The Sacred Names Question

What happened to Sabbath? Good to always see you. Beautiful day, isn't it? Coming down, I thought I was in Mary old Ireland. This time of year, I really like the grass when it greens up. It's too bad the trees and the grass don't green up at the same time. It seemed like it flip-flops, doesn't it? In the wintertime, you get brown grass and green trees. And in the wintertime, you get green grass and brown trees. So, anyway, I guess you get in a range the best of both worlds. Today's sermon I want to give you, you know, stems from an experience that I had a long, long time ago.

In fact, growing back to 1967. You can sort of add the days up, the years up, you know, growing back to that time. It was a time when I was beginning, just beginning, to learn about God's truth. One of the first things I learned, I've explained this to you before, was the Sabbath. And I think I mentioned to you that we were basically, a friend of mine and I, were traveling home from the Freewill Baptist Church, where, you know, everybody was a Baptist, by the way, in Oklahoma.

When you were born, in fact, you were a Baptist. But, so then, we're going to this Freewill Baptist Church and I asked the question that changed my life. I said to my friend, why are all these people working on the Sabbath? And he said, because today is not the Sabbath.

Never heard anybody say that. And that day, of course, was Sunday. And he said, Saturday is the Sabbath. Somehow, the lights began to go off in my mind. I realized, again, that the world had been deceived about which day was the Sabbath. And so, the very next week, the next Saturday, my friend and I began to keep the Sabbath. Again, that goes back a quite a long ways. I would have been maybe 17 years old, maybe 16 as well, maybe in that neck of the woods, in fact, age-wise.

But, I believe it was 17. But, you know, the thing that, of course, with me, when I was first learning as everybody, and when you were first learning about something, you're very green, you don't know the Bible, you don't know the scriptures, you're just studying, you're just discovering things. Well, you know, we began attending, you know, the Seventh-day Church of God. That was the name of it. And again, they observed the Sabbath.

There are other things they do not observe. And so, I was in services, you know, keeping the Sabbath. And as all churches do, they had hymns that they sang, like we do here. In one particular Sabbath, I was standing next to somebody who was also attending the same congregation. And they would sing the same songs I would sing, but as they would come to the word God, they would sing the word Yah.

And sometimes they would use the word Yahweh. And, you know, at that time, I had better hearing than I do now, because you can hear that difference, that small difference between the word God and the word Yah. And naturally, as a young teenager, I asked them afterwards, why do you use this word Yah rather than God or Yahweh? And anyway, they invited me over to their house, and pretty soon we were involved in the Bible study. And what I came to understand is the sacred names. And so, in 1967, that is when I began to hear about the sacred names.

And at that time, I began to study with a gentleman that some of you, if you know anything about church history, this name will be familiar to you, but most probably wouldn't know it. His name was William Baudin, a very old man at the time. And William Baudin, by the way, was the man who conducted the Bible study. Now, William Baudin, if you ever get a chance to read the book by Duggar and Dodd, and you see the list of 70 names of elders that were selected in the same conference, you know, during that time, by the way, Mr.

Herbert Armstrong's name was number 40, and William Baudin was also listed in that group of 70. So, here I was, unbeknownst to me at the course of the time, studying with William Baudin, who was also on that list, but he was beginning to head up a group which was called the Assemblies, I've found that later, the Assemblies of Yahweh.

And so, anyway, this is what I began to be introduced to the sacred mannings. And over a period of time, I studied this, by the way, for six months. And at the time, I was going to Northeastern State University, and I was, you know, majoring in pre-menace, I think I've mentioned that to you, and I was using the library, I mean, over time.

I was spending all my hours in the library studying the sacred names. And, in fact, I was studying the sacred names more than I was studying for college. And I did much research on it. I contacted not only the references that were in the library at Northeastern State University, but I contacted professors, I contacted doctors, you know, a theology, to try to get a full understanding of the subject, you know, of the sacred names.

Because, actually, the sacred names I found to those who began to embrace them, well, it becomes a sort of a gospel, you know, that they began to preach. And, frankly, you know, I found it diverts from the mission of preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. And I found that the way in which oftentimes people, in fact, spread, you know, the this gospel is by exactly how I learned about it. You know, somebody asks you about it, pursuing your headlong into a study.

But before I get too far in this discussion with you in this introduction, the sacred names groups insist, by the way, that you must use the Hebrew names of deity of both God and Jesus Christ. And they believe, of course, that God's name is Yahweh, and they take that from what is called the tetra gramaton. If you ever look in the Old Testament, you see the word lord in all capital letters.

In actuality, that word lord in all caps was substituted for this tetra gramaton of yhwh. I'm going to explain a little more about that later. But again, the sacred names groups insist you must use, again, the word Yahweh, which they derive from yhwh. And also, for Christ in the New Testament, Yeshua. Yeshua, rather than Jesus, they believe, in fact, that the word Jesus is of pagan origin. Not only that, they believe that Christ, the word Christ, is of pagan origin.

