The Not-So-Well Known Name

By: John L. Fisk

11-22-09

A NAME:

I took my wife, Sara Jean to the doctors for a routine check-up and sat in the waiting room as usual. I picked up a newspaper called Sports News and the first story was entitled My NAME will be REMEMBERERED FOREVER. It struck me as to how important a name is to both those who know it and those to whom it belongs. Names like Elvis, Abe, FDR , Castro and Napoleon need no explanation. This is just the way they like it. These names are chiseled into history and we are intimately familiar with the person associated with the name. We know the men and the events that surround these names. Oh, by the way, the name of whom the article spoke: Shaquille O’Neal -- enough said, if you are a basketball fan.

If someone came to you and asked you about Joe Blow, your initial response, if truthful, would be, “Who?”

“You know, Joe Blow, he’s from Podunk,” responds your questioner in a tone that indicates that you should know this guy.

“I have no idea who you are taking about,” you would respond, starting to wonder if the questioner knows Joe Blow.

If you do not know the name Joe Blow, you do not know Joe Blow. It’s that simple.

Some 300 years before Jesus began to teach, the name of God was sealed. By the time Jesus spoke the Sermon on the Mount, the name was not known by anyone on that mount. It is thus fair to say that few knew God. Once Jesus said to His disciples, “…they do not know the One who sent Me.” May I conclude, if they do not know the NAME of the One who sent Jesus they cannot know Jesus? I think now it is the other way around, unless you know Jesus you cannot know Yehovah. More on this later.

A Name Remembered:

Many years ago I read Dale Carnegie’s book How to Make Friends and Influence People. Remembering that there were certain points that were made on how to make friends and influence people, I revisited these points to refresh my memory. They are:

1.  Become genuinely interested in other people.

2.  Smile.

3.  Remember that a man's Name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in any language.

4.  Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.

5.  Talk in the terms of the other man's interest.

6.  Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely.

These can be changed a bit and you could improve your relationship with Yehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

1.  Become genuinely interested in Yehovah.

2.  Smile. Give thanks.

3.  Remember, Yehovah’s Name is to Him a sweet and important sound.

4.  Be a good listener.

5.  Talk about His plan, not yours – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

6.  Praise Yehovah, Glorify Him

All of these points are good and could be expanded into chapter after chapter but I would like to focus on point number three, “Remember Yehovah’s Name is to Him a sweet and important sound.” The name of God has been forgotten. It is a name that abides in the memory of the history of God’s people. It is known esoterically and used by few. It is not, however, used among His people in verse nor in song. His people are now just coming to the revelation of His name and beginning to use His Name, Yehovah.

Don’t you hate to forget somebody’s name? You cannot say, “Hey, nice to see you, what’s your name.” It would make you feel stupid. Given how much a person’s name means to him, you just don’t say that. What do you think would happen when your God appears and you say, “Hey, nice to see you, what’s your name”, or worse yet you call Him by another’s name! You don’t even have to explain, He knows you do not know. Names are important and Yehovah desires His name to be known even by the heathen. Sadly, there are few who acknowledge His name and fewer still who use it. So what happened to cause men to forget the Name of God? Elvis Presley has more name recognition than Yehovah. There are twenty-three centuries of tradition which have obscured, wiped-out and generally demonized the use of the Name of God. Few write His name and fewer still speak His name. These conditions exist whether in the synagogue or the church. Many proclaim through song and prose: we will magnify, praise and exalt the Name of God. But, truth be known, they do not know the Name of God. How sad! Few who know His Name mention His Name. Those who mention His Name do so in a whisper. Many in Christendom think the Name of God is Jesus. Jesus is the Son of God and yes, God the Son – But, Jesus is not the Name of God. The Name Jesus is a transliteration from the Latin which was translated from the Greek which was translated from the Hebrew. In the Hebrew His Name is Yeshua which literally means Salvation. (Matthew 1:21) Jesus is the name under heaven by which you must be saved. However, Revelation 3:12 clearly indicates that Jesus’ will change His name. Thus the name of Jesus is not eternal but, God’s name is. Curious?

