The Name of God The existence of God can be proven by using science, history and the Bible. God’s pronouncements and prophecies can become our stronghold in believing that He exists. The words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 24:5, 7 showed how His prophecies are coming to pass right now in our time. These prophecies include the proliferation of deceivers, the occurrence of wars and rumors of wars, famine, pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places. The God of the Holy Scriptures will be our topic. And with God’s help, questions like “Who is God?” “What is His name?” and “Where is He?” would be resolved by using the Bible. Any wise person will surely believe in the existence of a Supreme Being because no one will exist without Him. According to the Bible, our existence is a concrete proof of His existence. Acts 17:28 says that our existence proves the existence of God— “For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring. “For in Him we live, we exist, and we move, and have our being.” The Bible says that there is really a Supreme Being who created everything that exists—the visible and the invisible, the spiritual and the material, and everything that exists on earth and in the universe. In fact, their existence proves the existence of God – the Creator of everything. But we have to know the person of that Supreme Being that we call God. The word “God” has been used in different ways in the Bible. That is why we have to be specific about the person and the being of that one Supreme Being we call “God”, so that we can pay Him due respect, service, praises, and honor. In the Bible, He is being introduced as a person with a name. In introducing persons to one another, we normally introduce them by their names. And if we believe that there is a God who exists, if we believe in a powerful Being who is responsible in the existence of everything in the universe, we have to know His name. The question concerning the name that we need to use in addressing the Almighty God has become a big controversy over time among the people who believe in God. Different religious denominations introduce Him in different ways. The Muslims call him Allah, while the members of the various Protestant groups as well as the Born Again Movements call Him Jesus. They believe that Jesus is the Father, Jesus is also the Son, and Jesus is also the Holy Spirit. That is why they refer to Him as God Jesus, Jesus the Father, Jesus the Son, and Jesus the Holy Spirit. All of them have the same name because according to them, they are but one person, and that is the person of Jesus. This is, indeed, a very controversial issue. If we are going to turn the pages of the Bible to find out what the vital issues had arose in the past, we will find out that during the time of Moses, the name of God never became a subject of contention. And even during the time of the Apostles and the first century Christians, there had been no debate regarding the name of God. Why? It was because all of them knew the truth. They had our Lord Jesus Christ with them. It was very easy on their part to know what the name of God was because Jesus revealed it to His disciples. Moses, on the other hand, heard the name of God right from the angel’s mouth. But now, the pronunciation of God’s name had been lost. The Jews, who knew it, were aware of the sacredness of that name that was why, they were too afraid to at least utter God’s name. In the Old Testament, it was a grave sin to use the name of God in vain. That is the reason why, in the course of time, the pronunciation of God’s name was lost. The question about God’s name was neither an issue 2000 years ago. St. Paul never argued with anybody about the name of God because all of them knew His name. Even the Israelites did not doubt Moses when he mentioned the name of God. Nobody questioned him because he personally heard the angel who uttered the name of God. But today, it is totally different. Now, God’s name and its pronunciation have become a debatable issue. It is an issue that would be resolved through the available evidences that we have inasmuch as we could no longer, directly, ask the disciples and the Apostles nor the early Christians. But one thing is sure. The name of God is not Jehovah! Why are we saying that Jehovah is not the name of God? What is our reason? We are saying that Jehovah is not the name of God because the Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves are admitting that the name “Jehovah” is not God’s real name. And if we are going to refer to the foreword of the Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures, which was translated by the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1950, it says— “While inclining to view the pronunciation “Yahweh” as the more correct way, we have retained the form “Jehovah” because of people’s familiarity with it since the 14th century.” The Jehovah’s Witnesses are admitting that the pronunciation “Yahweh” is the more correct pronunciation of God’s name. But simply because the people were already familiar with the name “Jehovah,” they had decided to continue using that name in all of the Kingdoms everywhere. They continue to preach this erroneous belief. It is erroneous because, in one of their publications, “Reasoning from the Scriptures,” they confessed the truth about the name “Jehovah”. Page 192 says— “Hence, some moderns have framed the name Jehovah, unknown to all the ancients, whether Jews or Christians.” According to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the name “Jehovah” was just framed and formulated by some modern translators. That means only the modern translators have framed it from the Tetragrammaton, YHWH. And they, likewise, admitted that “Jehovah” was not known to the ancients, whether Jews or Christians. Therefore, the first century Christians did not have any idea of the name “Jehovah”. Not even our Lord Jesus Christ, not even the Apostles, not even Paul, who wrote so many epistles, none of them knew of any “Jehovah” because it came out only in the 14th century. There are people who call themselves “witnesses” but, in truth, they are “false