And all these things, like I mentioned, I researched into, I studied into. And, you know, they, of course, teach that I'll mention this, and I'll mention some other things about Jesus a little bit later on, but they believe that the word Christ comes from Christna of India, by the way. That's where they think that word comes from, and so, therefore, we should not use the word Christ, even. And so, in essence, what I'm trying to point out to you, those that embrace the sacred names, way of thinking, tend to believe that you have to use these sacred names. I want to ask you, though, how far do you think people would get if they, you know, proclaimed to the world the Gospel of Yahweh?

The Gospel of the Kingdom of Yahweh. How far do you think they would get in preaching the Gospel in that way, in that manner? Quite frankly, not only people would get very far at all, because you've instantly got a barrier, a language barrier. People don't understand what you're talking about, first of all. But again, that's an aside. But again, the sacred names groups insist, and they say that if you use the word God, G-O-D, which they also believe is of pagan origin, or if you use the word Jesus, or Christ, that it is a sin to do so. Now, I will tell you this, that there are some groups that believe that the word, the name of God is Yahweh, spelled Y-A-H, W-E-H, and some believe, by the way, it is Yahweh, with a V. And what is important with the sacred names, and what is critical, is the sound of the name, the sound of the name. And it sort of becomes a very superstitious kind of thing. In fact, I'm not going to talk about, you know, the superstitions that I heard when I was studying this subject associated with the sacred names groups.

But, you know, I'm going to tell you up front that, frankly, the spelling and the pronunciation of the piper gramaton of Y-H, W-A-H, or Y-H, V-H, that we read as the word, Lord, in the Old Testament, was lost. Was lost. Today, it is not known. It is not known how it is spelled, and it is not known how it is even pronounced.

So how somebody could think that the name, and the sound of it is critical, is beyond me. So let's examine, brother, with that introduction. And I hope you get your thinking caps on today. You're going to have to think. You're going to have to listen very intently to make sure you get it. Let's examine the sacred names question and whether we as Christians must, in fact, use sacred names today. Let's begin over in Matthew chapter 1 over here in verse 19.

We all know the story, in fact, the story that I think I related it when I talked about the subject of Christmas and how oftentimes this is sort of the little lolliby story that you hear in churches around Christmastime. And, of course, people never know and have not been acquainted, really, with the birth of Jesus Christ. But let's notice here in verse 18, and it says, now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. So Matthew records how it happened. After his mother was betrothed to Joseph, Matthew 1, verse 18, before they came together, she was found a child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband being a just man and not wanting to make her a public example, was mightily to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him for dreams. And Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you, marry your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a son, and you should call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sons. In fact, the word, the name Jesus, means God saves. A Jesus Christ, of course, represents salvation for mankind.

And, you know, God could have allowed, by the way, in this particular case, God could have allowed Joseph to, in fact, call his son whatever he wanted to. But God instructed him as to what his name should be. So it really wasn't a choice that Joseph had, was it? He had to name him Jesus. You know, we, of course, understand the name Jesus is English. It is English, I'll have more to say about that, you know, as we go along. You know, God did not allow him, but in fact, the Father himself chose the name for his son. In fact, he's only the Gotten Son.

Let's go to Acts. Acts 4. Now, again, lay a foundation here, brethren. I hope that you will take notes, and I hope you'll write down some of these thoughts that we are given to you today.

In Acts 4, Acts 4 over here, verse 12.

First, we go to verse 11. You know, where Peter, of course, is speaking very powerfully here in verse 11. This is the stone, which, of course, the Jews rejected, and it had become the chief cornerstone. And notice what here we see that Peter mentions.

He says, And so Peter explains how this gnome is the only gnome given under heaven, whereby men may have salvation. And God makes it clear, by the way, throughout the Bible, that he could have been called by many names. Remember, we find, in fact, you know, that God gave names to people. He gave names to Adam.

Still, God gave names, and the names had meaning.

Now, I mentioned to you that the spelling and pronunciation of the truck tetra gramathon, the YHWH, was lost. Now, if God wanted the correct pronunciation of YHWH to be preserved, don't you think that he could have seen to it that it was preserved in every language? If God had wanted that to be the case. In Old Testament, God changed. In fact, Hebrew names, I mentioned to you, God Himself gave names. Remember, He changed Abram's name. What was His name changed to? Abraham, which means father of the nations. You see, His name was changed to something that had meaning to it.

He changed Jacob's name, and the name Jacob means supplanter. But His name was changed to what? Israel, which meant, remember, how did He come about the name Israel? He wrestled with God. The name Israel means prevailer with God.

Now, interestingly, both of these names were changed by God within the native tongue, and not in another language. But again, it's important to realize that we grasp on this, that God changed the names of these individuals, and He gave them names. Why? Because of the meaning of their names, because of what they meant. So, you know, the meaning is much more important, frankly, than the name itself. As long as it means the same thing in another language, that is what's critical. That's what's critical about it. Now, let's notice over here in John chapter 5.