There is a scripture in Proverbs 18:10 that states “The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous run into it, and is safe.” I’m familiar with a song which uses this verse as lyrics. An additional verse of the song says, “Jesus is the Name of the LORD.” But this is not quite correct. The Hebrew word for “the LORD” is Yehovah and this is the name of God. So, if you were to sing the song as it should be translated it would be, “Jesus is the name of Yehovah.” Doesn’t make sense, does it? Stay with me here, I know this revelation is going against the grain but at one time eating His flesh and drinking His blood also went against the grain, did it not?

(Proverbs 30:4 ) asks, “What is His Name, and what is His Son's Name, if you can tell?”) Singing, “Jesus is the name of Yehovah” does not answer the question in Proverbs 30:4, but reveals that the lyrics are wrong. How do you think God’s people got in this position? They are called by His name but when His name is spoken they say, who? Or worse yet, what?

In most translations of the scriptures the Name of our God is cloaked. Rather than writing His name as Jehovah or Yehovah it is written as the LORD. I know that all this confusion and ambiguity about His Name did not take Yehovah by surprise. Indeed, there is no doubt He was the One who cloaked His Name for a time. Now, on the other hand it is obvious from the prophetic scriptures that He desires to reveal His Name. The Glory of Yehovah will rise with the use of His Name. His deeds and Who He is will be known through-out all the earth and there will no one running around saying, “Well, we all worship the same God,” or other such nonsense!

The Confusion:

Almost every mainline press report when reporting on terrorists screaming Allah akbar translates the Arabic phrase into “God is great.” This is wrong on two counts. The phrase really should be translated “Allah is greater.” The “God is great” translation plays into a common misconception that Allah is God and akbar means great. This is a way of disassociating the terrorist from Islam and for the press to blame the whole terrorist thing on a generic god. It has another effect of telling everyone, “We all worship the same god.” After all, isn’t Allah just the Arabic word for God? No, it is the Arabic word for the name of the god of Islam.

The press loves to promote this misconception for they do not believe in any god. It suits their desire to lump all gods into one god. It promotes their desire for multiculturalism and they feel so good that they have treated all religions the same. This makes them objective and sooo above the fray. They hate anyone who would contradict the conclusion that we all worship the same god. The press labels the people who know their God is Yehovah as hateful bigots, narrow minded, and not having near the objectivity they have. This feeds into the press’ desires to draw a moral equivalence between Christians and the terrorist. After all, if a Christian becomes “radical” he is just one step from a terrorist act. These subliminal suggestions come pouring out of the elitists press every night on the news.

But, Allah is NOT the same as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and he is NOT the God of Jesus. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has a name; it is Yehovah. Allah was a god selected from a plethora of desert gods that were common to the Arabian people. Mohammad came along in the seventh century peddling this moon god as the only god and as a promotional he proclaimed that this god, Allah is the greatest. Simply Allah akbar. This will be the last time I write this phrase, for the truth is: Yehovah akbar. (Exodus 23:13)

Islam and its rise in the west is indeed one of the reasons that the name of God has become important. Not so long ago there was little doubt as to who God was. This was a Judeo-Christian nation and God, whose name is Yehovah, was seldom if ever confused with another demonic god. This is no longer true.

Here is an example, albeit antidotal, of how confused the Church has become. Back on August 16, 2007 an article was written by Fox news on how a Roman Catholic bishop in the Netherlands wanted people of all faiths to refer to God as "All-h." Another article says that Moslems in Malaysia are trying to prohibit the Roman Catholic Church from referring to God as “All-h.” It would be funny if it were not so sad.

