“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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It’s Time to Start Holding Preachers and Seminary Professors Accountable
Many years ago, Katie and I were walking around the Old City of Jerusalem, and we saw a jeweler sitting at his workbench making jewelry. I poked my head in his shop and asked if I could take his picture.
He said, “Sure.”
After I took the picture, I said, “Thank you.”
His response surprised me. He said, “Thank you.”
“Why are you thanking me?” I asked.
“Many people stop to take my picture, but nobody asks me for permission.”
That was an auspicious beginning to what has developed into a relationship between Katie and me and the jeweler and his daughter. The jeweler retired several years ago, and his daughter now runs the shop. She’s a jeweler, too.
A few years after we met the jeweler and his daughter, Katie and I were walking around the Old City on a Friday afternoon. Fridays in the Old City are interesting. Early in the morning, Friday is a lot like any other weekday, but things change in a hurry at about 11:00 AM. Large numbers of Muslims are rushing to Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount for noon services. At about 1:00 PM, Muslims start leaving the Temple Mount. They pour into the Old City as they make their way home.
At about 3:00 PM on Fridays, shops in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City close for Shabbat. Shabbat doesn’t begin until sundown on Friday, but preparations for Shabbat start earlier in the day. Between noon and 3:00 PM, business activity in the Jewish Quarter is very slow compared with other weekdays. If you want to relax and talk with shop owners in the Jewish Quarter, between noon and 3:00 PM on Friday is the best time to do it. That Friday, Katie and I went to the jewelers’ shop and talked with the man and his daughter.
The jeweler’s daughter was born and raised in the Old City. That day, she wanted to tell me what it was like growing up in a place that so many tourists just visit. Most tourists don’t realize that about 36,000 people are permanent residents of the Old City: 22,000 of them live in the Muslim Quarter, 6,000 of them live in the Jewish Quarter, 6,000 of them live in the Christian Quarter, and about 2,000 of them live in the Armenian Quarter.
The Old City of Jerusalem is a compact small town with everything that all small towns have: homes, schools, grocery stores, drug stores, medical facilities, etc. It’s not just a tourist site. And there are 3 sabbaths a week in the Old City: Friday for Muslims, Saturday for Jews, and Sunday for Christians. It is a unique place.
While the jeweler’s daughter was telling me about her childhood, she made an observation. She said, “All of us believe in the Messiah. Why can’t we get along.”
I said, “The Muslim messiah, the Mahdi, is not like the Jewish and Christian Messiah. The Messiah that Jews and Christians believe in is Yahweh.”
She said, “No. He isn’t.”
I said, “Oh Yes. He is. Do you have a Tanach?”
She said she did, so I said, “Get it and read Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) 23:5-6.”
When she finished reading it, she looked at me with a puzzled look on her face and said, “The Messiah really is Yahweh.”
Below is Jeremiah 23:5-6:
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch. He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will live 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’s common knowledge among Jewish people, but very few of them have ever seen or paid attention to Jeremiah 23:5-6 where Yahweh told His prophet the Messiah’s Name.
In Hebrew, it’s Yahweh Tsidkenu. The Hebrew word “tsidkenu” means “our righteousness.” It’s pronounced “zid-KAY-nu” with emphasis on “KAY.” The “d” in “zid” is barely noticeable.
Although the jeweler’s daughter did not know that the Messiah’s Name is Yahweh, when she saw it for herself in her own Tanach, she accepted it without hesitation. I expected some resistance from her, but there was none. She didn’t accept the fact because I told her. She accepted it because it was right there in black and white in her Tanach. It wasn’t me telling her. It was Yahweh telling Jeremiah.
She had an advantage over most Christians. Her Tanach was written in Hebrew. She was taught to say “Adonai” when she saw the Name “Yahweh” in the Tanach, but she knew that Adonai was just a substitute for Yahweh’s Name.
In most English translations of the Bible, the Messiah’s Name in Jeremiah 23:6 is shown as “the LORD Our Righteousness.” Rather than placing Yahweh’s Name where it belongs, Christian Bible translators substitute “the LORD” for Yahweh with all the letters in the word “LORD” in the upper case. That is a terrible tradition, because it hides a critical truth. The Messiah is Yahweh.
Now, look at Jeremiah 16:21:
“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)
That’s Yahweh speaking. Does it sound to you like Yahweh is determined to make sure that everyone knows who He is by Name?
Of course, it does.
So, why do so few Christians know Yahweh’s Name? Why do so few preachers know His Name or even care?
Candidly, if I were a preacher and I didn’t know that the Messiah’s Name is Yahweh, I would have serious reservations about my seminary training. That would be like going to business school, getting a degree in accounting, and not knowing that debits are on the left and credits are on the right. It’s as basic as it gets.
I’ll be blunt. My confidence in most preachers is not great, and I don’t have a lot of respect for seminaries or seminary professors. Yahweh gave us His word for a reason. He wants us to know Him and about Him. The more I studied the Scriptures, the more I realized how much of a disservice preachers, seminaries, and seminar professors have done.
I am not alone. Yahweh has problems with them, too, or He would not have said, “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.”
This may seem like a trivial matter to preachers and seminary professors, but to Yahweh, it is critically important.
One Final Point
Many years ago, a friend gave me a cassette tape of a sermon that his preacher had delivered. It was titled “The Importance of the Name of the Lord.” It was a very long sermon. Not even once in his overly long sermon did the preacher say that the Lord’s Name is Yahweh. I thought, Something is wrong here. Does this preacher have any common sense?
Based on that sermon alone, I must admit that I had doubts about the preacher. Plain old common sense should be enough to tell anyone, especially a preacher, that “the Lord” is not a name. Neither is God. Those are titles. His Name is Yahweh.
It’s time to start holding preachers and seminary professors accountable. They are doing all of us a great disservice.
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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
