ought not to cover [his] head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
8 For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
10 For this cause ought the woman to have power on [her] head because of the angels.
11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.
12 For as the woman [is] of the man, even so [is] the man also by the woman; but all things of God.
13 Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
14 Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
15 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for [her] hair is given her for a covering. (1 Corinthians 11)

Again the differentiation of male and female is striking in that man is described as the glory of God, woman as the glory of man and a woman's beautiful long hair is her glory. I cannot believe these 'glories' only pertain to the physical; they simply must relate to the spiritual.

The comment regarding the angels in verse 10 above has caused much debate and uncertainty to bible commentators over the years. This commentator would suggest the unusual (and probably unique) interpretation that it is intended to demonstrate the differentiation between male and female spirits using mankind as the example to the angels. This would again indicate that the angels have the same spiritual bias as mankind’s males and females and, since this world is a spectacle for the angels, they are being shown physically how the gender difference should operate spiritually for them also:

9 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. (1Corinthians 4)

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Creation of Eve (Michelangelo)

The Implications of Spiritual Gender on Homosexuality in Scripture

Scripture contains many examples where homosexuality and unnatural sexual behaviour are clearly stated as sinful. Paul’s letter to the Romans roundly condemns both male and female homosexual behaviour. Verse 28 is also interesting in a way that I will expand upon shortly:

26  For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27  And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; (Romans 1)

In his first letter to the Corinthian congregation Paul even adds the activity of a man exhibiting effeminate behaviour as being sinful in the same company as other serious offenders of God’s laws:

9  Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, (1Corinthians 6)

Going back to Old Testament views on the subject we even find that cross-dressing by either sex appears to be a sin in God’s eyes:

5  The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God. (Deuteronomy 22)

So it appears very clear indeed that it is important to God that each gender should keep its proper station in all respects. Again would God be at such pains to retain the separate behaviours of the two sexes if it were only a matter of the differences in the physical vehicles which we inhabit? This does not seem wholly credible to my mind and again the only reasonable conclusion that I can reach is that our very spirits are innately imbued with our gender.

Going back to Romans 1:28 it would appear that both male and female homosexual behaviour cause God to abandon the perpetrators of such sinful acts to their ‘rejected minds’. This is interesting since we understand that God’s judgement is based on our spiritual heart condition. Uniquely it seems to be the case of that judgement being on the spiritual minds of homosexuals. On thinking about it, this makes a lot of sense. If an individual’s spiritual heart is leading him/her into unnatural emotional feelings towards members of the same gender then there needs to be a reliance on the spiritual mind to override that tendency by controlling the resulting physical behaviour. Apart from the obvious physical implications of homosexual behaviour, this would explain why male homosexual behaviour is seen in scripture to be a rather greater sin than that of the Lesbian variety. Since, in my hypothesis, the male spiritual mind is greater than the heart compared with that in females, greater control by the mind over the emotions of the spiritual heart is expected of men compared with women. Again all this would seem to lend support to my theories on spiritual gender.

Now there is little doubt that the heart/mind balance I have proposed would certainly give rise to individuals within each gender that had more or less spiritual ‘testosterone or oestrogen’, i.e. some men would have bigger hearts than others and some women would have greater minds than some of their female companions. Again I see this as a wonderful addition to our individual uniqueness but I would not want to see this argument used as an excuse for homosexual behaviour. I am certain that when God creates a male spirit then it will be correctly placed in a male body although I would have to concede that physical factors such as hormone levels in that body would certainly have an impact on its owner’s sexual predilections. It would appear that such physical factors can produce male and female differentiated brains which are not always in their anatomically correct body. A male can have a female differentiated brain, and a female a male differentiated brain. However I would maintain that, notwithstanding this imbalance, it is within the owner’s capability to control his sexual behaviour except, perhaps, in some extreme cases of hormonal imbalance where, I expect, God will nonetheless judge that spirit’s behaviour justly.

Do The Spirits of Mankind Have Gender?

If the spirits of mankind do indeed have gender then it seems to me that it is the balance between the mind and heart elements of the spirit which determines the male or female spiritual gender. Where the heart is ‘bigger’ than the mind we are dealing with a female spirit and, where the mind is the ‘larger’ spiritual element of the two, then we are dealing with a male spirit. In the previous Right Hand of God paper I have already considered the differences in male and female brains and their operation. Briefly the male thought processes are singular and focussed whereas those pertaining to the female of the species are broader but not so focussed in approach. The female considers the emotional aspects far more than the male. The difference in spiritual makeup, that I have suggested above, could easily substantiate these differences in the thinking processes between the two genders and how the male and female spirits therefore interface differently with the physical human brain to the extent that differences in brain build design and operation are required for the two genders.