I have a brother. His name is Sheridan, by the way. Sheridan Jean Tuck. You know what the name Sheridan means? Wild Man. And it describes my brother.

You know, he was a wild man sometimes.

Now, he's a very gentle soul, very, very, you know, kind-hearted. And I've always said, one of the most unconverted, converted people I've ever met. But his name meant that. But, you know, it's interesting that when my mother was naming the children, she gave certain names to the kids, and she wanted to give these illustrious names. Then had some, you know, had some bearing. I know she named my oldest brother because she wanted him to be a doctor. So she gave him a doctor's name. Now, I'm not sure what she gave my brother Sheridan. Why she gave that name. Nor am I sure why she called me Lawson. That's my father's name, by the way. If you've ever grown up being called by your father's name, it makes you feel funny, you know. But, you know, I didn't understand why my name was Lawson until I came into the church. You know, maybe God wants me to teach His law. So I'm the son of law.

So maybe that's what it means. I really don't know, but it sure makes sense to me. But let's go to John 5. John, chapter 5. When Jesus Christ came, when Jesus Christ came, bearing the gospel of the kingdom. Verse 43, John 5.

He says, I've come in my father's name, and you did not receive me. If another can't come in his own name, him you will receive. The question is, what does it mean to come in the name of the father?

Yes, something the name of the father, by the way, is Yahweh.

Yahweh. YHWH.

And if the name of the Messiah that came therefore had to be Yahshua.

Or Yeshua, as some say. They pronounce it Yahshua. Y-A-H-S-H-U-A.

But is this true? Actually, Jesus' name was nowhere close to Yahshua.

I want to talk more about that later. It was not Yahshua. And so to say, came in the name of the father, and to call him Yahshua, that's not accurate.

And Yahshua, by the way, has no connection with Yahshua.

Does it have any connection whatsoever?

Well, Jesus Christ came in His Father's name again, but what does it mean?

When you look at the Scriptures, and I challenge you to do it, brethren, in the New Testament, particularly, when Jesus refers to His Father, He just refers to Him as what?

Amen? The Father! And in the Greek, the Greek word for Father is pator.

And the word pator, by the way, p-a-t-e-r, is used throughout the New Testament. Throughout the New Testament.

And by the way, almost all of the Old Testament is preserved in the Hebrew, just so you, again, have an understanding of what the languages that the manuscripts were preserved in.

You know, they were preserved in the Hebrew, in the Old Testament, and in the New Testament is the Greek.

Greek. Even though, during the time of Christ, people spoke Aramaic, you know, particularly in the environs of Israel.

So what does it mean to come in the name of the Father?

Well, brethren, what is important in a name is, like I said earlier, it's mooning, and what it stands for, and what it represents. And Jesus Christ came, in fact, bearing the Father's eternal way of life for all of mankind. That's what He came to do.

He came to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God, and how to please the Father, His Father in heaven. Again, not one time, though, do we find in any of the wording of Jesus Christ that He refers to the Father other than just the Father.

You know, God allowed, by the way, the Greek version of the New Testament to be preserved and to be canonized. God allowed the Greek. Now, get that clear in your mind. It was Greek.

And all of the oldest manuscripts of the New Testament are in Greek. All of the oldest, by the way, are in Greek and not in Aramaic. You know, Lamsa translation, by the way, that oftentimes is set forth by some, and those of the sacred names love this particular version because it tend to lend itself toward the use of the sacred name. You know, Lamsa came afterwards, by the way, long afterwards, because he, remember, translated into an Aramaic.

But realize this, his Aramaic was not the same Aramaic as in the days of Jesus.

During the time of Christ, that Aramaic was older than the Aramaic, the more modern Aramaic that was used during the time of Lamsa. So, if you ever hear that, that the Lamsa translation, somebody asking you to get involved in reading that, I'm sure it has, it offers some advantages, but, you know, it is not something that necessarily proves that, you know, Aramaic was the original text of the New Testament. Just isn't. It doesn't prove that at all.

You know, Lamsa, again, said that the original New Testament was an Aramaic, because it was the language of Jesus's day, and that's why he came up with his translation.

It is true that Jesus Christ spoke Aramaic, he spoke Hebrew, and he most assuredly would have spoken Greek, so he probably spoke three languages. But, after all, remember, it was a Greek-speaking world, a Greek-speaking world, and it had been, in fact, from 300 B.C.

You know, so it was a Greek-speaking world. Even the language of the Roman Empire, brethren, was Greek. And during the days of Jesus and Paul, the language was Greek.

It was a language of business and commerce, like English is today. You know, you can go virtually anywhere in the world, and you can talk to people in English because it is the language of business. It's what everybody uses. It's a mode, a method of communication. Let's go over to John 1, in verse 41, just to show again a little bit about this. Here, John, in writing his narrative, his gospel account here. In John 1, verse 41, here is a revealing, in fact, of the Messiah.

And it says, He first found His own brother, Simon. This is Simon. And said to him, We have found the Messiah, which has translated the Christ.

