That "Father" is wrong because the Devil is also a "father"?

20. Some say that addressing God as "Father" is wrong or insufficient because, "the Devil is also a father" (Jn. 8:44). Yet it was Christ who made the statement in Jn. 8:44, and who addressed God as "Father", 110 times in the book of John. Can we confidently follow Christ's example?
"For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:" (1 Pet. 2:21-22).

21. Some say that answered prayer is dependent upon using the "Hebrew names". They offer Jn. 16:23 as proof, "And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you."
Verse 24, "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."
We see in verse 23, that the subject is that of making requests "in Christ's name". Of course we know, as verse 24 reminds us, that no one ever prayed "in Christ's name" during the 4000 years of human experience prior to Christ's existence as a human, yet scripture records many answered prayers (see all of the OT). In this century, thousands have experienced answered prayers in the name of "Jesus Christ", and many, understanding that "yhvh" and "yeshua" are "names", still receive answered prayers and experience miraculous healings, using the name "Jesus Christ".

22. That Christ "came in (his) Father's name" (Jn. 5:43) and that he "spoke on behalf of the Father" (Jn. 12:49-50) are offered in support of the "sacred names". Also Psa. 118:26, "Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord:..."
Yet none of these scriptures indicate any particular "name" as exclusive. In Psa. 118:26, "name" is from the Hebrew, "shem" which also means "appellation". In Jn. 5:43, "name" is from the Greek, "noma" meaning "a name, authority, character and surname."

There is another aspect to this. By one argument, Christ and the Father are both "yhvh". This is clearly stated in the writings of pro-names supporters. Yet, they also argue that "yhvh" is a "personal" name (shem), as opposed to the other names (shem) of God. This, they say, is why the word "yhvh" is so important, and is not a "title" or "appellative". Besides being a contradiction in arguments, the word "yhvh" has the meaning of "eternal", and therefore, is also an "appellative".
As for a personal name or "moniker" like "Fred" or "Joe", the Father and the Son have no names without significant meaning.

23. Some say Stephen was stoned for saying the "Hebrew names" aloud. Yet scripture says "false witnesses" were used, who accused Stephen of "blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us." (Acts 6:13-14, see also verses 8-15).
Nothing is said about "names" here.

24. One author goes so far as to say that, ""understanding" the NAME of our Father and His Son are precious keys to understanding the Bible!" (Emphasis his.) No scripture is offered as proof.
Another author gives only one scripture as proof of this argument:
"The messiah forcefully condemned the religious leaders of his day for concealing the"key" that unlocked the door to scriptural knowledge:
?Woe to you, the experts in the Torah (Scriptures), for you took away the key of knowledge; yourselves did not enter, and those who were entering you hindered.? (Luke 11:52)
This "key," as our investigation shall demonstrate, was the knowledge and use of the creator's personal name-the sacred name Yahweh."
(Source: http://www.yahweh.org/publications/yahweh1.html)

Nothing in Luke 11, or anywhere else, suggests that using a Hebrew word leads to spiritual understanding.
However, scriptures do say that understanding is a "gift" from God (Job 32:8), comes from "doing" His commandments (Psa. 111:10), comes through His "precepts" (Psa. 119:104), is "knowledge of the holy" (Pro. 9:10), is something we should strive for (Pro. 2:2), and it is something for which we should ask (Pro. 2:3). Most importantly, understanding comes by "faith" (Heb. 11:3). There is no scriptural basis for linking spiritual understanding with the use of "Hebrew names". There are "saints" today speaking not only English but many other languages, who do not use Hebrew names for God, yet they express and demonstrate spiritual understanding.

Among the beliefs of the pro-names groups in Appendix 1 (following this article) are doctrines of Trinitarianism, mysticism, new age beliefs, and other doctrines which are widely disputed among the pro-names groups themselves.

One pro-names web page acknowledges, "Modern militia members, "dooms day" advocates, pro-and anti-torah Jewish sects, and various Christian assemblies are calling on the father Yahweh today." "If you consider what the Oklahoma bomber Timothy McViegh, the family at Ruby Ridge, the Abilene, Texas dooms-day leader Yisryal Hawkins, and the branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas, have in common, you will arrive at a surprising answer. They all know the creator's true and original names." This article also mentions Yahweh ben Yahweh, who website is listed in Appendix-1. Yahweh's group is known as "the Nation of Yahweh, the Church of Love, Yahwehs, and the Black Hebrew Israelites". Yahweh be Yahweh who claims to be "the Son of God", was convicted along with several of his followers for nineteen acts of racketeering, murder (14 people plus attempts on two others) and arson. Membership in the organization's inner circle, called the "secret Brotherhood" was attained by randomly killing "white devils".

