WHAT ABOUT GOD'S NAME: The Tetragrammaton (Divine
Name) of God is written in Biblical Hebrew some 6,800 times although without any indication of its vowel sounds. Usually
it is rendered in English as YHWH (or YHVH) and some scholars believe that possibly the missing vowels with the consonants
together formed the name Yahweh. Although much less accurate a number of modern Bibles in English give the name as Jehovah
in at least some verses of the Old Testament such as at Psalm 83:18 in the King James.
At Deuteronomy 12:3 God said when Israel's tribes entered
Canaan that they must destroy all things related to idol worship including even the names of false gods. God also commanded
that the ten tribes of Israel with Moses not take the name of God in vain, and another way for the Israelites to obey God
was to work against that possibility by instead using "Adonai" which is Hebrew for LORD.
Most Christians and Christian Bibles reflect this same desire to also show respect for God's person and name, and
so they generally use the English word title LORD. A few persons view the matter differently, saying "Christians
shouldn't follow any Jewish customs at all," or, as with the Watchtower Society heads over Jehovah's Witnesses, have
claimed that Christians and Christian Bibles not using YHWH (Yahweh/Jehovah) do so in order to follow a "Jewish
superstition."
Jesus Christ was both
a Jewish Rabbi and the founder of Christianity, and he did as other Jewish rabbis did, namely he used the expression
LORD to show respect (not superstittion) although he also told his followers to tenderly address God in prayers as "Our
Father" in heaven. (Read Matthew 6) These reasons explain why although some 5,000 early manuscripts of books of
the New Testament, some complete and others partial, dating to within the first 100 years of Christianity's start have
been found.
As alluded to, against all this evidence and scholarship stand the heads of the Watchtower
Society organization of Jehovah's Witnesses who publish a "New World" translation of the Bible into which their
translation committee has added the name Jehovah throughout the New Testament. Although that committee wished to stay
anonymous it is known that it was headed by now deceased former Watchtower President Frederick Franz who had no formal training
in Hebrew and was biased.
This
adding of the name "Jehovah" in place of "Lord," which definitely is in the early manuscripts, concerns
all Christians including good, caring Jehovah's Witnesses. They know that at Revelation 22:18 the writer apostle
John says "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will
add to him the plagues described in this book."
Is such mistranslation by accident? It is all
the more alarming when one notes that Watchtower heads lead the vast majority of Jehovah's Witnesses to never partake
of the Last Supper memorial emblems of unleavened bread and wine, because this not only means they are thus denied full communion
with the body of Christ on earth, but is in accord with the similar practice called "denying the body of Christ"
in Satanism. This is something also equally alarming to all good, humble and honest Jehovah's Witnesses
when it is pointed out to them.
In
the New Testament a part of the tetragrammaton does appear in various names. For example in Hebrew in the Old and New
Testaments one finds the name Elijah, which in Hebrew is Eliyahu where El means God -i- means "my," and "yahu"
is a shortened form of YHWH. Thus Elijah means My God Is Jah. The name "Jesus" is from the Hebrew
words "Yeh" or "Yah" (short for YHWH) and "sus" (or "-shua") meaning "(is) salvation,
so that a possible full translation of Jesus in English is "Yah(weh) is salvation."
However, not only did Christ say when in prayer to simply call God "our
Father," but Paul also says use "Abba" which can be translated "papa" or "dad." (Romans
8:15, Galatians 4:6) Since in the Bible, Christians are to regard and speak of God as our heavenly "father"
or "dad," most always have and still do. Doing so draws a believer in Christ to feel much closer to God
than if he or she kept using a formal name such as Jehovah or Yahweh.
Among humans, children do not normally
call their human father by his first or last name as this reflects formality and alienation. Thus, Johnny and Mary
Doe call their human father "dad" or "father." They do not call him "John," "Doe,"
"Mr. Doe," or "John Doe."
Yes, the Bible speaks of those who call on the name of the Lord
being saved at Romans 10:13. There the New World translation by Frederick Franz, Nathan Knorr and others over Watchtower
when they were alive has dropped "Lord" and inserted "Jehovah." Another point is that saying all
who called on the "name" of the Lord will be saved does not refer to those who sound or voice
a certain pronunciation, but to those who are truly following God with confidence and are naturally calling out to him on
that basis and in love.
So it is not wrong to use a formal name such as Jehovah or Yahweh, a respectful
title such as LORD, or terms of affection such as Father. However, most Christians, for the reasons noted above,
simply use a respectful title or call God our "Father." Now you know the real truth about this important
matter.