Now, why does John put in the parentheses here, which has translated the Christ here? Well, the reason is that the Hebrew word for Messiah, this particular word, if you look it up again, had Hebrew origin. But what John has to do when he's writing, he has to add the familiar Greek word for Messiah. I mentioned to you, I think, some time ago that Messiah was basically an Old Testament Hebrew type word. And the word Christ was a New Testament Greek type word. So here, John gives the interpretation in the Greek. And the Greek word, by the way, for Christ is Christos. And I mentioned to you also the word Messiah and Christ mean anointed one. They both have the same meaning. And so Jesus Christ was the anointed one, or He was the Messiah.

And if you go, by the way, if you ever look at a Jewish Septuagint, the word Christos, by the way, is used all 39 times that the Messiah is mentioned, all 39 times.

Here, both the Old and New Testament, by the way, contain many different names for God. There's not just one name for God. There are multiple names for God in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

You know, some argue that the only true name, again, is the tetragrammaton, which is YHWH.

Some say YHVH in Hebrew. And this is the only name we must use in referring to God.

To the Almighty. Well, in the Old Testament, again, as I mentioned, the word L-O-R-D in all capital letters is translated in English from the Hebrew tetragrammaton, again, which is YHWH or VH. And again, you know, if you look at a sacred name's Bible, and I have one at my home, I didn't bring it with me, today, you know, these things, again, are changed.

Again, they believe any other name is like a describing of the Creator. It is not a name for the Creator. You know, if you have other descriptions, though it was just a descriptor, it's not His name. It's not the name of the Creator.

However, other names, brethren, for God and the Old and the New Testaments that aren't just titles. In fact, prior to Moses, God, the name of God was known, you know, by another name.

Prior to Moses. In fact, a long time prior to Moses. Let's go over to Exodus 6. Exodus 6, over here. I know this very heavy subject.

So, like I said, you have to really open your ears to make sure you get it.

But Exodus 6, over here.

Exodus 6 and verse 3.

We can read verse 1. Then the Lord said to Moses, Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand we will drive them out of the land. This is, of course, the time that, you know, we find Israel escaping from Egypt. And God spoke to Moses and said to him, verse 2, I am the LORD here. YHWH, again, you see that? If you have a King James or New King James. But notice in verse 3, I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty. And by my name, LORD, and all caps, YHWH, I was not known to them. I was not known to them.

If you look up, by the way, verse 3 here, you know, of chapter 6, the Hebrew here is El Shaddai. I was known to them as basically God Almighty, El Shaddai.

Now, where does this word, El, come from?

Well, all you've got to do, again, is go back to the very beginning. Genesis 1.1. Because there, the word Elohim is used, which is a plural name for God, because God is not, you know, run, as we understand. God is also involved, you know, God the Word, and what became God the Father. In the beginning, John 1.1 says, was God, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So, you have God and you have the Word, the Logos, as it's used in the Greek in John 1.1. And so, we have, again, here, a situation where, in fact, you know, Abraham didn't know God by the name YHWH or VH. You know, the question I guess I have when I see this kind of thing, because God, remember, after all, made the covenant, didn't He, with Abraham? The covenant, in fact, that Paul cites back to over the book, you know, of Hebrews. It's back, again, to the time of Abraham, because Abraham walked by faith, as the Bible tells us. My question is, why not go back to use El Shaddai? Because that's an earlier name than YHWH, and it is known, by the way. It is known. That name is known. But, you know, think about this as well, brother. If using the Teferet gramathon of YHWH or Yahweh, as some purport, is necessary for salvation, then Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would not have salvation, because they never knew that name.

In fact, they referred to Him as El Shaddai, and they also referred to Him as Elohim. Again, we read about that in Genesis 1.1, again, very clearly there. Now, let's go to Exodus 3. Exodus chapter 3. Exodus chapter 3, in verse 14.

You know, here, again, God was beginning to work with Moses. It appeared to him, remember, in a burning bush on the backside, you know, of a mountain, the back of the desert.

In verse, let's just read verse 14. And God said to Moses, when Moses asked, what is his name, what shall I tell him? God said to Moses, He said, I am who I am. And He said that you shall say to the children as though I am has sent me to you.

Moreover, God said to Moses, thus you shall say to the children as though the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jerkett, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations. Okay, interestingly, here in this verse, by the way, we have the name of God throughout. Verse 16, by the way, here, the word God is translated, Elohim, from the word Elohim. And then the word Lord, again, is YHWH.

It's YHWH. And when Moses began to write the account that became what we refer to as the Pentateuch, Moses wrote it in. He was inspired of God to write this in and include it in for the patriarchs, the stories of the patriarchs, all the way from, again, to the time of Adam, all the way forward to Noah on up through Abraham and so forth. But if you begin to study, by the way, this topic, in later books such as Ezra, in Nehemiah, God is not referred to as YHWH.

