There seems to be a movement within the Biblical Families community to use "YHWH" and "Yeshua" (or variants thereof) rather than "God," "Lord," and "Jesus" (or variants of those) when referring to our Creator and His Only Begotten Son.
I was recently asked my opinion about this trend. Here it is, in brief.
The word "YHWH" is technically called "The Tetragrammaton," from the Greek word meaning "a word that has four letters." In ancient Hebrew, the language was written without vowels, and so "YHWH," the Hebrew name of our Creator, was written using the Hebrew letters yod-hey-vav-hey. (But right-to-left <--HVHW<-- rather than left-to-right as in English.) It is thought to mean "I AM THAT I AM," the Name that He gave when Moses, at the burning, asked who he should say sent him. (See Exodus chapter 3.) It is most commonly pronounced something like "Yaw-Way."
Yeshua (variant spellings: Yeshuah, Yeshu'ah) is a transliteration of the Hebrew name that means "Salvation." It became the English-language "Jesus" by a process of translation and transliteration to/through Greek and Latin.
I have several friends who are not of Anglo ancestry, and whose names are not English. For example, Juan is one of my brothers in the Lord. While it would be entirely proper to call him "John" when speaking English, I call him "Juan" since that is his "real" name in his native tongue.
It is not at all wrong to call our Creator by the English translation (or transliteration) of His various Names. One could argue that it might be more respectful to use His Hebrew Names. But -- what is His "native" tongue? Hebrew? Or all human tongues combined? Or some "heavenly language" unknown to man? Or all of the above?
The danger I see in insisting on using only His Hebrew Names is that we will become legalistic about it. And that is a disturbing trend I have seen within the Biblical Families community, becoming legalistic. (This might step on a few toes, but needs to be said - legalism is another manifestation of pride.) It is sometimes called by the euphamism "Torah Observant." Please do not think that "Torah Observant" always equates to "legalistic." But just as the world has hijacked the word "marriage," the legalists within the Body of Christ can easily hijack the phrase "Torah Observant." And remember, before the world hijacked the word "marriage," the Church redefined it to fit the pagan Greco-Roman traditions that were adopted and wrongly called "christian."
The Torah has NOT been done away with. (Which of the 10 Commandments would you be willing to repeal? Number seven...?) But there is a right way and a wrong way to live by the God's Laws. The Pharisees did it wrong, Jesus did it right. We need to get back to the Bible, not just substitute a different set of man's rules for the man-made traditions that most of the Church thinks are found in Scripture but are not. (And this might be the subject of a future article.)
What matters most is the attitude of a person's heart, not the language used when calling on the name of our Creator - be it English, Spanish, French, German, ..., Greek, or Hebrew. He understands all languages!
So, sometimes, you will see PolyDoc writing about "YHWH," "Yeshua," etc., and sometimes, "God," "Jesus," etc. Both are proper, and both are acceptable to our Creator as long as the attitude of the person's heart is right.
In reality, our Creator has many Names recorded in Scripture. For more information about His Names, see <http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/Yeshua/yeshua.html>
I was recently asked my opinion about this trend. Here it is, in brief.
The word "YHWH" is technically called "The Tetragrammaton," from the Greek word meaning "a word that has four letters." In ancient Hebrew, the language was written without vowels, and so "YHWH," the Hebrew name of our Creator, was written using the Hebrew letters yod-hey-vav-hey. (But right-to-left <--HVHW<-- rather than left-to-right as in English.) It is thought to mean "I AM THAT I AM," the Name that He gave when Moses, at the burning, asked who he should say sent him. (See Exodus chapter 3.) It is most commonly pronounced something like "Yaw-Way."
Yeshua (variant spellings: Yeshuah, Yeshu'ah) is a transliteration of the Hebrew name that means "Salvation." It became the English-language "Jesus" by a process of translation and transliteration to/through Greek and Latin.
I have several friends who are not of Anglo ancestry, and whose names are not English. For example, Juan is one of my brothers in the Lord. While it would be entirely proper to call him "John" when speaking English, I call him "Juan" since that is his "real" name in his native tongue.
It is not at all wrong to call our Creator by the English translation (or transliteration) of His various Names. One could argue that it might be more respectful to use His Hebrew Names. But -- what is His "native" tongue? Hebrew? Or all human tongues combined? Or some "heavenly language" unknown to man? Or all of the above?
The danger I see in insisting on using only His Hebrew Names is that we will become legalistic about it. And that is a disturbing trend I have seen within the Biblical Families community, becoming legalistic. (This might step on a few toes, but needs to be said - legalism is another manifestation of pride.) It is sometimes called by the euphamism "Torah Observant." Please do not think that "Torah Observant" always equates to "legalistic." But just as the world has hijacked the word "marriage," the legalists within the Body of Christ can easily hijack the phrase "Torah Observant." And remember, before the world hijacked the word "marriage," the Church redefined it to fit the pagan Greco-Roman traditions that were adopted and wrongly called "christian."
The Torah has NOT been done away with. (Which of the 10 Commandments would you be willing to repeal? Number seven...?) But there is a right way and a wrong way to live by the God's Laws. The Pharisees did it wrong, Jesus did it right. We need to get back to the Bible, not just substitute a different set of man's rules for the man-made traditions that most of the Church thinks are found in Scripture but are not. (And this might be the subject of a future article.)
What matters most is the attitude of a person's heart, not the language used when calling on the name of our Creator - be it English, Spanish, French, German, ..., Greek, or Hebrew. He understands all languages!
So, sometimes, you will see PolyDoc writing about "YHWH," "Yeshua," etc., and sometimes, "God," "Jesus," etc. Both are proper, and both are acceptable to our Creator as long as the attitude of the person's heart is right.
In reality, our Creator has many Names recorded in Scripture. For more information about His Names, see <http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/Yeshua/yeshua.html>
