Yahweh or Jehovah? Sabbath or Sunday?
A pastor that I like suddenly shocked me by saying, right in the middle of a sermon: "Jehovah." It utterly shocked me, as if an electric current ran through my body. This pastor, smiling, threw his hands up and exclaimed: "Jehovah!"
This pastor knew better. He knows better. He has been to seminary. He knows the truth.
And knowing the truth he said the false name for God, Jehovah.
It was the beginning.
My eyes began to open.
I had been attending this pastor's church for almost two years and had always agreed with everything he said in his sermons. Well, perhaps it is more appropriate to say that I did not disagree with anything he said in his sermons. At least there was no disagreement on Biblical matters.
And then he began to slip in the man-made tradition of hiding God's holy Name with a false, man-made name. "Jehovah" originated through translators squishing the vowels of "Adonai" (Lord) into the Tetragrammaton, YHWH. In most Bibles the Tetragrammaton, which occurs thousands of times in the Old Testament, is simply replaced with the Word "Lord," and in the King James Version the word "Lord" is written in all capital letters: "LORD," or in small-cap capital letters.
As the weeks passed, this pastor that I like began to say "Jehovah" more and more, sometimes including modifiers such as "Jehovah Jireh" (Yahweh Yireh, Yahweh Our Provider). Each time it was like poison magnified. My body leapt, and I felt sick, sick deep inside.
This is a known hot-spot church for trouble, where pastor after pastor has either been ejected by warring groups within, or fled screaming into the night. People in this church fight over music (some think only the codified hymnal should ever be employed in song, while others favor the repetitive praise music of today; others in the church esteem Ellen White almost to the point of worship, while others hate her writings and influence). Traditionally, with three pastors that I know of, the practice has been to attempt to satisfy one side of the warring factions by singing from the hymnal and lacing the sermon with Ellen White quotations on the first Sabbath, and then on the second Sabbath to employ praise music and aim sermons at refuting Ellen White, and then alternating between these two strategies every other Sabbath.
Note, I do not consider myself to be a Seventh-day Adventist, chiefly because of this basic fact. There are those that love and adore Ellen White and prefer her writings to the Bible, expressly against Ellen White's own counsel. Ellen White actually declared: My writings should not be read in church, only the Bible should be quoted and read in a sermon. She actually said this. And she actually said that she never claimed to be a prophet.
But, sadly, those that worship her refute her own advice and demand that she be read each and every Sabbath. These followers actually state, openly: "Ellen White was a prophet." This despite what Ellen White, herself, said, and claimed, and adamantly demanded.
The other group tends to hate Ellen White and openly denounce her. And the question for these folk is, why in the world attend an Adventist church if you hate Ellen White?
Ellen White was not a prophet. If she had been a prophet she would have said so. She would have declared that she was a prophet.
In her own words she said that she never claimed to be a prophet.
Note, Ellen Gould White did in fact receive visions from God. God did communicate with Ellen White. These visions are irrefutable.
But then again, Ellen White was a human being, just like any of us, with opinions, and thoughts, and prejudices, and she often learned things, her understanding grew, just like it does with us, one day she leaned strongly this way, and the next she reconsidered. At one point she declared that there was absolutely nothing wrong with eating pork. Then when someone pointed out the Scriptures that refuted her opinion, guess what? She changed her mind, and spoke the truth.
And that is good, that is how we are supposed to be. We are supposed to learn. We are supposed to grown.
And Ellen White did those things. It is certain, Ellen White was human, and she made the same mistakes all humans make.
But you are not supposed to hate Ellen White, just as you are not supposed to hate any person, especially someone who is growing and living a good, clean life, and doing good, and attempts to correct themselves, and especially accept God's correction.
So if you hate Ellen White, you should not attend a Seventh-day Adventist church.
Sadly, of course, if you keep God's Ten Commandments, there is not a whole of choice in churches.
I have no problem with Ellen White or her writings. I think she was a good woman, a good servant, and faithfully enacted her purpose, which was to be a Messenger of God.
Ellen White had no authority. And she certainly has not authority today, as she is not alive. She died nearly 100 years ago. I think a whole lot of people that worship her are not aware of that fact. She was not the "prophet" of the SDA church, not then, and not today, because she never claimed to be a prophet.
Her messages from God were relevant in her day, and they are relevant today. But unlike the Ten Commandments, Ellen White's writings do not apply to everyone. She wrote quite a bit of information for very specific purposes as well as people, and her writings just do not apply to every situation or every person.
Ellen White said herself that if you studied your Bible you would not need her writings.
But sadly, those that worship her reverse that counsel. They in their hearts believe that if you read your Ellen White you ARE reading the Bible, which just ain't so.