You do not find it in that way. Now, why is that? Why is that? Well, the reason is that during the time of Ezra in Nehemiah, the language of the Israelites is Aramaic. It's not Hebrew. It is Aramaic. But rather, Ezra and Nehemiah, by the way, use the Aramaic names for God of Elah and Elohah and Elah. Those words are used and no longer, then, during that time, was Elohim or YHWH used. No longer was that used during that time.

So again, here God inspired men like Ezra and Nehemiah and actually Daniel himself, the prophet Daniel himself, could not use, in fact, this YHWH or more Elohim, by the way, for that matter, because they were speaking another language. They were speaking Aramaic. They would have used, again, names that were Aramaic in nature. I think that really shows something, doesn't it? That God's name can be in other languages as well. Let's go to Mark chapter nine. Mark chapter nine over here. Is everybody still with me? I'm not moving too fast, am I?

Okay. Mark nine over here. Mark nine, verse 38. We all have seen this particular passage over here in verse 38 of Mark nine. Remember the story on the account? In this time, the apostles, the disciples thought they had the exclusive rights, I guess the copyright, on Christ's name. But in verse 38, and now John answered him, saying, teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in your name.

And we forbade him because he does not follow us.

So here, this individual, by the way, was casting out demons in the name of the Messiah. Okay?

And apparently, God was honoring this. But how could that be, brethren? Because presumably, he was casting out demons in Aramaic.

But Jesus does say that they did miracles, by the way, in his name. You know, however, during Jesus's day, if Yahweh or YHWH, if somebody ever tried to utter the word YHWH during the time of Jesus Christ, you know what would happen to them?

They would be taken before the council and brought before the Sanhedrin, and they would be punished. They would be punished because it was forbidden to even speak, you know, what YHWH sounded like.

And if priests lost the means to pronounce it, do you think that the people might have to?

I would think they would have lost it before, long before the priests would have. The question, how could miracles be done if the Father only backed up those praying in the name of YHWH? How could prayers be backed up? How could demons be cast out in the name of Christ?

Well, the fact of the matter is, again, God, His name can be used in many languages.

As I mentioned earlier to you, brethren, the exact pronunciation of the tetra gramaton, that's a mouthful, isn't it, that word in itself? The YHWH, you know, the exact pronunciation was passed down from one generation to another.

So that's how it was passed down. In fact, that is the way it was passed down up until the sixth and seventh century AD, because everybody thought it was foreboden to actually say the word. It was passed down by oral tradition. Now, that's important to know, very important to know, because the sixth and seventh century AD is a long, long time. I hate to think of the fact that I love Mr. Waters here, but if I whispered something new his ear and asked him to whisper it to Mrs. Morigian, you know, who whispered it to Mrs. Breidenfahl, and then on down through here, what was whispered, I would dare say it probably wouldn't be the same, you know, when I got to the end over the other. If I said to Mr. Waters, what did you whisper, you know, in Mrs. Morigian's ear? You know, he would, he would, of course, convey what I, you know, conveyed to him the way he heard it.

Mr. Waters, I don't know whether your hearing's very good. It's good? Okay. Okay. Does anybody have bad hearing here? Okay. You see, I guarantee you somebody's not going to hear it right, and pretty soon, in other words, it gets corrupted. You know, this is the way it works, Breidenfahl, when you pass things down by oral tradition. However careful you may be, and I'm sure they were very careful. But at that time, in the sixth and seventh century A.D., the Jewish scholars who were known as Mazzarites, from which, of course, we get the Mazzaritic text, I'm sure you're all familiar with that, they created symbols at that time, again, that was passed on from oral usage, you know, down through the time, you know, the hundreds of years, as a matter of fact. And they made symbols that, again, represented these vowels that were used by oral tradition. Until then, by the way, the Old Testament manuscripts contained only the consonants. You know, every time you see that word, L-O-R-D, again, that is the, in the Old Testament, that is a tephragramaton. There, only the consonants were preserved, and quite frankly, sometimes they get mixed up on the consonants themselves. Like I say, some think it is YHWH, and some think it's YHVH. So the exact vowels are not known. They're really not known. And, you know, they were inserted by the Maserites in sixth and seventh century A.D.

Now, remember, what did Jesus Christ call the scholars of His day?

You may remember what Jesus called the scholars of His day of Judaism? He called the Jewish leaders of His day blind guys.

My question is, how can we trust what was passed down by oral usage?

It was passed down even after the time of Jesus Christ 600-700 years. And, by the way, when the Jews would come to YHWH, you know, they would always substitute the word adonai, spelled A-D-O-N-A-I, which means Lord or Master. Translated Lord in the New Testament, but it means Master. And much later, the Maserites inserted the vowels from this, the adonai and Elohim, and they came up with, you know, what word they came up with that you see in the Old Testament? In fact, have you ever go and you click on Strongs in the Old Testament for YHWH? You know what word you'll see? You might know what that word is. There's a whole church founded on this.

What's somebody say? Jehovah. That's right. And Jehovah, the word Jehovah then is a corruption, an invented name for God.

