What is your name? Mine is Steven. The reason I have this name is to identify myself as a unique individual within the society. And, since there are many other “Stevens”, I also have a middle and last name to help further separate me from all the other human males.

But what about God? Does he really need an identifier to separate him from all the other gods?

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I know this will sound totally off, some may even call it blasphemous, but God doesn’t have a name.
Oh, yes- there are many titles we know him by, even the one he gave to Moses, but that isn’t really a name.
The Tetragrammaton, those 4 Hebrew letters Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh (יהוה) have been generally accepted to mean “I am that I am”, or “I will be that which I will be”.

God told Moses to tell the people that “I am” sent him. But “I am” is not a name- it is a description, isn’t it?

The letters do not represent a unique label by which we can know this God from all other gods, although it certainly can be used for that, but it is more of a description of who and what God is: it tells us that he is infinite.

All the terms we use for him: God, Adonai, Lord, Jehovah, Yahweh, HaShem…all of these identify him by a title, but that is not the same as a name that is to make him unique from all the others like him.

There is no other like him.

For instance, Ba’al means Lord, and despite those very foolish people who say using the name “Lord” is praying to a pagan god, there are many other Stevens in the world, but when someone is talking to me, they aren’t talking to every other Steven in the world. It’s the same with God, which is further proof that since every religion uses the title “god” or “lord”, this is obviously not a unique identifying of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

In fact, there shouldn’t even be debate about this because God tells us how he wants to be known. Check out Exodus 3:15:

God said to Moses, “Say this to the children of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

So, that pretty much settles it, wouldn’t you say?

Again, not so much a name as a description.

So, to all those “Holy Namers” out there- sorry to bust your bubble, but how we pronounce God’s name is not the important thing; God, himself, says to refer to him by what he is, not by a name.

Besides, we are saved by faith, not pronunciation.

And to all those out there who insist we should use his name all the time, well- go ahead. But make sure it’s the one He said to use., which means instead of God or Jehovah, or Yahweh, or whatever you prefer, God says to know him as the God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

That’s a mouthful. I don’t know about you, but I’ll just stick with God or Adonai or Lord, and know that I am not praying to a pagan or Semitic, Roman, Greek, Hindu, or Buddhist supernatural entity, but to the God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of…well, you know the rest.

I am not saying to stop using whatever term or title or “name” for the one who created everything and who sent Yeshua, the Messiah to us you are used to using is wrong. It’s fine, and if you are confused about pronunciation, remember that throughout the Bible we are told, over and over, that God knows your heart and mind, so as long as you are praying to the God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, etc., then you are fine.

Believe me- God knows who you mean, and he isn’t so prideful as to reject your prayer because of what title you use when referring to him.

Even Shakespear knew this: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” (Romeo and Juliet)

God is the epitome of unique- there is nothing else like him anywhere: there never has been, there isn’t now, and there never will be. He is, he was, he always shall be HIM.

What it comes down to is this- God doesn’t have a name because God doesn’t need a name.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages, subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, and buy my books. I also invite you to join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (but please make sure you agree to the rules, or you can’t come in).

And remember that I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (and early) Shabbat Shalom!

I am just back from 3 days in the hospital for back surgery, and am not allowed to shower until this afternoon, so I am not doing a video today because I look really scrubby.

If you ask me, one of the most misunderstood things in the New Covenant are the Epistles Shaul (Paul) wrote to the congregations he had formed throughout Asia.

The early Gentile leaders of Believers in Yeshua, after all the Apostles had died, so misused and misinterpreted these letters that they formed a totally different form of worship than the one Yeshua lived.

I want to share my understanding of Shaul’s ministry and how he used two of the drashim (parables) from Yeshua’s teachings to be able to bring pagans into a righteous lifestyle.

First off, we need to remember that the Gentiles were practicing the Roman religion, which was a hedonistic, drunkard, and sexually perverse lifestyle. In other words, it was a lot of fun, and to ask someone to give that up, all at once, would only result in most of those who were initially interested apostatizing.

This is what the parable of the Sower of the Seed tells us- some will hear the word and accept it, but the weeds will grow around the young growth and choke it. Shaul knew this and that is why he never forced a total conversion to Judaism (which was the religion they would be learning as they followed Yeshua’s teachings). In fact, that is why he was so angry with the Believing Jews in Galatia, who were undermining his work there by forcing the neophyte, Gentile Believers to undergo B’rit Milah (circumcision) in order to be saved.

Shaul also knew the parable of the enemy who sewed tares in the field of wheat. The tares were not recognizable as tares until they had grown so much that they were now interlaced with the wheat, and the owner of the field said to let them grow because tearing them out would also tear out the wheat. He said they would be separated at the harvest.

Shaul was following that idea, but instead of bad seed in a good field, he was planting good seed in a bad field, and hoped that by not making it so obvious (by requiring total conversion to Torah obedience), the good seed would grow in the tares and when the harvest came (Judgement Day), the good seed would be separated and survive.

The Elders in Jerusalem confirmed and supported this program of ministry in their letter (Acts 15) to these new Gentile Believers because they said all the new Believers had to do, NOW, was obey those 4 commands (three about not eating unclean food, and no more fornicating). What most Christians never were taught (and people never read the Bible to verify what they are told) was that James also said these new Believers will eventually learn what the Torah says at Shabbat services.

In other words, let them start slowly and adjust at their own pace to this paradigm shift in lifestyle, or we will lose them to the “weeds” of their past life.

So, Shaul went throughout Asia, telling both Jews and Gentiles about Messiah Yeshua, but he did not require the Gentiles to convert to Judaism. He required the basics- love God and love each other, which Yeshua said were the two most important commandments in the Torah.

For the record: modern Christian teaching says these are the only commandments Christians have to obey, which is wrong. Yeshua never said these were the only commandments, just that they are the most important.

Can you see now how Shaul, using the parables of seeds being sewn in the field, designed a program for missionary work that used the wisdom of those drashim to create a gradual integration from a pagan lifestyle to a righteous one?

And this is why Christianity has gone so far off course from what Yeshua taught- they just didn’t get it, and decided since they don’t have to become Jews overnight, they can change what they want to. They started with the 4th Commandment, changing the Shabbat, then rejected the Holy Days in Leviticus 23, ignored the requirements for food in Leviticus 11, and by the Third Century had created a totally man-made religion that has nothing whatsoever to do with God’s word or Yeshua’s teachings, other than to love one another.

And I can tell you this, for certain: loving one another isn’t enough.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to this website and my YouTube channel, buy my books (if you like what you get here, you will like my books), and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (but please make sure you click that you agree to the rules, or you can’t come in).

And remember that I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for now, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!