So this is a pretty bad church that I attend. Sadly, it has always been like this, regardless of the pastor. It was a church that my wife and I visited ten times before anyone came and wlecomed us, verbally, and shook my hand. No one has ever accused this church of being friendly, or warm, or welcoming. Ghastly, yes, but never friendly.
Warring tribes inside a triangle, angry people inside a "sanctuary," glaring faces, people who hardly sing, and the sad song service gets more and more schizophrenic with every passing Sabbath (for the hymn singers, they want the driest, least melodic songs, and for the praise singers, they want the most repetitive and least melodic songs; unfortunately, when your heart is filled with this antagonistic spirit, I guess melody is the last thing you could ever want or appreciate).
And so back to this pastor blaspheming God, intentionally addressing God with a fake, man-made name.
It is part of the symptom. The disease of a church at war with itself.
For you see, Ellen White did not know any better, and used the name Jehovah, and used it quite liberally. She did not know that it was a false name, and so her writings are seasoned with a man-made tradition, and those that would worship Ellen White, claim that "Jehovah" is the correct name, because it has to be, and why?
Because Ellen would know.
Shouldn't she? Wouldn't she know better than the actual facts?
Wouldn't God have TOLD her His correct Name?
Wouldn't He have said: "Hey, knock it off with the false names! Dig? Give Me some respect, Ellen!"
And so they cling to their tradition. Give us the words of His Messenger, not He, Himself.
Sabbath after Sabbath, this pastor increased his use of "Jehovah!" Sometimes he almost yells it, his eyes alight and bugging out of his head, his teeth jutting in a shark-like grin.
This past Sabbath he actually said "Jehovah" four times in the space of 30 minutes, the final time in a prayer.
It was bad enough when one of the Sabbath school teachers insisted on using this blasphemy, the name "Jehovah." Once this Sabbath school teacher asked a question and this young man from Africa correctly said: "They were following Yahweh's Laws." And immediately the Sabbath school "teacher" refuted him by saying "They were following the Laws of Jehovah."
That was bad enough. But yet this is an ignorant man that just doesn't know no better, he is clinging desperately to his beloved and cherished traditions of men.
When a pastor does the same thing, it is much, much worse. Because this pastor has been to college. He knows. This pastor has studied. He knows. THis pastor has been to seminary. He knows.
He knows, and yet he blasphemes God's Name.
I stopped attending that Sabbath school teacher's classes, because it was bad. Like when someone calls Sunday the Sabbath. It is breaking God's Fourth Commandment.
But the Third Commandment to respect and honor God's Name, to cherish His Name and speak His Name with reverence, that is just as important as the Fourth Commandment, or the Second Commandment to refrain from false worship and the respect paid to idols.
What can you do?
Just as you cannot continue to attend a church that calls Sunday the Sabbath, so you cannot attend a church that intentionally calls God by a monstrous name. Because you know better, as the pastor should know better, as the Sabbath school teacher should know better.
But they do. They know better.
And yet they do the wrong thing.
So it best to find a small group with which to worship, or stay home, as it says in the Bible. Because there is no commandment to gather with those that break His Commandments.
If you love Him, you will keep His Commandments. Not just the Nine, but the Ten. Not just the Fourth, but the Third as well, and all Ten Commandments. If you love Him, you will keep His Words.
Please note that when you know better, when your eyes have been opened against the blindness of ignorance, you will not wish to use the man-made name of "Jehovah," which is not God's Name, any more than you would wish to ignorantly call the first day of the week, Sunday, the Sabbath, which is the seventh day of the week. The name Jehovah is intentionally not correct (let me state this another way, in case you are missing my meaning: the name "Jehovah" is intentionally incorrect, meaning that it is wrong on purpose; the man-made name was intentionally created to be a false name of God, so that you, my dear friend and reader, would not be impertinent to either KNOW God's Name, or especially SAY God's Name).
When you know better, and you intentionally use this name, then you are intentionally misusing God's Name, and you are intentionally blaspheming God's holy Name:
You shall not take the Name of Yahweh
your God in vain, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
Exodus 20:24
Know God's Name, Yahweh, and incorporate God's Holy Name in your prayer life, in your relationship with God. The Bible makes it amply clear, God wants you to know His Name, Yahweh, and say His Name, Yahweh, pray His Name, Yahweh, and utter the Name of His Son, Yahshua, which means "Yahweh is Salvation." Do not be intentionally ignorant. Do not intentionally misuse God's Name. Please, take the Third Commandment as seriously as you take the Fourth Commandment. In this life, we may truly never know or correctly pronounced Yahweh's Name, but at least we can choose not to say it wrongly on purpose.