"9.Beliefs: Fundamental beliefs include that Yahweh Ben Yahweh is the son of God, blacks are the true Jews, God and Jesus are black. Demands breaking from the "immoral world" and birth families. Yahweh demanded total loyalty and total control over his followers and to publicly state that they would die and kill for God Yahweh. Later, Yahweh's teachings became violent, supremacist, and racist. He prophesied a race war between whites and blacks, called whites "white devils", and that one day they would be driven for the face of the earth by killing them. ... Size: The homepage claims to encompass over 1300 U.S. cities and 16 foreign countries. ... .Remarks: The Nation has had a very typical history involving a large amount of conflict with the people and government of Miami, Florida. On November 7, 1990 Yahweh Ben Yahweh and 16 of his followers were [arrested]..."
(Source: Univ. of Virginia, http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~jkh8x/soc257/cultsect.html)

They appealed, but in 1996 their convictions were upheld. (See also, "Appendix 1, "Yahweh ben Yahweh").
Obviously, knowledge of the name "yahweh" did not lead any of these people to scriptural understanding.

25. Some say that the Jews' refusal to pronounce "yhvh" proves that it's the only correct "name".
While some Jews observed this practice, and some may still observe this, there is no scriptural basis for their actions. The Jew's (those in charge at some point, we don't know how many) took the 3rd Commandment to the extreme of making the word "yhvh" too holy to utter or to write, thus elevating it to a position higher than the Father, of whom they never ceased to speak and write. In so doing, they made it more "holy" that God himself. In other words, they made it an idol. In their misunderstanding of the 3rd Commandment, they broke both of the first two Commandments regarding idolatry. The name is, by definition, something other than the reality. God is the reality while any "word" naming him, is the non-reality. Elevated to a place of worship this "word", or "non-reality", becomes an idol.

(See also, Appendix 7: Validity of "Titles")

26. Some say that we do not have any choice in what we "call" God, saying, "We have not been given the prerogative to decide what is appropriate to call Him." In other words, we "must" use the names "yhvh" and "yeshua". Scriptures offered as proof include Isa. 42:8, 45:6-7, 11-12, 18-24; Josh. 24:15; Deu. 5:29, and Deu. 30:15-20.
None of these scriptures, separately or in combination, contain the slightest hint that we are limited to the exclusive use of two words, in any language, when referring to the Father and the Son. If, in Isa. 42:8, "my glory" and "my praise" are taken as pronouns for "my name", (which is what is being implied by supporters of "Hebrew names") then we have another contradiction with their more prominent argument that "yhvh" is a "personal name" and not a descriptive "appellative" or a "title".

27. One argument is based on Josephus's description of the High Priest's headband having "four vowels" printed on it. The four letters, as described by Josephus, are the Tetragrammaton or "yhwh". The argument is that since these are called "vowels", no vowels needed to be added to the written Hebrew language, and therefore the addition of vowels was a hoax, apparently to help hide the true name of God.
Reference to any dictionary under the words, "vowel" and "consonant" refutes this concept. Perhaps Josephus was trying to convey to his Roman sponsors, the concept that the four letters represented a spoken word, and was not an abbreviation or an acronym. Perhaps Whiston, who translated Josephus from the Greek or from another translation, used the wrong word here. Regardless, the Jews do not consider consonants to be "vowels".
Even other pro-names groups contradict this argument. For example, one pro-names website quotes the following.

The O.E.D. [The Oxford English Dictionary] is supported by the New English Bible. On page 16 of this Bible's introduction, we read:

"This personal name, written with the consonants YHWH, was considered too sacred to he uttered; so the vowels for the words 'my Lord' or 'God' were added to the consonants YHWH, "

The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. 12, corroborates the foregoing religious sources:

"The pronunciation 'Jehovah' is an error resulting among Christians from combining the consonants YHWH with the vowels of 'adonay.' "

As long a Classical/Biblical Hebrew was a spoken language, vowels were unnecessary. As long as there was an unbroken succession of scribes passing down the spoken language, vowels were unnecessary. However, languages change and Hebrew is no exception. Even within the OT, we see Aramaic being mixed with Biblical Hebrew. By the time the Jews returned to Palestine, many could not speak Hebrew, and long before the time of Christ, the common language of Palestinian Jews was Aramaic. (Strong's, published in 1890, and other older reference works use "Chaldean", a misnomer.)

