“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
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The Messiah is Yahweh
The Messiah is Yahweh. That is His Name.
The fact that the Messiah’s Name is Yahweh is not a New Testament construct. It comes straight from the Old Testament/Tanach. Jeremiah left no room for doubt. He told us the Messiah’s Name as plainly as is humanly possible:
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch. He will reign wisely as King and will administer justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. This is His Name by which He will be called: Yahweh Our Righteousness.” (Jeremiah 23: 5-6)
The Messiah is David’s righteous Branch. That is an accepted fact, because it is rooted firmly in the Tanach. You don’t need a New Testament to find it. The Messiah is the offshoot from the stump or stem of Jessie. (Isaiah 11: 1) Jessie was David’s father.
In Hebrew, Yahweh our Righteousness is pronounced “Yahweh Tsidkenu”. Phonetically, Yahweh Tsidkenu is spelled Yah-way Tsid-kay-nu. According to Jeremiah, that’s the Name by which the Messiah will be called. It is not a matter of personal preference, because Yahweh declared it:
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh….”
The Messiah’s Name is not Jesus. The name Jesus was made up. At birth, the Messiah was given the Aramaic name Yeshua. It’s also spelled Y’shua in English:
Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from Elohim to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. Coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! Yahweh is with you.” But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with Elohim. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Yeshua.” (Luke 1: 26-31)
Yehoshua is the Hebrew equivalent of Yeshua. In the Old Testament, the name Yehoshua is transliterated as “Joshua”. If Bible translators wanted to be consistent, the Messiah’s name in the New Testament would be Joshua, too. That would be wrong, but at least it would be consistent.
In ancient Hebrew, the sound of the letter “j” didn’t exist. In fact, the letter “j” didn’t enter the English language until about 1630 AD, and it didn’t gain widespread acceptance in English-speaking countries until many years after that.
The original King James Bible was published in 1611 AD. It did not use the letter “j” at all. In that Bible, the Messiah was called “Iesus”. Again, the Messiah’s Name was never Jesus.
Yeshua and Yehoshua mean “Yahweh saves” or “Yahweh is salvation”.
When the Messiah was born, the name Yeshua was 1 of the 3 most common names for boys in Israel. Ya’akov (Jacob or James) and Yohanan (John or Jonathan) were the other two most common names for boys in Israel at that time.
So, while the Messiah was with us in Person, there were Yeshuas everywhere. Yeshua was like Bill or Bob or Mike today. It was a very common name, but there is nothing common about the Name Yahweh. Yeshua and Yehoshua are not the Name to which every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. Neither is the name Jesus.
When referring to the Messiah, Yeshua is correct. Jesus is not correct.
In Philippians, Paul told us plainly that the Messiah is Yahweh, but it doesn’t come through clearly in most English translations of the Bible. Below is the way it appears in most English translations:
“Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the Name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2: 8-11)
That’s one of the worst translations in the New Testament. This is what Paul actually wrote to believers in Philippi:
“Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, Elohim [not God] highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the Name which is above every name [Yahweh], so that at the Name of Yeshua [Yahweh] every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Yeshua the Messiah is Yahweh, to the glory of Elohim the Father.” (Philippians 2: 8-11)
Paul never referred to Elohim as “God”. Bible translators did that. Paul had been a Pharisee. For him, referring to Elohim as “God” would have been a sacrilege, because God is the actual name of a pagan deity. I can’t explain how God came to be the generic title for Yahweh, but it is wrong. That is a terrible error that needs to be corrected.
On its website, The Lockman Foundation, says this about the 2020 edition of its New American Standard Bible (NASB):
After completion in 1971, the NASB was updated in 1977, 1995, and most recently in 2020, according to the best scholarship available at the time. The purposes of the updates have been to increase accuracy, clarity, and readability. Every aspect of vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, and meaning was carefully reviewed during each update. The result is an accurate translation that clearly communicates the Word of God in contemporary English.