Art et Amour Toujours
Now therefore, what do I here, saith the LORD, seeing that My people is taken away for nought? They that rule over them do howl, saith the LORD, and My name continually all the day is blasphemed. Therefore My people shall know My name; therefore they shall know in that day that I, even He that spoke, behold, here I am.
Isaiah 52:5-6 JPS
God also said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your ancestors--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob--has sent me to you. This is my eternal name, my name to remember for all generations.
Exodus 3:15
What follows is a reference compilation of varied sources on the true Name of God, Yahweh.
Chaim Potok, Author of "The Chosen"
and Translator of the JPS TANAKH:
The king of Salem, we are told, was also a priest of El Elyon, God Most High, whom we know to have been the chief god of the Canaanites. "Blessed be Abram of God Most High," says the king-priest of Salem. Israelite tradition recorded Abraham as responding in the name of his own God. "I swear to YHWH" -- possibly pronounced Yahweh, not Jehovah, and never spoken by devout Jews -- "God Most High." (Wanderings, Chaim Potok's History of the Jews, Page 31)
Complete Jewish Bible
The English word "Jehovah" is an English representation of the Name (J-H-V-H) combined with the vowel sounds of "Adonai," a hybrid word without historical foundation. Most English translations represent the Name by "LORD," written as it is here, in large and small capital letters. "Complete Jewish Bible" an English Version by David H. Stern.
Bible Review August 2003
Bernhard Lang, Pages 49-54
...within the Biblical era the Name Yahweh came to be considered a particularly sacred name, one that should be used with caution or not at all. When and by whom a sacred taboo was placed on the Name Yahweh to restrict its pronunciation remains unknown. In modern Judaism, the Name Yahweh is not spoken. Presumably when scriptural passages were read aloud in ancient synagogues, the reader simply replaced Yahweh with Adonai (literally, "My Lord") or some other word. In the second century B.C.E., when the Pentateuch was translated from Hebrew into Greek for the Greek-speaking Jewish community of Alexandria, the divine Name Yahweh was replaced by kyrios, the Greek word for "the Lord."
In the Hebrew Bible we can detect some awareness of this taboo. The Name Yahweh was apparently deleted from many passages in Psalms 42 through 83 at a very early stage and replaced with Elohim (in Psalms 42-83, Elohim occurs more than four times as often as Yahweh, whereas in the rest of Psalms, Yahweh is used 20 times more often than Elohim).
New Jerusalem Bible
Yahweh - The personal name of God revealed to Moses, and treasured as a sign of intimacy and favour. The later Jews regarded it as too sacred to be pronounced; only the consonants YHWH were written. The meaning "I Am what I Am" or "He Who Is" is perhaps a refusal to give a meaning; or it may suggest that God is the cause of being. Exodus 3:13; 34:6.
Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
Genesis 2:4
[In the day that the Lord God made, the earth and the heavens,] The word Yahweh (heb 3068) is for the first time mentioned here. What it signifies see at <Exo. 34:5-6>. Wherever this word occurs in the sacred writings we translate it "LORD", Which word is, through respect and reverence, always printed in capitals. Though our English term "Lord" does not give the particular meaning of the original word, yet it conveys a strong and noble sense. "Lord" is a contraction of the Anglo-Saxon Hlaford, afterward written Loverd, and lastly Lord, from hlaf, "bread"; hence, our word "loaf," and ford, "to supply, to give out." The word, therefore, implies "the giver of bread," i.e., he who deals out all the necessaries of life. Our ancient English noblemen were accustomed to keep a continual open house, where all their vassals, and all strangers, had full liberty to enter and eat as much as they would and hence, those noblemen had the honourable name of lords, i. e., the dispensers of bread.
And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your
fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my
name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all
generations. Exodus 3:15
[This is my name for ever] The name here referred to is that which immediately precedes, Yahweh (heb 3068) 'Elohiym (heb 430), which we translate the "LORD GOD," the name by which God had been known from the creation of the world (see <Gen. 2:4>), and the name by which he is known among the same people to the present day. Even the heathens knew this name of the true God; and hence, out of our "Yahweh" (heb 3068), Jehovah, they formed their Jao, Jeve, and Jove; so that the word has been literally fulfilled, This is my memorial unto all generations. See the note on the word "Elohim", <Gen. 1:1>. As to be self-existent and eternal must be attributes of God forever, does it not follow that the lª`olaam (heb 5769), forever, in the text signifies eternity' "This is my name to eternity-- and my memorial," lªdor (heb 1755) dor (heb 1755), "to all succeeding generations." While human generations continue he shall be called the God of Abraham the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; but when time shall be no more, he shall be Jehovah Elohim. Hence, the first expression refers to his eternal existence, the latter to the discovery he should make of himself as long as time should last. See <Gen. 21:33>. Diodorus Siculus says, that "among the Jews, Moses is reported to have received his laws from the God named Jao, Iaoo, i. e., Jeue, Jove, or Jeve; for in all these ways the word Yahweh (heb 3068) may be pronounced; and in this way I have seen it on Egyptian monuments. See Diod., lib. l., c. xciv.