It's interesting, though, when you begin to explore this particular topic. But, you know, again, the original vowels, brethren, were not known.

You know, that during the case, you know, what are the vowels? Well, we have A, E, I, O, and U.

Well, if you have a spelling that is YHWH, and you plug in A, E, I, O, U. And you tell me how many versions you can come up with.

And then if you add V rather than W.

There was this YHVH. How many versions can you come up for the name of God?

In fact, some think it's JHVH. So you have YHVH, you have JHVH. And if anybody ever says to you, they know how to pronounce it, and they've explored it, they simply do not know.

Believe me, I would know, because I studied this a long, long time, from every angle.

They simply do not know. Now, saying that, we believe in the church that the word YHWH may be close. And frankly, Mr. Herbert Armstrong used the term YHWH occasionally. He didn't use it very often. But usually in the Old Testament, when we came to the word L-O-R-D, all captioned, or what he would say, he would use the word eternal. The word eternal. Because YHWH means basically eternal. It means the everlasting one. And so this is why he did it. And out of habit, quite frankly, I got into doing that. So if you ever hear me read, oftentimes I will say eternal myself. But, you know, it could be, by the way, not YHWH. It could be YHWH. It could be YHWH. It could be YHWH. It could be YHWH. But it's not known. Again, no matter what anybody tells you, it is not known. During the time of Jeremiah, by the way, this is 600 B.C.

600 B.C. Now get that in your head, brother. Because when did the Masoretes insert the vowels? Somebody remember what I said? Sixth or seventh century, or six or seven hundred, or five or six hundred, I should say, A.D. It's a lot of time, isn't it? We're talking about over a thousand years, possibly, here, between the two. But during the time of Jeremiah, false teachers back then led the Jews to believe YHWH should not be pronounced, and thus it was lost. That's why it was lost, going clear back to the time when Judah went into captivity. And if it was essential, brethren, to know God in that way, wouldn't you think God would have made it known? But when Babylon conquered Judah in 604 to 5 B.C., you know what happened? Eventually, Hebrew gradually ceased to be the language of the common people.

And, you know, the language of the common people turned out to be Aramaic then after that. In fact, if you read the writings of Daniel, Daniel wrote five chapters of his book, his prophetic book, in Aramaic. You can read chapters 2 through 6. That's in Aramaic.

Ezra wrote four chapters in Aramaic, chapters 4 through 7.

And when they referred to the Creator in those chapters, they didn't use Hebrew words, by the way. But, you know, voila! They used Aramaic words when they referred to the Creator. For instance, Elah is used, and that is E-L-A-H, is used 78 times in nine chapters. That's quite a lot, isn't it? And if God intended his name be pronounced only in Hebrew, then Daniel and Ezra must then be false prophets. But, of course, I trust you know that they were not false prophets. Daniel was one of the most righteous men that ever lived. The Bible then mentions about Daniel how righteous he was. He was greatly beloved.

Even Ezra, by the way, later himself, and it put Moses' writings, and, you know, and he would have only had tradition as a source of pronouncing the word at that time. He's the one that, again, edited Moses' writings.

Even Jews of today, by the way, if you go to Jews in different parts of the world, use the Hebrew vowels and consonants, but they use them differently. It's not pronounced the same. It's not said the same. I won't go back to it, but you remember the story of the word where the word shibboleth was used to discern what part, you know, of Israel somebody was from? The word shibboleth? You can look it up. It's Judges 12, verse 6. You know, it's like if you were up in Boston, you might be asked by somebody, you know, if you went to a restaurant, you want me to pack your cap. Well, if you were down south, you know, they'd refer to the shurf, not the sheriff, but the shurf. You know, people just, again, they pronounce things differently.

Let me go through quickly, brethren, some main points here for you.

Number one, in portions of the Old Testament where Aramaic is used rather than the Hebrew names for deity, you know, are translated into Aramaic for the Hebrew.

As I mentioned to you, like the word elah.

You know, Daniel does it, Ezra does it, and Nehemiah does it. So, Aramaic is used to substitute, again, for Hebrew names. Number two, in the New Testament, this is also true, because no Hebrew names, by the way, can be found in all of the Old, the New Testament. No Hebrew names.

Because, like to me, God necessarily was preserving his name in the Hebrew in that way.

In fact, what we find in the New Testament names for God, we find the Greek word theos.

In the beginning, God feels. John 1. In the beginning, God feels.

We also see that Jesus Christ was called the Lord. The Greek word is kureos. Kureos. And even when Old Testament passages, by the way, are quoted in the New Testament, kureos is substituted for YHWH.

You can compare, if you want to, Matthew 3, verse 3, and Isaiah 40, verse 3. Let's do go to Matthew 3. 3, though. Matthew 3. 3.

