The restoration of Gods Name

1
The restoration of Gods Name

• For Church Leaders

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Purpose

• To present a brief to the elders and pastors of
  __________
• Note this is not an, Ive got it all figure out
  brief or here to tell the pastors/elders what to
  do, but more of a Proverbs 3024 Im the most
  ignorant of all but just want to know what the
  name of the Creator is and the name of His son
  (paraphrased)
• Encourage pastors and elders to help research
  this topic
• Suggest some practical steps to move forward

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The Problem with the Fathers Name

• Gods name, as described in Isaiah 428 is YHWH
  (I am YHWH, that is my name)
• This name shows up over 6,000 times in the Old
  Testament
• Moses was called to Declare this Name YHWH to
  the Nations (Ex 6 Ex 916)
• David worshipped using this name YHWH
• And even Boaz greeted his field workers with,
  YHWH be with you
• But the pronunciation and use of His name (this
  simple 4 letter word) has been mostly lost or
  replaced with the titles of LORD in
  Christianity and Adonai (master) in Judaism

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Background

• Oral Fence Laws Just prior to the time of
  Christ, the Jewish religious leaders had been
  adding oral traditions, in addition to the
  scriptures, known as fence laws to keep people
  from even getting close to breaking the laws of
  scripturethese added traditions put a lid on the
  uttering of Gods name except by the high priest,
  only in the temple, and only once a year
• These traditions were put in writing in 220 AD
  in the Mishna portion of the Talmud
• Vowel Pointing Using the Talmud as their guide,
  the Massoret Scribes, who faithfully copied
  scripture between the 7th and 11th century, added
  the practice of vowel pointing. Vowel pointing
• Added small marks (dots, dashes etc.) above and
  below the Hebrew letters
• Helped the common person be able to pronounce the
  written Hebrew words (since there are no vowels
  in Hebrew)
• But also started the practice of replacing YHWH
  with titles like Adonai
• The authors of the King James Bible followed this
  religious tradition by substituting Lord, LORD or
  God for YHWH

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Background Cont.

• The birth of the restoration movement
• In the 1930s a movement started to restore the
  name of God (can be Googled as the Sacred Name
  Movement)
• Just as with the restoration of tongues, healing,
  prophecy etc. there were initial problems, but
  this shouldnt warrant throwing the baby out
  with the bathwater.
• Pitfalls to avoid include
• Worst of all is the not saved unless you call on
  the name of God correctly using the right
  pronunciation liesimilar to the not saved
  unless you speak in tongues doctrine of the early
  Pentecostals
• A, Ive got the right answer attitude that
  breaks unity
• Slight variations in pronunciation also derails
  unity
• Can become a single focus at the expense of the
  body of truth

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Is Gods Name Worth Restoring?

• First we are commanded to do many things with His
  name
• Dont take it in vaindont take it lightly (Ex
  207)
• Declare it (Ex 916)
• Praise/Worship it with dance, song and
  instruments (Psalm 1493)
• Call upon it (Zech 139)
• Dont forget it (Jer 2327)
• Meditate on it (Malachi 316)
• Fear it (Malachi 42)

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Is Gods Name Worth Going After? Cont.

• There are also commanded blessings for guarding
  His name
• Unity (John 1711)
• Love (John 1726)
• Transformation
• Spur the Jews to jealousy
• Hasten the day of His returnHe wont return
  until the cry goes up, Blessed is He who comes
  in the Name Matt 2339

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So what is His Name?

• What YHWH probably isnt
• Jehovah (no J sound in Hebrew)
• Lord, LORD or God (all English titlesno
  transliteration attempt at YHWH)
• Yehowah (as introduced by the Massoretes ) This
  doesnt match the hundreds of prophet names that
  include portions of His name as Yah or Yahu to
  point people to the Messiah
• IsaiahYeshayahu (salvation is found in Yahu)
• JeremiahYirmeyahu (resurrection is in Yahu)
• Numerous prophets that contain YahObadyah
  Zephanyah Zekaryah

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So what is His Name Cont.

• Possible pronunciations of YHWH
• Yahweh (possibly most common usage today)
• Ya-u-a (as transcribed by the Assyrians) or
  Yahuwah for aid in pronunciation
• Yahuweh (ISRs best guess)
• Yahowah (Mowinckle)
• Yahoweh (as favored by John H. Skilton)
• Note all the most probable names start with the
  Psalm 684 root Yah (one place in the King James
  Bible not switched with LORD)

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What about the Sons Name?

• New finds in scriptural archeology continue
• Only 9 Papyrus NT Scriptures were known prior to
  1900
• By 2008, the number had grown to 124
• This is important because in these earlier
  manuscripts the name Jesus is absent
• Aramaic Hebrew or Original Language texts point
  to Yahu, Yahsuah or Yahushua for the Sons name
• Even in the older Greek texts, a case can be made
  for a Yah rendering (as with the Alexandrian NT
  Textdating about 200 A.D.)
• But, the name Jesus is only about 700 years
  old, and since there are no letters that make the
  J sound in Hebrew, we can probably conclude
  this is not the name above all names

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The Sons Name Cont.