Now God gave the original commandment in the Garden to Adam and not to Eve so arguably it was Adam’s responsibility to ensure that both he and Eve complied:

16 And Jehovah God layeth a charge on the man, saying, `Of every tree of the garden eating thou dost eat;
17 and of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou dost not eat of it, for in the day of thine eating of it -- dying thou dost die.' (Genesis 2)

This is interesting in that there was only a test on Adam not on his ‘helper’. Now if the spirits of Adam and Eve were equivalent in terms of their both being neuter, then this does not seem a fair test from God if it were only their physical bodies that were different. The test was on the less emotional and supposedly stronger male spirit of Adam to keep the one commandment God gave him who was made in God’s own image. Why else would this test not have been given to Eve also?

If we jump in scripture to Paul’s first letter to Timothy, which we look at again in more detail a little later in this paper, it is made clear that, whilst Eve was deceived by Satan, Adam was not and therefore deliberately disobeyed his Father:

14 Also, Adam was not deceived, but the woman was thoroughly deceived and came to be in transgression. (1 Timothy 2)

This would seem to indicate that God expected His son to exercise more control over both himself and his helper. That control could arguably come from a strong mind as opposed to a strong heart.

It is interesting that the direct communication from God with the male of the human species was continued down the generations. Circumcision was the sign of God’s covenant with Abraham. This covenant was between God and His male adherents on earth, not with women. The role of women was as support to their husbands who, as heads of their households, were responsible to God for ensuring the household overall met God’s wishes. God delegated His ruler-ship to men directly. The men had ruler-ship over their households in God’s name. Again would it have been reasonable of God to have given this responsibility to the men if their spirits were not stronger in the mind than those of women?

9  And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.
10  This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
11  And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. (Genesis 17)

It is not only early on in the Old Testament that we find the differentiation between men and women in regard to their relationship to God. The primacy of men in this regard is strongly emphasised in the New Testament also. Paul in his letter to Timothy being a case in point:

11 Let a woman learn in silence with full submissiveness.
12 I do not permit a woman to teach, or to exercise authority over a man, but to be in silence.
13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve.
14 Also, Adam was not deceived, but the woman was thoroughly deceived and came to be in transgression.
15 However, she will be kept safe through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and sanctification along with soundness of mind. (1 Timothy 2)

All the earlier points are made here but with the phrase ‘soundness of mind’ interestingly added. It is as if scripture is telling us that women have to work more on their spiritual minds. This could be indicating to us the correctness of the hypothesis that women’s spiritual hearts are indeed larger than their spiritual minds. It seems inconceivable to me that, in creating the two genders, God is subordinating the female at a physical level only.

Further on in the letter to Timothy, Paul indicates that only men can take a position of responsibility in the church. 'Soundness of mind' is again mentioned but this time juxtaposed to a whole raft of other necessary qualities unlike in Chapter 2 above where this quality seems to be singled out especially for the fairer sex. Overall it does not seem reasonable to the writer for our God to take such a view regarding the subservient role in the church of the females of the species without the differentiation between the genders being rather more than merely skin deep:

2 The overseer should therefore be irreprehensible, a husband of one wife, moderate in habits, sound in mind, orderly, hospitable, qualified to teach,
3 not a drunken brawler, not a smiter, but reasonable, not belligerent, not a lover of money,
4 a man presiding over his own household in a fine manner, having children in subjection with all seriousness;
5 (if indeed any man does not know how to preside over his own household, how will he take care of God’s congregation?)
6 not a newly converted man, for fear that he might get puffed up [with pride] and fall into the judgment passed upon the Devil.
7 Moreover, he should also have a fine testimony from people on the outside, in order that he might not fall into reproach and a snare of the Devil.
8 Ministerial servants should likewise be serious, not double-tongued, not giving themselves to a lot of wine, not greedy of dishonest gain,
9 holding the sacred secret of the faith with a clean conscience.
10 Also, let these be tested as to fitness first, then let them serve as ministers, as they are free from accusation.
11 Women should likewise be serious, not slanderous, moderate in habits, faithful in all things.
12 Let ministerial servants be husbands of one wife, presiding in a fine manner over children and their own households.
13 For the men who minister in a fine manner are acquiring for themselves a fine standing and great freeness of speech in the faith in connection with Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 3)

Paul’s letter to the Ephesian congregation arguably draws an even more significant distinction between the males and females of the species:

22 Let wives be in subjection to their husbands as to the Lord,
23 because a husband is head of his wife as the Christ also is head of the congregation, he being a saviour of [this] body.
24 In fact, as the congregation is in subjection to the Christ, so let wives also be to their husbands in everything. (Ephesians 5)

In this letter Paul compares a man and his wife to a divinity (Christ) and His congregation respectively. This marks a significantly superior placing of men in God’s hierarchy compared with that of women. Once again the writer can only believe such differentiation is due to the proposed gender of the spirit.