Here, again, Matthew in Matthew 3, verse 3. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, The voice of one, crying of the willness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight. Now, again, if you look in Isaiah, you know, you find, again, the Hebrew is used over there. In fact, the word Jehovah is used. If you look in the Hebrew over there, you can read about that again if you have a strong's, and you punch it in, it'll show a little box that explains, again, about his name, and it says it's of Hebrew origin.

But, you know, the word in Matthew 3, verse 3, is kureos that is used. Kureos for the word Lord.

Because it's Greek. It's what people spoke. It would have to be interpreted otherwise. But we find here that Matthew just simply writes, again, the word in the Greek.

Number 3. Number 3. Some argue the New Testament is corrupted and not reliable because the Old Testament names have been redacted. They've been removed. So the idea is somebody took hold of this New Testament and they just extracted all, you know, of the Old Testament names of God. But that really is an impossibility. That's an impossibility because there are over 5500 or more manuscripts in the Greek of the New Testament. 5500. And there are 8,000 manuscripts in Latin, by the way. Remember, Latin would have been the language also of the Roman Empire. Greek would have been the main language. But there were 8,000 manuscripts in Latin and 5500 in Greek. It would take a formidable task, an impossible task, to redact and remove all traces of the Hebrew tetragrammaton from over 13,000 manuscripts. Imagine how hard that would be? I mentioned to you how many words are used. You'd have to go through and you'd have to redact every manuscript. Don't you think there would be one that would survive? Well, you know, it doesn't happen. But we find the word again, kureos, is used and theos. Kureos for Lord and theos in the New Testament is used for God. And, in fact, when Paul was on Mars Hill and he came to the statue, you know, it was to the unknown God, the word there is what? Theos. It is theos. Number four. I think this will provide further proof. The word kureos, that's k-u-r-i-o-s, k-u-r-i-o-s, occurs 665 times in the New Testament. And the word theos, by the way, appears 1345 times. So you see how impossible it would be to go through and do this for 13,500 manuscripts and so it would be impossible, in fact, to do that. Then not one slipped through.

So the idea that something, you know, they redacted, they removed it is just ridiculous to think about.

Let's go to Matthew 24, verse 35. Matthew 24, verse 35. Matthew 24, verse 35. Because we're told over here in verse 35, assuredly, Jesus Christ said, I say to you, this generation will not pass till all things, these things take place. And it says in verse 35, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. So, you know, if God again had intended that we be utilizing, you know, the Hebrew names exclusively, He would have, again, made it very, very clear. It would have remained, in fact, in the text of the New Testament. And this question would be moot, wouldn't it? Today. It wouldn't be a question. Number five, the Apostle Paul spoke Hebrew himself, by the way. And he was a Pharisee of Pharisees. The Bible even says that. So don't you think the Apostle Paul, if he was a Pharisee of Pharisees? But you know what, brethren? He did not once use YHWH or VH. Not once. In any of his 14 epistles. In any.

Number six. Let's go to Acts chapter four. Acts chapter four, over here. In Acts chapter four, verse ten.

Acts four, verse ten.

Here it says, Let it be known to all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man stands before you whole.

You know, here Peter, by the way, again, he could have used a Hebrew here. He could have placed in this Yeshua. He could have used the word YHWH, for that matter. But rather, what Peter does is, he uses the Greek form. And if you look it up, by the way, in the Greek, it's isus, which is spelled I-E-S-O-U-S, isus, crystals.

Isus, crystals. And again, not one hint of Yah or Yahweh here. You know, we find again that Peter uses Greek here. And like I told you, you know, the New Testament is written in Greek, all the Old Spanish Scripture in Greek.

And God chose to preserve, you know, the New Testament in Greek and the Old Testament in Hebrew. That's what He chose to do. Now again, some refer to Jesus Christ as Yahshua. And as I pointed out up to you, brother, it's not Yahshua. Actually, it should be Yeshua, which is Y-E-H-S-H-U-A. There's a couple of spellings of that, maybe a few spellings of it. It's not Yahshua, you know, Y-A-H, but it's Yeshua. And this is something, again, I've done quite a bit of research on myself, like, bigamy, suddenly he sings out. You know, the reason why, by the way, people object to the word isus, and you'll find this if you get into studying this topic, is they say the word isus is a Greek word that has pagan connections.

They say it has a connection with zeus.

And the name, one of the names of zeus is E-A-Zus, which means a healing zeus. Again, that is not true. The name Jesus in the Greek word was, in fact, used prior to the time of Jesus Christ's birth.

So, isus was known long before Christ, in fact, was born.

And it was common in his day to be called Jesus. Now, occasionally, you'll even find people today. They're known as Jesus.

You know, I know I've met many Hispanics. Apparently, there may be a tradition of calling children sometimes in their family by the word Jesus. I think they call Jesus isus, isn't it? Something akin to that. I don't speak Spanish, but something akin to that.

But in 1945, brethren, there were 12 orchardary and funerary slabs that were discovered in the environs of Jerusalem, by the way, in Israel. And you know what? They were engraved with Greek names with the interchangeable counterparts in the Aramaic.

