Sunday, November 30, 2008

Call on the Name of Jehovah

For it shall be, all who shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be saved. For salvation shall be in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, as Jehovah has said, and among the survivors whom Jehovah shall call. - Joel 2:32, Green's Literal.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort;.... our comfort ... abounds through Christ. -- 1 Corinthians 1:3,5, World English translation.

No one should ever think that he should not call upon the name of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus. (Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13; 2 Corinthians 11:31; Ephesians 1:3; Colossians 1:3; 1 Peter 1:3) Jehovah is the source of salvation, deliverance, especially the deliverance from the condemnation of sin and death. The means by which Jehovah (Yahweh) has provided that salvation is through his son, Jesus. Thus, the name of Jesus is the name that the Most High has given "by which" we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) Jehovah is the source; Jesus is the agent of salvation.

Many, however, insist that "Jehovah" is not God's Holy Name, based on the false idea that God's Holy Name must be pronounced as it was originally pronounced in ancient Hebrew or else it is not His Holy Name. The reality is that no one on earth knows for a certainty what ancient Hebrew sounded like. Nevertheless, many have claimed to have arrived at the original pronunciation, and often present persuasive reasoning for their conclusions. All who make such claims, however, do end up basing their claims on various assumptions with they often present as being fact. The truth is that one would have to be more than 2,000 years old and have an excellent memory to know for sure how God's Holy Name was pronounced in Bible times. And even then that would be based on the assumption the Biblical Hebrew pronunciation of God's Holy Name had remained constant throughout the centuries and was not affected by local pronunciations, etc.

Another reality is that the Bible nowhere presents any command that God's Holy Name must be pronounced in every language as it was originally pronounced, or else it is not God's Holy Name. In Bible times, names did change in pronunciation and form from language to language based on unique sounds (or lack of a sound) and various forms used in each language, as well as adapted to the way names are presented in each language. For instance, if a language does not have the "w" sound, that sound may be either skipped or replaced with a sound that is used in the language.

At any rate, "Jehovah", "Iehouah", "Yehowah", "Yahweh", etc., are all Latin/English forms of the same one Holy Name as found in ancient Hebrew. They are not each a different name as many insist. Nevertheless, we can be certain that in ancient Hebrew God's Holy Name is not presented with any form of the English words "LORD", "the LORD", or "GOD". 

Some related studies:
Is Jehovah a False God?











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