• If Christ went by a Yah derivative (YahushuaYahu
  is salvation, or YahshuaYah is salvation) then
  the John 1711 passage comes together, Father,
  guard them in Your Name which You have given Me
  (just like when we pass on our last name to our
  children)
• Now the name above all names (Ph 29) is shared
  by the Father, the Son and perhaps even the Holy
  Spirit (see John 1426)

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Conclusions for the Restoration of the Name of God

• We can conclude that the Name above all names
  contains the root word Yah
• Name shared by both the Father and Son
• Something worth going after
• Avoid past mistakes of the sacred name movement
  while we eat the meat and spit out the bones
• We continue to study/learn/be open
• Stay humble

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Suggestions

• Practical Applications/Suggestions
• Start with the Fathers name
• Substitute Yah for LORD when reading scripture
  (or use the ISR approach)
• Substitute Yah when singing LORD and/or
  encourage our worship team to write new songs
• Might start with Psalm 684, again the one place
  where in King James that the root name Yah was
  not changed into Lord, or with a teaching by a
  worship leader or pastor emphasizing the meaning
  of Hallelujah (Praise be to Yah)
• Clarify that there is only one Name above all
  names all the other names of God are titles
  that describe attributes about Him like
• Lord of lords
• King of kings
• Prince of peace

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Questions?
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Digging DeeperPossible Confirmation of Yahuwah
in the Word Hallelujah

• The word Hallelujah is found in over 2,800
  languagespronounced the same in each
• Has not wavered in pronunciation over the ages
• Contains all the same letters as the name YHWH
  (Yod, He, Vav, He), plus one letter not used in
  His name (Lamed)
• Hallelujah in Hebrew characters ?? ? ? ? ? .
• ? (ah), ? (l sound), ? (l sound), ? (u),
  ?? (yah).
• The name of God in Hebrew characters ????
• ?? (yah), ? (u), ? (ah) or Yahuwah for aid in
  pronunciation

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Digging Deeper Name Change from Given to Pagan

• The practice of replacing given names (that
  pointed to the one true God) with pagan names
  that corrupted this meaning has historical
  precedence See Daniel 16-7
• Hananiah which means "Yah has shown favor"
• Changed to Shadrach Illuminated by the Sun
• Mishael, or Michael, means "Who is like unto
  Elohim?
• Changed to Meshack Who is like Shach?
• Azariah means "Yah has helped"
• Changed to Abednego The Servant of Nego

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Name Change from Given to Pagan Continued in KJV
NT?

• In the 1611 KJV (in Luke 427), the name of
  Elisha, which means Elohim saves, was
  translated as Elizeus, with the disturbing
  possible meaning of Zeus is the Everlasting El
  or God (In 1645 KJV Elizeus was changed to
  Eliseusthe current rendering in our KJV)
• So when we hear Latinos (who come from a heavily
  Catholic heritage) pronounce Jesus as Hey Zeus
  (similar to Elizeus) or Hey Soose (as in
  Eliseus) this raises the question, Was the name
  of our Messiah equally corrupted by the Catholic
  (Universal) church with a Iesus
  transliteration? Remember, Zeus was the supreme
  Greek god of their culturehow easy is it to
  change culture? What if Constantine, the
  unifying politician of his day, desired to keep
  peace in the family by giving the Christians a
  name for their messiah that would not offend the
  sun-worshippers? Just look at how hard this will
  be to change the Messiahs name back to Yahshua,
  then what may have been done centuries ago
  (appeasing cultural norms rather than standing
  together with our Jewish brothers in Christ)
  doesnt seem so far fetched
• If Constantine desired to distance himself from
  Jewish believers by not worshipping on the
  Sabbath and changing the Holy day to Sunday (in
  honor of the pagan sun-worshippers) isnt it
  possible that the same corruption was done with
  the Messiahs nameleaving the Hebrew sounding
  Yahshua and giving us the Greek Hey Zeus?

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A Case for Corruptionof the Sons Name

• Since this was Done

• Isnt this possible?

• ElishaHis given name meaning, El or Elohim is
  my salvation (in OT KJV 1611)
• Corrupted to Elizeus meaning Zeus is my
  Everlasting El or Elohim? (in NT KJV 1611Luke
  427)
• Softened to Eliseus, still meaning Seus or
  Zeus is my everlasting El? (in NT current
  KJVLuke 427)

• YahshuaHis given name meaning Yah saves
• IesusPronounced E-Seus or E-Zeus NT KJV 1611
  with the possible meaning of
• Jesuspronounced Hey Zeus or Hey Seus by the
  heavily Catholic influenced Latinos with the
  possible name meaning of

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Additional Points to Ponder

• Growing scholarship questions whether the
  disciples wrote in Greek or used the common
  language of the day Aramaic Hebrew (Paul may be
  the clear exception to being Greek fluent)
• But, the majority of the other disciples were
  common peopleremember, the religious leaders of
  the day marveled at the disciples, for they
  were uneducated and untrained men (Acts 413)
• For the disciples to have written in Greek would
  have meant that our fishermen were bi lingual or
  trilingual, and wrote in both their native tongue
  and the international Greek language of the day
• This may violate the point that the disciples
  were called to the Jews firstPaul was called to
  the Gentilesso to make a case that the disciples
  wrote in Greek to witness to the Greeks seems to
  contradict scripture and is at best an
  assumptionnot a proven fact
• While the above is not conclusive, it does build
  on the case for the Aramaic texts, thus a
  Yahushua or Yahshua rendering of the Sons name

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References

• http//www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/YAH/
  yah.html
• http//www.hungryforhim.com/
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judai
  sm (shows that there is one name of God in
  Judaism and 6 other main subtitles)
• http//www.isr-messianic.org/ (The Institute for
  Scripture Research homepage.)

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Brief Glossary

• Codexbook format
• New Testament scripture were put in book format
  as early as 100 AD (as opposed to OT manuscripts
  that were copied as scrolls until much later)
• The Bible was the first book to be printed in
  1436
• SeptuagintOldest Greek translation of scripture
  which left the name of God as YHWH (instead of
  making an attempt at transliteration)
• Textual Criticismthe process of finding and
  removing errors in texts
• Transliterationtransferring the phonetic
  rendering of a word into another language for
  written use while maintaining its
  pronunciationas with proper names
• Translationtaking the meaning of the word and
  transferring it into a different languageusually
  will NOT sound the same