I'm going to tell you that in the world that Christ lived in, this was a hell of a nice world. This was a Greek world. And many of the Jews, by the way, took on Greek names. In fact, a lot of apostles' names are Greek, by the way. They're not Aramaic names. They're Greek.

But in the case of these funerary slabs that they discovered, they found them engraved with these Greek names that were coupled with Aramaic names. So, like in my case, my name is Jim, you know, in English, but I understand in Spanish it's Jaime. Something like that, isn't it? Am I butchering that? No. If I go to Africa, by the way, my last name is Takei.

So, I mean, I go to Africa, and it's Takei, and in Mexico it's Jaime. So, I wouldn't recognize myself. Jaime Takei. But, let me go on here. Not digress too much here. So, like I said, brethren, in regards to this, these twelve slabs were discovered. And, by the way, the name of Issus, which is Jesus in the English, and Yeshua were found on some of the slabs that were dated from 50 BC, all the way up to 180 BC. Now, get that, brethren. In other words, on the slab, you have Issus, and you have Yeshua on the slab, because many Jews, again, were using Greek names during this time. Now, we know, by the way, where the term Issus comes from. You know where it comes from, brethren? It comes from the Jewish Septuach, which, of course, is a Greek manuscript.

You know, there were none earlier, in fact, than the Greek manuscripts. Syriac, of course, was not earlier either. In other words, brethren, the name Issus is not something from paganism, but it was a natural Greek rendering of the Hebrew and Arabic name Yeshua. In fact, it was the natural rendering of the name going back 200 years before Jesus Christ was even born. Now, remember, you remember your history. Alexander the Great conquered the world in about 323 BC, so it's not much of a stretch of imagination to realize in a hundred years the world had been Hellenized, and Greek was very popular. And Issus would have been used 200 years before Jesus was even born. And the same word, by the way, Issus is found in over 5,000 manuscripts of the New Testament. And, of course, the word Issus is in the Greek for the English word, which is translated Jesus. Now, I won't go to it, but over in Acts 2, verse 8 through 11, we find ourselves on the day of Pentecost when Peter is preaching, the Holy Spirit is moving. And on that day, by the way, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, we see the names, little bitching, and the Greek as well, they're over there. And all the people, by the way, though, heard in their own language.

They heard in their own language. Even if they were speaking Aramaic, they would have heard in their own language. When they were there, gathered for that day. And again, the very idea that people heard things in their own language shows that there's no restriction on saying the name of God in other languages. In fact, number eight, brethren. Number seven, again, is the example of Pentecost. Number eight is, nowhere in Scripture is anybody forbidden to read the Bible in their own language. You know, over in Africa, by the way, the language that many of the people in Zambia speak is Bimba. There are other languages, or many different languages, in fact, in Africa. But there's no provision against speaking and using the Bible or saying the name of God in different languages. No, again, whether you're Hispanic and you use the word Jesus, well, there is power, brethren, in the name of Jesus Christ. And hearings take place, and demons are cast out. But number nine, brethren, number nine, and I'll just give you the references here for the sake of time, but in John 1, verse 18, John 1, verse 18, we see that Jesus Christ came to reveal the Father to people.

In chapter 17, verse 6, as well, and in verse 26, and Jesus Christ revealed the Father to the disciples, but at no time did any apostle write again YHWH and the New Testament.

But what did Jesus Christ do? He revealed to people His disciples God's way and those things that would please the Father. That's what He came to reveal. And what did Jesus Christ say? He said, about everyone who says to me, curious, curious, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But He who does what? The will of the Father, my Father in heaven.

Number 10, again, going through these a bit more rapidly, John 17, verse 11 through 12, Jesus Christ, when He prayed, you know, therefore His disciples, He prayed that the Father would keep His disciples in His name. And what is the family name? The family name is God in the English. That's the family name. In the Greek, it would be Theos.

And Ben-Barr had another clue.

Number 11. Number 11. I guess I probably should have had 12 points here to make it, you know, more biblical. But number 11, the church is called what? The church of Theos 12 times. The church of God 12 times in the New Testament.

And Jesus Christ Himself is called what? The Son of Theos, the Son of God. He called Himself the Son of Theos many times. Again, He came to reveal the Father.

And He said He came in His Father's name. Again, the family name is Theos.

Now, here's another, maybe you could add this as a number 12 if you want to add it. Who is the Yahweh of the Old Testament?

Who do you think it is?

You know, the world believes, by the way, who, who, the world believes that the Old Testament, you got the, you know, the cruel, harsh Father of the Old Testament, and you've got the sweet, petulant-lipped, loving Lord in the New Testament, Jesus, you know.

Who is Yahweh of the Old Testament? Well, it's referring to Jesus Christ.

And O'Him would refer to Father as well in that mix. But Yahweh knelt down and formed Adam and Eve.

It's Jesus Christ. And it was Jesus Christ who spoke, and everything was created, too, because God created all things through His Son, Jesus Christ, as we understand. So, with Yahweh,