Is there a mother god?

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Scripture reveals God in a Trinity of three divine Persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — and nowhere presents a "mother god." The notion of a feminine deity is, throughout the Bible, consistently treated as pagan idolatry rather than divine revelation. ## God's Self-Revelation: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit The Morrish Bible Dictionary states under "Trinity": A word only used to convey the thought of a plurality of Persons in the Godhead. This was revealed at the baptism of the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit descended 'like a dove' and abode upon Him; and God the Father declared "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." … Yet there is but one God. And under "God": The characteristic name of God in the N.T. in relationship with His saints is that of FATHER: it was used anticipatively in the Lord's intercourse with His disciples, but made a reality after His resurrection, when He sent the message: "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." John 20:17. Scripture reveals the Godhead as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — never as including a "mother" figure. ## God as Father — Not a Human Projection F. A. Hughes addresses this directly and warns against broadening the title beyond what Scripture reveals: If the Fatherhood of God applies to all men, why did the Lord say to the religious leaders of His day "If God were your Father", adding those terribly solemn words "Ye are of your father the devil" (John 8:42-44). Note carefully that these are the words of "a Man that hath told you the truth" (verse 40). Matthew 11:27 reads — "Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him". Further in John 14:6 we find these conclusive words "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me". The title "Father" is not a human metaphor borrowed from family life — it is God's own self-revelation, given through His Son, and it exhausts the categories He has chosen to make Himself known. ## The "Queen of Heaven" — A Warning, Not a Model The only "mother goddess" figure appearing in Scripture is the pagan "Queen of Heaven" — and it appears as an object of divine condemnation, not worship. The Morrish Bible Dictionary notes: Jeremiah also states that in Judah and Jerusalem cakes were made to the QUEEN OF HEAVEN, which is commonly supposed to refer to the moon, worshipped as Astarte. Then when the residue of the people had gone into Egypt, they declared that in spite of the prophet's warning they *would* burn incense to the Queen of Heaven, and pour out drink offerings unto her. Jer. 7:18; Jer. 44:17-19, 25. The entry on Ashtaroth/Ashtoreth identifies this goddess-worship as endemic to the nations surrounding Israel: Goddess of the Phoenicians and Zidonians, worshipped by Israel after the death of Joshua, and by Solomon. Ashtaroth was the chief female goddess and Baal the chief male god, and they are often named together. E. H. Young draws the line from this ancient paganism through to later religious developments: In the days of Jeremiah (Jer. 44:19) the paganism of the heathen nations had invaded Judea, and women were seen offering cakes to the *Queen of Heaven.* ## Idolatry: The Heart of the Error The Morrish entry on Idolatry traces the origin of all false gods — male and female — to the same root: Imaginary creatures were regarded as gods, and these were feared and propitiated. Some believed in a fetish of good and a fetish of evil. Others had an elaborate system of mythology, as the Greeks, with husbands and wives and sons and daughters of the gods and goddesses. *Man* himself was exalted by some into a god, as with the Greeks and the Romans. Satan being the real promoter of it all, he knows how to lead a poor unintelligent heathen to be satisfied with an imaginary fetish; the Greeks and Romans to be pleased with their stately statues … Satan has also succeeded in introducing into the professing church the worship of the Virgin Mary and of the saints. ## The Son Reveals the Father J. G. Bellett presses the point that the whole of Christianity rests on the eternal relationship of Father and Son — not on any human family structure projected onto God: We are baptized "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt. 28:19). This carries with it the *formal* declaration of the mystery of the *Godhead;* the Son being a divine Person … as is the Father, and as is the Holy Ghost. If there are Persons in the Godhead, as we know there are, are we not to know also that there are relationships between them? … The Persons in that glory are not *independent,* but *related.* Nor is it beyond our measure to say that the great archetype of love, the blessed model or original of all relative affection, is found in that relationship. C. H. Mackintosh further highlights how Israel's great sin was abandoning the one true God for Baal and Ashtoreth: The one only true and living God given up for Baal and Ashtaroth! … Even amid the unexampled splendours of Solomon's reign, that root sent forth its bitter shoots, in the monstrous form of high places to Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Zidonians; Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites; and Chemosh, the abomination of Moab. ## Synthesis Scripture is clear: there is no "mother god." God has revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — three Persons in one Godhead. The title "Father" is not a culturally imposed metaphor but God's own self-disclosure, and the Son alone reveals Him (Matthew 11:27; John 14:6). Every instance of goddess-worship in Scripture — Ashtoreth, the "Queen of Heaven," Artemis — is presented as idolatry, a departure from the one true God. The idea of a "mother god" belongs to the mythology of the pagan nations from which God called His people out, and it is precisely the kind of worship that brought divine judgment upon Israel again and again.