[First posted in 2012. Those among us who were reluctant to say the Tetragrammaton Name at the beginning are more comfortable in declaring it today, as long as the condition of reverence is observed. Like the Jews, we do not wish to violate the 3rd commandment.
This is part of a series titled IN HIS NAME, other related posts are listed hereunder:
- Revisit: IN HIS NAME: What’s in a name? – 1
- IN HIS NAME – Whose ‘Word’ is the Bible? – 2
- IN HIS NAME – Where in What Bible is His Word? – 3
- IN HIS NAME: The problem with Ha Shem, G-d, L-rd – 5
- IN HIS NAME: The Revelation of The Name in Exodus – 6
- IN HIS NAME, amen! -8
- The Names of God —- Perspective of a Noahide
- The Names of God – a Jewish perspective
- God Has Two Names?
- Revisit: “Father” in the Trinity – “the Old Testament God” – the same?
- Genesis/Bereshith 32: “Now why do you ask after my name? “
- Exodus/Shemoth 5: Who is YHVH . . . I do not know YHVH
- Numbers/Bamidbar 35: “for I am YHVH, Dweller in the midst of Israel!”
—Admin1.]
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Image from 924jeremiah.wordpress.com
As you might have noticed reading through the posts in this website, we have no reluctance in writing, saying, proclaiming, declaring the Name of our Lord and God and write “YHWH.” We have repeatedly explained why although this is not the general sentiment even among our small community where some of us wonder if we should blurt out the Name like we do familiar names of people; after all, we are referring to the Creator, God of the Universe, LORD of Lords and KING of kings. Should we not be more reverent? Just as important, should we also not be considerate of the Jews, knowing their sentiments about uttering the Name?
There seem to be 7 positions relating to the TetragrammatonYHWH, the self-declared Name of the True God:
- Those who don’t know it, never heard it, are in no position to even hear the Name and therefore never say it;
- Who would belong to this in our days of information explosion?
- Is it possible some people on this planet in this day and age have not heard the name YHWH?
- Are there any places where copies of the Hebrew Scriptures or the diaspora Jews have not reached? Perhaps the Islamic countries? Primitive areas unreached by civilization?
- Or even if Jews are in such areas, since they don’t say the Name, then it is not proclaimed.
2. Those who don’t know, never heard, are actually in a position to find out if they care to but have not bothered;
- People in this category could easily research since the information is available and accessible, but they don’t think it is relevant to their lives.
3. Those who know because they have heard, but do not think it applies to the God they know and worship;
- These would be religious people who worship God but the God they know has a different name and nature so their God does not at all resemble YHWH of the Hebrew Scriptures.
4. Those who do know because they have heard and read it but it’s unfamiliar to others in their worship community, therefore they never say it;
- The Christian Bible has the Hebrew Scriptures as their Old Testament but the Name is usually rendered as LORD;
- David Stern’s Messianic “The Complete Jewish Bible” is a Christian Bible with Hebrew words and names, including the tetragrammaton Name of the self-revealing God of Sinai; still, Messianics say “Yeshua” or combine the names into “YHWH Yeshua.”
5. Those who do know but don’t dare say it out of extreme awe and reverence and therefore resort to circumlocutions like HaShem or Heaven or Creator, etc.;
- For a good discussion as well as correction of wrong perceptions about the Jewish preference not to write or say the Name, please go to this Jewish website:[http://www.jewfaq.org/name.htm.]; the writer prefers that his article does not get posted on another website so we can only provide the link.
6. Those who do know and say it without additional titles such as Lord, God, Father, since they think simply saying the Name by itself without titles sounds too familiar, not befitting the True God who must not be brought down to our level; some Sinaites feel this way.
7. Those who say it because YHWH Himself has expressly commanded all believers in Him to call on His Name; if you were on the brink of death or in danger, just see how you would naturally and without thinking call out the Name. Some of our Sinaite members agree with this position.
We have been told “what does it matter, we all worship the same God.” If that is true, then ask those who make that statement what is the name of the God they worship and you will find out if we all really do worship the same God.
Apply this same thinking to people: would you call someone you know with words other than their name? “Hey, Mr.,” or “lady,” “sister of John,” “friend,” “boss,” “servant,”; would people not prefer and will respond better to being called by their name? If there are others in the room who could be called “Miss,” should we not be more specific and follow that up with the name of the particular “Miss” since the word is merely a title shared by all single women? If there are so many gods worshipped by people, should we not be all the more specific about the God we do worship?
True, only since 2011 have we started calling on the true name of the True God. We were ignorant for a long while even if we were ardent worshippers of the God we had been introduced to in Christianity, and were connecting to another name. Had we died before we learned the truth would it have mattered?
YHWH has promised—
“I will make Myself available to you,” (Jeremiah 29:14).
To whom has he assured this? To those who will —
“call out to Me and follow [Me];
you will pray to Me and I will listen to you.
You will seek Me and you will find [Me],
if you search for Me with all your hearts.”
While that was directed to His chosen people, those among gentiles who choose Him as God and Lord can claim such divine assurance for themselves. YHWH is not an ‘exclusive’ God, He is the God of Israel Who wishes Israel to declare Him and His Name to the gentiles, to the nations.
Surely He knows who are the true seekers and are on the way of knowing Him as they mature and grow and continue to search the Scriptures for Him. If we die on the way, surely He honors our seeking hearts. It is those who never bothered to even start to search, or have searched but have stopped . . . they are the ones who lose out, thinking they have arrived, complacent that they have nothing more to learn about God. Still, YHWH surely knows who’s who and He knows best and judges according to what truly matters to Him about the life of each person He has allowed to be born.
How did each of us Sinaites get to where we are today? We have had different journeys but the common thread seems to be:
- we knew and acknowledged there is a God;
- we started out not knowing Him;
- we heard that the way to knowing Him is the Bible, in particular the Christian Bible;
- we did end up in various religions but none satisfied our hunger;
- some admitted to church-hopping to check out the teaching from different Christian denominations;
- eventually we each ended up on a loose fellowship of mixed denominations, pastors, missionaries, Christian workers, who simply came together and be taught by speakers/preachers invited to speak each Sunday;
- still— none of us stopped searching the Scriptures to get at the Truth.
- Eventually we did have to go all the way to the original Scriptures, the Hebrew Bible to start over afresh.
However you pronounce the Name—whether “Yahweh” or “Yahuah” or if you prefer to say “Yod Heh Vav Heh,” you leave absolutely no doubt in the mind of the hearer what is the Name of the God you worship, so do not hesitate to declare as Joshua did in Joshua 24:15:
Image from jeremyrenners.blogspot.com
And if it displeases you
to serve YHWH,
choose this day
whom you will serve,
whether the gods which your fathers served
that were on the other side of the river,
or the gods of the Amorites,
in whose land you dwell,
but as for me and my household,
we shall serve YHWH.“
In behalf of Sinai 6000
Core Community—-
