Hallowed Be Thy Name – What Is God’s Name?
Introduction
Anyone who has ever had much contact with a Jehovah’s Witness knows that they are preoccupied with the name used for God, to the point of using the issue as a litmus test for who is in God’s kingdom and who is not. To them, if you call God anything but Jehovah, you are not a true follower of God. Yet, if they bothered to do their own in depth study of the names of God, they would know that God goes by many names and most of those names describe a certain attribute of His. Here are some of those names.
God – for one thing, we all call God, simply “God” which appears in the Old Testament in Hebrew as the world “Elohiym”. It is a plural noun that means “divine ones”, indicating support for the existence of the Trinity.
The Almighty – This name is “Shaddai” in Hebrew and it means “most powerful” and it appears 48 times in the Old Testament.
I Am – This name is mentioned in the book of Exodus: “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” [Exodus 3:13-14]. In Hebrew the word used of “I Am” is hayad, which has a meaning similar to Jehovah, that is: “to exist”, but it is a verb, as compared to Jehovah which is a noun.
Jehovah (or Yahweh) – this is a Hebrew word that means “existing one”, so Jehovah is yet another DESCRIPTIVE name for God, just as Elohiym (Divine Ones), Shaddai (The Almighty), and Hayad (I Am – to exist).
What name is reserved strictly for true followers of God?
Is it Jehovah? No. The name reserved exclusively for true believers, true Christians, is found within three verses in scripture in the New Testament. It is the word “Abba”:
Mark 14:36 – “And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.”
Romans 8:15 – “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”
Galatians 4:6 – “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”
The word Abba is translated “father.” It has no perfect equivalent in our English language but it is a term expressing warm affection and the confidence and trust a son or daughter should have towards their father. Only those who are truly God’s children, whom God has adopted into His family, have a right to call God by this name “Abba” or even by the English word “Father”. To call God Father and yet not have been “born-again” into God’s family is one of the most serious acts of self deception… to be a child of the evil one while believing that you are a child of God. This is the mistake the Jewish religious leaders made as mentioned in John 8:38-45…
John 8:38-45 – “I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.”
Who fathered the Jehovah’s Witnesses?
What the Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t realize is that their spiritual father is not the God of the Bible but rather a false prophet named Charles Taze Russell who started Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence in 1879 which later became the Watch Tower Bible And Tract Society which is the organization that heads up the pseudo-Christian religion known as the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Jehovah’s Witnesses would probably abandon their faith if they bothered to do their own independent research on their religion’s founder and his beliefs. Russell got many of his ideas from Nelson H. Barbour and William Miller. Miller was a freemason and also the founder of much of the doctrine promulgated by the Seventh Day Adventists. Russell also had some strange beliefs regarding pyramids, called pyramidology.
Summary
So, based upon the person whose theology brought about this religion we now call Jehovah’s Witnesses, a more accurate name for his followers is the term “Russellites” and NOT Jehovah’s Witnesses. The major flaw in the theology of Russellites is the same flaw in the theology of just about anyone who names the name of Christ and yet is unsaved (unconverted by God). That flaw is their lack of understanding of the nature of man (his total depravity and lostness unless and until he is converted by God and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit) combined with a lack of understanding of the sovereignty of God (His prerogative to save whom He wills when He wills and to do as He pleases with His creation).