Let us take a different tack in this argument for spiritual gender. In Understanding U43 - 50% Survive Armageddon and 50% do not on the Lords' Witnesses' web-site, it is determined that 50% of mankind are to be saved at Armageddon. That 50% is itself made up of 50% men and 50% women:

34 I tell you, In that night two [men] will be in one bed; the one will be taken along, but the other will be abandoned.
35 There will be two [women] grinding at the same mill; the one will be taken along, but the other will be abandoned (Luke 17).

Now let us consider the implications of this understanding. If gender is only determined by the physical body, then it would seem to me to be unjust of God to make that judgement purely based on the physical gender of each human being. The final judgement on mankind is to be based on our spiritual heart condition:

19  And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
20  For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
21  Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. (1John 3)

Does it seem likely that all the 50% of men who are to be saved into the Kingdom will have a better heart condition than all the 50% of women who will be destined for Gehenna or vice versa? This question is particularly pointed if my proposal of the make up of male and female spirits were to be anything like correct given that judgement is to be made on the heart condition of each and every one of us regardless of gender. This would seem to make the luck of the draw as to which type of physical body one happened to reside in a factor on whether one gets saved or not. This cannot be the mechanism that a perfectly just God would make. The only way for that 50:50 gender-based judgement to be just is if it is made on a purely spiritual basis which tells us that each human spirit must be either male or female not just the physical body which it inhabits.

Male and female human brains are different in physical balance whilst remaining the same in fundamental structure. In one experiment when female subjects were asked to recall vocabulary and definitions, the entire brain lit up like a Christmas tree on the monitoring equipment. The male brain on the other hand, only had highly concentrated neuron activity in the left hemisphere. Male brains separate language, in the left, and emotions in the right, while the female’s emotions are in both hemispheres. Again this substantiates the proposition that the female spiritual heart is greater than the female spiritual mind and vice versa for the male spirit. I copy a couple of web-site links on the subject to further substantiate the male/female brain debate:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-mens-brains-are-wired-differently-than-women/;

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/the-hardwired-difference-between-male-and-female-brains-could-explain-why-men-are-better-at-map-reading-8978248.html

As an everyday comparison with the purchase of a home computer, its specification would be solely determined according to its prospective usage. A computer to be used for sophisticated games would require more memory, faster and probably parallel processors, bigger screen, more powerful sound cards and speakers when compared to a general purpose home PC. It is the software that determines the hardware required not the other way around. The same would be true of the human spirit. Surely God would provide each spirit with the physical body, and therefore brain-type, that was best suited to that spirit rather than force-fitting a neuter spirit into one of two pre-determined body types and expecting it to perform to its optimum performance?

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Adam and Eve (Engraving by Durer, 1504)

Introduction

One topic that has been bothering the writer, ever since I wrote the Right Hand of God paper, is the difference between the genders in mankind. The issue in this for me is the clear differences between the sexes as represented by the different wiring in the brain and the consequent difference in the way that men and women think and look at life. The famous book title ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus’ could not describe that difference better. The genders are on different planets and it is nothing short of miraculous to the writer that they can procreate thereby proving that they are, after all, members of the same species! I would have to add that being a husband and a father to three daughters makes me something of an expert on the topic, at least insofar as any man can be!

Another factor for the writer in all this is that the official Lords’ Witnesses position currently on the matter is that spirits are genderless and that it is only our physical bodies which impart gender to us. This does not feel right to me and I am a firm believer in the philosophy that if something does not feel right then it probably is not right. This approach has not failed me in my research to date so let us see if I can convince not only myself but also my brothers in Christ that spirits have gender. This search for gender not only relates to mankind but also to the angels and God Himself. In my earlier paper ‘Right Hand of God’, I proposed some time ago that our God is male which proposition runs counter to Understanding U257 The Spirit is the Mind and the Heart together. It is Software which can run on Human, Angelic or Divine Hardware on the Lords’ Witnesses web-site.

Given the clear gender difference alluded to earlier, the question for me clarifies itself into ‘What determines the gender of a spirit: its innate creation or the body it finds itself in and what are the implications of this?’. Free will is of fundamental importance in God’s creation but I am not aware that we have the free will to choose which gender we wish to be. Certainly there are many on this earth today that appear to prefer to be the gender other than the one they were born into. I should add that this topic has now proved ready for further study as a result of the author’s work with the President of the Lords’ Witnesses in the preparation of the new understanding U264(a) How Did Jehovah Become a God. This understanding proposes that at one time Jehovah God became a male angel. In my personal opinion, whilst it is not the intention of the paper, U264a proposes that God was male and that He needed to create a female mate for Himself to enable Him to procreate! This logical extension of U264a is not currently shared by my brethren; I hope to put this right in the near future through this paper.

The search for the spirit’s gender, however, starts with that of mankind since that is what I have some experience with.

Male and Female He Created Them