SHALOM,
I HAVE READ SOME OF YOUR ARTICLES, AND AGREE WITH MOST OF YOUR WRITINGS. I HAVE ONE QUESTION. HOW THROUGH ALL OF YOUR RESEARCH, YOU USE A TITLE(GOD) FOR OUR CREATOR, AND A GREEK HELENISTIC PAGAN NAME (JESUS) FOR OUR SAVIOR?
SHALOM,
RAY LINEAR
MyReply
Shalom Ray,
You ask a straightforward question, which deserves a straightforward answer. When I have spoken to Messianic/Hebrew Roots congregations in the past, I exclusively use the Hebrew Divine Names (Yahweh, Yashuah, Ruach Hakodesh, Elohim), but when I write or speak to general audiences, I use the standard English terms for the Godhead (God, God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit). I use the terms that each audience will prefer or understand. I am completely comfortable with either set of names as I believe our Creator and his Son are accessible through either set of names. Indeed, I have experienced miraculous answers offered in the name of Jesus Christ, so I know God is accessible via that English name for his Son.
The key issue in the usage of the Divine Names is whether our Creator requires that he be addressed in just the Hebrew Divine Names or whether he is accessible by the names for him in any language. I believe the latter option is the correct viewpoint, but I respect the viewpoints of those who believe otherwise.
There are three reasons why I believe the Hebrew Divine Names are not required by our Creator in accessing or approaching him. The first is the fact that in Genesis 11:6-9, our Creator cut off all nations from the pre-Flood language and “downloaded” a new language into the minds of the people of each nation. Verse 8 shows the nations scattered across the earth as each group migrated with those who could understand each other. It is worth noting that the Creator gave each nation a new spoken language, but all nations were illiterate and had to gradually develop new ways of communicating via new humanly-invented writing systems. The Creator undoubtedly created a new name for himself in each nation’s new language. Abraham wasn’t even alive then so there were no chosen people at that time. Whatever names the Creator gave each new linguistic group for Himself had to be acceptable to the Creator as he designed them all! The Hebrew names for the Creator came via the family of languages known as Northern Semitic, but languages change over the centuries so I believe that no one has any idea what the original sound of the Creator’s name was in any tongue right after Babel.
The second reason is the narratives we have in Acts 2. When the new Apostles were Divinely given the ability to suddenly speak in what were previously foreign languages, there were many different linguistic groups present (Acts 5-11). The devout pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem for the Pentecost (i.e. Feast of Weeks) festival said that “every man heard them speak in their own language” (verses 6 and 8). Verse 11 is the key scripture in my mind. It states that all the assembled people from the nations said: “we do hear them speak in our own tongues the wonderful works of God” (KJV). Clearly, the Apostles were expounding the Old Testament scriptures and were frequently using the names for the Creator that were unique to each of the foreign languages being spoken by the Apostles, and this was done by the Divine will of the Creator. This passage does not say the foreigners said: “We hear them speak in our own tongues the wonderful works of God but we hear them using Hebrew whenever they refer to the Deity.” It is apparent to me that the foreign believers all heard the Divine Names in their own tongues along with all the other words being spoken by the Apostles.
Finally, when the Lord returns, Acts 3:21 prophesies that there will be a “restitution of all things,” and I believe this includes a return to the original pre-Flood language which God removed from human minds at Babel when he gave everyone a new language. Hebrew was not the pre-Flood language; it developed from a Semitic tongue created at Babel. No one today has any idea how the Creator’s Divine Names or titles were spoken or written in the original pre-Flood language. Zephaniah 3:9 also prophesies that the Creator will eventually “return to the peoples a pure language, that they all may call upon the name of the Lord with one consent.” This prophecy indicates (to me) that in the Millennium/Messianic Age, all nations will again be speaking a “pure language” which must be “returned” to them. This can only mean that the Creator will restore to all human minds the original pre-Flood language and all nations will call upon the Creator in the original Name he had for himself in the pre-Flood, pre-Babel world. The Savior himself promised in Revelation 3:12 that he will give”my new name” to the saved. Very likely this will be his name in the pre-Flood, original language which no nation now knows, but all the redeemed will be given the Savior’s “new name” when he returns.
Hope this answers your question. Please be assured that I respect the beliefs of every group re: the Divine Names which they feel led to use.
Steve