witnesses”. They are playing witnesses to something not true. They are inculcating in the minds of their 2 million members (as they claim) that the name of God is “Jehovah”. Members who refuse to accept it are threatened of not being saved. That belief is a blatant lie because they, themselves, had confesses that such was not really the correct pronunciation to God’s name. They believe that the word “Yahweh” is the more correct way of pronouncing God’s name. In spite of the fact that they are more inclined to believe that “Yahweh” is the more correct pronunciation to God’s name, they still instill in the minds of the people that God’s name is “Jehovah”. This is one reason why we are saying that the name of God is, indeed, a very broad topic. Not only that, it is also a very sensitive subject matter. Now, let us familiarize ourselves with the word “name” in the Bible. Biblically speaking, the word “name” is very important, although some Catholics believe that a name is not that important. In fact, there was one religious pastor who remarked, Why talk about the name when a name is immaterial? He even cited a Shakespearean line, “A rose by any other name will still be sweet.” That is not true! If somebody gives you this quotation, that would mean that, that person is out of his mind. Why say that, a rose by any other name is sweet? In the Philippines, there is a flower called, katuray. By the mere sound of its name, we can already tell that this flower is not sweet, even if you call it “rose”. Using the name “rose” for a “katuray” will not make it any sweeter. Misnaming anything is not good. You have to name all things accordingly – exact and precise. If you will not consider certain factors and circumstances in naming persons or things, the result is a misnomer. If you are going to call bronze, or an iron painted with gold as gold, you will be fooling a lot of people. When you say gold, it must be a soft metal, not necessarily yellowish in color because there is such a thing as white gold, with a certain luster. It is also attractive to the eye. But if you are going to ascribe the word “gold” to a bronze, that is deception. When we talk about the name of God, we have to be precise because we are referring to the Creator of all things, of every truth, and of every goodness. Aside from that, He is the reason behind our existence. Insofar as the Bible is concerned, a name is very important. Proverbs 22:1 says— “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.” The written word of God introduces the value of a name. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. Take note, it is not just riches but “great riches”. We have known great riches in the Bible. For example, the house of Balak was full of gold and silver. Numbers 24:13 says— “If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord, to either good or bad of mine own mind; but what the Lord saith, that will I speak.” Balak’s house contained great riches; it was full of silver and gold. But the Bible says, “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.” See how important a good name is? And if we are going to choose among names, surely, we will choose the most appropriate and the most fitting. Now, let us try to analyze further the reasons behind a name. The name “Isaac” means joy, happiness, laughter. And Isaac was given that name because before he was born, an angel of the Lord told his father, Abraham, the following year, Sarah, his wife, will conceive and give birth to a son. But upon hearing this, Sarah laughed. Why did she laugh? She laughed because she was already very old. She was past her menopausal years. And even Abraham was almost a hundred years old already. From Sarah’s laughter was the name Isaac originated. In the Bible, naming a person is sometimes based on the incidents in the person’s life. Sometimes, it is based on his physical appearance, like Esau, for instance. Esau means “hairy”. He was called Esau because of his physical traits – his skin was hairy. Genesis 25:25 says— “And first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they call his name Esau.” Therefore, the name of Esau fits his physical appearance. Sometimes, a name also speaks of an incident in a person’s life. Like in the case of Moses for instance. What does Moses’ name signify? Because he was taken out of the water, they called him Moses. The name “Moses” is not Hebrew. It was Egyptian, and it means, “He was taken out of the water.” Now, the name “Yashua” is another thing. In Hebrew, it means “savior”. The name “Yahsua”, or “Jashua”, or “Jesus”, in Greek, refers to a savior. That is why, if we are going to ask the Bible of the real name of the Creator, who is commonly called God, we will come across a very great idea of a very broad truth. The question is, What is His name? Who named Him? These are sensible questions. It is wise to believe that somebody named everything that has a name. In Genesis, all the animals and the fowls were named by Adam. Genesis 2:19— “And out of the ground the Lord God formes every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them to Adam to seen what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.” In the Bible, a name refers to the way a person, or a thing, is called. We have also learned that in naming persons and things, there are factors to consider. And we have seen that in the names of Isaac, Esau, and Moses. Therefore, in studying the name of the Almighty God, it is imperative that we get to know how we should address Him. How are we going to call Him? How are we going to praise and worship His name? Our Lord Jesus Christ said— “Pray unto this manner, Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name …” We have to worship the name of the Lord. But what is His name? Certainly, it is not Jehovah. Using their own published material, we can prove that without a shadow of a doubt. Jehovah is not the name of God! Produced through the help of the ALMIGHTY GOD by the Members CHURCH OF GOD International Copyright © 2000-2007, MCGI, All Rights Reserved
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 04:25:37 +0000
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