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Subject: TheChallengeOfKnowingGodByName
Replies: 5 Views: 496
unquiet1 21.06.10 - 01:34pm
THERE is someone who wants to prevent you from knowing Jehovah's name and enjoying a close relationship with Him. Who is this evil foe?
The Bible explains: ''The god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers.'' 2 corinthians 4:4
The god of this present ungodly world is Satan the Devil. He wants to keep you in darkness so that your heart will not be illuminated with ''the glorious knowledge of God.'' Satan does not want you to know Jehovah God by name. *
unquiet1 21.06.10 - 01:37pm
How, though, does Satan blind people's minds? 2 Corinthians 4:4-6.
Satan has used false religion to hinder people from coming to know God by name.
For example, in ancient times some Jews chose to ignore the inspired Scriptures in favour of tradition that called for avoiding the use of God's name.
By the first centuries of our Common Era, Jewish public readers had evidently been instructed, not to read God's name as it appeared in their Holy Scriptures, but to substitute the word 'Adonai', meaning 'Lord.' *
unquiet1 21.06.10 - 01:42pm
Doubtless, this practice contributed to a tragic decline in spirituality. Many lost out on the benefits of a close personal relationship with God.
What though about Jesus? What was his attitude toward Jehovah's name?
Jesus and His Followers Made God's Name Known
Jesus declared in prayer to his Father: ''I have made your name known . . . and will. Make it known.'' (John 17:26) Jesus would undoubtedly have pro nounced God's name on numerous occasions when he read, quoted, or explained portions of the Hebrew Scriptures containing that important name.
Jesus would thus have used God's name just as freely as all the prophets did before him. If any Jews were already avoiding the use of God's name during the time of Jesus' ministry, Jesus would certainly not have followed their tradition.
He strongly criticized the religious leaders when he said to them: ''You have made the word of God invalid because of your tradition.'' Matthew 15:6. *
unquiet1 21.06.10 - 01:49pm
Faithful followers of Jesus continued to make God's name known after Jesus' death and resurrection. (See the topic Did the First Christians Use God's Name)
At Pentecost 33 C.E., the very day the Christian congregation was formed, the apostle peter, quoting from a prophecy of Joel, said to a multitude of Jews and proselytes:
''Everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved.'' (Acts 2:21; Joel 2:32)
Early Christians helped people from many nations to come to know Jehovah by name. Thus, in a meeting of the apostles and older men in Jerusalem, the disciple James said: ''God . . . turned his attention to the nations to take out of them a people for his name.'' Acts 15:14. *
unquiet1 21.06.10 - 01:57pm
Nevertheless, the enemy of God's name did not give up.
Once the apostles were dead, Satan wasted no time in sowing apostasy. (Matthew 13:38, 39; 2 Peter 2:1)
For example, the nominal Christian writer Justin Martyr was born about the time John, the last of the apostles, died. Yet, Justin repeatedly insisted in his writings that the Provider of all things is ''a God who is called by no proper name.''
When apostate Christians made copies of the Christian Greek Scriptures (2nd Testament), they evidently took God's personal name out of the text and substituted Kyrios, the Greek word for ''Lord.''
The Hebrew Scriptures did not fare any better. No longer reading God's name aloud, apostate Jewish scribes replaced the divine name in their Scriptures with 'Adonai' more than 130 times. *
unquiet1 21.06.10 - 02:03pm
The influential translation of the Bible into Latin that was completed by Jerome in 405 C.E. and that came to be called the Vulgate similarly left out the personal name of God. will continue this in my next topic Modern Attempts to wipe out God's Name *
