The God God Echo Effect

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God you are my God!

Allow me for a moment to set up a strawman so I can knock him down. Follow along in my fictitious scenario and maybe you will find a bit of yourself in the story.

A young man named Patrick has entered the hallowed halls of higher education. He is a young man of great moral standards and a strong faith in his God. Patrick is a likable and intelligent guy, he has many friends back home and has already made several at college.

Patrick is a Christian. He is very vocal about his beliefs, and never afraid to back down from a challenge against his faith. He enjoyed the feeling of taking a stand, he enjoyed knowing he was in the right. It was from this delight in defending his faith that Patrick was so eager on his first day in Professor “Goldstein’s” class.

Professor Goldstein was a known Atheist. He was is every bit militant as Patrick in his beliefs. Patrick could hardly contain his feelings, waiting with great anticipation for the first challenge of the Christian faith spoken by Professor Goldstein.

Professor Goldstein: “God isn’t dead, he never existed. Only the idea of God is dead to all except the feeble-minded and emotionally unstable. We have done all to disprove his or her existence.”

Now was Patrick’s moment to shine, immediately he raises his hand in obvious objection. Professor Goldstein looks just as eager for the interaction. With great poise and patience, Professor Goldstein calls upon Patrick, “Yes young man, do you need a question answered?”

Patrick: “Yes I do, how can you say only the weak believe in God?” “I Believe in God, does that make me weak-minded?”

A smile creeps slowly across the face of Professor Goldstein. “What is your name young man?”

“Patrick”, he responded.

“Patrick, if I may but ask you a few questions, to which deity are you speaking of?”, asked Professor Goldstein.

“The God of the Bible, sir”, came the reply.

Silence filled the room so thickly for a few, methodically purposed moments. With great pronunciation and emphasis Professor Goldstein constructed a simple question, “Patrick, what is the name of your God?”

“He is God,” says Patrick.

“Of course of course, I know you believe he is god, but other than his title, what do you call him?” The professor quickly demanded.

“I call Him Father in my prayers to Him”, he said.

“So you call your God… God?” “And you pray to… Father?” Professor Goldstein asked with great disbelief, “Why not simply call him by his name?” “You do know his name, right?”

“His name is Jesus!” Patrick said with great gusto, as he knew he had just nailed it!

Professor Goldstein stares off towards the wall for a few moments. He reaches up and removes his glasses. Then while rubbing his temples with one hand he states, “So your God is God who you pray to as Father whose name is Jesus, who is a man up until 2,000 years ago didn’t exist in any religious literature.” “Is this correct son?”

“Yes and no”, says Patrick. He continues, “You see God is Jesus’ Father, and He is my Father. Both Jesus and the Father are God, and so is the Holy Spirit. I know it doesn’t make much sense to you, but there are three persons who are one God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.”

“AHHH! I get it now! Your God is God who you pray to as Father, whose name is Jesus, both are God but different persons, along with Holy Spirit God. So God who is God is Father but He is not Jesus because He is the one you pray to as Father who is God but He is not God the Holy Spirit who is a different person God and His name is Jesus who is the Son….. right?” The professor asked.

“I don’t think you got it right, no.” Says Patrick.

“Son merely tell me your God’s name so I can discuss with you how the idea of him has been thoroughly slaughtered.” Says the Professor.

“I told you His name is Jesus, but….” Patrick said before being interrupted.

“Jesus is only a 2,000 year old deity, I can show you the moment he came into existence, that he died, and that he wasn’t even called Jesus until 500 years ago, as the letter J didn’t exist before that.” “Jesus started a religion and after his death his followers continued that religion. It piggy backs itself on an ancient religion of Judaism, yet it continues to be discredited by that religion as being false. The reason for that is the deity Jesus does not exist before his death, and as thus is not the Jewish deity. Therefore, your god doesn’t exist until he died, if you think about your god started out dead, his religion finds it’s meaning from his death.” The Professor stated.

Patrick shouted in frustration, “Well it’s what I believe!”

The professor let the words hang in the air for a few awkward moments before saying, “Son we do not deal in beliefs here in this classroom but in provable facts. Unlike the other religions of the world you can not identify your deity with any great clarity. Hinduism can show Vishnu, Rama, and Krishna or any of their myriad of gods. Muslims can name Allah. Even ancient and modern pagans can find their gods, Zeus, Thor, Apollo, Diana, Mars, Jupiter, etc.” “Your god’s name is god?”

This was just a fictional strawman, as neither characters existed. But what of the name of God? This mystery and inability on the Christian’s part to answer in a logical way is every bit as real as Patrick’s failure to answer adequately Professor Goldstein’s questions.

Sacred Name Hush Hush

We will further explore the reasons for what I believe about the Name of God at a later posting. This is merely foundational to give the reader a reference for future postings.

Let’s start with what we do know.

We know that the God of the Bible revealed Himself to the patriarchs of the faith. He gave them His name, He said to swear by it, to call upon it, to bless it, to revere it, to use it…. and they did!

Somewhere along the way the idea crept in that God’s name is too holy that one should not speak it, should not utter it, and to the furthest extent not even write it down. His name was too sacred. We know that as a direct result of this mindset translators of the Hebrew text, the religious leaders, and other’s began to substitute God’s name with titles such as God, Adonai, and Lord when His name is used. The results have been felt ever since.

Certain passages in the aftermath of this mindset in the English Bible read in an illogical way, such things as, bless the name of the Lord. The Lord is your God and the Lord is His name.

We have erased His name all the while we religiously declare, God you are my God!

Can you hear the echo?

One of God’s commands is that we are not to take His name in vain. Our understanding of that is absurd, saying that if we add the word “damn” to the title God we have taken His name in vain. While I do not advocate the use of such language, we must recognize God is not His name! Nor is the meaning of vain in His command what we understand today.

To make God’s name vain means to make it useless or desolate. This is exactly what humanity has done with vigor over the centuries.

God has preserved in His word His name. For the sake of brevity and a foundational understanding of my blog, His name in the ancient text is YHWH.

The correct pronunciation of this word is up for debate, which we will discuss in a later posting. But for now when you see me speak of the God of the Bible, I will be using YHWH. I will refer to Jesus as The Messiah.

I do not judge or condemn anyone who uses the titles God and the name Jesus to refer to YHWH and The Messiah. This is not a legalistic attempt to force people into a name change, it is for information so that the reader may make their own decisions.

Think of the passages before now with the understanding of what it actually says. Do not take the name of YHWH and make it useless.

Bless the name of YHWH.

YHWH is your Elohim and YHWH is His name.

Tell me, does your God have a name?