James Trimm, a pro-names author himself, refutes this argument:

"A popular theory that has been circulating as of late has it that the name YHWH is actually four vowels IAUE. This theory is based largely on a statement made by Josephus in describing the headpiece of the High Priest. Josephus writes: "In which [headpiece] was engraved the sacred name. It consisted of four vowels."(Wars. 5:5:7)
But why would Josephus term these four consonants as "vowels"? As discussed earlier the Hebrew letters YUD, HEY and VAV (which make up YHWH) have no equivalents in Greek. They are generally transliterated in Greek with Greek letters that happen to be vowels. The reason for this is that when the Greeks borrowed the Phoenician/Paleo-Hebrew alphabet they used leftover consonants that did not occur in their language and used them as symbols for vowels, as Robert Whiting writes:

"When the Greeks adapted the Phoenician writing system to their own language_ they made a very significant change. They created signs for vowels and used them each time a vowel occurred. _ The Greeks did not invent new signs for the vowels but simply converted some of the Phoenician signs that they did not need for their own language into vowel symbols." (The New Book of Knowledge Vol. 1 p. 193 "Alphabet" article by Robert M. Whiting, the Oriental Institute, the University of Chicago)

As a result Hebrew YUD became the Greek vowel IOTA; Hebrew HEY became Greek vowel EPSILON and Hebrew VAV became Greek vowel UPSILON. For this reason Josephus writes that the four letters which appeared on the High Priest's headpiece were four "vowels." To the Greek speaking audience of the Greek edition of Wars of the Jews, the four letters on the High Priest's headpiece were in fact four vowels.

[Note: Greek Iota = Roman (English) "I"; Greek Epsilon = "E"; Upsilon = "F" or "Y". "Yhvh" would = "IEYE" in Greek.]

Some who have supported the idea that the name of YHWH is four vowels have also pointed to the use of the letters YUD, HEY and VAV in Hebrew as vowels. However the use of these letters as vowels in Hebrew is a later revision of the language. Moreover each of them serves as a vowel only when paired with a consonant, as a result none of these letters is ever a vowel when it initiates a word or syllable. Hebrew was originally a syllabary in which each letter symbolized a consonant vowel pair with the vowel being ambiguous. As Robert Whiting writes:

"The Semitic peoples of Syria and Palestine developed purely syllabic writing systems_ their signs expressed consonants plus any vowel." (ibid)

It was not until the ninth century B.C.E. that the Hebrew letters YUD, HEY and VAV began to double as vowels (and then only when paired with consonants). As Ellis Brotzman writes: "From about the ninth century on, certain consonants came to be used to indicate vowels. These "helping" consonants are called matres lectionis, literally "mothers of reading."(Old Testament Textual Criticism by Ellis R. Brotzman p. 40)

Thus prior to this time the letters YUD HEY VAV HEY (YHWH) stood for four Hebrew consonants. Even in later Hebrew an initial YUD can never represent a vowel.

The Hebrew Tenach was originally written like all ancient Hebrew, without vowels. When the Masorites (traditionalists) added vowels to the Hebrew text in the middle ages they came across a serious problem. ... Since the text contained only consonants in its written form, the vowels were generally unknown."
(Source: The Society for the Advancement of Nazarene Judaism (Netzari Yahudim) http://www.nazarene.net.)

Some insist that the addition of vowels is not necessary for one to pronounce "yhwh". The following is from an article entitled, "The Quest For The Correct Pronunciation Of The Sacred Name(s), Part 1":
"[Some say,] "If the Hebrews didn't use any vowels, then neither are we." (Perhaps vowels are of the devil?) These people use only the four English consonants, YHWH. Then, as individuals they pronounce the word in a myriad of ways. All the while, at least some of them imagine they are vocalizing the Name without saying any vowels. One of the favored pronunciations of these folks is YAH-WAH. (Here, the vowels had to be put in for you to get any sense at all of how they say the word.) [They] do not realize that as air passes through the mouth while voicing a word, one is uttering a vowel."
(Source: http://www2.crosswinds.net/nashville/~thename/questpart1.htm)

For the addition of vowel-signs, punctuation marks and accentual marks, and the three systems of vocalization which developed, see "The "Greek" Old Testament", elsewhere in this article.

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