“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
_____________
#####
What is the purpose of preaching?
Several years ago while I was working on the book His Name is Yahweh, a preacher friend and I were talking. I have known him since the mid-1970s when I started getting serious about studying the Bible. He’s a dedicated man, and he’s very smart.
During our discussion, he told me that he had posted something on the internet and that he had used the Name Yahweh in the title. His post got very few hits, so he decided to change the name in the title from Yahweh to Jehovah. Suddenly, his post started getting lots of hits. The way he said it made me think he was happy about his decision. More hits translated into a better result.
Or did it?
At that time, I was a chaired professor at the University of Virginia. Throughout my academic career, I encountered resistance to important truths, but I never even considered telling a lie to make my message more attractive to my audience. I looked for ways to get the truth out.
Isn’t that what preachers are supposed to do, too?
Elohim’s Name is not Jehovah. That name has staying power, because the translators of the King James Version of the Bible made a tragic error in the 1600s AD.
Elohim’s Name is Yahweh. My friend knows that, but to get more hits on the internet, he was willing to compromise the most fundamental truth in the Scriptures. In fact, it’s so essential that Yahweh addressed it in the 1st and 3rd of the Ten Commandments:
- “I am Yahweh your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Exodus 20: 2-3) That’s the 1st Commandment.
- “You shall not take the Name of Yahweh your Elohim in vain, for Yahweh will not leave him unpunished who takes His Name in vain.” (Exodus 20: 7) That’s the 3rd Commandment.
I don’t doubt my preacher friend’s faith, but that decision made me wonder about his judgment. After all, he is a preacher, a good and well-respected one at that. Preachers are supposed to tell the truth about the Scriptures. They most assuredly are supposed to tell the truth about Yahweh’s Name.
Yahweh is deadly serious about His Name. Knowingly lying about His Name to get more hits on the internet is taking His Name in vain. That is expressly forbidden, and every preacher should know it.
“You shall not profane My holy Name, but I will be sanctified among the sons of Israel; I am Yahweh who sanctifies you.” (Leviticus 22: 32)
“Therefore behold, I am going to make them know, this time I will make them know My power and My might, and they shall know that My Name is Yahweh.” (Jeremiah 16: 21)
#####
_____________
#####
#####
_____________
#####
“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”
John 17: 22-24