Information Garnished from
Yahweh's New Covenant Assembly:
"Strictly speaking, this ought to be rendered 'Yahweh,' which is familiar to modern readers in the erroneous form of 'Jehovah.' Were this a version intended for students of the original, there would be no hesitation whatever in printing 'Yahweh.'" (James Moffet's preface to his translation of the Bible)
The Jehovah's Witnesses acknowledge that the name "Jehovah" is improper. Their book, "Let Your Name Be Sanctified" freely admits on pages 16 and 18 that Yahweh is the superior translation of the Tetragrammaton (YHWH). This book has lately been withdrawn. However, in the preface of their "The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures," we find on page 23 the following admission:
"While inclining to view the pronunciation 'Yahweh' as the more correct way, we have retained the form 'Jehovah' because of people's familiarity with it since the 14th century. Moreover, it preserves equally with other forms, the four letters of the Tetragrammaton JHVH."
Dr. J. B. Rotherham states in the preface of his Bible concerning Jehovah: "Erroneously written and pronounced Jehovah, which is merely a combination of the sacred Tetragrammaton and the vowels in the Hebrew word for Lord, substituted by the Jews for JHVH, because they shrank from pronouncing The Name, owing to an old misconception of the two passages, Ex. 20:7 and Lev. 24:16...To give the name JHVH the vowels of the word for Lord [Heb. Adonai], is about as hybrid a combination as it would be to spell the name Germany with the vowels in the name Portugal - viz., Gormuna. The monstrous combination Jehovah is not older than about 1520 A.D."
Rotherham was ahead of his time, but now many current dictionaries and encyclopedias admit the name Jehovah is wrong, that it properly should read "Yahweh."
The Encyclopaedia Britannica (Micropedia, vol. 10) says: "Yahweh -- the personal name of the [El] of the Israelites ...The Masoretes, Jewish biblical scholars of the Middle Ages, replaced the vowel signs that had appeared above or beneath the consonants of YHWH with the vowel signs of Adonai or of Elohim. Thus the artificial name Jehovah (YeHoWaH) came into being. Although Christian scholars after the Renaissance and Reformation periods used the term Jehovah for YHWH, in the 19th and 20th centuries biblical scholars again began to use the form Yahweh, thus this pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton was never really lost. Greek transcriptions also indicate that YHWH should be pronounced Yahweh."
Adonai Adonai
Adonai Yahweh
El Shaddai
El Elyon Elohim
El Elyon Elohim
Lord Lord
Lord Yahweh
God Almighty
God Most High Divinities
God Most High Divinities
Ways to aid this ministry include praying for these sites:
www.TruthSeek.net, www.DeceivingtheElect.net, and www.DramaticParables.com, donations and provision may be gifted using the TruthSeekGift page (and please only use this if you feel you are inspired by God to do so), and also feel free to use the Prayer Request page to submit prayer requests, and praying for the prayer requests of others, as well as exploring the various advertisements and links on these pages (regrettably, the advertising is necessary to recompense the many costs of keeping a website running, so exploration of the advertisers, which are not connected to any of these studies, is greatly appreciated). Any aid is joyously accepted, even if that means a smile and a well-wish, or a simple prayer. Thank you so much!
Art et Amour Toujours
Now therefore, what do I here, saith the LORD, seeing that My people is taken away for nought? They that rule over them do howl, saith the LORD, and My name continually all the day is blasphemed. Therefore My people shall know My name; therefore they shall know in that day that I, even He that spoke, behold, here I am.
Isaiah 52:5-6 JPS
Exodus 3:15
Exodus 23:13
Deuteronomy 6:13; 10:21
Psalm 83:18
Psalms 105:1
1 Chronicles 23:12
Isaiah in 42:8
Jeremiah 10:11
Joel 2:31-32, 3:5
1 Timothy 6:16
"Early Christian writers, such as Clement of Alexandria in the 2nd century, had used the form Yahweh, thus this pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton was never really lost. Greek transcriptions also indicated that YHWH should be pronounced Yahweh," Encyclopaedia Britannica 15th Edition, Vol. X, p. 786.
"The true pronunciation of the name YHWH was never lost. Several early Greek writers of the Christian Church testify that the name was pronounced ‘Yahweh.’ This is confirmed, at least for the vowels of the first syllable of the name, by the shorter form Yah, which is sometimes used in poetry (e.g., Ex. 15:2) and the yahu or yah that serves as the final syllable in very many Hebrew names," Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 7, p. 680.
