Fisking is it? Well I don't know about that. You guys are both very overconfident to my mind. Lisa comes off a lot worse I think, as most of her reasoning is off-blog, whereas James has very much gotten used to the idea of supporting his ideas with information in a coherent way.

Because laughing and falling off my chair tends to offend[...]

Nice to see you stifling your disrespect in such a visible way James. [sigh]

OK, so maybe here God is saying that God is LIKE a woman in childbirth, but to me, this is still an image that should not be forgotten. I also find it hard to see why God would choose to be like a woman in childbirth, with the crying, gasping & panting, unless God WAS like a woman in childbirth...

Maybe? On the assumption that revelation is revelation, when God says "like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant." it does mean "like". What's all this emphasis for?

God WAS like a woman in childbirth[.]

Wholeheartedly agree, but emphasis does not a new sentence make.

Lisa: My ideas aren't actually new...They're in fact pretty old...

James So is [A]rianism.

(Arius, being a chap, gets a capital letter. Women can have capital letters too, but only in extreme circumstances.)

Worth saying I suppose, but still a cheap shot.

Isaiah: The LORD will march out like a mighty man,
like a warrior he will stir up his zeal;
with a shout he will raise the battle cry
and will triumph over his enemies.

"For a long time I have kept silent,
I have been quiet and held myself back.
But now, like a woman in childbirth,
I cry out, I gasp and pant.
I will lay waste the mountains and hills
and dry up all their vegetation;
I will turn rivers into islands
and dry up the pools.["]

Lisa: I think that it can even be said that the experience of labour and the delivery of a baby is a great metaphor for God's struggle to birth a new heaven and a new earth.

Yeah, it's only a pity that the apparent context is God's victory over his enemies.

James: It is, to be frank, a shit metaphor. The Son perhaps, wholly man, must struggle when He does things as man does them, dying on the cross must have been a struggle, but as for God the father - He doesnt 'struggle' with anything, He's not in hard labour, sweating and pushing - He's God. He just gets stuff done.

Over-egging the pudding. God does use this simile (not ostensibly for the purpose Lisa intends I think), and it does imply struggle. These references that portray God in a human light might mean many things, some of which I discard because they don't do justice to my conception of God (which, while limited, I believe to be coherent). I tend to think that they emphasise God's real concern and anger regarding humanity as opposed to the apathy of, say, the Greek pantheon.

I don't recall God being described as 'like a Father' but as "my Father and your Father", its not a metaphor. God is our Father.

A misunderstanding of metaphor. To say that "God is my Father" may equally, linguistically speaking, be a metaphor or a truth statement about an objective fact of God being my Father.

Quite why I felt compelled to dive into this I've no idea.