Accuracy will always and forever be the unmovable cornerstone of our translation philosophy. Changes are never made lightly. With this in mind, to best achieve our goals, updates must consistently maintain the highest standards of formal equivalence translation that is familiar and understandable in English each time the work is done.
In one place, I read that Lockman’s translators adhered to time honored traditions in their work. One of those traditions is to substitute the name God for the title Elohim in the NASB. There is nothing accurate or honorable about adhering to a tradition that refers to Yahweh by the name of a pagan deity.
The Lockman Foundation is not alone. Virtually every English translation of the Bible does the same thing. Most believers have no idea that the Bibles they read are loaded with errors that are deeply offensive to Yahweh. Additionally, most Bible translators have edited Yahweh’s Name out of the Bible completely. That’s a shameful disgrace. Because of that tradition, most believers think Yahweh’s Name is “the LORD”. How any self-respecting Bible translator can accept those desecrations of Yahweh’s word is a mystery to me.
When referring to Yahweh, Elohim is correct. God is not correct.
The key point is that Yahweh is the Name that is above every name. Elohim bestowed that Name on the Messiah. Eventually, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that the Messiah is Yahweh. It won’t be hidden from the masses for much longer, because it is the pivotal message in the Scriptures:
“I, even I, am Yahweh. There is no savior besides Me.” (Isaiah 43: 11)
“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)
Again, that’s not a New Testament construct. It comes straight from the Tanach. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul was simply explaining what the Scriptures say. He didn’t add anything to Scripture.
As Yahweh told Jeremiah in 16: 21, He is committed to making sure that the whole world knows who He is by Name. He will put on a marvelous display of His power and might to show us who He is and what He can do. It will be like the 10 plagues discussed in the book of Exodus when He delivered the Israelites from bondage in Egypt.
Some people try to justify or rationalize their decision to call Yahweh “the LORD”, “the LORD God”, “the Lord GOD”, and “LORD of hosts”, but according to Yahweh, their efforts are futile. What He told Jeremiah makes that crystal clear.
Before Yahweh’s return, His people will declare His Name boldly. Others won’t:
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the Name of Yahweh!’” (Matthew 23: 37-39)
Many churchgoers will have a hard time adjusting to the truth. They have never heard this message in church, and the Bibles they read make matters worse. They probably think that if this message were true, along the way, some preacher would have told them about it, but that didn’t happen. Thus, they cling to false traditions and false beliefs.
Most preachers are not telling believers the truth, probably because they don’t know the truth. I’ve seen the deer in the headlights look on preachers’ faces when I explain this problem to them. Their expressions suggest profound ignorance at the very least. They are caught up in church tradition, too, and they refuse to let it go:
“Let them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15: 14)
I have presented this message in many churches. Several times at the conclusion of my presentation, a preacher has stood up, faced the congregation, and said, “Praise Jesus.” I don’t know what my expression was when that happened, but it made me feel like I had been talking to a rock.
We can tell people the truth, but we can’t make them accept it. Only Yahweh can change people’s hearts. If they stubbornly refuse to change, Yahweh may do to them what He did to Pharaoh during the exodus. He hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he could not change. See Exodus 9: 12.
Jonah was a Hebrew prophet. Yahweh sent him to Nineveh to deliver a message. Jonah told the Assyrians that they had to repent (i.e., change their ways and move in the right direction), and they did despite the fact that Israel and Assyria were mortal enemies. I fear for contemporary churchgoers. I think many of them, maybe most of them, will hear words like these form the Messiah:
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.” (Matthew 11: 21-24)
The Messiah is Yahweh. That’s a basic, fundamental truth. It’s time to get it right.
I urge you to read His Name is Yahweh: Revised Edition and The Trilogy. You will be glad you did.
More than a decade ago, a group of preachers in Nigeria sent me an email asking for permission to copy and distribute His Name is Yahweh to their congregations. I told them, “Yes.” Then I told them that I would also post the manuscript for the book on the internet in PDF format. Since then, anyone in the world who wants to read the book can download it for free:
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” (Romans 1: 20)
Watch the video below. It is a group of Nigerian musicians singing about Yahweh.
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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