We are in a war and it is a war that Yehovah is staging. He is going to show the world that He is God and He is the God of the people who take refuge in His Name. “The Name of Yehovah is a strong tower: the righteous run into it, and is safe.” (Proverbs 18:10) Many who profess to know Him do not know the Name of Yehovah. This is made evident by the sited articles. The question then becomes how is it that the people who profess to know Him are so confused? Never in all of history has the identity of God been hidden primarily because God’s name is not spoken among the Jews and unknown among the Christians. For 2300 years the Jews have refused to speak the Name and the Christians are ignorant of the Name. Why?

The Obfuscation:

Yehovah, the Name of God was not always cloaked. There was a time that Yehovah was in common use among the people of God. God’s Name gradually slipped from common use after the time of Ezra and the rebuilding of the second temple. The Name Yehovah, was first taken from the people around 350BC. The priests became the keeper of the Name of Yehovah and they uttered it only in prayer. By 291 BCE the Name of God had been removed from use. The high priest became the only one to speak His Name and he did so only during Yom Kipper when he went into the most Holy. Otherwise, he never so much as whispered the Name of God. The final straw was the destruction of the second temple in 70 AD. No temple, no speaking of the Name of Yehovah. No observant Jew has spoken the Name of Yehovah from then till now. Thus no one is sure of the Name’s proper pronunciation. Did you know that the Jews are commissioned to keep the oracles of God?

There is an article that appears in Rabbi Kaplan's Handbook of Jewish Thought. This particular article is a dissertation on how and why the name of God is not to be spoken. The following is an except:

The Tetragrammaton is called God's "proper name" (Shem HaMeforash). Although God Himself is absolutely unknowable and unnameable, the Tetragrammaton is His highest emanation in creation. It is therefore considered most sacred, and is never pronounced as it is written, even in prayer. We are taught that one who pronounces the Tetragrammaton disrespectfully is worthy of death and has no portion in the World to Come. According to tradition, whenever the Tetragrammaton is written yud-hay-vov-hay, it is read Adonai. However, when it occurs in conjunction with the name adonai, it is read Elohim.”

The article by Rabbi Kaplan goes on to say:

Originally, the Tetragrammaton was used by all the priests in their blessing. However, there is a tradition that after Shimon HaTzaddik died in 3470 (291 BCE), its use was discontinued, since the Divine Presence (Shechina) was no longer manifest in the Temple and the other priests felt themselves unworthy.

For about 300 years before Jesus’ first advent the Jews had not spoken the Name of God. This brings into question the writings of the New Testament! They were written less than 200 years after the birth of Jesus. (Matthew 15:6) The writers of the New Testament had brought this prohibition to the text by the traditions of the Jews. There are numerous unambiguous examples of the Name of Yehovah being substituted by the Greek word for Lord, or kurios. Consider Mark 12:30, which uses the phrase “love the Lord thy God.” There is no doubt that this is a quote from Deuteronomy 6:5, which says, “And you shall love Yehovah your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” [Let me get back to the fact that your KJV Bible says, “the LORD” where I put Yehovah.] The Jewish tradition of obfuscating the name of Yehovah, for whatever reason, was codified into the scriptures until it was all but lost. Few among the Christians know that God even has a Name and fewer still know what it is and fewer (if anyone) know how it is pronounced.

The Old Testament was translated into English and the Name Yehovah was substituted by the word, Lord or God. The King James Version (KJV) did not entirely wipe out the information but would translate the word Yehovah into all capital letters like this “LORD.” Usually it is predicated by the definite article ‘the’. It appears in the KJV as “the LORD.” Sometimes the Hebrew text itself would use the term Lord Yehovah in which case it was translated in the KJV as “Lord GOD.” This case is found often in the book of the prophet Ezekiel. The coding of the word Yehovah certainly had its effect. Consider that few know that the 23rd Psalm really begins with, “Yehovah is my Sheppard…” and ends with “… I will dwell in the house of Yehovah forever.” He really does have a Name! It is just hidden.